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sgtbob
Fireman
   
Premium Member

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potsy
Engine Wiper
 
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/15/2016 : 08:45:33 AM
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OMG will wonders ever cease !!! you are awesome
Mark
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Frank Palmer
Fireman
   

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Posted - 12/15/2016 : 10:48:15 AM
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You know what they say, a switch in time saves nine. You are full of trickery when it comes to this project.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4399 |
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MarkF
Engineer
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/15/2016 : 2:35:38 PM
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Like what Ray said... 'insanely cool'! Very clever idea with the switches, making the valves 'working'. You are extremely creative in coming up with the solutions to your challenges.
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Mark |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13679 |
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Coaltrain
Fireman
   
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Posted - 12/16/2016 : 06:43:25 AM
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I have been following along to your build, very cool. this may be a little late but I have an article by Jack Burgess that was published in the early 80s in MRC where he built a backhead and partial cab of a steam locomotive that looks to be close (maybe a bit smaller) to the scale you are building in. He made his all the controls operate a throttle so he could run a train on his layout and use all the controls like you would on a real steam locomotive. here is a link to a photo of it (scroll down), http://www.yosemitevalleyrr.com/about if you are interested I could scan the article.
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Mudhenbill
Engine Wiper
 

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Posted - 12/17/2016 : 02:02:06 AM
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I knew I saw that somewhere, I tried looking through my stuff but couldn't find it. I would be interested in the throttle part. If you want you can send to my email in my profile, that would be great.
Well took a siding in my progress. The firebox door really bothered me. I keep thinking of boiler in the basement of some horror movie. I looked up some more back heads and found some that had a rounded portion of steel behind the door so I did that to hide the rectangle tin box.Added some more crazy eyes for rivets.


I checked the firebox fire and it actually looks better this way. Will do another video later.
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Mudhenbill
Engine Wiper
 

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Posted - 12/17/2016 : 02:32:15 AM
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Ok, back on track. I have been trying to think of a way to bend brass tubing for the injectors and sand lines. Off for my 3000th trip to Lowes, you might want to buy stock the rate I'm going. I picked up a conduit bender and a couple of pieces of conduit. Welllllll, Not good! the bend is not sharp enough for what I need and when I tried to fudge it, Kink city. So I tried copper with heat, kinky again. Here are the fruits of my labor. Maybe a little Bondo? LOL I will be returning the 45 dollar bender, what a waste.

Well I sure wasn't going to invest in Brass tubing and destroy it also so I had to rethink the material. I remembered back in Junior High, believe me that is not something I really want to remember but, I took a plastics class. In the class we messed around with acrylic. I thought I remembered something about bending with heat so I looked it up. Sure enough you can do it really easily. So for my next experiment I decided to try and bend acrylic and then just paint it. I purchased some 5/8" rod, made a jig, stuck the rod in the oven at about 400* waited until it started to bend down then quickly pulled it out and placed in the jig. I felt like I was in a baking contest with perfect results the first time. Here are some pics of the plastic the jig and the finished rod. Not painted yet, going to wait until all is done. Oh and my wife doesn't know I used her oven so mums the word.



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Ray Dunakin
Fireman
   

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Posted - 12/17/2016 : 03:07:07 AM
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The new firebox door is a big improvement, and the whole backhead really looks authentic.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 3139 |
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MarkF
Engineer
    
Premium Member

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Posted - 12/17/2016 : 10:21:37 AM
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Looking really good! If the plastic rod doesn't work, I was going to suggest plastic tubing. I know it's available at Loew's and would sure be a lot easier to bend, although it wouldn't keep it's shape. But I'm sure you would be able to come up with a solution to that problem!
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Mark |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 13679 |
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Coaltrain
Fireman
   
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Posted - 12/17/2016 : 9:54:50 PM
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I will get that article copied and emailed to you.
I have a set of springs that you slide over tubing to keep it from kinking when bending it. I also saw a show on TV long ago about making brass musical instruments, to make the bends they would fill the tubing with water and freeze it, then bend it, the ice supported the tubing
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Frank Palmer
Fireman
   

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Posted - 12/18/2016 : 10:40:52 AM
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Looks like the jig is up, yes that's 2 thumbs up.  
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4399 |
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Mudhenbill
Engine Wiper
 

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Posted - 12/19/2016 : 6:37:56 PM
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Thanks Guys, Ive heard of the springs and sand but never water frozen. If my plastic doesn't work out that good, I'll have to give it a try with both the spring and ice. My only fear is it is such a sharp bend that it will kink anyway. I'm going to prime and paint and see what it looks like. Ill post the results and see what you guys think.
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Rail and Tie
New Hire
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Posted - 12/19/2016 : 8:19:20 PM
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Hi there, first of all this a wonderful build!! Really inspiring to want me to build yet another project.
I can vouch for the frozen water trick. It has worked very well for me in the past. Especially with aluminum tubing, but it should work well with conduit in conjunction with your bender.
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"Leonard, check it out. I've bought an N Gauge locomotive. Half the size of HO. Look...it fits in my mouth!" |
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Country: Canada
| Posts: 38 |
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Philip
Fireman
   
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/19/2016 : 10:18:25 PM
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Amazing ! 
Philip
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Country: USA
| Posts: 2370 |
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Mudhenbill
Engine Wiper
 

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