Nice looking critter, and a healthy looking drive system as well. What was used for changing out the gears?

I see your build in better detail here; http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/14059

Bernd,

Welcome to the crew; I like what you have done so far. We need some more critter builds posted so I will be following with great interest.

Larry.

The axel gears had the split at the gear making for a noisy drive. I swapped them out from another Athearn engine I had.

I plan on adding more info as I go. This is more of a test to see how the forum software works for me. It also depends on the questions asked on how things were done. There's a lot more to this than I posted on MRH.

Regards,

Bernd

Thanks for the welcome.

If you want to see it finished faster you'll have to do a rain dance so I can get out of doing my "honey do outside project list."

Regards,

Bernd

Thanks Bernd, Larry and I are avid critter builders with interest in this type of modeling. You will find there is a large number of members interested, not always replying or posting. But from the numbers you will see a following. Keep it coming, Thanks! :up:

Hi Bernd,

Welcome to the crew, Looks like you are off to a great start. I like the engineering you did to mount the motor to the frame and to the gear tower. Looking forward to see this project progress.

Thanks Ron. I'll be posting as it progresses. I have a few more projects I'm going to post.

Regards,

Bernd

Ok, I'm sure as a new poster here your interested a little bit about the person posting. So a quick post here as to my interests.

I just recently narrowed down my list of interests (hobbies?) since I wasn't completing anything I started. I have over 30 years of experience in the machining industry, worked for a major gear cutting machine manufacturer in Rochester, New York. I've been retired for over 12 years, but I haven't hit retirement age yet.

I like things mechanical. A while back I was on several home shop machining forums. I also liked live steam from 1.5" scale down to the stationary engines. I had bought casting to build a 1.5" four truck shay. The two scales I am interested in most is O and HO and their various gauges. I also have a machine shop in my basement starting with the biggest machine, a Bridgeport to the smallest, two Sherline machines, one a lathe that can also be converted to a mill, plus a Sherline CNC table top machine. Included is a Grizzly mini mill and a Logan 10" lathe. So my capability to make some unique models is possible.

At the beginning of this year I finally whittled my interests down to HO scale in the 3 gauges, standard, 3 foot, and 2.5 foot or 30". I still like to build models in other scales but have decided on building an HO scale layout. I've started that project and get to it when I need a change of pace from building motive power. I've yet to branch into buildings.

Ok, now that I've bored you enough about me, onward with the critter project.

Regards,

Bernd

Welcome to the Forum, Bernd. It sounds like you have a well-equipped machine shop in your basement!

Your current project is interesting, and I like the look that you achieved with the powders and alcohol mix.

We have a number of members who enjoy building critters and their work is spread over many threads. However, about a year ago we devoted a month in our Photo Gallery to the topic of Critters, and that thread contains a good sampling among all the scales. Here is the link: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/t...64&whichpage=1

Welcome aboard Bernd....interesting project and

thanks for the short bio too. Will be following along

with interest....another "critter" man....GREAT!

Thanks for the warm welcome Bruce & Bill. I guess you could say it's well equipped. Forgot to mention a manual surface grinder.

Just back from the Doc's office and it looks like I'll be able to continue this thread.

I started with .060" thick piece of styrene. Why the styrene? Remember both sides of the Athearn truck frame is insulated to pick up track power. The notch I filed in the plastic was not necessary as you will see later.



Cut a slot exactly in the center and open it up to fit over the gear tower.



This is were I discovered I really didn't need the notch in the floor. Just file down the stub sticking out. Works much better. Also note I have removed the tap that sticks up that makes contact with the contact strip that powers the motor.



Next I laid out where four short plastic rods were to be glued on to the floor.



Here I'm checking for fit and making sure the floor is level on all four mounting points. I had to remove some stock from one to make it nice and level. Don't want a crooked floor or you'll wind up with a crooked superstructure.



Next I drilled clearance holes through the mounting pads and used those to locate where to drill the holes in the truck frame.



The sub-floor is attached to the truck frame with four 2-56 countersink screws. The reason I counter sunk them is that a brass main floor is going to be added.



Here I'm adding an insulation barrier for the brass floor. Remember that those metal side frames pick up current from the track and will cause a short. I could have cut a larger opening in the brass floor to avoid adding these insulation barriers.



I'm using my Sherline mill in a horizontal mill mode to mill the brass floor nice and square. This can also be done by hand by carefully scribing accurate lines to cut to and then file to. Take a square and check to make sure you keep things square.



Here you can see the two trucks. One with the completed floor mounted on it and the other with the sub floor and the final brass floor. The brass floor is held on with 8 0-80 machine screws. I get my screw supply from Mico-Fasteners. http://www.microfasteners.com/]



That's it for preparing the floor for the critter. The reason I used two different components for the floor is electrical insulation (styrene) and strength to mount other parts on (brass).

Next will be mounting the motor.

Regards,

Bernd

Bernd welcome aboard to the forum and thank you for participating in it. I am following along with your critter build as I have several HO locos waitng for conversion. As Louis says it is the number of views that shows the crews interest in your project.

Welcome to the fold Bernd, neat build you have going, I'm following along too

Chuck,

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to participate.

Hope it gives you some ideas. Understand about the number counts. I'm just glad to be able to share my knowledge of how I do things and really hope it gives confidence to those who want to try such an adventure.

Regards,

Bernd