Wooden ore cars

[lab-dad]

Looking good. GREAT!
I have been enjoying the progress (jealous too!)
The springs look a little out of place.
The rest of the model is so crisp and the springs, well are not.
I'm sure you will end up using lazer cut or photoetch spring steel so they look and work just like they should!

-Marty

[Hydrostat]

The springs look a little out of place.
The rest of the model is so crisp and the springs, well are not.

You nailed it, Marty.

[Hauk]

I would love to use real leaf springs if they could be made to work!

But from what I have seen it is extremely difficult to make soft enough working leaf springs in 0-scale. One of the few people I know of that has tried to make working leaf springs is Erik Olsen:

http://www.modelbaneteknik.dk/model/vogn/blfj.htm

For the springs to work, he have to make the springs "progressive" wich means that the two longest blades have a sharper radius than the others.
And even using this trick and ballasting his wagons to 280 g. (Around 10 oz.) the springs are a bit stiff!

I checked the weight of the completed wagon last night, and it clocked in at just over 1 ounce. Adding the body will at best double this, so I need considerable softer springs than those Erik made.

To give you an idea about how soft the complete stack of leaf springs needs to be, a single guitarstring of 0.009" would have about the correct stiffness.

If anyone have links to project that use woring leaf springs in 0-scale narrowgauge or smaller, I would love to see it!

[TRAINS1941]

Beautiful craftsmanship.  Love following this thread.

Jerry

[Hydrostat]

If anyone have links to project that use woring leaf springs in 0-scale narrowgauge or smaller, I would love to see it!

At buntbahn I've seen a trick you can get softer leaf springs. All leafs have a wide slot inside aside of the top and bottom leaf to achieve a softer spring. Maybe this works for O scale, too? They use phosphorus bronze for that. If you're interested I'll take time to search for it. I didn't find it at one go. Or ask Helmut, he surely knows.

Volker

[Hauk]

At buntbahn I've seen a trick you can get softer leaf springs. All leafs have a wide slot inside aside of the top and bottom leaf to achieve a softer spring. Maybe this works for O scale, too? They use phosphorus bronze for that. If you're interested I'll take time to search for it. I didn't find it at one go. Or ask Helmut, he surely knows.

Volker

I think this is the same trick as Erik used. But I am very interested on seeing the postings on the Buntbahn forum!  I have tried searching there, but it is a little hard due to my rather limited German skills.

[Hydrostat]

Hauk,

I'll have a closer look, but maybe I didn't remember the source correctly. For sure Helmut knows where to find it. This link to Thomas Hey'l's great website explains the principle: http://www.themt.de/grossbild/wagon/federn-1180mm-000s. One can see the slots and a middle boring for adjustment. The yellow areas show the parts which are only half way etched. There's this clamp connecting the single blades and I recall that the connecting piece of wire is soldered solely to the clamp to avoid blocking the blades.

Volker

[finescalerr]

I don't recall whether the leaf springs actually function but in the first or second Modelers' Annual (07 or 08) an article on scratchbuilding with brass dealt with building leaf springs. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Unfortunately scale springs still have to deal with 1:1 physics. I suspect that any 1/48th scale springs sensitive enough to work realistically, would be far to delicate to hold up long even when handled carefully.

[Hauk]

Unfortunately scale springs still have to deal with 1:1 physics. I suspect that any 1/48th scale springs sensitive enough to work realistically, would be far to delicate to hold up long even when handled carefully.

Exactly. Those things do not scale linearly.

[Design-HSB]

Hello Hauk,

hier in 1973 built, sprung track 0 cars from me.

[Hauk]

Long time no post in this thread, but the last months of modelling time has been spent redesigning the etching artwork. The second generation of etchings has now arrived, and the the first build from this production run has gotten under way.

I took my chances and ordered etches for 20 wagons, and so far I have not discovered any major flaws.

One of the changes I made was to have the fasteners for the long rods  that goes parallel to the wagon line up proper.

Here is the test assembly:



It might look trivial, but if you look closely you will see that there is in fact a rather complicated relationship between the parts involved.

And about those etches for 20 wagons, my latest estimate is that it will take at least 60 hours to build one wagon. I have to find ways to speed up construction!

[Hauk]

Hello Hauk,

hier in 1973 built, sprung track 0 cars from me.

Wow, nice!
How heavy must the wagon/car be for the springs to work?

[Peter_T1958]

Once again I've read through all of this from the beginning. It's absolutely brilliant! Keep up the good work, Peter

Side note: In particular, I like the decision of building in metal and wood as the prototype.

[Hauk]

Once again I've read through all of this from the beginning. It's absolutely brilliant! Keep up the good work, Peter

Side note: In particular, I like the decision of building in metal and wood as the prototype.

Thanks!

I am very happy with my "metal for metal" and "wood for wood" choice, even if I can see that it is not an entirely rational decision.
For the metal, I am convinced that it is the right choice, no matter how you look at it.  It is strong, easy to solder and the etching process is the most efficient way make parts out out of thin metal I can think of. And the half etched  folding lines are priceless.

For the wood parts things are a bit different. My wooden boards show more grain than the prototype, no doubt. The board by board construction with milled tongue and groove  is very time consuming. A body cast in resin would save a lot of time, and with practice I should be able to paint it at least as convincing as my wooden version probably will turn out.

But still, I would not like it any other way.

Its the same thing with handlaid track. When I first tried to hand lay track in H0 scale I really got a kick out of spiking the nickel silver rail to real wooden ties. Not much later I tried RailCrafts flex-track, but even if it clearly looks a lot more like the real deal than my hand spiked track it left me cold.

I guess it just proves that this whole model railroading thing is not just about rational choices!