Garden Railway Forum

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:06 am
It'll be interesting to see how the mechanism stands up. Will you be using some sort of silicone grease?

Rik

Yes. I've been using some Tamiya grease that I bought in the late 80's but the tube is now empty and I bought this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195060576184 a few weeks ago to replace it. It claims to be for servo's, plastics, etc so
I put a bit on the Austro-Daimler and it seems to be OK.

Edited to add that I've been having a bit of a problem with the resin printed crossheads sticking in the slide bars... just put a bit of that grease on and they are sliding perfectly now. In fact it has shown that in my previous efforts to get them to slide I've actually filed a wee bit too much meat off!

philipy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 6:28 pm The motors/gears are ok although the open gearbox with their really fine gears are prone to collecting muck and jamming. I learned that lesson early on and now I print a thin resin shroud to enclose them.

They are Ok for small 0-4-0's but I doubt they would be much good in a larger loco, three or four wagons is about the limit I think. I've had one out in the garden driving the sails of a windmill for several years, though.

Graeme ( GTB of this parish) has similar experiences I think and also tend to use them in small 0-4-0 railmotors, etc.

Thanks, that helps a lot. The gearmotor in the Brush loco is fully enclosed, which should stop it colecting any muck. I was concerned that they were orginally intended for occasionally moving things rather than continuous use, but if you have successfully used one for something like a windmill then clearly that isn't the case.

philipy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:26 am Yes. I've been using some Tamiya grease that I bought in the late 80's but the tube is now empty

I've been using Labelle #106 Teflon Grease for many years on plastic gears and bearings. It's amazing how much smoother a new model runs with a little teflon grease in the gears and bearings.

Labelle claim it is plastic compatible and that has been my experience. You don't need to use much, my first 15ml tube lasted about 40 years. I use their plastic compatible oils as well.

Silicone oils and greases can make for an interesting life and I avoid them. They are good lubricants, but silicones can contaminate surfaces and interfere with paint adhesion in a big way, causing a paint defect called 'fisheyes'.

Regards,
Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 12:34 pm

philipy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:26 am Yes. I've been using some Tamiya grease that I bought in the late 80's but the tube is now empty

I've been using Labelle #106 Teflon Grease for many years on plastic gears and bearings. It's amazing how much smoother a new model runs with a little teflon grease in the gears and bearings.

Labelle claim it is plastic compatible and that has been my experience. You don't need to use much, my first 15ml tube lasted about 40 years. I use their plastic compatible oils as well.

Silicone oils and greases can make for an interesting life and I avoid them. They are good lubricants, but silicones can contaminate surfaces and interfere with paint adhesion in a big way, causing a paint defect called 'fisheyes'.

Regards,
Graeme

Useful info. Thanks Graeme

Rik

I must admit to being a bit chuffed (!) with this resin printed injector for the DW. It needs a bit more cleaning up but hopefully that will be easier to see once it has some grey primer on it:

Wow! How tall is it?

Rik

With the base removed ( obviously!), its 18mm top to bottom.

philipy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 23, 2022 12:55 pm I must admit to being a bit chuffed (!) with this resin printed injector for the DW. It needs a bit more cleaning up but hopefully that will be easier to see once it has some grey primer on it:

pqr_de_winton injector.png

Very nice!

Some more small parts;
I redid the injector because I realised that I had missed one of the connections, and also the handwheels looked a bit small. Then:
Reversing lever, Safety valve, Stokehole cover, Firing shovel ( Don't know what they actually had but there must have been something), two eccentric rods, coupling rod, one of the wheels, and one of the cranks.

You're getting quite good at this!

Ahhh, thanks Peter, but I haven't shown you all the booboo's that I have, or am trying, to put right!

As I said before, I had to make the chassis in two parts because the printer isn't big enough to do it in one. Now, somewhere along the way, I've introduced a 2mm error between the chassis sides and the footplate top which didn't show up until it was all glued together. It isn't catastrophic but putting it right involves a fair few modifications.

philipy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:22 pm Ahhh, thanks Peter, but I haven't shown you all the booboo's that I have, or am trying, to put right!

On second thoughts, perhaps I'll have a rethink before placing an order?

Very wise!

This is looking very nice. The detail you are creating looks really good. I will be interested to see how robust the finished locomotive is. I suppose it is all down to the resin - as in finding the one with the right properties. I have successfully used printed connecting rods - so I think all of your valve gear should oscillate convincingly.

And I was about to add metal details to my printed locos!

Trevor

There has been a long hiatus caused by all sorts of non-railway issues, plus the fact that I wasn't very happy with the way my DeWinton was going, so the bits have all sat in a box for the last 4 months. Anyway, a few days ago I forgot about what had gone before and collected together all the individual SketchUp drawings of the components and assembled them into one complete drawing.. stl'd it...sliced it and resin printed it as one complete all-at-the-same-time model. It took 9 hours and this is the result:
The original print actually had the arms of the regulator as well but I accidentally broke them off whilst I was cleaning the supports off.
I left the water tank filler off so that there was a resin drain hole and also didnt include the boiler top and chimney for similar reasons.

That does look good. Resin? Did it require many supports?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:55 am That does look good. Resin? Did it require many supports?

Errrr... just the odd one or two.

Printed it upside down with a raft on the buildplate, so the supports for the visible flat areas ( Footplate, tank top, etc) are hidden underneath and that does look a bit of an uneven mess. I'm never sure how much support to place on a flat surface like that
I did think about taking a pic as it it came off the printer but didn't want resin all over the camera so didn't bother.
This is a Chitubox reconstruction of the sliced file, fwiw:

philipy wrote: ↑Sat Apr 15, 2023 10:39 am Anyway, a few days ago I forgot about what had gone before

First Law of Holes. 'If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.' I've got a couple of rolling chassis sitting on my bench slowly building up a nice patina.......

Have you worked out how to fit a motor, ESC and batteries in the model? It doesn't look like there's a lot of space to go around.

Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 12:57 am

Have you worked out how to fit a motor, ESC and batteries in the model? It doesn't look like there's a lot of space to go around.

There is actually a surprising amount of space, as long as I'm not trying to fit in a big Como motor/gearbox.
My original plan was 5xAAA NiMh together with an Rx41c & ancilliary board, which includes an ESC, in the water tank. Then a double transverse shafted N20 gear motor which was left over from the contractors loco, mounted vertically in the boiler and chain drives to both axles.
However that did create challenges with the drive, in that the front axle has the two eccentrics on it. I managed to print a double eccentric with chain sprocket between them, but that means that the drive sprocket on the motor has to be exactly on the loco centre line to line up with the axle sprocket and that gives me a width problem to get another sprocket on the other shaft - it fouls the sideframe. I've tried to put both sprockets on one side of the motor but the shaft isn't really long enough. So at the point where I stoppped, several months ago, I was thinking of keeping it simple and going back to just driving the uncluttered rear axle.

Thinking about it again earlier today, (in bed!), I realised that there is actually just enough room in the coal bunker to get the motor vertically in there, and that then throws up a variety of options: 2xchain drive forward to either one or both axles, spur gears and layshaft to rear axle ( or both, but I'm not sure my drawing skills are up to drawing and printing a bevel gear between the two eccentrics), etc. What this plan does do however is to leave the boiler empty for centre located weight, or, potentially now space for sound - what did a DeWinton sound like? Given that their main business was marine engines, I'd guess it sounded like a 2-cyl. vertical marine engine....now where have I heard that before??
All needs a lot more thought!

Hi Philip
Didn't the de Wintons have fly cranks? Wouldn't that solve your problem of driving the unpowered axle?

Rik