sunday photo fun 070701

[csxt30]

Graet pictures Everyone !! I have a short clip of Amtrak 56, Lake Shore Limited going by our mainline at MP 128 !  I'm thinking the last car is one of those private cars !!

http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/csxt30/?action=view&current=DSCF0877.flv

Thanks, John

[Frank53]

Those guys must be breathless Dave - he chased him all teh way to my house:

 

[Dave Connolly]

[Anonymous]

 

 

 

 

wow your burro is beautiful, mine is kinda beat up and dont run right now.

 

[spankybird]

 

[FJ and G]

incidentally, the rail I cast is from an MTH realtrax master. for toy train gurus, a resin rail would come in handy where you want an unpowered section or for bridge guardrails

[FJ and G]

oh, one more thing...

casting metal for the next tipper (same mold)

I tried to melt the large block of lead with propane torch but wouldn't melt so put in on a burner in grill outside; still didn't melt; so took the pot into the creek and got a fire going nice and good with wind howling to make it hot; it melted very nice

so

I ensured a level area and poured. Metal in large mass stays molten a few minutes when out of fire so no need to work too fast

btw if your creek is rubber, don't start a fire on it. Mine is all concrete so I can do this sort of thing







my lead rail experiment was complete flop. rails separated b/c the lead cools too quick. also, lead rails don't work b/c they fall apart so soft. solder works but hard to pour in the narrow mold. Solder frogs easier to cast b/c larger surface area and can pour quikly

yuck!


otoh, casting resin rails goes smooth; i'll keep this one out in the sun for a year to see how much abuse it can take and how durable it is; it is cr 600 but i'll try some hard cr 900 today and label the 2 rails and report back to you in 1 year with results

 

[FJ and G]

thanks

here's how I made the only non cast parts, the axle and housing. flat brass, flux solder, 027 rail (tubes spread with screwdriver), solder, layed 027 over brass and solder and gave it about 2 seconds of butane torch. CA attached to bottom but might screw in if problems like I've done previous ones



Incidentally, the couplers are screwed into the body. Use about a 10 or 12 gauge wire and used a 2-40 die to make an all-thread screw, which I predrilled hole in coupler and body and attached. The same wire I used for the attachment serves as the coupling post

Incidentally, the body of the tipper chassis contains BBs (from the gun) to lower the center of gravity so the tipper doesn't tip over!

Here's the squish RTV mold. It wouldn't come out of the concrete casting so I ended up breaking the concrete with a chisel and sledge to extract it. It originally was gonna be a pour mold but ended up being a squish. I used CR 600 resin but today will try some CR 900 and let it cure 48 hours. Key to squish is to slosh the resin around good



when squishing, you really do want the resin to squish out the top so you know it's completely filled up; you can make some pretty thin structures with squish. The spray paint serves as a mold release and also embeds color. Here, you can see the resin (white) that squished out the top. as soon as you remove the casting, trim this off with scissors.

When making a casting nearly completely enclosed, it's a bit challenging getting the mold off the casting when it's cured. you have to be careful and slowly work your way around.  notice that to conserve RTV and get double use I made gear castings in the tipper casting to serve double usage



here's another shot. to get the rusty edge at the top, instead of using scissors to cut the excess I used my fingers to tear it off and give it a crude look. For subsequent castings, this will give unique looks to the copies. Also, during the first fewhours the casting is pliable and you can create dents and stuff in this early stage.

incidentally if you're wondering how I got the gear castings into the tipper, I poured several layers of RTV and let them dry and emplaced the gears in the final drying, as rtv sticks to rtv, esp if you pour within a few days while it is fresh


I'm now casting an all metal tipper. Here's the lead body. I've already cast the other parts in lead but may need to use solder castings for some as lead is so pliable as to be ridiculous

[Anonymous]

FJ and G-  that is awesome work you did. Very  very nice.

[FJ and G]

2nd tipper casting (squish casting, not mixed enough) went bad (1st squish went great); holes in bottom where too thin; instead of heaving it, I staged a crash off a trestle, where it now is a sedum planter (took picture as installed and watered it).

I’ve had lots of luck with sedums sprouting on their own from clippings in very little earth so I’m optimistic

Did metal casting and other castings today; still working

   

   

   

 

need a prototype photo?

 

here's the tipper I successfully cast; made to look beaten up; a real workhorse;

here's a tipper I just finished casting, paint still wet; it's 100% cast incl wheels. in the 2nd photo, even the rail is cast; that shot contains code 215 as an experiment in casting.