Only CE CEs are tasting like theees! - 4

DB weighs things up...

So the four CEs are looking pretty decent, but being 3d prints, they are featherweights that won't track well, especially when they are placed ahead of seven metal Trackgang CBs. 

I saved a few large chunks of lead rendered surplus from our roof, despite it being widely regarded as unhealthy (I'm not going to eat it). But, I don't know whether we cashed this in on a scrap metal drive or maybe its is hiding in a corner of a shed, but they haven't been seen for a while. 

Anyhoo, the CEs are made with a nice slot underneath them that might take something straight and weighty. This slot is obviously really low, and a low centre of gravity usually helps things run nicely. 

So I bowled on up to one of our local engineering shops and wondered if they had any small steel square rod for sale, fully expecting them to say "no, you idiot, of course not". As is almost always the case when I ask such a stupid question, the answer is usually some form of "well, you could perhaps use ..."

And so they have something called machine key steel, available in various sizes. When I had this genius idea, I had failed to actually measure the CE's slot beforehand, so was left scrambling. I bought a 3mm and a 5mm square piece. The 5mm was accidentally perfect. 6mm would fit, but this would obviously hang 1mm lower, so I'm glad I ended up with the 5.

It's pretty tough stuff, and my hacksaw seemed to be fighting a losing battle, so I bought out the spinning wheel of death with one of those really skinny cutting wheels about 2cm across. Cuts were slowly eroded into the steel on all four surfaces until I could snap off each section. I aimed for four 52mm lengths.

Installing:

And as you can see, you can barely see the steel from normal viewing angles. I'll paint it black once the glue dries. Overall these are still a little lighter than a CB, but should be heavy enough for the job. Must weather the bogies too.