YGW will get around to take some pictures of the countryside here and i ll get back to you with these. We had a storm last night! And now back to 30C+ temps.
Douglas,
Are you building straight tooth, or hellical gears?
herrinchoker
Evening Diners
Flo, Jan, Brent, Buick Guy and I will have a please. If Ed finds his way back give him Crown Royal!
herrinchoker give Ken some of the Special Reserve, now over a month old !
Jan Can I have 2 gallons of the good stuff? If this stuff does not kill the dang weeds, they will have a hairy chest!
YGW Did pick up my car from having the A/C fixed before work. Bill was $233.00 with a oil change. I was thinking it would be around $200.00 so it was a tad higher than I hoped but well worth it.
Train Front I was going to Sing The Prasie of the Bachmann Sound Vaule F7's then they started being bad! Started picking and grinning? Seems they don't like some of my turnouts at slower speeds. To bad, they have great slow speed control! They all so pull great! The 2 A units are pulling 36 coal car's with out a problem!
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
well it has been one of those weeks.
Monday one of my upsatirs window units went out, I got it fixed but had to dissaseble it and wash it out during the hottest pasrt of the day.
Yesterday the wife had an occular migraine which she has never had before and scarred her and me. So we had to go deal with Dr. offices.
Today we lost one of our pets, she developed lymphoma and we had to have her put to sleep today, she quit eating.
She was mother to the one on her left. we stil have 2, the one one the left and another one. ( much bigger now)
YGW,
Warrior Monks were members of the Knights Templar.
Good evening. Well I made it home from the funeral late Sunday night. Delta Airline was delayed a couple of hours do to earlier weather issues in the Minneapolis area. I listened to the final period of the Stanley Cup final getting to hear the winning Pittsburg goals with 3 minutes and a minute and change left. Will celebrate Pittsburg's win with last years cap on our trip to England.
YGW, it sure is hot in Virginia. Will try to get out for a walk in Arlington tonight. Hopefully the will have all the holes in the streets covered up as the are redoing the water mains in my daughter's neighborhood.
Lion, enjoyed comments about putting down cows.
We leave tomorrow night for England. Checked the weather forecast and it is supposed to be in the 70's all next week where we will be touring. Sounds a whole lot nicer than 90's in Virginia.
Time for diner as the steaks are on the grill and my son-in-law is about done cooking. Yum!
Jim
Howmus Amazon is installing solar on it's Baltimore distribution hub. It can generate 2 megawatts of juice.
Had lunch with the accountant I have used for 36 years. He recently had surgery (robotic) for prostate cancer. There were many options: surgery, radiation, proton knife, freezing and no clear answers. They did not get enough margins (tissue where there is no tumor) to be reassuring. He now has to wait for PSA levels every 3 months. The nerves to the hydraulics are not functioning yet and that can take 18 months.
Testing for PSA has become controversial. My recommendation is to ask for the test.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
yougottawanta Steve - Welcome home ! I am sorry but that does not sound like fun. Beads ???? I had no idea that people gathered to meet about that. Not knocking it, some folks think I am crazy for my love of trains...But what is the attraction ? What are we missing ? Have a question. I tried to copy and paste a qoute yesterday and intead of pasting it deleted several comments that I had typed in. Any clue what have gone haywire there ?
Steve - Welcome home ! I am sorry but that does not sound like fun. Beads ???? I had no idea that people gathered to meet about that. Not knocking it, some folks think I am crazy for my love of trains...But what is the attraction ? What are we missing ? Have a question. I tried to copy and paste a qoute yesterday and intead of pasting it deleted several comments that I had typed in. Any clue what have gone haywire there ?
Beads. People make jewelry out of 'em. Stuff like this.
It's a hobby. Kalmbach has a whole magazine about it, in fact.
