Points changer finished

The big square bits are mild steel. My theory is that they are thick enough to last for a while. The rubbing surfaces will clear themselves of rust I hope! All the other parts are galvanised.

Here's the first points changer that I made, after a few months use. The hole gets completely filled with water for hours after heavy rain. I painted it with some kind of maybe zinc-based paint. There's not much in the way of rust yet.

Thanks! I have not done any tiling yet so I need to learn. I can cut tiles with my angle grinder and a diamond blade, right? I have about a ton of tile offcuts from the job next door. The professional tilers couldn't seem to put the tiles on straight:

Nah! Quick spray with the guvnor - WD40 will sort that.

On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:59:07 GMT, "The Medway Handyman" had this to say:

Waxoyl's much better.

You can but I suspect a better job can be done with one of the diamond bladed tile table saws.

"good night out". B-)

Just bolt a big bit of zinc to them somewhere, the zinc corrodes in preference to the steel (exactly how galvanising works). Bear in mind it will corrode in preference to all the iron connected to it electrically, rails, etc. so the bigger the better, probably. You can setup a maintenance schedule to replace the zinc once you get an idea how long it lasts. IIRC the Sydney opera house uses blocks of zinc bolted on to stop it corroding.

If you are feeling sick, the toilet is on the other side of the bathroom!

waste pipe in the wall or fit a pedestal to hide it?

Agreed but it's "designer" stuff, practicalities like the required plumbing don't enter in the red rimed glasses, pointy hair, brigades tiny little minds.

Yes maybe the waste could have been taken back into the wall but you'd still see the trap hanging down. Which I can't see a real reason for either. The bowl of the basin isn't a deep as that would infer is it? ie about 18". Messy, full stop. I wonder how long the waste will last before it gets a hard enough whack from a foot/mop/WHY to fracture it?

(Or these days, hard-face it with a welder and then grind to shape)

The roller does roll over the nose very well. Surely there would be no significant wear?

The points mechanism is connected electrically to about 5 miles of tram line. How big a block of zinc would I need?

add a small waste disposal unit)

Today, when clean. How about in a year from now, when it's full of crud? Or if the roller becomes sticky to turn?

A man checks and cleans them every week.

Try a few kilos. The zinc on the galvanised bit isn't going to last long.

I suspect the weak spot might actually end up being the guide plate which the plunger sits in - there must be a bit of sideways force on the plunger every time it operates, and eventually it'll wear through or start to stick.

(for version 2, or 3, I suppose you could have some sort of bearing either side of the plunger at the mouth of the guide to better take the sideways load - but maybe that's 20 years down the road or whatnot when the current design does finally wear out ;-)

cheers

Jules