simond
Western Thunderer
Thanks John,
better yet, my improved wagon suspension works very well. I am chuffed
the wagon is sitting on its springs, there is up, and down movement (though not very much of either - about 1.5mm total)
the springs, which I suspect are Slaters, fit within the axlebox, which is 3DP’d as a single part with the spring attached.
the spring acts directly on the axle bush, which is located by the slot in the axlebox. The hole in the underside of the axlebox was added after printing to allow the drill in to clean up the spring pocket. I’ll print the next batch with the hole. I’ll also add a couple of clips to the edges of the axlebox so it grips the W iron. The W irons are lasered from 0.8 mm Trotec as previous posts, and the chassis is arranged that the outer surfaces are scale width, axleboxes printed to suit.
This approach will obviously work for Parkside wagons too, though the axlebox design can be made to simply clip into the axleguard, and the spring can act directly on the moulded spring which is part of the solebar moulding.
I think I’m quite pleased with this.
better yet, my improved wagon suspension works very well. I am chuffed
the wagon is sitting on its springs, there is up, and down movement (though not very much of either - about 1.5mm total)
the springs, which I suspect are Slaters, fit within the axlebox, which is 3DP’d as a single part with the spring attached.
the spring acts directly on the axle bush, which is located by the slot in the axlebox. The hole in the underside of the axlebox was added after printing to allow the drill in to clean up the spring pocket. I’ll print the next batch with the hole. I’ll also add a couple of clips to the edges of the axlebox so it grips the W iron. The W irons are lasered from 0.8 mm Trotec as previous posts, and the chassis is arranged that the outer surfaces are scale width, axleboxes printed to suit.
This approach will obviously work for Parkside wagons too, though the axlebox design can be made to simply clip into the axleguard, and the spring can act directly on the moulded spring which is part of the solebar moulding.
I think I’m quite pleased with this.
timbowales
Western Thunderer
"I think I'm quite pleased with this"
And so you should be
And so you should be
3 LINK
Western Thunderer
I like this method of springing, very similar to a Slaters tank wagon I built years ago which has always behaved itself on the layout. Have you tried fitting the spring above and below the axle bush ? Just wondering if there would be any difference, obviously you would have to “ bung “ up the bottom of the axle box to retain the spring. Just a thought.
Martyn.
Martyn.
simond
Western Thunderer
An interesting day today, but mea culpa, no photos. Milk van repainted, bit of CAD, and three hours sorting a 3.5” 4-4-0 King George V to get it ready for a boiler test. Need to pickle the injector (and the boiler) and check out the displacement lubricator, but everything else was proven to work, which is pretty good considering the old girl hasn’t run since 2012.
more soon
Simon
more soon
Simon
simond
Western Thunderer
A bit lot more CAD today - the brakes, springs and axleboxes have been substantially reworked and now we need to see how it prints...
Following suggestions from up North, I shall be trying the ABS resin, and will report further in due course.
I guess the print will be an over-night job, so there may be howls of anguish or yelps of delight before and/or after work tomorrow...
Following suggestions from up North, I shall be trying the ABS resin, and will report further in due course.
I guess the print will be an over-night job, so there may be howls of anguish or yelps of delight before and/or after work tomorrow...
spikey faz
Western Thunderer
I guess it's a bit like Christmas Eve as a kid. Nervous excitement and then the rush downstairs Christmas morning to see what Santa has left.
Mike
simond
Western Thunderer
Well, neither squeals of delight, nor howls of anguish, more the polite curate’s response, “good in parts”.
ABS does appear to be tougher than FNG.
The wagon body print was generally good, though there was a slight distortion in one solebar, which I can fix in the slicer - I probably need several more supports.
The small bits seem to have come out ok
Photo is not brilliant but you can see a near prototype thickness brake lever, and the older style brakes look pretty good too.
Somehow, having modelled the older style brakes’ lever guard, I forgot to print it…. Pillock of the week award.
The other unsatisfactory aspect is that it has come out “sticky”. My feeling is that the washing alcohol is already too dirty to dissolve the un-polymerised resin, and has left a residue. I might get that sorted Wednesday. Meanwhile I’ve given the body a coat of Vallejo black so once that dries, I hope it will be nicer to handle.
I want to add some holes and pegs to ensure accurate assembly, so a bit more CAD will be required.
I think the floor is just a smidgen too large so it’s tight as it’s popping up - it would be fine glued down so it’s pretty close.
More soon
Simon
ABS does appear to be tougher than FNG.
The wagon body print was generally good, though there was a slight distortion in one solebar, which I can fix in the slicer - I probably need several more supports.
The small bits seem to have come out ok
Photo is not brilliant but you can see a near prototype thickness brake lever, and the older style brakes look pretty good too.
Somehow, having modelled the older style brakes’ lever guard, I forgot to print it…. Pillock of the week award.