As for your second question, nope, no idea. I'm an editor, not a programmer.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Hello all
Geeezz rough end of day yesterday ! At almost stopping time the excavator hit a 2" gas main and the created a LOT OF EXCITMENT - We had fire engines all over teh place, police, evactuating home owners and we had to wait about an hour for the gas company to show up and fix the pipe. Got home late...still exhausted.
Steve - did you see my question from yesterday ?
Angel - It does make a difference what flag is flying. I have heard and read several reports of Americans trying to make it back to safety and then they see the American flag flying at the US embassies and they know they are almost to safety - it gives Hope and security. Conversly the flag of an enemy can create fear and concern - It makes a BIG difference.
ROR - Good luck on the possible new job. Glad to hear you are feeling better.
Dave - That is amazing. I had a doctor tell me that the chances of a succesful lower back operation is less than 40%. You are a very lucky man.
Garry - Well isnt that a tease ! Telling us you bought something but not sharing what you bought.
Henry - LOL !! That was FUNNY.
Ken - That is a blessing there having your ac in the car working again !
Yannis - Sounds like your weather is similair to what we have had. We had an unusaul amount of wet weather this spring. I would love to see some photos of the area you call home. The travel pictures make Greece look really nice.
Howmus - I was not offended but I think you did some judging that should be left to someone else. Arent we supposed to give grace and and love our neighber ? I will send a private PM for the rest.
Lion - Ranching monk ? Do you wear cowboy hats and blue jeans ? I had no clue you ranched ! I didnt think Monks engaged in that type of activity. I assumed you all study the binble, prayed a lot, tended to the human herd vs the four footed herd etc... Very interesting.
Ulrich - ARE YOU OKAY ?
Ray - Your remarks about this being your Mother's 100th birthday is somewhat coincidental in that I was looking at my calander last night & noticed that my Mother would have been 100 next month. My Dad would have been 107 in May. I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that they, my grand parents & other relatives would be that old, even though I'll be 77 in October. Where in the world did my life go...
Richard - That's a great program the Scouts have in your area. There's nothing like that around here. I haven't heard of anything like it either. Good luck on your interviews.
Spent the last 2 days working in the yards & flower beds, as well as running errands & making medical appointments. Seems like everything we wanted to do involved some kind of a snag. Mainly because the people we were dealing with simply don't pay attention, or in one case, don't speak English. Very frustrating to have to go back 2 & 3 times for something very simple. It appears people just don't care or take no interest in their jobs. Okay, I'm done ranting, but I don't feel better.
Temperatures are playing with the 90s, so I'm taking a beating with the weather as well. I went out at 6:30 this morning to plant some Hollyhocks & some huge dahlias we found at a nursery on Monday. By the time I was done, I was drenched with sweat anyway. Hope you all can stay cool & enjoy your week.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
angelob6660 . . .Flag Day! . . .
. . .Flag Day! . . .
The scouts in our neighborhood have a fund raiser where, for $35 a year, they put a flag in our yard for all of the major holidays. The approach is pretty ingenious. They put a sleeve of 3/4" PVC in the yard and mark the location on the sideway with a spray-painted scout symbol. The flag is mounted on an 8' section of electrical conduit that fits perfectly into the sleeve. The flags are put out near sunrise and taken down around sunset. It is pretty cool to see the streets lined with flags.
I have finally turned the corner on this whole bronchitis thing. I still have an intermittent cough, but not like it was. My strength is back to what it was, but I am still limited by the coughing. I am figuring within the week I will be completely done and back to full activity (i.e. bike riding.)
The escape from too-early retirement is looking more real each day. I had a phone interview with the "talent acquisition" person on Monday and it went well. The next step is a phone interview with the hiring manager tomorrow. So far, so good.
Richard
Afternoon Diners,
Flag Day! Does it matter what flag is waving? If it's only the American flag I got one but no flag pole or stand.
Ray- Happy Birthday to your century old mom.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Afternoon everyone..... Well at least to both of you guys who have made it in today....
