Simple fit two 2" Slotted Strips into the jaws of the Slide Piece,  making sure that they fit tightly,  closing the jaws until they do.  Then, fit the Axle Rod on which the Slide Piece is to be secured through the boss of this and whichever round hole of the 2" Slotted Strip is required.

If for example a 'throw' of something between 1/2" & 1" is required,  use the second hole.  If more than 1" 'throw' the end hole must be used.   The slot in the 2" Slotted Strip allows liberal adjustment for the crank pin,  and careful measurement will provide a 'throw' exact to a fraction of an inch.

If the Slide Piece has to be fitted boss upwards.  A Threaded Boss bolted to the slotted hole of the Strip provided a substantial anchor for the connecting strip. Its is recommended the use of a Shouldered Bolt from a Universal Coupling to provide the pivot attachment for a connecting Strip and the Threaded Boss.

Providing the Slide Piece Axle Rod does not protrude from the boss,  the connecting Strip will just clear this.   Otherwise,  use washers as required for spacing purposes.

By using a straightened 3" Formed Slotted Strip a further range of throw's is possible.

This consist of four 60t Gear Wheels which are in constant mesh with one Worm Gear,  and driven simultaneously.

All the Gear Wheels are on the same plane,  but on separate shafts.   Although the two pairs of Gear Wheels contra-rotate they can be driven in either direction.

Supporting plates or strips for the Gear Wheel Axle Rods should be located 1/2" away from the Worm Gear centre line.   This unit requires careful setting-up.   Any slack between the meshing Gears should be taken up by Washers.

You need a heavy engineers vice, a 3/8" steel ball and a scrap length of screwed rod. If the vice jaws are serrated you will need to use flat steel jaw protectors.

1. Screw the screwed rod through both boss tapping to avoid distorting the tapped holes.

2.  Insert the ball into the peened side of the boss.

3. clamp in the vice and tighten just enough to tighten the boss.

This method is permanent and invisible and can be used on any standard type of boss.

NEVER use a hammer!

To make a thrust bearing from standard Meccano parts, take the collar out of a universal coupling, part 140y.  Lock nut two washers into each threaded hole.  The washers must be free to rotate on the bolts and the collar must be free to rotate on its shaft.  Use two 3/4" washers, part 38d, as the bearing face.  It works beautifully, and is a delight to watch slowly revolving on a shaft.  

Tooling Required:-

1. Holding Jig (see Photo)

2. Craft Knife blade (Cheap type Plastic Handle) Hack Saw Blade (Teeth Ground off)

3. Heat Source- i.e. Propane Torch, Electric Hot Plate or Soldering iron.

Develop Belt Length.

1. To determine the length of  the belt required,  wrap a piece of non stretch cord around the two pulleys then measure the total length.

2. Reduce the length by 5% approximately and cut a piece of belting to this length, This should produce sufficient tension to the belt when fitted in a model.(make sure ends are cut square, best technique is to roll the belt under knife pressure.)

Welding Procedure:-

1 Set the Jaws (P/No 12's)a tight push fit for the diameter of belting to be used.

2. Position the belting into the clamping  / holding jig with a gap that is tight of the blade to be heated.

3. Using a heat source such as a heated craft knife blade position blade between both ends,  after a few moment the ends will curl back a little and become semi molten/ glossy. Withdraw heated blade and squeeze together the two ends for about 20 seconds.

4. Withdraw the belt and put aside for 45 to 60 seconds to cool down completely.

5. Examine the weld, it should has a continuous flash around the diameter,   this ensures a homogeneous joint.

6. Remove the excess flash using a sharp craft knife or razor blade.

Should the belt be too long, just cut either side of the joint and try again. If you have not achieved a good joint ,  practice with off cut just to make a weld. Give attention to cutting belt ends square and that the belt ends are in the semi molten/glossy state prior to closing the ends together.

Axle Rods which are slight bent or worn can be made into corner brackets as per sketch which can make a very 90 degree corner accurate.

Should you wish to use Meccano Chain in the Horizontal plane, derailment can be prevented by assembling a larger flat disc, e.g.  Bush wheel or a Face plate, below each sprocket.   A clearance allowance of about 2.5mm to 3.00mm is required and can be found by trail and error with the chain in position.

Halving  had considerable success using this method to remove grub screws that are stuck fast in threaded brassware.  I presume that this problem occurs to others and it not just my lack of skill in removing them by mechanical means.  Anyhow, soak the brass part in hydrochloric acid or spirits of salts. It is commonly used to remove mortar stains from new brickwork and is available from hardware stores or suppliers of building materials.

About 24 hours seems to be needed after which time the steel grub screw will have dissolved enough to be pushed out.  My experience is that the brass is little affected and there is no apparent discolouration. Needless to say, this technique is unsuitable if there are any steel components in the part.

