Feldbahnmodule with ship

[Stuart]

I'm with you Barney.  This project is completely beyond me in scope and magnitude.  When completed, it will be more than impressive.  I'll go back now and stand in my corner.

Stuart

[Hauk]

This project is insane in a very postive way!
And maybe the most insane thing is that the model is probably way better engineered than the prototype.

[Bernhard]

It is always fascinating and inspiring to look at your posts.

Bernhard

[Bill Gill]

fspg2, This continues to be an incredible build. I can only wonder in awe what the fantastic outcome would be if you and Bernhard ever collaborated on a model.

[Bernhard]

Bill, Frithjof, of course, that would be a great honor and a great pleasure. However, I expect to be busy with my l'an project for the next couple of years. I must also confess that I have already learned a lot from Frithof's posts.

Bernhard

[fspg2]

Thanks to Russ, Barney, Stuart, Hauk, Bernhard, Bill,

I´m glad to get your approval. But it is all learnable. I still remember my beginnings and the gradual increase, which I could not have achieved without the help of friends and also many posts in forums.
One goal is always not to settle for the first best when I could do better. So in the course of time quite a few beginnings have also ended up in the tons.

@Bill
A joint project with Bernhard would be appealing to me, but I also see my started projects waiting (lift bridge, Gmeinder 10-12, Demag ML15, Kenna Gigant8, old storage shed, harbor crane, Diema DL8, ballast wagon, old scale, old fire station, ...).

Even if I make the gantry together with the inner wooden box removable for possible transport, it means a lot of effort. Both the four counterweights with the lifting ropes have to be unthreaded, as well as the movable 110cm long main bridge and the floating container with the lifting rods have to be disassembled.
However, I don't want to do that too often!

Should I have to lubricate the mechanical lifting elements, which are permanently mounted on the door leaf, with grease, I will have to find another solution!
Even if I implement a friend's tip to use lithium saponified grease, I still want to be able to service the jack screw and ball cages later if needed.

Hubeinheit_Traeger_Montage_17 (fspg2)


So cutouts are milled in the lower part of the right side panel.

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In the door leaf, on which the whole module is built, there is also a recess to gain access to the jack screws.

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I discarded my initial consideration of making the mechanical part removable along with the gantry and shaft. By permanently mounting the two drives on the door panel, I don't have to dismantle the toothed belts or their emergency switches. The weights and the lift bridge would also have to be removed in this case.

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In the meantime - until the router is fully functional again - I'm in the process of creating the routing files.
So all the HDF/plywood panels were converted from 3D view to DWG to DXF to job and finally to tap files that will eventually go onto the router.


Likewise, the support plates for the winch drive motor were prepared.

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I had described the principle here on October 20, 2016 here. Sorry, it's in German - please use the translation function of your browser.

The four ropes of the weights in the two gantries are guided to the winch via pulleys.
This ropes are passed twice around the pulley (principle of a capstan) and then down through four corresponding holes in the floor. A second pulley with flanged Faulhaber 22B - 243:1 winds up the ends of the ropes. The motor makes one revolution in about 50 seconds at 1.5Volt.
It now takes a good 140 seconds to make the 9cm lift (just under 3 turns of the pulley). The hand crank of the winch makes about 120 revolutions thereby, which was needed to lift the four weights completely. So I have 1.2 crank revolutions per second in the model - in the prototype, however, the process took about 10 minutes for the 120 revolutions of the hand crank.
I can live with this compromise, because who wants to watch for 10 minutes when the bridge lifts so slowly?

Otherwise I could use a higher reduction Faulhaber (I don't have one) ... or even put a gearbox between the lower pulley and the existing motor.

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[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

The nice thing about this is it makes the 'insane' things that I do seem commonplace and normal 

Inspirational.

[finescalerr]

The elegant, sophisticated design suggests you probably majored in something other than music when you were in school. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Frithjof, It is exciting to see this project progressing so methodically.

I think your compromise on the time it takes to lift the bridge is a good idea. There is a small bascule bridge here in the village that just had a celebration for its 100th anniversary. Before the bridge can open the bridge tender must perform a sequence of operations: lower the vehicle gates, lower the pedestrian gates, raise the vehicle barrier girder, blow the whistle, then raise the bridge.

That sequence is repeated in reverse order when lowering the bridge. Tourists on foot find it "picturesque" the first time they watch all that, but those in cars find the interval almost unbearable. The bridge opens for boat traffic every hour between 8am and 8pm during the summer as well as any other time of the day for commercial or emergency vessels, so the local residents try to time their driving through the downtown area between openings to avaid the long lines of cars that wait for the bridge.

One hot summer the bridge opened for the passage of the museum's annual antique boat parade. The open leaf was in the sun for almost 90 minutes while the fixed roadway was in the shade. The moveable leaf expanded enough from the heat of the sun that it could not close completely. the fire department had to come and spray river water on the section until it cooled enough to close properly. You can imagine how "excited" everyone was to wait and watch all that, so the 140 seconds it takes to raise your bridge sounds just right.

[WP Rayner]

This is an astounding project Frithjof, an inspiring blend of engineering, machining mastery, and creativity. Really looking forward to seeing all the elements come together.

[Barney]

I agree with all a "fantastic project"
Barney

[fspg2]

@Lawrence, Russ, Bill, Paul, Barney,
Many, many thanks - I'm starting to blush with embarrassment now though.

@Bill
Thank you for the nice bridge story with the fire department too!

Puh.... Six weeks without a milling machine, that's when the real withdrawal symptoms set in. 

The new output stages for the X, Y and Z axes were installed in a second control box and connected to the corresponding motor cables.

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Now only the new power amplifiers had to be connected to the control signals of the motherboard....
... but which contacts now had to be tapped on the board?
 
Fortunately, Steffen knew how to perform the "open heart surgery"!

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Even though the enameled copper wires are very thin, they are perfectly adequate for the control signals.

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Now the milling machine is running again and I could mill out the first parts for the mounting shaft of the lift bridge.

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Small retaining webs on the underside prevent the individual parts from shifting during the final milling pass and thus possibly being damaged by the milling cutter. They were cut with a cutter blade and the edges smoothed with sandpaper.

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The four side panels and the two intermediate shelves are inserted into the corresponding recesses and glued at the end with super glue. This results in a stable rectangular box.

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The individual parts for the motor mount were also milled out. The two side parts (drawn red and green transparent) for the pulley were modified a bit and a 1.0mm brass plate was added to the upper side.

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The four small elongated holes (light yellow) are used for rope guidance and allow the 0.25mm thick ropes coming through corresponding elongated holes on the base plate (red) of the winch to roll up neatly.

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[Bernhard]

Good to see that your machine is working again. I am already curious about the further progress.

Bernhard

[finescalerr]

Perfect components. You must be overjoyed to have your mill working again. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Awesome!