Chloe, I could use a refill for my Seneca Lake Dark Roast coffee, please. What? Oh with cream and stevia, please.... Oh, what the heck, I'll take that last sour cream glazed donut over on the counter as well.
Dave, I too wonder about the poor rating for the Volt you mentioned. Most of what I have seen lists them as about average for all kinds of cars. I have only had one problem with mine. A bad fob sensor that wouldn't let me shut off my car until many tries.... That was fixed with a new sensor under warrenty, and at the same time they did two minor recalls for software updates on it. I would agree that you would likely find it very hard to get in and out of. I had to learn how to easily get in and out. I would think your back problem would make it very difficult for you with many if not most of the smaller cars out there.
Happy Birthday to my Mom! Yep, she was born 100 years ago today! We will be celebrating it without her as she passed away back in 2005 at the age of 88.... She did pretty good though since she was told 35 years before that she had at most 5 more years to live (she had Primary Billiary Cirrhosis of the liver). Her mom who appeared to be clairvoyant at times once told her off hand she would outlive them all. She was right the oldest in the generation before that was 87, and she outlived both her sisters by about a decade.....
Oh... and a Happy Flag Day to all of you.
Sun is busy shining outside, and I should be working in the garden, but I have to put on my Zoot Suit and have my Mug Shot taken early this afternoon for the Church Membership Directory and then head out to Canandaigua to a class mini reunion meeting.... This is the last meeting before the start of 1964 year in Canandaigua, a joint historical thingie of the Hysterical Society and the City itself. So, the class is getting together to have some fun, ride in the big peeraid, and have a small lunchion at the Elks Lodge. I will be providing the music for that I guess.
I would like to finish planting the stuff I want to do this year in the garden. Don't feel too bad about being late as most of the farmers are just now able to get into their fields to plow and plant. (Been way too wet this year!)
Have a good one!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Goodmorning Railfans!
herrinchoker - will it jamb? I dont know. Im thinking it wont. But thats if I can get a good set of gears printed. Thats the hold up is getting the 3d printer 'tuned' good enough to print a nice set of 'small' gears.
Up to this point, they print, but they (the gears) need an aweful lot of work before they can be used. The main gear (one in the middle) is the hard one.
I see your point about speed versus diameter. Thats the poart where if they do mesh, will the speed difference be 'a slight jerk" or will it roll into the next gear smoothly? That part of your question is an unknown. Again, waiting until I can get a good set of gears, then test it.
We printed a planetary gear set we downloaded from a 3d site just to see how it would print gears. The set of gears took a couple hours to clean, then another couple to 'break in' before they would run smoothly. So im not impressed. This is how the whole idea came about.
After we printed the planetary gear set, which was small enough to fit inside a boiler shell, i thought it would be fun to try and make a transmission. Again, woe is the gear making. will keep yall apprised.
- Douglas
yougottawantaDave - only a 1 out of 5 ? Thats pretty bad. But yet the reasons given werent that terrible ? What part of your back did they fuse ? Upper or lower ?
Ya, I'm confused about the rating. However, since we have decided to not buy a second car the point is moot.
Regarding my back, they fused L3, 4, 5 and S1 in my lower back. That took away about 30% of my range of motion. There were complications too. The bone that was destroyed by the infection did not grow back properly. What did grow back was way larger than it should have been and it stretched the surrounding nerves to the point where they split open. The surgeons had to sew the nerve sheaths back together after they removed all the bogus bone growth. Then they had trouble getting the screws all the way into the good bone. They said afterwards that my bone density was incredible. One of the surgeons actually had to straddle my back to drive the screws in. Talk about unorthodox methodology! I was lucky to have skilled and experienced surgeons who could cope with all the complications. The operation was supposed to take 2 hours. It took 6. The poor guy who was supposed to be operated on next got sent home and had to wait for another day.
