Weekend Update 3/28/2010

[wm3798]

My other weekend project.  Andy remembered that he needed to work on his science project today.  Which was due Friday... :

He is comparing the strength of bridge designs.  So we came up with three designs, with the control being that they were all to span 12", and each design had to include at least 50 popsicle sticks.


The Truss


The Girder


The Arch.

We'll be setting each bridge onto abutments (or in the case of the arch, between them), then loading them with bricks.  We are theorizing that the arch will fail first, followed by the truss, and the girder probably won't fail.  But we'll see!

Lee

[up1950s]

Cool project , but I think your top bridge is upside down .

[seusscaboose]

Ritchie inspired me to post a pic of a nice pretty yellow genset loaded on a flatbed...

Eric

[wm3798]

Cool project , but I think your top bridge is upside down .

Yeah, I noticed that too when I posted the picture...

Lee

[shawnleon]

I spent the weekend in weathering school. Here's my first go with the help of both Tom Mann's and Pelle Soeborg's books. On the workbench I really like what I see – far better looking than the photos. I tinkered with the focus, details, and more, but I have no idea how to take the type of photographs that properly convey the details. Yet another skill to learn  :-\

Shawn

[Mark5]

Moved a lot closer to being able to recreate this sort of scene on my layout:



More on this as I get into it.

Mark

[Mark5]

Now finally I have something to show in the weekend update enjoy.
This is my very first piece of rolling stock designed and built by me.The etching was done by PPD LTD. over in Scotland and I can not say enough good things about them very helpful and just great to work with.I had a bit of help from someone on this board that I cannot thank enough, I will not say his name if he wants to be known I will let him speak I don't want him bombarded with questions and what not I bugged him enough ;D
This model here is my very first so it is not perfect there are a few mistakes but I am very proud of it none the least.The next couple will be much better as I learned allot by building this first one and have revised my drawings.
As I said I have learned allot by doing this N6B cabin and I am working on a few more cars for my fleet that I know will never be produced.And I will say to anyone that has thought about doing this go for it ,it is allot of fun and the rewards are great.

Very cool. The finished model looks great!

( Been thinking about this sort of approach for the N&W CF Wood caboose.)

Mark

[GaryHinshaw]

Allen:

The cabin car turned out great!  Thanks for the tip about the etching house.  A few questions if I may:

* How did you go about establishing the fit of the parts while designing the artwork?  Did you prototype the key parts with styrene or such? 

* How thick a stock did you (they) start with?  Was there any issue with the stainless curling on the partially etched pieces, like the sides?

Thanks.  One can imagine so many applications...

[Chris333]

It says 10 thou on the sheet. As for drawing it I'd guess he used drawings and did the rest on the screen. It's easy to figure out how big a piece will be after etched and/or bent, but it is a bit hard to keep it all right in your head as you draw it. And it sounds like he will make a few adjustments now that the parts are in hand.

[GaryHinshaw]

It says 10 thou on the sheet.

Doh!   :  It also says brass (not stainless), which I understand is less prone to curling.  Is the brass plated with something to give it a silver color?

-gfh

[71jeep]

Allen, somewhere Gregg Mahlkov is smiling warmly.  that's a great job.  All I can see is the little fubar there on the end railing.  Beautiful car
Lee.

Thanks Lee still miss Gregg's PRR knowledge on the boards :'(

And the endrailing has two problems those upper railings and one side I mirrored when I drew it and is actually on backward so the detail is inside  .The rest of the mistakes were slight measurement problem that made it a little harder to assemble.

Hi Gary,,,

the silvery look is just the picture it is not coated with aything just plain brass.

I do some sheet metal fab here and there so this helped me a little on doing this knowing where to put my bend lines and such.But the overall fit I astablished by just overlaying the parts as I drew them  then disecting them into there smaller componants.Even with all this I made a few measurement mistakes but they did not hinder the assembly of the cabin car.
And Chris is right I used drawings I found online and drawings I had lying around scale them down and drew away.I drew the basic shapes and such then went in and started to tab and bend thing then came the detail and wala well not quite that easy ;D
I did not have ant problems with anything curling the sheets were flat as can be the only curling I had was when I cut them out I need to get a better set of cutters >


Take care..

Allen.....

[womblenz]

Wow some nice work been done

I've not done much of late but due to my daughter's wedding and I have come to terms with the ore dock the bug is starting to return

It will continue as is and at some stage I will design my own cars


Cheers warren

[jsoflo]

I spent the weekend in weathering school. Here's my first go with the help of both Tom Mann's and Pelle Soeborg's books. On the workbench I really like what I see – far better looking than the photos. I tinkered with the focus, details, and more, but I have no idea how to take the type of photographs that properly convey the details. Yet another skill to learn  :-\

Shawn

Nice work Shawnleon, those look real good. Try shooting your pix outdoors with natural sunlight. I end up with the same dark and somewhat yellowed photos when I shoot indoors even when I feel I have added plenty of light. I try to correct as much as possible with the free photo editing that picasa offers. Outdoors shooting on a macro setting cures most of the problems.

Which techniques did you end up using? Chalks, acrylics, airbrush? All of the above?

[tom mann]

Wow Tom that is an awsome looking structure are you going to weather it up a bit?

Yes, I am using MicroMark's Easy Age-It Gray wood wash.  This product has a silvery color to it that looks just like old wood.

[ednadolski]

We'll be setting each bridge onto abutments (or in the case of the arch, between them), then loading them with bricks.  We are theorizing that the arch will fail first, followed by the truss, and the girder probably won't fail.  But we'll see!

Assuming the glue joints are all of uniform strength, I'd figure that the failure order would be Girder first, then Truss, then Arch.  But then again, there's a reason why I'm EE not LPE   ;D ;D ;D