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16 hours ago, Giles said:

Still considering....... I'm up for suggestions!

 

How about a pallet of cast-iron pipe fittings?

 

I found some free STL files which give a good range of threaded and flanged pipes and fittings, ready for 3D printing:

 

pipe_fittings.png.f78f66ca147df96daa6cba0092e08676.png

 

I used them on my layout in an overhead cable gantry:

 

533143205_2020-08-15002.JPG.c5a96b2fb60c724e4a7ced2800a62ef5.JPG

 

But I'm sure a pallet of fresh castings (or even rusty ones for recycling or repair) would look good.

 

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39 minutes ago, Fastdax said:

 

How about a pallet of cast-iron pipe fittings?

 

I found some free STL files which give a good range of threaded and flanged pipes and fittings, ready for 3D printing:

 

pipe_fittings.png.f78f66ca147df96daa6cba0092e08676.png

 

I used them on my layout in an overhead cable gantry:

 

533143205_2020-08-15002.JPG.c5a96b2fb60c724e4a7ced2800a62ef5.JPG

 

But I'm sure a pallet of fresh castings (or even rusty ones for recycling or repair) would look good.

 

Take a look at some 1:1 scale items. I have seen all sorts of bits used as loads many removed from things such as old telephones and household items. I have even used the internals from a 'pull-and-go' toy truck suitably painted. 

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1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Take a look at some 1:1 scale items. I have seen all sorts of bits used as loads many removed from things such as old telephones and household items. I have even used the internals from a 'pull-and-go' toy truck suitably painted. 

Reminds me of the late Allan Downes, he used all sorts of real plumbing fittings, especially on that steelworks diorama he built.

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11 hours ago, Fastdax said:

 

How about a pallet of cast-iron pipe fittings?

 

I found some free STL files which give a good range of threaded and flanged pipes and fittings, ready for 3D printing:

 

pipe_fittings.png.f78f66ca147df96daa6cba0092e08676.png

 

I used them on my layout in an overhead cable gantry:

 

533143205_2020-08-15002.JPG.c5a96b2fb60c724e4a7ced2800a62ef5.JPG

 

But I'm sure a pallet of fresh castings (or even rusty ones for recycling or repair) would look good.

 

 

They look great! As they were free, would you mind sharing where you found the stl file from? I fancy printing some of them myself :-)

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12 hours ago, jdb82 said:

 

They look great! As they were free, would you mind sharing where you found the stl file from? I fancy printing some of them myself :-)

 

I don't wish to hijack Giles' thread, but I think they came from Thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4444380 and scaled down a lot.

 

If you want more details, let's take it over to the 3D Printing forum.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Slide bars were the next thing to sort. I thought I had some 1mm square NS in stock, but I didn't.... making an opportunity of a problem I decided to mill them from 1mm sheet - and to mill a 'U' shape at the correct spacing to make the job much easier.  These were made, cleaned up and checked....

 

50494205083_5924144ec5_b.jpg2020-10-16_06-19-03 by giles favell, on Flickr

 

The bars were assembled with the cylinder end covers  and fitted, ready to be silver soldered to the motion brackets for strength

 

50495064887_8f42e982c8_b.jpg2020-10-16_06-19-41 by giles favell, on Flickr

 

Of course, with white-metal castings involved, silver-soldering at high temperatures 20mm away would inevitably melt them within a second, so Cool Paste was deployed generously to make sure they stayed safe

 

2020-10-16_06-20-36 by giles favell, on Flickr

 

 

All went fine, and the joints were all made with a little torch,  and all the castings were fine......

 

2020-10-16_06-21-28 by giles favell, on Flickr

 

It will be a coat of paint over this, then refit the axles, and fit Conn rods.

Edited by Giles
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Progress is made on the Peckett. The body parts are fully assembled,  but the fire box and back sheet won't be fixed til after painting.

 

The motor is fitted, but I haven't moved the axle gear across yet, so it's not engaged. The coal bunker in the cab will house the charging socket,  the on/off switch and hopefully the receiver as well,  and all the wiring will pass into the fire box which will double as a junction box!

 

2020-10-24_05-50-29

 

2020-10-24_05-52-23 2020-10-24_06-17-50

 

 

The original white metal cab roof has been discarded as it just looked rather heavy, and a brass one bade, which improves things.

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  • Giles changed the title to Radio Controlled locos, lorries, cranes, traction engine and Forklift!
  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Denton Brook and TEOTL use pin and link couplings, as the rakes are never uncoupled. The next layout I'm not so sure...... The Loop used my own simple choppers on the locos, and bars on the wagons to allow for the tight curves. This allowed coupling up on stage, but no uncoupling.

I'm well aware of Kadees etc, but for various reasons in not viable or desirable to refit all my locos that radically. I'm also well aware that I like my track to go up and down a bit in quite a rough and ready fashion! I'm therefore having a look at magnetic couplings, which may have the advantage of simply fitting in the existing pin and link castings (retained by the pin), and would be very forgiving and reliable when it comes to coupling and staying coupled. This is the first trial with magnets I happen to have - which are 2mm diameter, by about 1.5mm thick. they're a bit strong, but the principle is encouraging.

 

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I tried using magnets with 4mm stock. A magnet under one end of each wagon only and 3-link couplings, with an iron link at one end only. It worked very well and as the contact area, rather than being the flats of two magnets, was relatively small, uncoupling was possible by jerking the loco away but this type of running looked very unrealistic. A modified coffee stirrer worked better for uncoupling. I went back to using 3-links and manually coupling them in the end.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Giles said:

 

 

Denton Brook and TEOTL use pin and link couplings, as the rakes are never uncoupled. The next layout I'm not so sure...... The Loop used my own simple choppers on the locos, and bars on the wagons to allow for the tight curves. This allowed coupling up on stage, but no uncoupling.

I'm well aware of Kadees etc, but for various reasons in not viable or desirable to refit all my locos that radically. I'm also well aware that I like my track to go up and down a bit in quite a rough and ready fashion! I'm therefore having a look at magnetic couplings, which may have the advantage of simply fitting in the existing pin and link castings (retained by the pin), and would be very forgiving and reliable when it comes to coupling and staying coupled. This is the first trial with magnets I happen to have - which are 2mm diameter, by about 1.5mm thick. they're a bit strong, but the principle is encouraging.

 

 

Interesting Giles.

Two thoughts, first one, thin shims of plasticard over the magnets would effectively reduce their power to each other.

Second thought and far more fun, just fit radio controlled brakes to the coach, that would stop it lurching to couple and hold it firm when you pull to uncouple.

Easy for me to say, I will leave you to solve the problem and report back!

 

Martin

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