Looking great Devon. Love the door knob idea. Think I need to head to Pat Catan’s today… (Local craft store)
Ok so a little more progress. So one of the tasks I wanted to accomplish was loco to tender hose connections. Now Bruce Chandler was kind enough to share his method on page 7 of this thread. Key to the design is that they are easily disconnected. I did not do as elaborate of a job on this build but I used the principle. I used 1/8" black surgical tubing and a small piece of the metal sprinkler rod inserted into one end. The other end is fitted over my brass wire I used for the plumbing. All those parts are CA glued together. On the tender side I inlaid a piece of the magnetic strip stuff that is self adhesive but I CA glued it in. This was done to the bottom of the front sill of the tender; then on that was glued a piece of 1/8 styrene tube. Now the piece of metal wire slides into the styrene and the magnet holds it. It is a light fit but I think it will hold fine and then when the tender needs to be separated it is an easy task.
That view shows the electrical connection as well. The next picture shows the added wood to the tender. Looks much better.
Its getting way closer. Need to do surgery still to the valve gear linkage to allow clearance of the side rods. The head lamp is in the middle of being revamped with a new screw attachment that will make it easier to access the bulb should it need to be replaced. Once that is done I will do some touch up paint work and install the glazing. After that will be the battery and 3 amp breaker. Then it will run. I will weather it at some point but for awhile I want it shiny and new.
Thanks to Christmas I was able to get some stuff done. Santa put in my stocking a 3 amp circuit breaker which with the help of a two pin socket from a B-mann 10 wheeler tender connection I was able to complete the wiring. I just need to add the battery which will be on order soon. Also thanks to Christmas I had plenty of plastic packaging to use for glazing so all the windows are in. The head lamp reconstruction is done. I have also repainted stuff and did some weathering.
Really at this point all I have to do is fix the valve gear actuator by narrowing it to clear the side rods and add the battery and do some touch up paint and I will be able to declare it ready to run. Oh and I need to replace the rear tender coupler pocket. I tore it off because I didn’t like it. I want one of this style instead:
A weathering tip I will pass on that I was pleased with was to use artist charcoal and a piece of sand paper. I sprayed some matte clear and then using 150 grit sand paper sanded some charcoal on it. It gives a nice soot and ember look. I know its not a new technique but thought I would pass it along in case. I also shot the bottom with some flat caramel color for dirt and then over sprayed the whole thing with flat black to dingy up parts. I will go back and “polish” the brass to make it look a little brighter and then clean rods and stuff that would be “clean”. Still not done but I am liking it. I want the used but well maintained look. There needs to be a bit of rust and some grease added but I won’t need that to cal it complete.
Pictures will follow when its done. in a few days.
If you get a small mortar and pestle (drugstore) you can fine grind Prototype Dirt from the location to dust your models. Gather some dirt clods from locations you model, grind it up and presto magic it ‘can’ look right. Try dusting over wet sealer, build up thicker and then blow off excess, hey it’s only dirt! It is possible to get a dry look. Indoor trains I used to mix dirt in diluted white glue and paint it on the ground, then dust where I wanted the lighter color, then a light vacuuming removed the excess. If you gather fines get a sifter.
In this scale we can add texture too, use dirt instead of/or on top of paint where it can accumulate.
I’m fine tuning my Mik brain… and still offering tips…
I hope your Christmas was perfect.
John
John,
That’s a great idea. The dirt is under 2 feet of snow right now but when I do get a chance I will try that. The area I model has some very dusty roads in the summer, powdered loam, which is wicked fine powder like flower. Good call.
I got a battery in the mail yesterday.
Devon Sinsley said:
I got a battery in the mail yesterday.
Great Devon. I’m looking forward to the first run video! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Two small repairs and I will be able to at least put it on a block and see if the drive train will run freely and without issue. My plan is to have that done Friday. Then it will be ready to run. Sadly here in the Inland Northwest we are under a foot of snow so doubtful it will run on track for awhile.
Disaster Strikes.
So yesterday I received my RC equipment. I got it all installed and was excited to see how she went. First a little test run off the wheels to see if it would even turn the running gear. All went well forward and backward. Put everything together and set up about 4 feet of track. Thanks to the crappy 1st gen 10 wheeler purchase. Put the loco on the track and ran it the full length forward and backward about ten times. I was very happy it was going to work, and just in time to take it to the club meet the next day (today). I even went to go get the wife so I could show off. Then it happened, one of the side rods snapped. A lttle messing around and I snapped the other side.
Here is what I think happened. I might not have had them quite the right length and when they came around they were struggling until finally one driver went one direction and the other went the other direction. Or more likely, since it worked for awhile is that the glued joint between plastic and brass was weak and just wiggled loose until finally one driver reversed snapping it.
