Locosnstuff

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A 3D printing query

I have 3 resin printers, 2 Photons and a Kelant.  Over the last 3 days I have been running a Photon to produce WD bogies and the Kelant for the bodies.  I leave them running over night and this morning the Photon had finished and when removing the prints I noticed a skin on thre surface of the unused resin in the tank.  This was removed for cleaning and I lifted off the skin for disposal and by the time I had bagged the skin it was forming again on the resin.  The Kelant was on its last 30 minutes so I had a peep inside and it seemed OK so I left it running.  The Photon tank was drained complete with skin that was hardening rapidly and as I washed it with alcohol, the beads of resin were setting.  I ended up stripping the tank to replace the film and had to scrape the hardened resin off the alloy frame.

The Kelant finished and I noticed that resin on the top of the build plate was hardening and a slight skin could be seen on the tank surface.  I assumed that it was a resin problem so dumped the remaining resin back in the bottle as it could no longer be trusted.  There was a little hardened resin around the tank sides but it came off easily and the film survived for further use.

Has anyone had this anything like this before?  The printers all have a light proof jacket around or over them and the UV light if it stayed on cannot be to blame as it would have baked the resin to the film, which had not happened.  The resin, Elegoo Standard Grey, is still 6 months within its use by date and is always kept sealed except when pouring it out, this bottle was only started about 3 days ago.  Any suggestions are welcome, the Kelant is now back running with fresh resin but I see from the label that its the same batch.  Having consumed at least 40 bottles of variouis ersins I thought I had come across most of the possible issues but this one is a real pain as you don't see it coming, until it does.

Experiments with radio control

I have been asked several times whether my motors work with on board battery radio control and even if I would consider stocking parts, as they can be a bit hard to obtain in some countries.  Knowing very little about it I did some research and came out of it with a head full of facts and figures, none of which were much use in everyday life.  The best way was to buy enough parts for a couple of locos and try it out.

Below is a picture of the basic parts required for one loco, a transmitter/controller that can run any number of locos one at a time, a receiver chip, a battery, a charger (not shown) and an on/off switch.  There are many sizes of battery and in different voltages, a LiPo cell is 3.7v and is known as a 1S, 2 cells together (2S) are 7.4v and there are others up to 6S, the 2S batteries are best suited to railway use as with 12v motors as the 3S batteries are all too big to fit, so I bought 2 x 300 mAh 2S batteries.  The black/red wires are the power and the black/blue/red are the charging connections, the charging lead needs to be accesible so I bought some charging lead extenders to connect to the charger.

I chose a chunky diesel as a starting point and the battery was too big, a quick search got me 2 x 180mAh batteries which did fit, I also bought some power lead extensions and sone universal plugs and sockets in case I needed to contrive some connections.  The wiring is simple, 2 leads from the chip to the motor and another 2 from the chip to the battery, via an on/off switch, how hard could it be?

I decided the best way to get it all in a nice square bonnet was to create a frame from plastic section glued to the chassis, all the parts would have to fit in the outline of this frame, which they did, and sellotape was wrapped around the outside to keep the bits in place.  The battery sat on top of the motor with the chip at one side, the switch wedged nicely between the frames under the cab which just left the charging plug.

There was no way to attach it to the frames in a convenient place so a hole was made into the cab and the cable is fed through the hole when the chassis is fitted, the cable curls up on the floor and can be accessed by removing the roof.  It worked fine and as there is no power loss via pickups and track, all the available power can be used and 7.4v is more than enough.  Also I went out into the street to see what the range was and it was still responding when I was no longer able to see it, at least 25M away.  Below is the cable on the cab floor and the reassembled and working loco, the colours are Indonesian sugar mill, very garish.  Low speed performance is as good as the mechanism can manage, the better your chassis, the better it runs.  Battery life, I have no idea but I am still on the charge that came in the new battery.  I am told that 300mAh is the best size to use and will last all day but others say just fit the biggest you can, they recharge quickly.