The other unsatisfactory aspect is that it has come out “sticky”. My feeling is that the washing alcohol is already too dirty to dissolve the un-polymerised resin, and has left a residue. I might get that sorted Wednesday. Meanwhile I’ve given the body a coat of Vallejo black so once that dries, I hope it will be nicer to handle.
I want to add some holes and pegs to ensure accurate assembly, so a bit more CAD will be required.
I think the floor is just a smidgen too large so it’s tight as it’s popping up - it would be fine glued down so it’s pretty close.
More soon
Simon
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magmouse
Western Thunderer
Very exciting to see this, Simon. A couple of queries:
- is the shape of the brake shoe hangers taken from a drawing? They don't look quite right to me. I'll see if I have a suitable drawing and PM you.
- can the plank lines in the laser cut floor be finer? As far as I know, floor planks didn't have chamfered corners, so the joint would be pretty tight, certainly when new.
Apart from these very picky points, this is really looking good!
Nick.
- is the shape of the brake shoe hangers taken from a drawing? They don't look quite right to me. I'll see if I have a suitable drawing and PM you.
- can the plank lines in the laser cut floor be finer? As far as I know, floor planks didn't have chamfered corners, so the joint would be pretty tight, certainly when new.
Apart from these very picky points, this is really looking good!
Nick.
simond
Western Thunderer
Nick, thanks, yes, see detailed explanation in PM
Kev, I’m not at all sure. I really don’t have a handle on the chemistry at all.
These are the resins I have currently
the ”Simple” is a clear resin, I started experimenting with that for lamp lenses, and the glasses for street lamps, etc. I need to pick up on that again. I want to do a large yard lamp for the loco shed apron, and a couple of wall-mounted lamps.
the central bottle is the new stuff I’m trying. Elegoo.
the right hand bottle is Siraya FNG, which I have used pretty much exclusively since I started playing with this technology.
Atb
Simon
Kev, I’m not at all sure. I really don’t have a handle on the chemistry at all.
These are the resins I have currently
the ”Simple” is a clear resin, I started experimenting with that for lamp lenses, and the glasses for street lamps, etc. I need to pick up on that again. I want to do a large yard lamp for the loco shed apron, and a couple of wall-mounted lamps.
the central bottle is the new stuff I’m trying. Elegoo.
the right hand bottle is Siraya FNG, which I have used pretty much exclusively since I started playing with this technology.
Atb
Simon
Boyblunder
Western Thunderer
An interesting resin experiment Simon. I tried Elegoo's ABS-like last year and it worked but seemed to lose some small details so we went back to Fast Navy Grey until a few weeks ago. Love Lane and other projects have used quite a lot of resin lately & Giles had successfully tried Sunlu ABS Like Resin (Giles' misc. Work bench.) which is cheaper than Siraya Tech so I tried that. It works well but needs a higher temperature of about 26°c which is a nuisance in the winter in my cold garage. It is definitely tougher than F-Navy Grey and the detail is good but long thin items like gutters tend to warp more after curing.
Rhod in the Love Lane team is a materials scientist and suggested we should use a Charpy tester Charpy impact test - Wikipedia to calibrate the brittles of the various resins. So far I printed the test samples and collected 2 old hammers to make a crude Charpy tester but not assembled it yet. I’ll tell all when we have done the test.
p.s. this really is not an April fool joke.
Rhod in the Love Lane team is a materials scientist and suggested we should use a Charpy tester Charpy impact test - Wikipedia to calibrate the brittles of the various resins. So far I printed the test samples and collected 2 old hammers to make a crude Charpy tester but not assembled it yet. I’ll tell all when we have done the test.
p.s. this really is not an April fool joke.
simond
Western Thunderer
Well, I’ve lost count of what iteration this is, but it’s an improvement in my eyes, maybe we’ll call it generation 2 or something.
There is some visible distortion in the nearer solebar, and the crossbeams are deformed, both due to me trying to get away with fewer supports, and easily remedied.
I‘m going to build this one anyway prior to printing another example. It’s the ABS-like resin, and it feels much tougher than the FNG, though to be fair, I’m trying not to break it!
Key changes from the gen1 prototypes; there is an inset on the solebar to move the W irons inboard - real axleguards have a joggle at the bottom of the solebar. These should be scale width over the outside, though as discussed a couple of posts back, they are 0.8 Trotec, which is an inch and a half, more or less, so somewhat over scale, so a wee bit thin on the inside where it doesn’t show, hopefully.
The brake assemblies are now turn-of-the-century, rather than RCH.
The brake levers are a more accurate representation.
The lever guards are now correctly modelled, but I forgot to print them
I have adjusted the floor as it was a touch too tight. I will amend the plank slots as they are still too wide.
The axleguards locate on a couple of rectangular spigots, you can see the holes on the “extra“, which is an RCH pattern one. The earlier ones are finer, and slightly shorter.