To improve the engagement of dog clutches (part 144), lightly file a small radius to the corners.

To reduce the noise levels of the MR motors add a little graphite grease. Note the motor housing is a two part snap together unit.   This motor also has replaceable brushes (standard Scalextric spare part)

1.Where nuts and bolts have to be placed in awkward corners, a little Vaseline or Blu Tack  on the index finger can help.

2. placing a nut in awkward position: gripped between the flanges of a box spanner which have been squeezed slightly.

 3. A nut may be placed over a hole with a piece of adhesive tape while the hole is still accessible.

4. A nut can be screwed on a screwed rod so that it just grips. It is then placed in position over the hole and the bolt screwed  into it nut  before removing the rod.

5. A magnetised rod can be used to reach awkward places. One end holds a coupling that has been slotted to hold a nut and fitted in such a way that the rod is in contact with the nut.

6. Where placement of a screw is difficult, a small piece of plasticine / Blu Tack placed in the slot will help it adhere to the screwdriver.

7. To get bolts into awkward places, fit a Rod Connector P/No 213 onto a screwdriver, and force the open end open to the diameter of a bolt head.

Plain 6 or 12 volt  bulbs can be coloured using special paint obtainable from HOBBIES Ref FL/4  4 bottle set each colour contains its own brush attached to cap. Colour are Red,  Green,  Blue and Yellow.

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Plastic Gears Part No 27p,28p and pulley 22a make ideal substitutes for the obsolete insulating Bush wheels Part No 518.

With a permanent magnet, magnetise the blade by stroking the blade in one direction only,  You will find the magnetised Screwdriver  a most useful tool,  especially for fitting small grub screws.

To remove a Rod Connector or a Rod & Strip Connector from a  Rod,  slip a Pulley on the rod,  then fix another pulley at the other end.   Use the loose pulley to push the Rod Connector off the Rod.

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This collection of Hints & Tips have been harvested from various sources with due acknowledgment where known given. Please advise the Webmaster if any of the Hints or Tips are yours .                                                                            

For a Fan:- use a Three way connector with boss (Part No 213b) on its own makes a simple three bladed unit,  but by mounting two (P/No 213a), both facing forward,  on a rod socket (P/No 179) held by a nut and washer,  a 6 Bladed assembly can be obtained.   The 9 Bladed fan has three (P/No 213a),  the first two facing forwards and the third facing towards the rear, the blades being positioned alternately,  front and rear.

Modified Spanners for better grip & use in small places.

Old  models in zinc can be cleaned up using a cheap commercial cellulose thinners and fine wire wool.

The sketch opposite of the small boss, it is made from brass rod.  In the late 1970's in the UK it would have come as Free Cutting Brass Rod - S.A.E. Standard No 72. There were three standard alloy property types: Soft; Half-hard and Hard temper. I don't doubt Meccano Ltd used the soft grade, cheapest, and easiest to work. If you have trouble peening over the boss try extending the 0."065 rebate a bit to say 0."070.

A simple guide made from 2 - Part Nos 74 plates a, 1 - Part No 24 - 8 Hole Bush Wheel,  to centralize axle rod while cutting threads.

Here is a very simple tool made from all Meccano Parts for reversing the bosses on plastic gears - principally  contrates.

The bosses can be drawn out easily  using a long bolt passed through the central boss of the gear and a chimney adaptor by tightening the nut  and bolt as usual- then re-assemble and pull the boss back in on the other side !!

If you find this all a bit scary  -  just reverse the process and with luck nobody will ever know !!  

If you remove the plastic worm from its long boss  you can replace it with a 19t pinion and a 57t gear and create a compound gear wheel that can be fixed or free running.

Where oil cups are not available, cotton wool plugs can be trapped in the vacant holes of bearing bosses which can be saturated with oil.

Long drifts are very useful for lining up gear boxes and long shaft drives.   8 swg Piano wire (0.160” Diameter) make ideal drifts and can be obtained from all good model shops in 36” lengths.   As Piano wire is very hard its best cut with small abrasive cutting disc and grind a taper on one end to suit.

Hexagonal Screwdriver  can be made using Meccano Allen Keys & small file handles.  As the Allen Key are very hard, Us an abrasive cutting disc and cut the short leg off the Allen key, Drill out file handle  to suit  allen key and Araldite into file handle.   Alternatively you can purchase ‘ Hex-End T handle driver or Metric Hexagon ball Drivers from Modelfixing.co.uk

To protect Meccano paintwork from damage by Steel washer etc use 4mm Vulcanised Fibre washer or Nylon washers from

Modelfixing.co.uk Or Use thin PVC washer (Part No 38c) from Dave Taylor.