As a second experiment I fitted another set into my test build 1/35th Peckett, this time there was room for the bigger battery.  Fitting it all to the chassis was not an option in this case so the parts were all fitted into the body with a plug connection to the motor.  Below left shows the battery and chip in place, the chip is in its plastic sleeve this time as there is a lot of bare metal around.  Also visible are the on/off switch and motor lead socket, both on home made plastic holders and the charging plug.  Below right shows the motor leads and plug, the other wires are from the pickups that have not been removed.

Below is a picture of it all assembled, the switch is close to the frames and must be operated with a screwdriver, the motor lead is plugged in.  On the right is the mess of wires that will disappear when the firebox if fitted.  The charging socket just dangles behind the motor, its easy to get to but will not foul the track.  The main reason to try this one was to see if a metal body had any effect on the radio signal, none at all as far as I can tell.  Running is much the same as the diesel and the range also seems unaffected by a metal body.

The Verdict

Overall I spent about £150 on the parts and have 2 running locos and batteries, switches and cables left over.  Ease of fitting is a bit worse than wiring DCC but of course you don't need a live track and dirty wheels or pickups have no effect as they are dead electrically.  This is a good alternative to DCC, a much lower initial outlay, a bit less per loco and no computer knowledge required.  There are programmable functions which I have read about but not yet explored, directional lights, electric couplings, the ability to operate a sound card and to run several locos on different channels, now I have 2 I will have to try that one.  Annoyingly the small batteries are hard to get and only half the price of one with 10 times the capacity, a larger battery could be used with it in a tender but I only have 1 tender loco.  Another benefit I haven't tried is to use coreless motors, as they use less than half the power of a brushed motor and work best on pure DC, they are ideally suited to this and I have acquired 3 sizes to test out, obviously the battery will then last more than twice as long in use.

If anyone interested will get in touch with a list of requirements, or just questions, I will do my best to help.  I have ordered some chips from China, the good thing about modern 2.4Ghz systems is that they are all compatible.  If they work out I will be able to supply batteries, switches, cables, chips and chargers, the transmitters are best bought from Micron direct but I could supply these as well.  The only work required here is to fit it in your loco so don't hope for a system that will fit in a OO9 Ruston.

New double gearedpower bogie

This one was built as an experiment to get an underfloor unit but keep dual gearing.  They uses Chinese nylon 0.5M gears and an N20 motor, the gear ratio is 32:1 and both have 12mm wheels and run superbly.  One was built with the motor flat sides outward and is 15mm above rail height with the motor an extra 3.5mm above this, the other has the motor turned flat sides up and down and the intermediate gear shafts lowered by 1mm so the motor is only 1.5mm higher.  The height measurements will be alomost 1mm lower with 10.5mm wheelsand are the same as a Tenshodo unit.  Please ignore the curved tops, the printer was having a bad day and I couldn't be bothered to sweet talk it for 2 test prints.

Below on the left is the one with the higher motor, on the right is the one with the motor turned flat side up, note that it had to be made wider and the gears underneath protrude 1mm further, but are still well clear of the track.  In the top and bottom views below you can see the gears, the different aspects of the motor and the wider body of the lower one.  My normal wiring doesn't work well with this configuration as there are too many gears to dodge, next time the wiring will be mostly above.

There are limitations to what is possible with these, minimum wheelbase 38mm, gauge 16.5mm or wider, wheels 10.5mm or bigger and I can't make them any lower until a source of smaller gears appears, which is unlikely.  I can change the body length and add extensions to attach them or to fit dummy outside frames.

These will not be stocked and made to order only at £70.00 each

The 4 below were made for a guy in South Africa and are 16.5mm gauge with the wiring above for DCC connections.  They cost a little more as they have Scale Link spoked wheels.  I also added 4 lugs near the wheels for attaching to the body.

Wheel fitting jig

Available now is a new wheel fitting jig for assembling wagon and coach wheels on pinpoint axles, see the full details in the Useful Bits section.

Workshop upgrade

With printing the smaller Alco parts, Bagnall cylinders and the various Ruston parts and WD bogies, my Photon printer was in use for 16 hours a day, which is probably not good for it and I had no backup plan if it broke down.  Unlike most machinery where you can get away with doing large jobs on a small machine and vice versa, you can't do that with resin printers.  A small print in a big printer will fail more often than not as the forces on the print when the film separates from it will pull it apart.  Therefor I bought another small printer and spent a weekend modifying it and hooking it up to my home made extraction system.  For those that know the Photon printers, my first was an original with the blue windows and not too clever UV light array, the second is the same thing as released later with yellow windows.