With the lightest of de-burring the w irons click onto the spigots, and are secured with a drop of cyano.
I was in two minds as to print these on the chassis, or separately. Doing them separately means the support spigots under the solebars can be easily removed.
Perhaps adding spigots and matching holes for location would be worthwhile. Still, a moment with the tweezers, and they’re done.
Suspension. I have collected several springs over the years, but concluded that the best approach was to start with a known quantity, ideally repeatable, so Slater’s best…
This is the job that requires at least one more hand than evolution equipped me with, and ideally a prehensile tail as well, and during which I discovered that some of the bushes I have are not Slater’s…
note the difference in flange diameter.
The trick here is to insert the spring from below, and then use the tweezers to hold the spring compressed whilst dropping the bushes into place. Once done, these sub-assemblies stay put, and can then be fitted to the axles, and glued to the solebars and axleguards.
These axleboxes were supposed to clip in behind the axleguards, but they don‘t, the clips just get in the way without being helpful. I’ll have to have another look at the CAD.
The brake shoes rub on the wheels, I need to relieve them a bit.
And I’ve stuck them on the wrong way round
Which is precisely what you do when you’re assembling the damn thing upside down. Anyway, this is a sacrificial model. The metal bits will be recycled, the plastic bits will be replaced with better…. Still bloody annoying
The brake assembly needs a pair of lugs on the back to locate the support rod for the brake pivot. That might stop me putting it in backwards.
One of the axleboxes wasn’t working correctly, and I think the spring was not sitting nicely on the axle bearing. The chassis is flexible enough to get the axle out.
And, after a modicum of wrangling with spring and bearing, happily, back in again
Buffers, Peco style.
Installed!
And, barring the brake guard, and some paint & transfers, finished!
Started just before six this evening, stopped for dinner, job done just after eight. Very relaxing, apart from the b#00£y brake assy.
Needs a bit of weight. I’ll experiment.
There is some visible distortion in the nearer solebar, and the crossbeams are deformed, both due to me trying to get away with fewer supports, and easily remedied.
I‘m going to build this one anyway prior to printing another example. It’s the ABS-like resin, and it feels much tougher than the FNG, though to be fair, I’m trying not to break it!
Key changes from the gen1 prototypes; there is an inset on the solebar to move the W irons inboard - real axleguards have a joggle at the bottom of the solebar. These should be scale width over the outside, though as discussed a couple of posts back, they are 0.8 Trotec, which is an inch and a half, more or less, so somewhat over scale, so a wee bit thin on the inside where it doesn’t show, hopefully.
The brake assemblies are now turn-of-the-century, rather than RCH.
The brake levers are a more accurate representation.
The lever guards are now correctly modelled, but I forgot to print them
I have adjusted the floor as it was a touch too tight. I will amend the plank slots as they are still too wide.
The axleguards locate on a couple of rectangular spigots, you can see the holes on the “extra“, which is an RCH pattern one. The earlier ones are finer, and slightly shorter.
With the lightest of de-burring the w irons click onto the spigots, and are secured with a drop of cyano.
I was in two minds as to print these on the chassis, or separately. Doing them separately means the support spigots under the solebars can be easily removed.
Perhaps adding spigots and matching holes for location would be worthwhile. Still, a moment with the tweezers, and they’re done.
Suspension. I have collected several springs over the years, but concluded that the best approach was to start with a known quantity, ideally repeatable, so Slater’s best…
This is the job that requires at least one more hand than evolution equipped me with, and ideally a prehensile tail as well, and during which I discovered that some of the bushes I have are not Slater’s…
note the difference in flange diameter.
The trick here is to insert the spring from below, and then use the tweezers to hold the spring compressed whilst dropping the bushes into place. Once done, these sub-assemblies stay put, and can then be fitted to the axles, and glued to the solebars and axleguards.
These axleboxes were supposed to clip in behind the axleguards, but they don‘t, the clips just get in the way without being helpful. I’ll have to have another look at the CAD.
The brake shoes rub on the wheels, I need to relieve them a bit.
And I’ve stuck them on the wrong way round
Which is precisely what you do when you’re assembling the damn thing upside down. Anyway, this is a sacrificial model. The metal bits will be recycled, the plastic bits will be replaced with better…. Still bloody annoying
The brake assembly needs a pair of lugs on the back to locate the support rod for the brake pivot. That might stop me putting it in backwards.
One of the axleboxes wasn’t working correctly, and I think the spring was not sitting nicely on the axle bearing. The chassis is flexible enough to get the axle out.
And, after a modicum of wrangling with spring and bearing, happily, back in again
Buffers, Peco style.
Installed!
And, barring the brake guard, and some paint & transfers, finished!
Started just before six this evening, stopped for dinner, job done just after eight. Very relaxing, apart from the b#00£y brake assy.
Needs a bit of weight. I’ll experiment.
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