Bottom line is I should be in a wheelchair or dead. Despite the fact that walking and standing can get painful, I consider myself to be a very lucky guy.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Got the top, mug up all---my tab, give Ken some of the Special Reserve, now over a month old !
Could be wrong, have been before, is there any chance that the diameter of the two surfaces would cause this to jamb up.? While both are in theory turning at the same rate, the difference in diameter has to be factored in. Surface speed changes with diameter.
Hello everybody ... I just returned from the trip... I did have a brief time in a model train shop, and I purchased some supplies for upcoming projects.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Robin Hood He could have been real. Maybe he was a product of wishful thinking or fake news by opressed serfs http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/robin-hood
3 D printing There's a couple guys who call themselves TSGMultimedia on Youtube. They did a layout tour of Jack Burgess's Yosemite Valley RR He uses 3D extensively and sends his designs to Shapeways. I don't want to incur the rathe of Vinne but search youtube for the vids and you should find it easily.
Afternoon Diners
Flo, Jan, Brent The Buick Guy and I will have a and if Ed makes it in, his usual.
Hotter than heck today at 92 degrees. Plus I felt like walking death so did not do a dang thing! Left my Glucose Meter at work! So I have no idea if I was high or low.
My Car A/C is fixed! JUst did not feel like picking it up.
Steven - I found a picture that can better allude to my gear teeth alignment verses rotation. I hope this plus the above posts make better sense.
Here we see a bicycle rear sprocket set. This is a 'sprocket' as opposed to a 'gear'. For the life of me I can find no difference in how they operate. You will notice I have circled two sets of teeth.
You can see that for every revolution the teeth align twice. If you looked at the center gear of the loco transmission in the same way, you would see the teeth align atleast twice. How many times an alignment occurs is dependant on the ratio of teeth.
I dont plan to use widely seperated ratios so I will be at the minimum alignments, which is two. Or twice per rotation.
Just as the chain on this bike will not grab another set of teeth on the next ring, the gear on the loco transmission will not slide. Both the teeth on the bike sprocket and the teeth on the gear must align before either chain or sliding gear will move to next ratio.
In my photo above, 45 degree shaft plus 45 degree pitch on the teeth will equal 90 degrees. This is true for all gear rings. Thus, as long as my sliding gear remains in that 90 degree plain, it will slide across the gear (during alignment).
The only thing that remains is to see if there is a jerking motion, and if the servo is even gonna move the gear. I cant imagine that much stress on a model locomotives driveline. Ya never know.
Hope this clears things up better visually.
-Douglas
Steve - I prolly should have provided better explanations and drawings. Didnt think anyone would actually take this seriously. I pretty much was banking on the humor factor here. However, as you have, its possible others would want to know as well.... so let me clarify a few things.
Yes, as a conical gear gets wider in diameter you have to do something about the gear teeth. ie: make them longer, make them wider, or more of them. In this case its the latter as this particular device is a gear ratio enhancer. So no change to gear face dimensions, only more teeth added per ring. More on this in a moment.
(It should be 'assumed' my block drawn gears have straight teeth. Thats hard to draw freehand which is what the posted drawing is. Not to scale, and mostly representative. A bit of modellers intuitiveness [or engineering degree] is required.)
This leaves us with three gear rings that one gear must slide across. You notice the one gear in the middle is at 45 degree angle. The teeth on the gear rings are at 45 degrees too. This means a straight cut gear will mesh with them (45 +45 = 90... a right angle). Almost like the ring and pinion of a rear end housing for a vehicle with a live axle. Think '87 Buick right Ken? (before front wheel drive became prominant).
Now, how do we solve shifting when the rings have different amounts of teeth? Well nothing to solve really as if I had a gear in hand i could show you that at a few points around the rotation of the ring gear, it aligns with the next ring gear ahead of it. As the whole process rotates, eventually the sliding gear finds matching teeth. The shifting is not immediate. This also allows the gear to 'roll' into the next gear ring with 'no jerking' action. Or so the theory goes. The jerking part remains to be seen, however the shifting already does work.
