Jump to content
 

Whats on your 2mm Work bench


nick_bastable
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold

0924FEB1-9196-4DB2-A995-ED5F9E73267D_zps

 

Having deposited it's train of empty 16T minerals at the wharf for loading, 5182 quietly waits for its allotted departure time to arrive at Parkend.

 

Pix

 

That is very atmospheric. 

Don former resident at Palmers Flat FOD.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just in from Poland:

 

2cwoocg.jpg

 

Micro components for a long running project kickstarted by the acquisition of some small motors.

 

Contained inside the protective rings are:

  • 4x axle muffs, 2mm o/s diameter bored 1mm
  • worm M0.15 bored 0.7mm
  • 27T gear bored 2mm for placement on muff

Whether any of this will actually work remains to be seen! We'll give it a go. :D

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Just in from Poland:

 

2cwoocg.jpg

 

Micro components for a long running project kickstarted by the acquisition of some small motors.

 

Contained inside the protective rings are:

  • 4x axle muffs, 2mm o/s diameter bored 1mm
  • worm M0.15 bored 0.7mm
  • 27T gear bored 2mm for placement on muff

Whether any of this will actually work remains to be seen! We'll give it a go. :D

enough teasing whats the project  :scratchhead:

 

 

Nick

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just in from Poland:

 

2cwoocg.jpg

 

Micro components for a long running project kickstarted by the acquisition of some small motors.

 

Contained inside the protective rings are:

  • 4x axle muffs, 2mm o/s diameter bored 1mm
  • worm M0.15 bored 0.7mm
  • 27T gear bored 2mm for placement on muff

Whether any of this will actually work remains to be seen! We'll give it a go. :D

 

 

enough teasing whats the project  :scratchhead:

 

 

Nick

Hmm,

 

Only one worm & wheel but four muffs. Must be an 0-6-0 with a spare muff?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Are you going off your Wickham trolley?

 

I've been off it for a long while!

 

I've mounted the worm on the motor, but had to drill the worm out to 0.8mm which was a bit scary (not much meat left). :D I've also mounted the gear on a muff; slightly reamed to give a nice interference fit. Test fitted some wheels with 1mm axles and fairly pleased with progress.

 

Once summer vacation is out of the way, I'll hopefully reveal more... ;)

Edited by Yorkshire Square
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I've been off it for a long while!

 

I've mounted the worm on the motor, but had to drill the worm out to 0.8mm which was a bit scary (not much meat left). :D I've also mounted the gear on a muff; slightly reamed to give a nice interference fit. Test fitted some wheels with 1mm axles and fairly pleased with progress.

 

Once summer vacation is out of the way, I'll hopefully reveal more... ;)

another 2mm modeller  attempting the ford railcar perhaps?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Recently I've been saving used tea bags, drying them out and putting the dried contents into a jar to use as scenic dressing, as done on Fencehouses.  It struck me that the material the bags were made of had a slight fabric feel and I thought they might be suitable for wagon sheets.  Some of the bags were from either green tea or peppermint tea and so were only slightly stained.  I thought this would give a weathered look to the white printing on the sheets and so make them look 'used' rather than 'new.

 

I drew out a CR wagon sheet from details given in the livery book and printed it onto a sheet of paper.  I then sellotaped a side from a tea bag over this, making sure that the sellotape was clear of the print, and ran it back through the printer, printing in 'presentation' quality.  The sheet was then sprayed with satin varnish, cut to size, turned over and given another spray.  Once dry it was fitted onto one of my recently built wagons.

 

post-25077-0-70065800-1469222416.jpg

This shows the printed sheet still taped to the paper.