Make a mixture of the following:- 1 cup of White Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of Detergent (washing up liquid) Mix all ingredients together in a large glass container.   Fill up the container with hot water and stir the contents well.

Put in your brass Meccano part(s) and stir around until clean, then  leave for 5 to 10 minutes.   Remove the parts and rinse off in a clean water wash,  then dry off in old towelling. Try it!! Short & sweet.   Keep the liqued for future use and reheat  between 70 & 80 Degrees.

First arrange a few housebricks (Firebricks preferred) to make a small hearth.  Place a row of bolts or nuts to be blackened on the front edge and heat them to a cherry red with a gas blowlamp.   Do a few at a time,  have a tin of ordinary motor oil ready and flick the glowing parts into it.   Leave to cool and then fiish the parts out with a magnet and wash the oil off with white spirit and hey presto you have nicely backed parts at minimum cost.   As with all things,  practice makes perfect.   Do not over heat or you will destroy the threads while not enough heat gives a patchy finish.

Tony finds that old brass plated bits that have lost most of their finish,  work best.

Ellis Cory says used engine oil gives a better finish due to the  extra carbon within.

It doesn’t get much simpler than this circuit. Four Components counting the battery!

How can an LED be Illuminated by a 1.5v circuit,  when the forward voltage of an LED is about 2v?  The answer is to connect  100uF capacitor which acts as a charge reservoir when connected to a LM3909 chip.   The capacitor builds up a voltage of about 2v before discharging the cap through the LED.

Click image for PDF file showing various hydraulic replica ideas using threaded rods.

Items draw in in Pro/Desktop. Part files are freely available.

Regards,

Anthony

ZA

Lacing Cord a subsitute for Meccano Cord By Colin Bull

Black rayon-cored PVC Lacing Cord, 0.75mm, From RS Components is a good substitute for Meccano Cord.   It is very strong and is slightly thinner than Meccano cord, giving a much nicer look to any model.  For RS Components  click here

"Craftbits", does a good range of cord in nine colours. The 1mm waxed cotton cord is a good substitute for Meccano cord,  the cord is braided rather than twisted

The picture shows a reel of the red with a piece of original 1930's red Meccano cord for comparison.  For “CraftBits”.   click here

Alternative Cord a good substitute for Meccano Cord By John Nuttall

A neater alternative part to Part No 212 By Jack Parsisson (Aus)

To obtain a cheap  and neater appearance to your model  try using Ring Terminals as used in the electrical trade.  First remove the plastic sleeve and open up the wire aperture with a drift to take axle rod.   Adjustments can be made using pliers to obtain a good tight fit on the rod.   Suitable Ring Terminals are:- and SWA 43YER (UK). Narva 56086BL (Aus).  These terminals are made from copper and have a zinc plated finish.

Securing Gears and Pully etc to Hardened Rods By Wes Dalefield (NZ)

To secure Gears etc to Hardened rods.  Why not use  Gorilla Glue?  Just wet the rod, move the gear or fitting to where you want it put,  a drop of Gorilla Glue down the threaded hole, insert grub screw and fasten,

wait two hours and you have the tightest bond possible on Planet Earth!

To remove it, I have found Gorilla Glue can not take heat.  Just place the parts in your dish washer (make sure her indoors isn't watching) and you should be able to take them apart.

The “One Way Drive” By Tony Darrah

Click image for PDF file showing Instructions and parts list.

This device if built carefully is a particularly smooth running little mechanism,  quite easily adapted to fit in large or small model.   Turning the handle clockwise or anticlockwise (Input Shaft),  the output will only rotate in one direction.

Gripper washer by Ralph & Sue

I been out to the shed and found some 800 grit wet 'n' dry paper.

I cut myself a pair of washers and gave it a go. It does work, the 212 is hard to dislodge once it has been tightened. Here are a couple of pictures...

As you can see from the top picture, the wet 'n' dry paper is very thin, there are two pieces in there. I left a bit showing so that you could see it. Trimmed in a little and you would not know it was there.

The lower picture shows the joint open with the washer in place.

These little home made gripper washers must have a lot of uses, don't you think?  

If you need a lot of these washer you could cut them with a 1/2” Wad Punch.

( as used for cutting leather or rubber.)

A Super Spanner by Graham Jost (Aus)

The lowly Steel Tec Spanner - in place of the tried and true Meccano one.

There are a couple of variants: the one I'm referring to is that with a ring spanner at one end, on a slightly bent section, and an open ring spanner on the other.  Each can grip a square nut at any one of eight different angles rather than only four, which makes for great ease in use in blind situations - it "finds" the nut so much more readily.  It's a great addition to the model builder's arsenal.  Highly recommended!