All that has to happen is rotation vs alignment must equal. This should happen atleast twice per revolution by design. To aid in the servo not burning out trying to force the gear instantly, i was envisioning a spring on the yoke. Between the actuator arm and sliding gear.
The servo actuates, slides control arm , but gear wont move until revolutionary alignment is perfect. Thus until then, the spring takes up the slack. Or crush, depending on which way you shift.
In other words, the servo will have shifted, but the gears wont actually shift until they align. Thus not burning out the servo.
Prolly not the best of explanations, and certainly hard to explain without a working model. The gears are the hardest part. Not having much success with 3d printing on gears. Everything else is easy to make.
Was thinking of using some kind of RC car/plane/copter servos once i get to that point. Operation is pretty straight forward.... 0 to 4 volts dc = low gear, 5 to 8 volts dc stock gear ratio, 9 to 12 volts = high speed gearing. I also wanted to put in a 'manual' ability to shift for those who like to spend their time doing timesavors or switching can utilize the low gears at high rpm.
Believe me when i say alot of time went into the shape and design of the gear teeth only to arrive back to a basic tooth shape. Nothing fantastic about this design at all.
Hope this lifted the fog a little. Any other questions gladly answered!
PM Railfan If your curious how this works heres the schematic. Not as far fetched as it may seem. Or is it? -Douglas
If your curious how this works heres the schematic. Not as far fetched as it may seem. Or is it?
As I see it, the hard part is the teeth. Your gears are depicted as featureless solids. But gears need teeth. As your gears increase in diameter, the teeth on the gear need to become either wider, farther apart, or more numerous. None of those options seems good for keeping a cylindrical gear with fixed tooth spacing engaged with a conical one where this varies. But then, I'm not a mechanical engineer...
Hello Railfans!
Just wanted to stop by, grab a quick bite, and see whats what at the Diner. Hope everyone is well and accounted for. Not much going on to speak of. Weather is finally starting to get hot. Had to put a couple of tires on yee old battlewagon. Thats about the highlite of the gist of things, here.
On the railroad front Im working on yet another crazy idea. You folks will love this one. If you thought my working couplers were a hoot check this out. (sometimes i think i have too much time on my hands though i do enjoy using the working couplers!)
I told you folks a while back my friend got a 3D printer (to which he got another this past weekend) and that got the creative juices flowing. Mostly focussing on making mold originals for resin casting as 3d printing still isnt up to snuff to meet my standards. Resin casting still outdoes 3d printing by far. And is way faster too!
Anyways, my idea (wait for it and grab your chair cuz your liable to fall out of it once you hear what im working on.....) is a 3 gear transmission for model locomotives.
.... waiting for the jocularity to cease...... pausing......
Thats right, you heard me correctly. A servo operated shiftable transmission for locomotives. No more gear changing or having to live with locomotives that go from zero to 290 scale mph in one notch of throttle response. Scale speeds ceratinly attainable.
Now I know what your thinking - dont i have better things to do? I prolly do. But the idea is feasible. Laughable, but doable. Is it needed - i doubt it.
Believe it or not but the first gear sets have been made. 3d printed ofcourse and they turned out hideous! While I have the gear box itself in mind, that has yet to be printed. Once the gears, shafts, and box are assembled then i can test a servo mechanism.
I will be curious to see if a servo can actually shift the sliding gear while under load. Also a concern is since there is no clutch mechanism, shifting gears should be herky-jerky. Not actually so, as I think I have a solution to this problem as well. The answer to that wont be known until a workable test transmission can be produced. However, Im staying positive on this.
i have been skeptical about this idea. Original measurements would indicate this device will fit into medium to larger models. A 4-4-0 Bowker - no way, but a 4--6-4 Hudson - heck yeah!
There you have it my friends, on paper anyways. Next up - cyclinder chest and pistons for you smoke hounds who love working cyclinder drain cocks. (just kidding though ya never know!)