The reason I didn't get the later S version is that the main improvements were a more stable Z axis and a better UV array, the down side was a much poorer build quality and a very flimsy casing.  To use the earlier version to its best, adjust the Z axis rollers correctly, few do as its a bit of a job to get to, and don't use the last 10mm at either end of the build area as that bit gets a poor UV exposure and can ruin the whole print.  There is now a smaller and much cheaper Photon Zero that interested me for a while until I spotted that the screen was not 2K and gave much poorer resolution, a shame really as it has a one piece removable top cover that would be much more convenient than the doors on the other models.

Ruston Hornsby diesels

A friend has been after a 48DL for some time now and despite 3 attempts to buy a Wrightlines one he is still without one, so I thought I could print one to fit on my larger diesel chassis.

Below are some pictures of the various types, none are actually glued together, the parts are just balanced in place.  Top left is a slope sided 48DL and below that is a YC engined 40DL.  Top right is a 33/40 and below it a 44/48 or 36/42.  At the bottom are pictures of the chassis under and next to a base, in both pictures the left one is 14mm and the right is 16.5mm.

24-11-2020   The Alco is finally available

I have shipped about 8 so far and will be sending more in the next few days.  As I have ordered parts for 40 there will be enough to last a while.  The WD ones are available immediately but the Mountaineers will be delayed a few days due to a printer malfunction, I have no idea what the problem was, the printer had no idea either but it seems to have got over it and is printing happily now.

03-12-2020 Around 18 have been sent out with at least 2 waiting for other bits before posting.  As I ordered 40 of everything there are still 20 or so left and the printer is behaving itself after I gave it a good talking to.  If anyone wants the printed parts in a different scale I can do that easily, I have already sold 2 sets in 1/32nd scale.

Full details on the Loco and chassis kits page.

05-12-2020 An Apology

 I must apologise to all who have bought the Mountaineer version of the Alco, it seems I got the boiler completely wrong as I based it on the WD one.  It seems that early Mountaineer had the WD boiler until it was replaced with a larger one in 1982.  The boiler/tank assembly also doesn't like being posted and several have arrived damaged and with warped parts.  Therefore the bodywork will be having a remake over the next few weeks, the smokebox will be removed from the boiler for printing separately which will cure the base that prints poorly, the tanks will have the supports attached to them and will plug into the boiler for assembly by the customer, this will be more accurate and solve the warping and posting problems.  Mountaineer will have a new boiler in the same fashion but this will take a few weeks as the parts have to be drawn, test printed, modified and retested as I don't want this happening again.  The WD versions are fine as they are but will also get a few tweaks in the process, particularly to the tank mountings.

I will be replacing any parts required when they are available and emailing those that bought Mountaineer as that is affected most.  I am really sorry about this as its the first real glitch I have had with a kit and it will be put right at my cost.  The main reason behind it is that the kit was delayed with etch problems for a long time and the bodywork drawings were done 9 months ago.  So much time and effort was put into sorting out the chassis that the bodywork didn't get the attention it needed.  My fault entirely.

Since I know who has bought the kits, you don't need to call me until I announce here that the new parts are ready, and I will probably be calling you first to say they are on the way.

24-02-2021

I have replacement body parts available for the WD Alco, some have gone ahead with the old parts but anyone who wants them can email and I will send a set.  The Mountaineer version is still under review and may be some time.

The Larger Diesel Chassis kit

I was asked by 2 Indian gentlemen for a chassis to fit an Indian Ry NDM6, a bit like our BR O8 shunter but with 4 wheels.  This was to be in OO9 which I don't do often and my printed plastic ones cannot do below 12mm gauge as I can't get the gears in, too narrow.  The solution was an etched chassis which I made as universal as possible.

