Hulett Ore Unloader in 1:32th

[Bernhard]

Paul,
I found some of the original drawings here
The other part comes from the extensive estate of Ceff Clarc, archived in the library of Bowling Green University. They have kindly digitised some of the original plans for me there.
If you have any good photos, I would be very interested if you could share them. Each photo is a source of interesting information about the project. Can you send me the photos or links by P/N?

Bernhard

[Lawton Maner]

Bernhard:
My late Mother knitted for over a year in a retirement center and still got strange looks from some of the other residents.  You just have to be sure that you do not have to use edged weapons or flames to work on the rivets as the nice men in white jackets might feel you could be of harm to someone. 

[Juke Joint]

Fine work Bernhard!

Philip

[Hauk]

There was a discussion about rivets a while back, but I don´t think this producer of rivet decals was mentioned:

Railtec-models

And here is a source of plastic rivets:

Plastic rivets, 0,8mm Head
They are €7,50 for 250 pcs. Several head diameters are available.

[Bernhard]

Thanks for the tips, Hauk.
I bought some time ago samples of rivet decals. But they are too small for 1:32 scale, and I wonder if they stick well enough to the surface.
The plastic rivets, on the other hand, look interesting. I will get some samples and test them.

Current status in the matter:
I bought a rivet punching tool thanks to Frithjof's tip. I will show it here as soon as it is in my workshop.
I also know from my former job turning shops that produce small parts for the watch industry. There I have requested larger quantities of model rivets.

Bernhard

[Krusty]

And here is a source of plastic rivets:

Are you sure those are plastic? Plus Models products are usually resin.

[Hauk]

And here is a source of plastic rivets:

Are you sure those are plastic? Plus Models products are usually resin.

I have absolutely no idea. But for rivets like this I dont think resin vs. plastic matter that much.

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

And here is a source of plastic rivets:

Are you sure those are plastic? Plus Models products are usually resin.

I have absolutely no idea. But for rivets like this I dont think resin vs. plastic matter that much.

Maybe although resin can be inclined to shatter depending on type and age.  If you do decide to go with resin/plastic I suggest getting them printed to your exact spec. You'll get exactly what you want and probably cheaper.

[Bernhard]

Finally, here we go with the production of the front and rear towers.

Due to a lack of documents, I cannot reconstruct the inner structure of the towers exactly. Since it is not visible anyway, I build two stable frames out of 20 x 20 x 2 mm square tube (drawn in green), which are then covered with sheet metal. The main girder will be mounted on the head plates later.



The raw material is ready.



The individual parts are pre-machined and then soldered together.

[Bernhard]

Then the axle holes can be drilled for the mounting of the crossbars.



A test fit of the rear tower with the trucks shows that everything fits so far.
The mechanic in the foreground is in scale 1:35 instead of 1:32, but it shows the size relations impressively.



And here you can see the finished towers, with the head plates soldered on.

[Bernhard]

In the meantime, the CNC machine is running at full speed and producing the sheet metal parts for the cladding of the towers. The 0.3 mm thick brass sheets are glued to an MDF board with double-sided adhesive foil.

[Bernhard]

The parts are milled out with a special 3 mm sheet metal cutter.

[Bernhard]

The etcher was not idle either. He etched two plates for me with gussets, stair treads, floor plates with diamond patterns and other parts.

[Bernhard]

Next, I have to convert my new rivet punching machine so that I can also machine angle profiles. Then the first parts can be assembled.

I will report about the rivet punching machine soon in a separate thread.



Bernhard

[Hauk]

This is shaping up to become one of the legendary threads on this forum!

Looking forward to more updates.