Wooden ore cars

[Hauk]

Awesome Hauk! How thick is the hinge pin wire?

Thanks!

The wire is 0.3mm (0,0118") nickel silver.

[Chuck Doan]

Some of the pics were missing for me too, but now they are back! This looks like it's going to work out!

[jacq01]

Harvard,

why not ose 0,3mm pianowire ?
nickel-silver is too soft for operating purposes.

Jacq

[Hauk]

Harvard,

why not ose 0,3mm pianowire ?
nickel-silver is too soft for operating purposes.

Jacq

There are going to be four hinges to each of the doors. And handling will be minimal, this is just a "show-off" feature, I do not plan to operate the cars in any model railroad like sense.
The strength of the wire used in the hinges is therefore of no concern. NS wire will be more than strong enough. The brass casting would probably break before the wire.

Piano wire is a dog to cut & solder, I  would not consider it except were great strength is needed. I considered using PW for the pantographs, but I used NS instead due to the ease of cutting, filing and soldering. So far the pantographs have hold up well.

But I should add that I handle my models as I would handle fragile glass objects...

[Design-HSB]

hi Hauk,
now I can finally see the happiness your pictures and so also only appreciate your great work.
I like to use spring-hard stainless steel for such joints.
With Griffon S-39 flux for soldering stainless steel can you even then.

[finescalerr]

Havard, I went back and read the last couple of pages again. The metal parts are superb, of course, but I thought of another idea for coloring the wood: Pastel chalks. If you can't recreate Chuck's technique, try rubbing pastels directly onto stained wood. If you grind the stick to a point (or find a pastel pencil) you can do precise work and leave areas with no chalk where the paint has "peeled". It's very easy and the red color will be opaque. See if you like the appearance. -- Russ

[Hauk]

Havard, I went back and read the last couple of pages again. The metal parts are superb, of course, but I thought of another idea for coloring the wood: Pastel chalks. If you can't recreate Chuck's technique, try rubbing pastels directly onto stained wood. If you grind the stick to a point (or find a pastel pencil) you can do precise work and leave areas with no chalk where the paint has "peeled". It's very easy and the red color will be opaque. See if you like the appearance. -- Russ

I did use crayons for coloring my H0 scale warehouse, but I am hesitant to use the technique for the ore cars.

The reason is that the brass parts are going to be glued to the wood, and I do not think that glue will stick well to  a crayon colored surface.

I am unsure if a painted or stained surface is best. In the pictures the sides look rather smooth with little grain showing.  So a painted surface might be better.

Leaving the decision for later, I have spent the time working more on my drilling techniques. As I might have mentioned, i broke a lot of drills trying to drill the necessary holes in the castings. Things go better now, and I am much more optimistic regarding the drilling. The key to success is holding the parts firmly in place and correctly aligned. I does not take a genius to work this out, but I still fumbled a bit...

I felt rather smart figuring out how to straighten out the sometimes rather bent castings. I use a pice of stripwood against the detailed side of the castings, and a solid piece of steel on the backside. I then use another piece of steel to make a steel-wood-brass-steel sandwich (yummy) and gives it a good pressing in my arbor press.

The wood is also a good handle for sanding the back of the castings smooth.

Small steps, indeed, but I was seriously fearing that drilling the castings would turn out to be practically impossible, so I am happy with this modest progress!







Hopefully, more interesting images will follow soon!

[5thwheel]

For drilling with fine drills I make my own holder by mounting a piece of 1/8" brass rod in a collet and drilling a simi-deep hole in the end of it. I was surprised that I was able to drill 1/4" deep hole withy out breaking the drill, just dumb luck I say.  I then turn the rod to a point.  I break off the back end of the drill bit to expose as much drill as I want and then superglue it in. The picture shown is longer than I usually use because it had to go through both hubs.  Usually I use about 1/8" to 1/4" length. I rarely have drill breakage.  If one breaks just heat up the rod and remove the broken drill and glue in another one.  In drilling holes that small it is just peck and pull,peck and pull etc. Lots of lube too.

[5thwheel]

This is one of the drills.  It is longer than I usually make.

[Hauk]

This is one of the drills.  It is longer than I usually make.

Nice work!
In fact, I tried something similar, but I had absolutely no luck in drilling a deep enough hole in the brass holder.

When I found cheap drill bits with thick shanks on eBay, I went for those. Even if this is probably not high-end stuff (Made in China), at $ 6,- for 10 drills including postage, I can afford to buy a few extra.

I am not even sure if the drills that I buy from CNC-Plus in Germany at around three time the cost are not the same drill bits. 

[5thwheel]

Sounds like a good deal on the drills.  I'm enjoying following this. Nice work.

[Hauk]

Recent work on the project has mostly consisted of drilling and swearing, vigirously brushing with fibreglass brushes and handeling rather poisonous chemicals. In other words, preparing & blackening the brass parts.

But I have also gotten the artwork for the etchings done. Drawing etching artwork is one of the things I consider a real drag, and I am really happy that I have a first version ready for a test etch.



Fingers crossed for receiving the etch in time for the christmas holiday!

[5thwheel]

Hauk,

The following photo may look out go place but bear with me.  This is a heater I made in 1/12th scale I needed deep detail so I made my etching drawings so they could be laminated.  By stacking up each etching on another and soldering them together I was able to get detail that did not look like etchings.  For laminating I used lead solder paste on each piece and sandwiched them together between two aluminum blocks and hooked them up to my resistance soldering.  If you do not have resistance soldering equipment then make the blocks a little longer and drill and tap holes at each end to make a clamp and heat them with a torch.

[finescalerr]

Clever and successful. Thanks for the tip. -- Russ

[Hauk]

The test-etchings arrived in good time for christmas!



The best moment during the process of making etchings is just after you have unpacked a fresh sheet, and before you have started cutting loose parts and discovering all your mistakes...

This is how far I got tonight:



And indeed, there are things to correct!