OK, I have adjusted, minimized the chain tension, oiled, and figured out how to attach the sprockets securely (saga below), then I painted the frame and have the Airwire setup lashed together to be sure it works.
Here’s a video showing the current state of the railtruck:
I am a big fan of the ah-ooooo-ga!
I had a bit of a one-step-forward-2-steps-backward thing going with the sprockets. Here’s what I ended up doing (for those of you who enjoy such flailing sagas):
- the shaft on the motor is 3mm (about 7/64") and the bore in the sprocket is 1/8" so the sprockets don’t fit tight. bummer, as they are the drive for the animation
- my first try was to put goop in the bore. this worked ok until I lubricated the various bits and then the goop disappeared (or at least stopped being goopy)
- sigh
- first try was to drill a hole in the motor shaft so I could put a pin through the sprocket and shafter (tried 3/64") but it turns out that even with a carbon drill, that shaft is REALLY HARD! and I was never able to get a hole through it
- second try was to use an epoxy putty to fill in the bore of the sprocket and then drill a 7/64" hole. I have 3 sprockets and for one of them this actually worked but not for the other two. drat. I was out of patience and didn’t want to wait another 4 hours so I …
- carefully (really carefully) put some cyanoacrylic (superglue) glue on the shaft near the end, and in the bore near the outer edge, and carefully didn’t put the sprocket all the way onto the shaft. this seemed to work well and should have been my first effort. ah well.
Cheers!
