Auckland Meccano Guild


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Meeting Report November 2009

The meeting on November the 14th Was Held at the Carey's residence in Hillsborough.

16 Guild members and parters attended to make it a very enthusiastic meeting with an excellent display of models.

Henry Porter had brought along one of his "Gadgets" which involved the use of most of the aero-constructor parts that he had. He did not use them to build aircraft however, that is not Henry's style he used them to build a "Gadget" that used all the parts to do things that even Frank Hornby would not have thought of. We were presented with a wing flapping engine twirling, propeller circling machine that was truly amazing. Even Richard was impressed after he had got over the shock at seeing aircraft parts used in such a manner.
Henry lives to build and his models are often only made up for a day or so so we were lucky to see this one.
Video of the model in action can bee seen by following this link.

Henrys Phantasmogorical Aero Gadget

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Richard Sealey expressing surprise as Henry's novel use of Aero constructor parts.

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Gary Higgins brought along a selection of models A Interstellar Space Cruiser from his Dan Dare set, a Harrier jet based on the new M&S model available in the UK. Gary observed a couple of pictures of the new model and did a spot of reverse engineering to create it. He had built a Grumman Tiger jet aircraft using the concorde set and parts from the space set of the 70's. Gary will be making up a model plan for this to go in the NZFMM Magazine. He also brought along a small model windmill made with parts from a vogue constructor set.

Behind Gary's models is a passenger ship under construction by Matthew Carey, our youngest member.

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Richard Sealey brought along his aerial acrobatics display which provided much amusement. The saftey net under the acrobats is made entirely out of Meccano string carefully knotted together. When asked why he had used meccano string Richard replied that it was because of his not wanting to use a non meccano item in the model in case David Wall caught him out!

He also brought along a nicely boxed number 2 aero motor with all the various parts included.

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Mike Stuart brought a very nice example of the supermodel pontoon crane running on two E20 electric motors. The chromed GRB looked very nice as part of the base drive for the unit.

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Rick Vine brought a device which he described as a "unirotational device" and a small aircraft in yellow meccano.

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William Irwin brought his usual array of meccano magazines from around the world and he had built up a small christmas fairy from an article in the latest Constructor Quarterly magazine.

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Gerald Hart had his selection of models including a fire engine, a Vintage car, a motorcycle and siecar and a orrey demonstrating the movements of Saturn and 5 moons.

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Les Megget is building another super mobile crane and this one will have power steering so watch out for it.

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Graeme Humphrey brought along a supermodel of the contra rotating fly boats. The model had been made by Trevor Adams of Napier.

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Neil carey is still working on the frame of his NZR WW class train . He has an E20 motor driving the wheels and valve gear where he demonstrated to the assembled group. We look forward to progress at the next meeting.

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David Wall had made up a ute from the big truck set complete with spare tyre slung under the tray.
The truck set lends itself to making up a number of innovative models and we can certainly add Davids to the collection.

Other members who attended were John Denton, George Ovendon, Graham and Kegan Wrightson and Peter Hancock.

Peter gave us a roundup of the April Antics which can be seen on the NZFMM site.

Plans for Modelx 2010 are underway with a similar layout proposed for this year, which was very successful.

William pointed out that the Guild has a library with material that can be borrowed. Details are on this site under Library Holdings


William gave an update on the Differential Analyser which is now in operating condition. We have replaced the torque amplifier springs with suitable clock springs and have found a good substitute for the spring covering. This has solved a great many of the machine operating problems. We have also replaced the main drive belt with a circular leather belt similar to the original.
For the rest of this month North Shore residents can enter MOTAT free of charge with proof of address and if you attend on a Tuesday William and Gary may be able to run the machine for you.

Further images of the meeting can be seen by clicking on the picture at the right.

The next meeting will be held at Peter Hancock's residence in Howick on the 13th of february

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