Jon Fitness Posted November 29, 2012 Author Share Posted November 29, 2012 As part of a batch of signals I am building I have been asked to do a couple of "Scottish lattice" signals. Not specific to any railway but with a Scottish flavour. (Deep fried perhaps?? ) Anyway, this is a simple MSE kit build and not having built many lattice posts I thought I'd document one of them. This what comes in the kit bag First job is to burnish both sides of the etch. The post is constructed from 2 fold up halves and is etched neatly and finely. To seperate the post components from the etch, I cut the main fret in a couple of strategic points and gently bent the tabs back and forth until they snapped. I felt there was less chance of distortion doing it this way rather than cutting them off. It was then quite easy to gently bend by gripping them with flat pliers at each half etched tag and and gently working each tag towards 90 degrees. Using plenty of flux and being fairly generous with the 188 solder I ran the iron along the outside of the bend, carefully filling in the gap. The instructions suggest doing this from the inside of the joint but I found there was more chance of misalignment that way. Don't linger too long with the iron and everything should remain straight. Also in the instructions it says that the tabs from the cutting off process can be left on until the post is constructed as they don't clash. Some do! I found it necessary to trim most of them off before I could join the 2 halves. The tabs also stop you from sliding this alignment jig down the post too! These tabs near the lower end were ok though (just) Bring the 2 halves together and slide down the square jig on to the post. This should hold the 2 bits in alignment while you repeat the soldering process down the joint. Check the joints carefully as you solder them and although you still need plenty of flux, less solder should be needed as there should be no gap to fill. More soon JF 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 If it was a lettuce signal not a deep fried one it would come from the LSWR. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 If it was a lettuce signal not a deep fried one it would come from the LSWR. Ah that would be back in those salad days Peter..... Checking that the edges are all in line ( I admit I wasn't as careful as I should have been) solder a few blobs neat tacks along the entire length of each side. Check again, remove the jig, then go back and spread the the blobs until you have joined them together and soldered the entire length of both sides. Carefully run a fine file along all four sides then finish off each side on a sheet of fine "wet and dry" paper and you should have a nice tapered lattice The post was then soldered to a 50mm X 32mm base plate. A lamp bracket is supplied on the etch. A pivot tube and wire arm stop were soldered directly to the post. As I had an Alan Gibson signal arm painted and ready to go I decided to use that rather than the supplied MSE one. This allowed me to position the lamp bracket. The supplied MSE cast lamp isn't quite wide enough to take a 3mm LED so I used one of my own (robbed from a scrap signal as I had run out of castings!) which still had an LED soldered to it. A piece of fine wire was soldered to the LED and carefully fed down the post and through a hole drilled in the baseplate...The old LED still works..amazing! Next is the balance weight bar. This was soldered up from the supplied etched parts and consisted of 2 bars with weights plus an extra weight each side all sweated together. A fold up bearing bracket is also supplied. More soon JF 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 2, 2012 Author Share Posted December 2, 2012 An SG90 servo powers this signal and after having the mounting lugs sawn off is stuck underneath the the baseplate with trim tape. This is linked to the balance weight bar with some 0.7mm wire and the signal arm is then linked to that with 0.4 wire. To act as guides, 2 bits of very fine bore tube were threaded on the wire before it was linked to the weight bar with the intention of soldering these to the post. A trick that usually works to stop the wire getting soldered into the tube is to chemically blacken the wire first so I did a small area ready for the job. *I say usually...one of the tubes still managed to get a bit of solder in it and although it didn't solder itself to the wire completely it did cause a few expletives for a minute or 2 .* The tubes were then carefully soldered to the post leaving the wire free (*see above) but correctly aligning the guide tubes. With that done, ladder, safety hoop and (a suspiciously large) finial were added and the signal was almost ready for the paint shop. (Subsequently added were a TC diamond and a wire wheel at the base) White primer was generously sprayed over the entire signal and then once that was dry, all this had to be applied, just to spray the black bits!! More soon Jon F. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lochty no more Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Jon, that finial is suspicious here is a 12" to the foot version the arm is a 4 feet NBR lower quadrant, your arm would be 5 feet, it looks a bit too chunky - keep up the good work 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 5, 2012 Author Share Posted December 5, 2012 Jon, that finial is suspicious here is a 12" to the foot version the arm is a 4 feet NBR lower quadrant, your arm would be 5 feet, it looks a bit too chunky - keep up the good work I agree the finial is a bit chunky, but it's what came in the kit. I think some of the older MSE stuff is a little on the strangely large side! Thanks for the excellent pictures by the way. Cheers Jon F Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 5, 2012 Author Share Posted December 5, 2012 Well thats the lattice post stop signal completed. and here is a lo-res video test of it in action.. Lattice signal test.wmv More soon Jon F. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 5, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 5, 2012 Nice signal but that finial looks a bit chubby in its upper part 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lochty no more Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Nice signal but that finial looks a bit chubby in its upper part There are two types of "Stevens ball finial" the open ball type finial, and the one that Jon used - who ate all the pies type finial 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 6, 2012 Author Share Posted December 6, 2012 There are two types of "Stevens ball finial" the open ball type finial, and the one that Jon used - who ate all the pies type finial Must be the deep fried battered version..... JF 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 8, 2012 Author Share Posted December 8, 2012 This is the second (and somewhat shorter) lattice post signal. I tried to reduce the width of the finial ball by filing a bit off the ring. It looks a little less portly but it's still not quite right. More soon JF 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted December 8, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 8, 2012 That's a very neat and tidy signal Jon. The lattice looks particularly fine. Well done. Steve. