Our July meeting had a lower attendance than normal due to a mixture of extreme heat and ill health. Those that did come had the opportunity to buy from a range of fairly decent quality Meccano as well as the usual bargain basement pieces and freebies. We also welcomed a new member, Neil C who we hope will be a regular. Thanks to Linda and Dianne for manning the kitchen, and to Linda for organising the food. Also many thanks to all those who donated cakes.
Chris's constant mesh gearbox is for his Riley RM Sports Saloon model. He has quite cleverly achieved the ratios using only pinions as opposed to spur gears plus pinions used in other similar gearboxes. He did have to solder together some cut couplings to achieve the connections required. We look forward to seeing the completed model.
Alan brought his helicopter, whose rotors spun nicely all day..
Gregg displayed a Ferris Wheel. This model was built because Gregg got a call from John Sharpe of the West London Meccano Club who wanted a Ferris Wheel for the foyer at the St Albans Model Engineering Show.
Gwyn brought along a number of items which he wanted identified. It was easy enough to help him with these items, although many of them were not Meccano.
Richard S is building a Hienkel Bubble Car from the 1950's era. The original vehicle was built by Trojan Cars Ltd under licence. This is a work in progress in Richard's trademark yellow and blue scheme. This three wheeler did have a spare wheel secreted in a hole below the floor pan.
This year's Skegex issued a challenge to build a tug powered by a clockwork motor to be set against other entries. Richard built two entries, the first based upon the large toothed turntable which he mounted on a horizontal axis. This was done to stay within the rules which stated length and breadth limitations on size but not on height. In operation this tug took advantage of the spinning inertia to pull any opponent over the line. This was very successful but his second entry was even better.
Richard's second entry took advantage of a laxity in the rules, which never said that the tug had to move. This tug anchored itself to the floor at the front, using fork pieces pointing down with the burr side facing the opponent for extra grip. Additionally, weights were added at the front to increase the grip. The clockwork motor was simply geared down to pull within the given time. This approach proved to be extremely effective. In the end, both of Richard's tugs beat all others, therefore they were in the final against each other, with the stationary tug winning. Well done Richard!
Philip's Mamod Steam Vehicle is made to plans seen in Meccano Magazine. It has a single gear for driving forward. There is a video of this in operation on our YouTube Channel Mamod steam vehicle.
Roger once again wowed us with an incredible display of alternative construction sets all of which began with the letter A. Who knew there were so many! He also has collections of construction sets starting with the other letters of the alphabet.
Tony Knowles once produced a newsletter dedicated to non-Meccano construction systems. The heyday of construction systems is clearly over as there is not such a variety available today.
Hugh's ball roller worked well most of the time but did have a few glitches with the power supply and the driving band. It might benefit from a chain drive to replace the driving band.
Tony brought a variety of models. His steam workshop is a work in progress but now includes a lathe. The steam engine is actually powered by compressed air (safe for indoor use).
There was a selection of modern space Meccano, much of which has plastic components these days.
The skip lorry has a standard Meccano cab, with functioning steering. The skip can be loaded and unloaded.
The six wheeled truck cab is a standard set featuring radio controlled forward, reverse and steering. Tony has modified the charging method to accommodate a lithium battery.
Also on display were another radio controlled four wheeler and a variety of smaller bespoke car kits.
Ian displayed a very unusual form of four wheeled drive vehicle, using omnidirectional wheels (named Mecanum). These are compound wheels which utilise crowned rollers set at an angle which allow the wheels to drive sideways as well as the usual forward and backward. This system was invented about fifty years ago and has appeared on actual vehicles which required extreme manoeuvrability. Real world applications include wheel chairs that can go sideways - https://roblab.org/omni/videos/Driving-d.mp4 and robotic transport platforms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XENZxzk_0XA.
Sam had a few small kits for sale plus a crane made from a larger kit. The crane kit was bought from a charity shop. There are no gears as everything moving is driven by driving bands, with the pulleys on tri-axles.
Meccano diversified to make toy vehicles to rival Tonka. Mark H-S brought a selection of these toys which were marketed under the name Mogul. Some of these were actually Meccano compatible in that the rear section could be removed and the exposed chassis was drilled with Meccano holes onto which any Meccano structure could be added. Bert Love produced some plans for these hybrids which were published in Model Maker Magazine. Sadly, this product was up against a brand leader (Tonka) so did not last.
