Weekend Update 5/19/19

[craigolio1]

The grilles are scratch built from styrene. It’s a piece of .010 sheet with a border of .010x.030 strip around it. They were cut into the .020 hood side flush with the back then the strip was sanded flush leaving a .010 recess. The louvers are cut down Archer decals applied individually. There are also some Archer rivet decals. The narrow strip across the center is .002 sign making vinyl to represent some plating.
Here’s a photo in process. I changed the louvers on this one as the prototype had 6 rows instead of 4.

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Excellent!! Very nice work.

[Lemosteam]

I really don't have any pictures, but I think I can explain it in text well enough.
Imagine wrapping a piece of tubing around a standard 1/4-20 standard bolt you could buy at any hardware store.
Place the tubing into one of the tread grooves, and gently wrap it around the bolt a little at a time.  The walls of the groove help to keep the tubing from spreading out to the sides, so it can't flatten and collapse.

Except... the thread groove on a bolt is a "V" shape, and it's not going to be EXACTLY the width of the tubing you are trying to bend unless you are incredibly lucky.

So to improve on the idea, I chucked a piece of 1/4" steel rod in my mill, and I shaped a cutter to be exactly .028" wide, so I could cut a nice neat square-bottomed groove into the rod that was exactly .028 wide.

Now, I place my tubing in that groove and gently bend it around.  The walls and bottom of the groove do a much better job of not letting the tubing spread out anywhere, so it can't flatten or kink.    I made two different ones with different sizes of steel rod so I could get two different bend radii.

AND I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THOSE CASES WHERE A COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC HANDY IDEA COMES UP IN THE MIDST
OF AN UNRELATED THREAD, so it would be hard to find for inclusion in Ed's proposed Railwire book!

Similar can be accomplished by filling the tubing with extra fine sand packed into the tube and wrapping after that.

[mmagliaro]

Similar can be accomplished by filling the tubing with extra fine sand packed into the tube and wrapping after that.

I researched the popular tubing bend methods, including filling the tubing with fine sand, threading a wire inside it and then pulling the wire out after, filling it with various types of heated liquified solder, and slipping a tightly-fitting spring over the outside.  But on such tiny tubing, I could not make any of these ideas work.    The sand would have to be mighty fine to fill a .028" diameter stainless tube, and even then, you need to have a way to cap off the ends or it will spread and collapse as you bend; some epoxy in the end of the tubing might work on stainless.   

 While these techniques work great for 1/4" or even 1/8" tubing, I couldn't see how to do any of them with such ultra-tiny tubing.

The fellow who runs NGineering (Tim Anderson), says he puts 3 strands of magnet wire through the tube, then bends it around a form, and then pulls one strand out at a time.  I tried it with one single strand, and of course, with a 180 degree bend in the tubing, you can't get the inner wire to pull out, even pulling really hard on it with pliers.  The 3-strand idea works better, but it still allowed the tubing to crush too easily, at least for me.

Bending the tubing in a channel isn't perfect.  You have to grip an end of the tubing firmly against the rod with pliers and bend gently a little bit at a time.  And the bottom of it does flatten a little, but it's not noticeable.   If I shaped my cutter to have a rounded edge on it, to make a round-bottomed groove, it would probably work better in that regard.

Oh, and another tip... don't try this with super-tiny thin-walled brass.  Albion makes brass tubing this small, but the strength is so much lower than stainless that it will break or tear when trying to bend such tight curves.  I tried it.

Remember, we're trying to bend a piece of .028" thin-walled tubing 180 degrees around to make a diameter bend of under 1/8". 

Funny that people have siezed on this.  It actually was one of the more difficult parts of the project!

[mark dance]

I researched the popular tubing bend methods, including filling the tubing with fine sand, threading a wire inside it and then pulling the wire out after, filling it with various types of heated liquified solder, and slipping a tightly-fitting spring over the outside.  But on such tiny tubing, I could not make any of these ideas work.    The sand would have to be mighty fine to fill a .028" diameter stainless tube, and even then, you need to have a way to cap off the ends or it will spread and collapse as you bend; some epoxy in the end of the tubing might work on stainless.   



Funny that people have siezed on this.  It actually was one of the more difficult parts of the project!

In this specific case of modelling a gooseneck fixture, I have recently used a simple jig to form the pair of magnet wires coming off the LED into the desired gooseneck, ACC them together, then paint them.  (the shades are Grandt line)





Of course if you need tubing for another reason this example is beyond useless!

md

[Iain]

Nothing photo-worth, but, I finally have my A&EC F2As ready for paint.  That will come once the humidity comes down a bit.

[johnb]

[mmagliaro]

In this specific case of modelling a gooseneck fixture, I have recently used a simple jig to form the pair of magnet wires coming off the LED into the desired gooseneck, ACC them together, then paint them.  (the shades are Grandt line)

...