 

post-25077-0-54818900-1469222496.jpg

The sheet fitted on a Dia 24 8T open wagon.  The 'load' is formed from layers of small pieces of foam board with the sheet held in place by tiny bits of double sided tape in strategic places.  How long this will last remains to be seen!  (apologies for the three link being caught up on the hook.  I didn't notice it until I was posting the photo here)

 

Jim

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

Jim

 

Some  years  ago  I  tried  printing  a  range  of  wagon  sheets  on  various  materials  I  could  get  to  go  through  the  printer -- and  none  of  them  was  as  good  as  your  example  here.  I  take  it  you  use  an  inkjet  printer -- I  would  be  very  skeery  about  that  going  through  my  laser  printer!  The  best  I  got  was  preprinted  on  some  very  fine  tissue  paper,  from  a  chap  in  Wales  whose  name  I've  forgotten.

 

Allan  F

Link to post
Share on other sites

Jim

 

Some  years  ago  I  tried  printing  a  range  of  wagon  sheets  on  various  materials  I  could  get  to  go  through  the  printer -- and  none  of  them  was  as  good  as  your  example  here.  I  take  it  you  use  an  inkjet  printer -- I  would  be  very  skeery  about  that  going  through  my  laser  printer!  The  best  I  got  was  preprinted  on  some  very  fine  tissue  paper,  from  a  chap  in  Wales  whose  name  I've  forgotten.

 

Allan  F

This guy? I've heard good things. http://www.wagonsheets.co.uk/

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Taking my removable signals idea a step further, I've now applied the principle to one of my Stevens drop-flap ground signals.   When I was getting a second trial etch of one of my mineral wagon kits done I put several other things on a small sheet, among them etches to make a square tube to fit under the signal base.

 

post-25077-0-99651500-1470684331_thumb.jpg

 

It fits in the same mechanism as the 20ft signal and works a treat!   :sungum:

 

On the Area Group layout, Sauchenford, we have 4 of these signals in two pairs, side by side, so on the same etch I put two mechanisms for these, making the tube on the mechanism rectangular with a housing for one signal tube.  (The signals are fixed together in their pairs)  I reckoned that one tube would give enough grip and two would mean too much friction increasing the risk of damage during fitting and removal.  The second operating wire will just slip down the other side of the rectangular tube.

 

post-25077-0-48622000-1470684727_thumb.jpg

 

(Sorry about the fingers - only way I could get a good photo without heavy shadows on the background)

 

The tube to be soldered to the underside of the signal base can be seen projecting from it's 'housing'.   The magnets on the cranks are arranged so that like poles face one another, the idea being that this will make sure that only the appropriate signal is activated by the crank.   As I don't have the signals here, I will have to wait until our meeting on Saturday to fit them to layout and see if it all works as planned!  I will report success (or otherwise).

 

Jim

  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

So, update on the signals from yesterday's meeting.  There's good news, bad news and better news.

 

The good news is that the down home signal, the tall one with the repeater arm, is now working well.

 

The bad news is that the first attempt to get the ground signals working was a failure - BUT  - the better news is that a successful work-around has been developed.

 

Two issues presented themselves.  Firstly, despite being arranged with like poles facing one another, the two magnets on the operating wires clamped themselves tightly together by their edges.   :fool:

 

Secondly, the divider in the mounting tube which was there to hold the signal post/tube in place, stopped the signals from being withdrawn as the little bits of tinplate with the magnets attached caught on it, so it had to go.  This left the signal tube a little loose in the mounting tube, but tightening the latter enough to grip the former by squeezing the sides together made it too tight to easily fit or remove the signals.  The solution to that came later.

 

Solving the first problem was achieved by moving one of the magnets down the operating wire by about 5mm.  Similarly the corresponding crank had its upward throw limited by soldering an 'L' shaped piece of etch border on to the side of the tube as a stop.  A similar one was soldered on at the bottom to stop it going beyond there, as the magnet would then catch on the end of the tube when moving the crank back up.   With these modifications, the signals now worked perfectly, but, because the post was loose in the mounting tube the whole signal assembly was tending to move when the cranks were moved and also tending to tip over to one side.

 

I brought all the bits home and on the drive back the solution to this came to me, another piece of etch border soldered under the base of the signal without the post such that it was bearing on the opposite side of the mounting tube.  This took a bit of trial and error to get it in the right place, but has made the signals secure in the mounting, but still easy to remove and fit.