It can be built to all gauges from 9 to 16.5mm (and wider if you ask for longer axles) and in wheelbases from 17 to 30mm.  It comes complete with wheels, motor and double gearing around 33:1, wheels can be 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, 12 or 14mm and the motor can be an M15 (8 x 15), N20 (10 x 15) or N30 (10 x 20), a flywheel is provided where possible.  This will suit anything from OO9 to O gauge, the frames are 64mm long but can be shortened prior to assembly if required.

The pair in the pictures were built from the test etches for the 2 NDM6 owners and are 9mm gauge, 18.5mm wheelbase with 8.5mm wheels.  The 2 strips with holes are optional mounting plates, they are wider but these have been cut down.  This is a simple kit with only 9 etched parts to solder.

These chassis come as 6 on the etch and all 6 were built for various people.  One was assembled in a cut down fashion to fit a Shapeways Ruston for 9mm gauge and turned out really good, I think this chassis will find far more uses than I expected.

These are now available from stock at £50.00 as from 20-09-2020 and they are really easy to build so I will do RTR ones at £90.00, your choice of gauge, wheelbase, wheels and motor.

Water pick up Hoses

Small wheels

I am considering having a range of small wheels made, probably steel tyred with plastic centers, the trouble is that the set up cost is high and I don't know what is required.  These would be suitable for 7mm ng, OO and HO, O-9 and any scale/gauge that can use RP25 code 110 wheels, about the same as current Hornby/Bachmann.

I think I will stick to the sizes I already do, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 and 12mm with spokes of one kind or another.  The options would be 6, 7 or 8 spokes either plain, split, curly or T shaped.  Without doing a vast amount of research I don't know what would be popular so if you have a particular need, email with details including where it was used and I will add it to the possibility list.

Mold making for spoked wheels is very expensive in the UK, £1000 to £1500 per type, although using the same tyre for a different center is a lot cheaper as the middle part of the mold is about 20% of the cost.  I am hoping that the Chinese manufacturers I use might be more reasonable on cost but I need to send drawings of requirements to get a price.  I am open to suggestions.

There is a UK manufacturer who made some molds for 7mm ng wheels that were paid for but never went into production, I will be discussing these with him as I don't want to duplicate anything already existing, even if none were ever made.

Wrightlines De Winton chassis

A replacement chassis for this has been an intention for a while so I borrowed a body kit from Robin Edwards to see what could be done.  I hoped to use the cranks and rods supplied in the kit with a newly acquired L shape geared motor.  As you can see from the pictures it worked but there were issues, aren't there always.

The body kit is designed with a 30mm wb, the Tenshodo that used to be used was 31mm wb, which caused some fun and games during assembly.  The rods on this kit were 30 and 31mm wb, one of each due to casting tolerances, on top of that the holes are slots.  I printed the chassis with a 30mm wb to fit the body and manually filed the slotted rod ends to suit and soldered in some fine tube.  The same tube was used as retainers to hold the rods in place.  The cranks were drilled out to 2mm and fitted with threadlock, the quartering was done by eye.  Amazingly it worked first time and is powerful with good slow speed performance, which is all that is needed on a De Winton.

Above are 2 views of the test chassis using the cranks and rods from the kit, the copper strip around the top of the boiler is a 1.5mm wire ring soldered on and filed flat.  This raises the top for motor clearance without moving any of the boiler mounting points.

The gearbox is around 80:1 ratio in 4 stages, the motor is a K20 but 7.5v and requires a ballast resistor.  The center of the boiler base needs removing to fit the motor through.  The kit uses a tube through the boiler that fits into a central holder at the base to represent the chimney, as the motor is in the way, the chimney tube will need shortening to be just the visible part above the boiler.

As I work from home, the Corona virus outbreak has not affected me or my business much so far, other than running short on toilet rolls and having to queue in the car park to get into a supermarket.  Petrol is very cheap now, a shame I have no shows to go to to use some.  I am having to ration my stock of Belgian beer as I won't be able to get there to restock any time soon, 3 bottles a week is just not enough.

I have all my kits and bits in stock and can still get routine parts from suppliers.  Unfortunately the etcher I use has closed for the duration and the caster probably will soon.  This means no etches or castings for the Alco or the new 0-4-0 chassis kits so they will have to wait until the world gets on top of the virus.  My 3D printed chassis are the most popular item at the moment and fortunately I can still post them when they are ready.

