Do you have the facilities and inclination, to do a similar test on two bits welded together? Roger, are you referring to welding two HSS drill bits together? I have never tried that, but I have silver soldered drills onto long extension rods for drilling in hard to access places. I scarf the ends of the two pieces as was done in the test examples and that works quite well. The picture of the model traction engine - the one with the engine in the wheel - when was this taken, as I have seen a recent picture of the model with it all painted up. There couldn't be two models of the same engine could there? I too seriously doubt that two models exist of the traction engine. Possibly Cherry Hill decided to paint the engine after it was displayed at the show where the photo was made. Alan Stepney knows when and where the photo was made because I got the image from his website. I know it was made about 2 years ago at one of the larger shows over in Old Blighty. How about filling us in Alan? Jesse MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.