So no taking the mogul today. I did get to take the GP-9. For the first time I ran a train of my own, but more on that later. On the way home I stopped at the hardware store and picked up some brass. I have a new rod idea, making them out of all brass with the main bar extending the entire distance. I wont break these. Might break something else but I wont break the rods (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif). I have begun to make one. I have a month to get it done in time for the next meet.
Whew!! What a relief. As I was reading your story, all I could imagine was that somehow the RC stopped responding to commands and ran the engine off the bench and onto the floor where it shattered into a gazillion pieces. Thank goodness it was just a broken side rod!!!
I know you were disappointed you didn’t get to take it to your club meet, but you still have that to look forward to once you make the repairs.
Dan,
If this is the only engineering failure in this project I will be tickled pink. I have said from the beginning of this project about two years ago that it would be a shelf queen unless it didn’t work. I have always expected problems. After all this is my first scratch built or even kit bashed loco, and it was pretty ambitious. There are places I expect some trouble. So I am disappointed but I was happy it did as well as it did. I can fix side rods.
Devon,
Good effort. Carry on. I know you will “git 'er done!” (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Devon,
Looking back at pictures of your build, it looks like your broken side rod problem is caused by improper quartering. Rod length is extremely critical.
In this photo it looks like the quartering is slightly off.
I see what your saying Joe. I can’t explain the picture because I don’t “think” the quartering was that far off really. And the front isn’t where it snapped. The issue was on this side but the back side of the middle driver.
But I do think that it was a combination of bad quartering and weak design.
This next go I have measured the axle distant between centers down to half a mm. Then as best as I could muster I put the crank pins at top dead center and bottom dead center and came up with the same distances +/- half a mm. so I should be able to have right on the money.
I believe since it ran smooth for awhile that any small issue with quarting was made worse by the weak link in the design and once it started to wiggle loose that threw the quartering all to heck
Quartering isn’t such a big deal, having all the rod pins in the same place is extremely important.
Quartering is the relationship of one set of drive rods to the other side. In prototype service working cylinders Required quartering to prevent both cylinders from exhausting at the same time upon stopping and closing the ports. No steam could start such a hobbled loco. With one side always a quarter turn away, steam can enter and expand …
On our models, the rods coast with the wheels. If the pins rotate at different times binding happens.
One down and dirty solution is to use oblong holes so the rods can give some.
John
Agreed John. In the pic I posted it looked like the crank pin on the rear driver is not in the exact position as the another two. Which could be a quartering problem on the rear axle wheels or a rod length problem.
I knew what Joe meant and quartering is the wrong term. The drivers one side for the other are quartered. I never took them off the axles. So they should still be correctly quartered. The issue was crank pin alignment on the same side. If this was indeed off (and likely was) it was due to rod length not quartering. However I was pretty careful, I thought, about getting them right. That picture does look wonky and I have a hard time believing it because that sort of thing usually doesn’t get by me when it is that glaring. But that’s water under the bridge they broke for what ever reason and not matter what it is because I made an engineering mistake.
The two possible problems will be fixed in the new rod design. No more breaking the joints because there won’t be any and I will make dang sure to get the rod length right.
That brings up a thought. With quartered drivers what would be the relationship between the lengths of each rod be. Obviously if its right they will be the same length . . . but I am trying to picture if one is two long between two of the pins would the other rod then be correspondingly long between the same two pins? Or would it force one to be shorter? Maybe a dumb question, but can’t picture it. For some reason I can’t picture this and I am not near a loco to see the relationship. I only ask because I know the old rods were very close to identical in overall length and pin to pin length.
The axles of the wheels need to be exactly parallel, and the length of the rods, center line to center line of the crank pins, is exactly the same distance as the distance between center line to center line of the axles.
One rod too long and the wheels cannot go all the way around. One rod too short, and the wheels cannot go all the way around. Because when one wheel is at 90 degrees (pin all the way forward or all the way aft) the other wheel isn’t there yet because of the wrong length rod.
David Maynard said:
The axles of the wheels need to be exactly parallel, and the length of the rods, center line to center line of the crank pins, is exactly the same distance as the distance between center line to center line of the axles.
Now one thing you mention that I have not looked closely at is if the axles are parallel. I guess I sorta assumed they were when I built the frame. But due to the way I built the frame (which I am not happy with now) they could be off. Just because I made the frame pieces the same does not mean they got assembled exactly the same. I made frame pieces that then all need to be glued together. in hind sight this is weak and also allows way to much room for variation. For the #4 that is being slowly pieced together we (Kevin and I) are going with one piece frame rails made of brass cut by a CNC router. Much better foundation. But on the loco at hand I can not say for certain they are parallel. I will have to investigate that as a problem source.
If they aren’t parallel, then the pin isn’t true, because the wheels inst true (to the frame). Then you would almost have to go with oversized holes in the rod. But then you would get inconsistent drive to that wheel if its not gear driven.