I am not offering any reassurance to anyone as I'm sure you have all been reassured by everyone from your bank to the corner shop down the road, I certainly have.  Be safe, stay indoors and don't mingle with anyone but those in your home and things might get back to near normal in a few months.  A friend has a vulnerable Mother who she loves dearly but now cannot visit, the solution is to visit from the garden with tea and conversation through an open window.  There's always a way if you look for it.

Best wishes to all - Mark, from a very depressing Medway Towns that looks like the opening sequence of a Zombie Outbreak movie.

This is a 14mm version and due to the tight clearances the chassis and gearbox uses common bushes, gauges less than 14mm are not possible.  The 16.5mm version will use separate bushes.  Wheels are my 10.5mm disc type with simple wiper pick ups.

I can make these to order but RTR only and the buyer will need to sort out the cranks and rods.  At a later date I can draw rods, cranks and a crank setting jig to assemble it all but not until after the lock down as the etchers are closed for the duration.  The chassis would be supplied now as you see above, with extended axles but no rods or cranks at a price of £50.00.  When I do an improved version with rods etc the price would be around £85.00 assembled.

Covid 19

Special offers at EXPO NG

New RTR loco

This loco is owned by Peter Smith who keeps it at Amberley who stopped by at EXPO to photograph the model.  We discussed the permutations of voltages and amps in a 102 year old electric motor, apparently a mobility scooter motor would do the job in a tenth the space on a tenth of the power.

New Power Bogies

I built these when I was making something to fit under a friend's 4mm tram, the left one is 14mm and the right is 16.5mm, both are 26mm wheelbase.  I built two because I wasn't listening when he told me the gauge and I built 16,5mm when he wanted 14mm so had to build a second one.

The motor is a 12v N20 (10/15) with my 13:1 gears at both ends and 9.5mm wheels.  It runs fine but a bit fast, similar to a Tenshodo.  There was no room to get a 2 stage gearbox in which was why I tried direct gearing rather than my usual O ring drive.  If you look carefully you can see that the left one has a reduced width to fit the 14mm gauge wheels but is full width around the motor.

This is a good unit when space is limited and I can draw the chassis to any shape required, with wheelbases from 26mm upwards in gauges 12mm or wider.  I can do 24mm wb but only in 16.5mm or wider as the wheels would clash with the motor.  The main advantage of these over a Tenshodo is that they use brass axle bushes and metal gears so no undue wear or gear splitting.

These will be cheaper than the 2 stage type and are a lot easier to put together, a kit is £35 and RTR £50, if its a new drawing I will have to build the first and it would be RTR only but later examples can be kits.  Wheels can be 8.5, 9.5 or 10.5mm but I wouldn't recommend 12 or 14mm wheels as it would go like a rocket and be under powered.

These will be added to the general sales list as I make them for specific prototypes.  I am also working on a range of direct Tenshodo replacements, the same size and shape but slower and with metal gears and axle bushes.

Hornblocks and bearings

Two all new items for kit and scratch builders, roller bearing hornblocks and bracket bearings.  They assemble from a folding etch with a 2mm bore ball race which is held in tiny fingers and araldited in place.  The left one in each picture is the bracket bearing, suitable for motorised accessories or any loco with a motor mounted remotely from the gearbox and needing a bearing.  The size is 11 x 6mm and depth 2.4mm, the holes are 1.2mm spaced at 8mm.  The hornblocks are on the right and fit straight into standard 6mm frame cutouts, a guide is supplied for either functional or cosmetic use.  There is a fold up tag to set the height in the frame cutout and/or limit the travel as may be required.  Both use 5 x 2mm double shielded ball races with a 2mm bore and have vastly less friction than a similar sized bush with no need to lubricate ever.

When fitting, the axle must be a push fit through the bearings and is locked in place with a tiny spot of bearing lock when positioned.  If the axle is a bit tight, it can be eased by spinning in a drill or lathe and fine abrasive paper used to reduce the diameter a fraction.  I an now fitting these ball races in my motor bogies as standard and they greatly improve performance.

Supplied in pairs of either type at £4.00 for 2mm axles only and yes I can supply spare bearings if needed.

