Today I managed to make a start on the Fowler traction engine Ashpan. A more comprehensive write up is on my model engineering website. However today was spent making cardboard and steel profile tools and a black and decker power file. And the file can certainly shift wood. The only problem is it gets spread everywhere! So it was a good decision to carry the work out of the workshop and into the garage. Of course that meant moving the Mk2 Jaguar out and it was a great temptation not to take it for a trip.

With the power file in use it was a case of making sure the dust mask and full face visor kept clean. Oh how I hate wood! The copper will not be here until early next week so I have until then to make the former.

More to follow..........

I had a short session of about 90 minutes in the workshop yesterday morning, carrying on with my 'secret' project.........before going sea fishing with my brother Steve and his son Adrian (see if your interested).

I have also managed a session this morning albeit brief, where progress did not go so well.... All this means that the cams and the continued work on the Fowler have again slipped. Its a good job I am not doing this for a living!

Hopefully tomorrow will see the 'secret' project come close to finishing (I wouldn't lay bets on it though!) so I can restart work on the rest of the work. And on that point to impose so discipline for the remainder of the year I decided (over a cup of tea) that the following items form the priorities until the first of January 2009.

1. Cams for the team build.
2. Dummy plate for the boiler on the Fowler
3. Tapping tool fixture/stand
4. Fixing the hornplates to the Fowler so she sits on her own four wheels
5. Die holder (sliding) for the tailstock of both lathes. I am really fed up with the tapping and thread cutting methods I use at the moment.

That should be more than enough to keep me busy till the end of the year.

Why not leave a comment on my Fowler 2" scale model traction engine build. To see more please visit www.mikes-models.com/ccfowler.html