Trip to Tata Steel and Premier Patterns

 

Tata Steel Profiling

Yesterday (16th October) a small group of Fenchurch Fund and Project 27 volunteers went to see the progress on the frames and polystyrene patterns.  We arrived at Tata Steel mid morning and the first sheet of material was set up on the plasma cutting machine.  This was one of the thinner sheets of steel for items such as the valance ends and plates to go behind the buffer beam.

Georgina, Matt, Ben, Carl Lammin (Tata Steel) and Jim (all photos Clive Emsley)



The first cut! (all pictures Clive Emsley/Project 27)

Discussing the "nesting" of the pieces on the sheet of steel with one of the machine operators

Cutting the side Valance ends and Buffer plates

The first Valance end piece with rivet hole centres marked

The plate with the remainder of parts yet to be lifted out 

The 22mm (7/8th) plate for the frames has arrived!

Cutting out the rear horn opening

The first frame cut out!

The frames cut out and waiting for delivery!

Premier Patterns

From Tata Steel we moved on to Premier Patterns to look at the process and progress on the cylinder pattern manufacture.  These are being made from casting grade polystyrene using a robotic rotary file, and making much artificial snow in the meantime!

The CNC rotary file being used to produce segments for the second cylinder pattern

The computer that is guiding the CNC machine

Matt inspecting the first cylinder pattern

Preparing to join the segments using a strong double sited tape

Exciting and historic times are upon us.  We Are still buzzing following the trip to see the work being done and we now realise that it really is happening and we need to pay for it!

If you would like to help us this is how you can.

On line donations can be made at https://mydonate.bt.com/events/27

Text donations can also be made To donate £10 text "FENC72 £10" to 70070
    - you can donate £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 just by changing the amount in the text massage.
    - you can also elect to Gift Aid your donation;
    - your operator's standard text charge applies.

We can also accept cheques or cash for any value either with or without a gift aid declaration.  If you would like a gift aid declaration form please contact us by E Mail

Thank you for your continued support and interest in the project, hopefully you will see the fruits of everyone’s labours in around 4 years or so.