Controller Issues

I have recently had some failures of the small motors used in my Universal Power Bogie, this motor is a Chinese 11/8 can motor.  I have sold well over 50 of these as kits and RTR and have had to replace 2 motors for customers and 3 for myself.  A customer asked if the controller might be an issue so I ran his repaired chassis 6 times up and down my 6ft test track using my pulse width modulated controller, it ran well and got a bit warm.  I then repeated it with my Gaugemaster type D and it didn't run as well and got quite hot.

I called Gaugemaster to discuss this and was told that all Gaugemasters are only half rectified and have no inbuilt power restrictions, this gives a raw output that small motors don't like, the larger ones can cope as they are a bigger heat sink but it will probably still shorten their life.  When the motor gets hot, which it will do on half rectified power, it will keep getting hotter until it burns out and there are no power limiters to stop this.  This was a bit of a surprise as I thought the problem was the Chinese motor suppliers lack of quality control when it looks like it was my Gaugemaster all the time.

Therefore I cannot recommend my smallest motors for use with Gaugemasters or any other half rectified controller.  I have done some research and found that PWM controllers should heat motors more than plain rectified one but half rectified controllers heat them even more.  Suitable controllers are any controller using full rectification which includes the Hornby R965, HM200, the Tech4 range, most H&Ms with the wave switch in the full position and any make of hand held unit so long as it is supplied from a fully rectified DC supply, not from AC as then the inbuilt half wave rectifier will take over.

Sorry for this but I have no say in how manufacturers design their controllers.  If you have a controller that you are unsure about, ask the manufacturer, if it uses full rectification it will be fine, if its a hand held, use a fully rectified DC supply, if its an old one that's no longer made, ask others on forums, try Google or ask me.

Panama Canal Franco Belge 0-4-0T

This kit has been on hold for a while as the rush due to Covid 19 and the panic to get the Alco ready both took over.  I have done absolutely nothing to it since early this year but I will be getting to it some time soon.  The etches I have are good to go but they only cover the body and basic chassis, I needed to build this before I tackled the valve gear and that is the next stage, followed by the castings.

Other scales

Redlake coach

Now available in 5.5mm gauge for 16.5 mm track

Brush 4WBE

I can now supply this in 1/32nd or 1/35th scales, that's the best bit of 3D printing, just scale it up or down and print.

Barclay E class chassis

It has been pointed out to me that my Barclay chassis which is 7mm or 1:43 scale will actually make quite a good chassis for an O&K tank loco or similar in 1:35 scale.  Well, I didn't see that one coming but in 16.5mm form it certainly will.  I will have to try it myself.

Smallbrook ETNA

I bought an unknown vertical boiler loco body thought to be 1/35th scale on Ebay, it turned out to be a 7mm scale ETNA by Smallbrook Studios.  Rather than use a Smokey Joe chassis, I printed one to fit and used my larger geared motor, 16mm spoked wheels and rods and cranks borrowed from one of my Pecketts.  The result was surprisingly good, except that its more suited to 1/35th or 1/32nd scale.  Its sort of an adaption of a De Winton but much bigger to fit the Hornby chassis.

If anyone has an Etna that they would like to use for whatever scale but need a better chassis, I can build these to order.  You get Scalelink 16mm spokedwheels and around 140:1 gearing with an N20 motor.  The drive is smooth and silent and very good at slow speeds.  These are RTR only at £90.00 and take around 10 days to supply as I make the outside rods to order.

New itemsFor Sale

Axle bushes

As I need a lot of these for kits etc, I had a batch of 10,000 made in China,  I can supply standard 1/8th bushes, large 2mm bushes, same as the 1/8th ones but with a 2mm hole, standard 2mm bushes and extended 2mm bushes, same as standard but longer.  I can supply these in any quantity 12 or above.

I now keep replacement elements for this iron at £10.00 each.

They last a long time but I thought it best to keep a few in stock as they have to come from China and can take a few weeks to arrive.

Locosnstuff is owned by Mark Clark at 12 Adelaide Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4NJ, UK

I can be contacted at borsig1958@gmail.com any time or on 01634 575081 before 8pm