 

post-25077-0-41249700-1471205314_thumb.jpg

The signals with their operating wires and magnet attached.  they still are trying to attract one another which is why the left hand signal is off.  The strip of etch border which helps secure the signals in the mounting tube can be seen on the left.

 

post-25077-0-81479000-1471205333_thumb.jpg

The ground signals in the mounting showing the lowered position of the nearest crank and the two stops fitted for it.  When removing the signals they have to be gripped 'fore and aft' as gripping them side to side can result in them ending up leaning together.    :nono:

 

I also brought home the other pair, but at least now I know what to do to get them working!   :sungum:

 

All this goes to show that if something isn't working according to plan, there is usual a way of surmounting the problem.  Throwing it at the wall in disgust is not always the only solution!!   :no:

 

Now I've got to design some little lever frames so we can operate the signals by wire-in-tube from the back of the layout rather than putting our hands underneath and feeling blindly for the cranks!!

 

Jim

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

 

 

All this goes to show that if something isn't working according to plan, there is usual a way of surmounting the problem.  Throwing it at the wall in disgust is not always the only solution!!   :no:

 

 

Jim

no but feels so good at the time  :imsohappy:

 

excellent work as always

 

NIck

Link to post
Share on other sites

About time I posted an update on the St Ruth branch home. It's been languishing for a while due to other distractions but I'm now having a concerted effort to get it off my workbench.

 

The signal itself isn't too complicated but making all of the pretty lights work adds rather more complexity. The first piccie shows the signal with its connector plug - John managed to source these tiny plugs so that we can get a 4 pin plug down a not too huge hole in the baseboard. The thing on the left is the business end of the route indicator with its four surface mount amber LEDs. Sorry about the image quality - the camera really seemed to struggle with this.

 

post-9623-0-64481600-1471347960_thumb.jpg

 

Then there is the electrical gubbins below stairs. Top left is a MERG controller to drive the servos which work the arms. On the right is one of John's interlock logic boards. We have several of these in use already. They allow bracket or route indicating signals to be operated from a single button on the panel. The logic is 'programmable' by soldering diodes into the matrix and in this case detects how three points are set plus the state of two occupancy detectors in the platform roads to decide which arm to move and which route to show. The final board is a custom one for this signal. It allows us to drive the four LEDs on the route indicator plus the lamps for the signal arms using four wires (including the return wire) by deploying some good old fashioned 7400 TTL logic plus a current limiting circuit. This board also piggy backs the socket for the signal - again a surface mount thing. I don't think I'm cut out for a career in surface mount soldering but I made it work eventually.

 

post-9623-0-82185300-1471347955_thumb.jpg

 

A better photo of the signal itself. I've now straightened out the bend at the bottom of the ladder that I'd not noticed before taking this pic.

 

post-9623-0-73842700-1471347949_thumb.jpg

 

Regards, Andy

  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

Some further progress... that's twice in a week now.

 

The signal itself has disappeared under a coat of Halfords grey primer. I left the route indicator off while spraying primer partly to avoid any risk of paint going where it shouldn't but also because I hadn't actually finished putting it together.

 

There has been a lot of trial and error to get the route indicator looking how I wanted. The main problems are getting an even spread of light from a single LED, stopping the light leaking around the edges and lighting up more than one indication. I also wanted it to be unreadable when not lit.

 

Decent pictures of the real things are not easy to find - I only have fairly distant views of the one at Penzance. There were also some at Bristol and Paddington which I think are broadly the same type although I woukldn't be overly surprised if it turns out that they were all different. One useful revelation was a picture at Paddington in 'Heyday of the Hymeks' which shows an unlit indicator in quite bright daylight. This shows that the glass at the front had a pronounced orange tint... which was a good clue for the model.

 

The arrangement that I ended up with is in the photo below.

 

post-9623-0-07947100-1471635145_thumb.jpg

 

It has four layers...

