Spitfire's G3 Workbench

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Ive received my last Shapeways order for the forseeable future due to their recent "adjustments". Refuse to give them more of my money.

And one truck almost together. Still need to prime the journal boxes separately.
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Plus you can see some "new" track gauges and some Marklin code 205 rail. Perfect for representing 70 lb rail.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Yesterday I managed to get the trucks mostly finished. 20181104_175617-1.jpg
Sprung and swinging. A very nice motion, but I think a little overcomplicated for a humble boxcar.

A bit ago, I was chatting with an old American G3er, and while I also got some trolley poles and those roller gauges, I bought more G3 trucks. 4 streetcar trucks and two archbars. However these require much more work to get working. Not being content with the archbar bolster provided, I was also missing one of the axlebox covers. A thin whitemetal casting, I figured it best to dip my toe into the black art of recasting.
Read up a bit, and being as cheap as possible Ive elected to try a simple two part clay mold. An afternoon playing with the oven has given me this.
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I expect a lot of flash and several failed castings. But all I need is a single good casting and the $2.79 I spent on a pack of clay wouldve been worth it.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well today I decided to finally have a go at recasting a journalbox cover from my clay mold.
A cut down can, scrap whitemetal offcuts, and my clay mold all took a trip to the kitchen and put on the burner.
All melted up and set on a tray for the first pour.
20181117_125233.jpgAnd I was quite pleased! There was a little debris on the front of the mold so that was scraped off and 3 more castings were made.
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Compared to the original, not TOO bad. Ok its quite crap but Ive never done casting before and I was using a tin can melt pot and a polymer clay mold. I dont see it ever going better than this.
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But to my horror, on the 5th pour, something went wrong. The mold mustve started breaking down and I didnt get a full cast. When I pulled apart the mold, the back face was fused to the partial casting. 20181117_131146.jpg
Oh well. My mold lasted longer than I expected, and now I have 4 covers to clean up and work with.

Quite happy with the results really. Might have to try some wax casting at some point. Anyone know what kind of wax is best?
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
The boxcar is coming together.
Door rails installed and doors hung on their hardware. Slides nicely and once the fascia boards are in place, the door is trapped on.
Only issue is I realized last night I designed the door opening far too high so the fascia boards will be a fiddle to do.
Ive quite deviated from the original plans. 20181118_145336.jpg 20181118_145459.jpgIm now waiting for a 12ba die to thread the truss rods which will hopefully be properly tensioned.

Besides these issues, I think Ive done ok so far. Next time I hopefully dont make the same mistakes.
 

GrahamMc

Western Thunderer
Might have to try some wax casting at some point. Anyone know what kind of wax is best?
I take it we are talking about lost wax casting? Almost any sort of wax will burn out of a plaster mould as will plastic and a variety of other materials. Picking a wax for injection into the rubber moulds requires more care but they'll be available from the suppliers of jewelry makers, Amazon, Ebay etc. I've never found any need to be too fussy, just don't get the cheap stuff used for the main sprues.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
You will need a left and right handed threads to be able to tension the truss rods.
Actually some cars had single piece trusses tensioned only at the end nuts. And the drawing I 'mostly' followed was one of these.
But the turnbuckle types could also be tensioned at the ends.
While I am adding turnbuckles, I couldnt find left hand 12ba tooling online so the turnbuckles will be soldered to the trusses.
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
I had a set of 10 BA tap and die years ago. Cost about 5 times as much from memory. Unfortunately they got lost somewhere between Birmingham and Dorset, during divorce number 1.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well unfortunately Ive contacted them and they dont have any LH taper taps in stock, only a bottom tap which is pretty useless for my purposes.
If anyone has any alternative sources which may have it in stock(ones that ship to the US as well), Id appreciate it.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
The boxcar has not progressed much, but I have gotten the brake steps, staff, and pawl installed, but Im still waiting on the 12ba die.
Got one from ebay, was so poorly made it had barely a cutting tooth, contacted, replaced, and the second was also crap. So a proper order to BAbolts is somewhere on its way. I at least know they sell quality tools.

But progress on the tugboat is going well.
The driveshaft had to be installed slight offcenter due to the servo but with two U-joints it seems to work ok.
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And the first water test went very well. A little bowheavy but battery placement should solve that.
But the esc I bought just isnt powerful enough at near full throttle so a higher amperage one is on order. Hopefully thatll allow full throttle without cutout.

And as it sits this evening
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The cabin and wheelhouse were planked in coffee stirrers. Very satisfying to glue and trim them down, but time consuming.

And the insides as it probably will stay. Esc placement still TBD as the new one may be slightly bigger.
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The battery box very snugly slots between the cabin mounts aft of the Rx. But of course I drop it and break the plastic. So more orders to make.

If the next esc works well, itll be hotglued in place and I can finally glue on the gunwale.
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Ive got some fun details added to the cabin.
The smokestack was tied down with some securing lines. 20181202_173516-1.jpg
Stretched plastic cottonbud wire crimps with some fishing line, pulled taught and glued. Satisfyingly fiddly job.

Ive also added the mast, and decided to add lighting according to modern navigation light rules.
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With a single mast a few modifications were needed and I do still need to add a yellow tow light but need more bulbs beforehand.

Because the superstructure comes off, I wanted to limit how many wires tied it all together. Plus these bulbs work off 1.5V and the boat runs on 6V so a small battery stuffed in the roof and a bank of switches to control the lights was needed.
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But because I need to add a tow light and I want a headlight controlled from here, I need to add 2 more switches to go in the middle.

And it all still fits together, miraculously.
 
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