Of course if you need tubing for another reason this example is beyond useless!

md

Actually, Mark, I did that very thing for the ones that are angled up on the roof to illuminate the sign on the roof ridge.  Those are even smaller, tighter bends, and no way could I make that work, so I just bent the wires, coated them with some epoxy, and painted them.

[southernman]

Um, this is not FB - we do have respect points though.   

But seriously, we have some amazing modeling in this weeks update: from 1:1 VW Beetles, to some awesome 3D printing (with lots of stuff in between).  "Likes" all around!

I see you got the FB reference ..I agree there is a lot of "likable" modelling here this week.

[southernman]

Where’s the like button??


The up arrow, top right of his post.

Thanks Mark for trying to help.

[southernman]

Last night I printed off the first iteration of my Southern Railway remote control receiver car

So are these going to be for sale or are they just for personal use ?

[chuck geiger]

the buildings on Mechanic Street are now done. Still need to add lights in a few more details

I'm on the air on WTBO.

[btrain]

I'm finally getting some rest after nearly two weeks on the road. The big adventure was going out west to see the Big Boy and the Spike 150 event. I'm still amazed by how many people were lining the right of way last Sunday on the interstate to see the engine storm up Weber and Echo Canyons.

Here are two of my favorite shots from the trip.





After I barely got home from a very delayed California Zephyr, I went to Ohio N Scale Weekend in Columbus to exhibit part of my layout. I was invited by Bill, of the Galesburg City Job, to show what I've done so far on my Nickel Plate Bellevue layout. He was a great helper in showing me what it's like to be an exhibitor and seller at a show. It sure was a change from how I typically spend time at these things, which mainly involves me taking copious mental notes about visiting layouts and making my wallet lighter at dealer tables. All kidding aside, it was a real honor to have my layout right next to the one that inspired it, along with seeing all the creativity on exhibit from all the other layouts at the show!

[narrowminded]

Finally got to ballast and some ground foam down on my Nn3 Code 40 test track with Rokuhan switches buried in the foam, answering the question (@peteski), can that Rokuhan switch be sufficiently hidden?  I'm OK with it, all considered.  I will post a little more detail with the link in a previous Nn3 Code 40 track thread (link to be added when I get to it).

Meanwhile the phone pics:

Ballasted and painted only
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Then with ground foam, one thin apply that probably needs another that it probably will never get.
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And finally the buried Rokuhan switch pics
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[peteski]

Finally got to ballast and some ground foam down on my Nn3 Code 40 test track with Rokuhan switches buried in the foam, answering the question (@peteski), can that Rokuhan switch be sufficiently hidden?  I'm OK with it, all considered. 

That looks great Mark - while the rails of the switch still look a bit cartoonish, you did a great job camouflaging it. How did you manage to make the frog's flangeways to look like there is a ballast in there?

[narrowminded]

That looks great Mark - while the rails of the switch still look a bit cartoonish, you did a great job camouflaging it. How did you manage to make the frog's flangeways to look like there is a ballast in there?

Thanks, Pete.  The rails and tie bed were airbrushed with Model Masters acrylics, Field Drab on the rails and Rail Tie Brown on the rest, bed and all.  To fill the void between the Rokuhan rail bed and the 1/8" deep pocket wall I cut strips from some scraps of Woodland Scenics foam road bed strips.  (I finally found a use for that stuff.)   It has the perfect characteristics for that purpose.  I glued those strips to the Rokuhan tie bed with Tight Bond II to hold it in place and also to act as a bit of a gasket to help keep scenic glue from running down into the works.  Installing them in the base pocket, the foam compressed nicely as needed, filling the void perfectly, stiffened slightly by the scenic materials on top.  All removable should the need arise.

Outside the rails and between the guard rails at each end I used the regular ballast, proceeding cautiously with the ballast and glue to not glue the point bar in place or get it into the mechanisms. The ballast simulation on the cast frog, formed point rails, and the visible bits of factory textured road bed between the rails is just craft paint applied abritrarily in dots with a very fine brush.  Assorted applications of tans, browns, grays, and black, sometimes thinned near to a wash and sometimes very little thinning and applied with the brush blotted to near dry.  It's not something I've got much experience with so just stumbled along seeing what might work, using the adjacent actual ballast as a color guide.  It came out OK and looks fine to the naked eye and even passes acceptably in the closer photographs.  For what it is, I'm happy but I really need to just make real code 40 switches.   I've been contemplating that including all of the details like powered frogs and an under tie bed switch machine for remote operation. 

The code 40 track system worked really well and the switches will be acceptable for this test track and a working option for someone who may be bent on using them.  They DO have a lot of options available.