Wooden ore cars

[Hydrostat]

Thanks, Hauk, I see. Very interesting link! I'll have to check this without ruffle or excitement.

Volker

[Marc988]

most impressive website !

Milled brass profiles gives optimal results, but would have taken much longer.

If you prefer to use milled brass profiles you could order special milled profiles from Hassler  http://www.hassler-profile.li
I had special profiles made to a drawing with great result. He not only mills the profiles but can also cut them to exact length so you can use them straight away (saves time  )

PS I have no personal connecting other than being a satisfied customer.

[Hauk]

most impressive website !

Milled brass profiles gives optimal results, but would have taken much longer.

If you prefer to use milled brass profiles you could order special milled profiles from Hassler  http://www.hassler-profile.li
I had special profiles made to a drawing with great result. He not only mills the profiles but can also cut them to exact length so you can use them straight away (saves time   )

PS I have no personal connecting other than being a satisfied customer.

I have ordered profiles from Hassler for some other projects, and his service is reliable and the products are very fine. But I feel that the standard cross-sections are a bit coarse, but perhaps he can make them finer for custom jobs. I am quite happy with my etch & fold beams for now, but  I might try milled profiles in the future.

A little update on the project, the last evenings have been spent adding some of the smallest parts to the underframe. Brackets for adding the brake hangers have been added to the underframe, and those rascals are around 1X2mm "big". So no dramatic progress photos, but here are a couple anyway:




You can see the four pairs of brackets with the mounting rivets for the hangers testfittet.

There are also a few other brackets added, in the center of the last picture you can see a bracket for the brake linkage:



Hope the next update will show some more dramatic progress!

[Ray Dunakin]

Real metal, real rivets -- gorgeous!

[Chuck Doan]

Just beautiful. Again!

[Gordon Ferguson]

Superb !

It's a real joy to watch this all coming together, don't always comment on each update usually 'cause I''m speechless with admiration for the dedication you are bringing to this

[finescalerr]

All progress, large or small, so far has been most satisfactory. -- Russ

[Hauk]

Thanks a lot for all the encouragement!

This underframe has turned out to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated. The etchings are crisp and precise, and the parts mostly fit together as planned. This is kitbuilding rather than scratchbuilding, and progress is much quicker than a real scratchbuilding project would have been.

There are some key factors to the ease of building:

-Nickle silver for the etchings instead of brass. A bit harder to cut & file, but solders better. NS also react better to blackening solutions.

-Resistance soldering. I can not stress how much I enjoy my RSU unit. It is my favourite tool.

-Berafix 60/40 lead/tin soldering cream with 5-15% Zink chloride. You can wash away the flux residues with water, and I almost never have to remove excess solder. My biggest modelling fear is that this product will disappear due to the lead content...

-Turned brass rivets. Using "real" rivet connections whenever possible gives a very precise positioning of the parts. They are really worth the extra cost. There are in fact several sources for these little goodies, but I buy from either Old Pullman in Switzerland or Hassler profile in Lichtenstein.

[SandiaPaul]

Hauk,

I have not chimed in on this yet, but its all really great work. I will try the NS etchings...but first I need to learn to make the files!

Best,

Paul

[Hauk]

Hauk,

I have not chimed in on this yet, but its all really great work. I will try the NS etchings...but first I need to learn to make the files!

Best,

Paul

Thanks a lot, Paul!

Drawing artwork for etching is quite simple. At least the rather primitive way I do it.

Some starter points:

-You need a Vector-based drawing programme. You dont need a true CAD program. CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator would do just fine.

-The commercial etchers use a process that etches both sides of the metal at the same time. So you need a drawing for both the front and back.

-Simple creatures (like me) draws the front and back artwork on two separate layers. Remember that the layers must be perfectly aligned/indexed.  You should use two register marks to help the etchers align your drawings.

-White space is etched away. Black means metal. Example: a black square on both layers means a full thickness metal piece. a black square on one layer and white space on the other means a half thickness piece of metal.

-You need tabs to keep your parts in place on the fret. These should be half thickness, so you draw them on only one layer. They need not be wider than app. 0,8mm. For really small parts they can be even slimmer, but probly not less than 0,5mm.

-Fold lines are a key concept. For 90deg bends they should have the same width as the thickenss of the sheet.

-Holes and slots should be at least be sheet thickness.

-Precise holes (like the ones for rivets) should be etched undersize and drilled to the exact size. I draw the holes for the rivets 0,25mm diameter and drill them out to the final size of 0,4 mm.

-Think origami. The ideal is to fold up a 3D model from a 2D sheet.

I can not reccomend photoetching strongly enough, I would probably not even be an active modeller without the help of etching services like PPD ltd.

[lab-dad]

Great answer Hawk!
Thanks for providing it!

Really enjoying your efforts here.

-Marty

[Hauk]

Great answer Hawk!
Thanks for providing it!

Really enjoying your efforts here.

-Marty

Thanks a lot, Marty!

I will be happy to answer any question regarding the techniques used on this model.

[Hauk]

During the course of a project like this, there are quite a few jobs that are just right out boring.

Making the brake shoes is such a job. A complete evening were spent on these parts, each shoe are built up from 3 pieces. A lot of cleaning up after soldering was necessary. After finishing the shoes I realized that they could need a couple of more layers to beef them up, they are a bit too skinny. Another revision to make on the next version of the etches.



Well, In a couple of evenings all etched parts for the car will be cleaned up an soldered into sub-assemblies. Then it is back to the PC to draw up all missing parts and make some revisions to a couple of others. Should take only a couple of evenings, and I am quite happy that there are so few bugs in the artwork.

[SandiaPaul]

Hauk,

Thanks for your sbs of the drawing process....I am pretty well versed in 3D CAD(Inventor) but find that knowledge does not translate too well to the files needed for etching...

As a PS your boxcab build is something I refer to a lot!

Paul

[Hydrostat]

A complete evening were spent on these parts, each shoe are built up from 3 pieces. A lot of cleaning up after soldering was necessary.

Hauk,

where will the insulation be located to avoid short circuits if the brake shoes touch the wheels? I decided to have printed brake shoes for my Rollwagen, but maybe your parts' dimensions are to thin for that.

Cheers,
Volker