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 I'm now back to doing a few ground signals but as I've covered the construction of them previously I won't do too much this time. The only thing I've not yet really satisfied myself with is the illumination of them so using a rather scruffy example that I'd made a bit of a b*****ks of soldering I decided to have a play. I've tried tiny bulbs ( nice light but too hot and fragile) and very small SM LEDs (a bit too fiddly) so my next idea was another slightly larger SM LED recessed into the back of the lamp casting and a bit of fibre optic material to get the light from the back to the front. I've got the LEDs but the only FO I had was 2mm diameter but the idea was there. I drilled the lamp casing through 2mm then opened out the hole at the back with a 3mm drill. This was roughly hacked out to accept the LED but I stopped short of sinking the LED too deep in case the fitting/soldering process became to difficult. I also fitted a very small length of the FO into the 2mm hole keeping it flush to both front and back. Some very careful soldering ensued using a 1.5mm tip and 145 solder, fixing the negative pad of the LED to the casting and some fine wire to the positive pad. The wire was fed through a small hole drilled in the casting and fingers were crossed for the electrical testing. It's a bit bright on straight 3volts DC but at least it worked! The light bleed through the LED can be used as the backlight and the area at the back looks reasonably uncluttered by wires and contact pins. The gaps round the LED can be filled either with model filler or epoxy glue. Obviously this is only an experiment at the moment and the camera has been particularly cruel in showing the rather tatty job I've made of it so far. The LED coud be sunk much deeper so it's flush with the back of the lamp case and I'll source some thinner fibre optic material for future ground signals. I'll finish this signal off though, just to see how it looks. I think it's got potential to be used in main arm signals too. As I cast my own lamps for my signals I can re-do the master to make castings to incorporate these LEDs better to neaten up my work. The ground signals are MSE so I'll have to work out a neater way to recess the back of the lamp cases too! More soon JF 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 10, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 10, 2012 Jon, (A comment, not a criticism of what you do) Could you use enamelled wire in place of the sheathed stuff ? - you could run it down the inside of the mechanism. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 Jon, (A comment, not a criticism of what you do) Could you use enamelled wire in place of the sheathed stuff ? - you could run it down the inside of the mechanism. Hi Dave, A good suggestion and I have used enamel wire in th past and I do have some in stock. I always had trouble soldering it and pulling it through metal structures invariably scratched it leading to annoying short circuits. As a lot of my signals have spent their lives outside the weather was affecting the wire and joints too so I switched over to fine sheathed wire. As you suggested it doesn't look as neat but its much more reliable. cheers JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 10, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 10, 2012 As you suggested it doesn't look as neat but its much more reliable. Once it's painted it will obviosuly blend in, just musing, your signals are superb anyway. You could run the enamel down the inside and then case that in araldite (we have used similar techniques on our colour light heads) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 Once it's painted it will obviosuly blend in, just musing, your signals are superb anyway. You could run the enamel down the inside and then case that in araldite (we have used similar techniques on our colour light heads) I'll probably give it a go in my next wooden posted signal as I'll have less chance of damaging the wire ( as long as it's only for my use!). I have some ScaleSignalSupply LNW bits somewhere...... JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted December 10, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 10, 2012 I have some ScaleSignalSupply LNW bits somewhere...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wychcan Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Hi Dave, A good suggestion and I have used enamel wire in th past and I do have some in stock. I always had trouble soldering it and pulling it through metal structures invariably scratched it leading to annoying short circuits. As a lot of my signals have spent their lives outside the weather was affecting the wire and joints too so I switched over to fine sheathed wire. As you suggested it doesn't look as neat but its much more reliable. cheers JF Hi Jon, What great work you do and thanks for sharing it with us, I, and I'm sure everyone learns such a lot from your postings. Seeing that you are using small LEDs you may what to browse www.negneering.com Nigel 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 Hi Jon, What great work you do and thanks for sharing it with us, I, and I'm sure everyone learns such a lot from your postings. Seeing that you are using small LEDs you may what to browse www.negneering.com Nigel Thanks for the compliments! Tried the website but it "isn't there" so to speak. Is the spelling correct? JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wychcan Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Thanks for the compliments! Tried the website but it "isn't there" so to speak. Is the spelling correct? JF Jon, sorry, try http://www.ngineering.com/ Nigel 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Jon, sorry, try http://www.ngineering.com/ Nigel Ah thats better! JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 15, 2012 Author Share Posted December 15, 2012 Further experiments with SMD LEDs. The slots on this double ground signal were "machined" out with a small burr in my minidrill. They are deeper than the first attempt and a little bit neater (I think) I've sent off for some 1mm optic fibre but I may not need it as the LEDs are now further into the castings. They will be much nearer to the front of the lamp case and the 1mm hole I have drilled for the lamp lens. More soon JF 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 (edited) I've now got the SMD LEDs in position. I thought I'd done a neat job until the cruel camera came along and told me otherwise! I'll just keep telling myself it'll be ok under several coats of paint... Not bad illumination considering there is no optic fibre fitted, just a 1mm hole drilled in the casting. At least both LEDs work which is a relief.. More soon JF Edited December 16, 2012 by Jon Fitness 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted December 16, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 16, 2012 Jon, I managed a visit to the Bluebell Rly. earlier this year, and managed to get look inside the lamp housing of a spare ground signal they had lying around: What a small lamp! It looked like a 12v 5W car side lamp. Steve. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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