Good evening everyone!
YGW all good here, what was odd about clouds is that it is not typical to have many consecutive cloudy/rainy days during Spring/Summer in Greece. Having said that, it is nice and sunny here today (30C max temp).
Chore day today....had to have the tires changed on my car.
Mornin' everyone..... Ah.... Well let me rephrase that. Ahem! Afternoon Everyone!
Chloe I could use a refill for my dark roast, Marrakesh Express coffee please, and Reubin Sandwich for lunch. Thank you Ma'am....
Overcast with some occasional drips outside here in the Finger Lakes today. Should have mowed the lawn yesterday, but it was way too hot during the time I could have done that. Got my sister home from her wandering down South last night. Today she is at the hospital having a MRI on her knee. That was scheduled before she left, BTW. She has been having most likely some arthritis in it for the last several months. Amazing, as she always does Yoga and according to her she should live to be 109 years old and be in perfect health the whole time.... I am careful not to bring that statement up to her now that she has found it to not quite be true....
yougottawantaWere you offended by my question ?
Nope... Just trying to give you an honest answer.
yougottawantaYour response about billionares etc.. seems to be taking a shot at certain beliefs
Maybe.... My answer to that can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_a_needle If you want to look it up. Shouldn't be discussed here at the forum though. There are several other quotes I could use for it as well but they too shouldn't be dicussed here. Probably shouldn't have put that sentence in my comment to you. I appologise if I offended you.
I need to get myself doing some of the many items that I need to get done. Catch you all later!
Morning diners,
Steven- I believe the diner was dead for a week was because, their was nothing much to talk about.
I went to Target to get my dad a pair of jeans. His leg jeans torn so bad they look like bell bottom pants.
I found out that the world is obese by 1/3. It is obesity when your weight is 10 pounds over the ideal weight?
yougottawantaLion - Bro Louie gave her a 22 injection ? Monks have guns ?
Well, we *are* in North Dakota! We have been in ranching for almost 100 years. We used to butcher our own cows. How do you suppose they went from standing to hanging?
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
No w**k on the hobby barn yesterday - to stinking HOT ! Yuck do not like summer...
W**K crazy busy I am busier than a one armed paper hanger ! have another unit that goes Friday, another digging a basement, framining, drywalling, rough ins, roofing, extr trim.....This site has me running everywhere ..
Ken - LOL That would have been a good idea !
UP831 - Hey good to see you in here again. I always enjoy your post.
Dave - only a 1 out of 5 ? Thats pretty bad. But yet the reasons given werent that terrible ? What part of your back did they fuse ? Upper or lower ?
Herrinchoker - Warrior monks ? LOL no I have never heard of those.
Brent - OWWWW That sound painful new joints in three fingers ? Make chills run up my back ! Will she be able to return to w**k once that is repaired ?
Henry - But Friar Tuck was only fictional character right ? Just in the movies ?
Howmus - There will be no monetary gain on the my building. I am building so way over barn std specs there will be no recovery of the expenses. Most barns are built using post and thin metal over sparse framing. My building is built to house specs. with full concrete walls, slabs, grade beams, 100% wrapped in plywood, with a synthetic sheathing.....I will probably Loose money on the build when and if we sell. In the future I want to install a power system and heating and cooling. Unlike some closed minded people I am exploring all options including solar, wind, wood heat, traditional methods.....It just has to make sense money wise. Were you offended by my question ? Your response about billionares etc.. seems to be taking a shot at certain beliefs.
Jimmy - Yes they did win. Congrats on their win. Unfortunately our team didnt go the distance....Thanks for the Pizza.
Ulrich - Are you okay ?
Garry - Good morning !
Yannis - You around ? Whats going on in your area today ?
TTYL
YGW
Wow, sure is dead in here... don't tell me all of you were at the Bead & Button Show all week with your wives, like I was?