 

1. The four amber LEDs, mounted on some 0.5mm PCB. I put slivers of black plastikard between them to try to ensure that only one indication is lit by each LED. Around the edge is the hood, made from 15 thou black plastikard.

 

2. A rectangle of 5 thou plastikard as a diffuser. This is coloured orange using a permananent marker pen. I also coloured the edges black to reduce leakage around the edges of the next layer. I did contemplate having a separate diffuser for each LED to avoid it working as a 'light pipe' and illuminating adjacent indications but I filed this idea under the 'life is too short' category.

 

3. The stencil. More about this in a minute

 

4. The front 'glass' - transparency film coloured on the back with an orange permanent marker.

 

The stencil was the trickiest part to get right. The artwork was done in Inkscape with several small variations of character size and dot size to see which looked best.

 

The first attempt was paper printed on my inkjet. This worked OK but the definition was not as good as I wanted because the ink tends to spread a bit.

 

The next attempt used transparency film printed in John's laser printer. The definition was better but it lacked opacity.

 

As I was doing some custom decals for the Maunsell coaches, I added the route indicator stencils to the decal artwork. These looked pretty good but I still needed to find a way to actually use them. The first part was simple - waterslide them onto some transparency film. Experimenting with the LEDs behind them showed that they had both good opacity for the black and also excellent definition. Next I sprayed them with some Humbrol matt acrylic varnish which dried a sort of milky colour... not a problem in itself.

 

Once the varnish was dry I cut the stencil to size. This didn't go well because there was some delamination around the cut edges giving a sort of silvering effect. At first I put this down to the transfer lifting from the acetate but on checking the back everything looked good so it must have been the varnish parting company from the transfer. In desperation I brush painted around the edges and across the front with plenty of Tamiya gloss varnish. This seemed to sort the problem out.

 

The thing was assembled using the point of a dressmaking pin to apply the tiniest possible amount of canopy glue to the insides of the hood. Then it was tested. I'm very pleased with the result - not quite perfect but readable in daylight when lit and also having that noticeable orange tinge when not lit.

 

post-9623-0-31397100-1471635150_thumb.jpg

 

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

afternoon spent burning my fingers and butchering w irons

 

 

 

left to right

 

SECR 6 wheel brake van, LCDR  open, FYNR  van, 1850's 1st

 

still need tyding / axle boxes and bits

 

first two are bang on for East Kent, The van  must have escaped the Isle of Wight via the RIchborough train ferry  and the coach reminds me of Dan's House

 

Nick

Edited by nick_bastable
  • Like 12
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

more progress finished except for couplings ( now isn't that a change  :nono: ) although I have suffered the dreaded wheel rim issue

 

 

 

all are a bit of a curates egg,  my  technique is improving , my finishing less so, the 6 wheeler was a struggle  ( good job someones promised me the SDJR version)  In future I will try  card roofs instead of brass and I have some very fine 0.4mm ply to try

 

whats everyone else up to (other than melting in the heat) ?

 

 

Nick

Edited by nick_bastable
  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

....whats everyone else up to (other than melting in the heat) ?

Heat?  What heat?  Showers here this afternoon.

 

Not had much time for modelling recently.  Busy making up orders for my etches and designing a couple of small lever frames for the group layout, in between other commitments.  Unfortunately I can't start work on the frames as I don't have the brass strip for the levers.  Hope to pick some up at the Alnwick Show next Sunday.

 

Jim

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Heat?  What heat?  Showers here this afternoon.

 

Not had much time for modelling recently.  Busy making up orders for my etches and designing a couple of small lever frames for the group layout, in between other commitments.  Unfortunately I can't start work on the frames as I don't have the brass strip for the levers.  Hope to pick some up at the Alnwick Show next Sunday.

 

Jim

that's for living North of Watford even if like a Yorkshire person you claim its Gods own country  ( which everyone knows is Kent  :boast:  :boast:  :boast:  :boast:  :boast: )

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...