On My Workbench

[Kamome]

Crisis averted and the Ohafu 50 is back from the paint shop ready for service again. 
 

Eagle-eyed members may notice the subtle shade difference between the body and the door of the coach on the right.

[cteno4]

Nice job! Tiny tad of weathering an you will never never know!

 

only your hairdresser will know for sure! (Sorry dating myself)

 

jeff

[gavino200]

5 hours ago, Kamome said:

 

Eagle-eyed members may notice the subtle shade difference between the body and the door of the coach on the right.

 

 

Actually, I think that gives it a very "real" look.

 

 

[marknewton]

My most recent order from HS finally arrived, and so I managed some workbench time to add details and lettering.

 

 

Tomix Suhanefu30 sleeping car.

 

 

 

Two more Kato Yo5000 brakevans. They're the two on the left, 5005 and 5008. 
 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[marknewton]

On 8/17/2020 at 9:45 PM, Martijn Meerts said:

It's actually based off a picture of an actual bridge that was built like this.

Since I made that comment I've see a few bridges like that myself. Prototype for everything, as we say! 😉

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

On 9/28/2020 at 12:23 AM, Kamome said:

Eagle-eyed members may notice the subtle shade difference between the body and the door of the coach on the right.

I can't see the difference. Looks good to me.If anyone comments, tell them it's a replacement door. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, marknewton said:

 

 

 

 

Two more Kato Yo5000 brakevans.

😱 That’s a lot of brakevans! Trains are going to bra-aaa-ke

[marknewton]

That's only the Yo5000s. There's also a small fleet of Yo8000s, WaFu22000s and WaFu29500s. Can't have enough brakevans for what and where I'm modelling.
 

All the best, Mark.

[marknewton]

Seeing KiHa66's photo of his Tenshodo 9600 gave me the motivation to drag my two out of the cabinet and do some remedial work on them. I bought both of them second-hand via Yahoo auctions. The vendor described them as "junk", but in reality the only thing they were missing was their number plates. And one engine has some rather thick white paint on the steps. But those minor issues aside, the engines are in very good condition and run beautifully. I've gotten some aftermarket number plates from Revolution Factory to attach, and I'll carefully strip the paint and make the steps black again. I'm tempted to replace the flowerpot funnel on the engine with smoke deflectors with a stovepipe stack. I've got some brass castings that would be suitable...
 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

Seeing them makes me want to build my kit. Of course, on the first step, there's already 2 plastic discs included, so I'll have to glue those in, and then glue white metal bits on the plastic. Makes me wonder if they intend more of the while metal to be glued on rather than soldered on. The 'instructions' don't really mention anything.

 

[marknewton]

This sounds interesting Martijn, what is the first step?

 

In other news, I went into town this morning with the missus for a massage and then brunch. Afterwards she wanted to got to Aldi, which I wasn't keen on, but I went along to keep the peace. I'm glad I did though. I got this cake turntable for $11. It has a lock to stop it rotating and a non-slip top surface. I'm going to use it as a painting turntable when I'm airbrushing.

 

 

I also got some adjustable-height work stands that I think will make rather good trestles for portable layouts. I'll take some photos tomorrow when the weather improves. At the moment the cloud is on the ground here.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited October 7, 2020 by marknewton

[Martijn Meerts]

57 minutes ago, marknewton said:

This sounds interesting Martijn, what is the first step?

 

First step is building the cylinder assembly for both sides. The cylinders, piston guides, the casing around the cylinders and several white metal detail bits all get combined into a single piece which then screws onto the frame. Many of the parts are pretty small and requires some precision soldering to get it all together.

 

Not sure why, but on the front there's 2 plastic discs that go between the cylinder box and some white metal parts. On the back the white metal parts just connect directly to the cylinder box without plastic disc, so I can't imagine it has anything to do with short circuit protection. Unless of course, on tight curves, the front truck would potentially hit the white metal parts.

 

Looking at pictures on a blog that documents building an IMON 9600 though, everything there is soldered, apart from the plastic and the white metal glued to the plastic obviously 🙂

 

I'm quite motivated to get started actually, but that's usually during the day, when I'm work. Once it's evening and all the necessary things are taken care of, I'm often too tired to do much, I'm getting old 😄

 

[cteno4]

8 hours ago, marknewton said:

 

 

mark you win, too cool! Looks sooo much nicer than my hunk of ply I plop on a $2 lazy Susan ring! yours has a pickle on top!
 

You won’t complain going along shopping next time. As long as it’s not the dress shop you may have the opportunity for another find like this!

 

jeff

[marknewton]

You're not wrong, Jeff, I won't complain about going to Aldi. A while back I bought a scroll saw there that I've enjoyed learning to use.

 

Even better than the cake turntable though are these height-adjustable trestles that I also got yesterday. I'm sure they'll be very useful for future projects.

 

  

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

 

[marknewton]

Tonight's projects - attaching numbers and detail parts to one of the 9600s and a Tramway DD16.

 

 

 

[Kiha66]

Looks great Mark!  What do you use to attach the detail parts such as numberboards? 

[disturbman]

Not yet a layout, but I started running some construction tests using materials similar to @kami_illy (https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/11826-small-b-train-layout/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-203870).





Construction is basic. White glue, paperboard (1.5mm) and some masking tape to consolidate the joints. The masking tape was a suggestion from my partner, who has worked as a bookbinder. I tested out two shapes, a simple rectangle and a more complicated form.

 

I'm very pleased with how things turned out, it makes for very light and sturdy "module" bases. I'm considering how to continue. If it would be better to buy large sheets of paperboard or by laminating smaller base length together. My intention was to have a few 80cm long boards. Something easy to move around and setup so I can play with my daughter. I will also have to figure out how to make proper scenery.

 

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, disturbman said:

Not yet a layout, but I started running some construction tests using materials similar to @kami_illy (https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/11826-small-b-train-layout/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-203870).



Construction is basic. White glue, paperboard (1.5mm) and some masking tape to consolidate the joints. The masking tape was a suggestion from my partner, who has worked as a bookbinder. I tested out two shapes, a simple rectangle and a more complicated form.

 

I'm very pleased with how things turned out, it makes for very light and sturdy "module" bases. I'm considering how to continue. If it would be better to buy large sheets of paperboard or by laminating smaller base length together. My intention was to have a few 80cm long boards. Something easy to move around and setup so I can play with my daughter. I will also have to figure out how to make proper scenery.

 

 

It looks great. I'm sure it would be nice and solid. What about sound properties? Any chance it could behave like a resonating chamber?

Edited October 13, 2020 by disturbman
snipped

[disturbman]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

It looks great. I'm sure it would be nice and solid. What about sound properties? Any chance it could behave like a resonating chamber?

Thanks. There is chance it could amplify running sounds, but I would need more than 29cm to test this. I also intend to add a layer of cork on top of the base board.

[cteno4]

Nicely done!

 

Adding a waffle of cross bracing like 30mm tall under the top piece and connected to the sides would probably help a lot as a large top surface vibration that is going to cause drumming resonance. Stiffening then top and breaking up the air space will help. Cork on top will help and it’s a nice scenery base material. Also bracing the top a lot helps as chipboard can slowly sag with time horizontally.

 

you can just cut some strips or chipboard then cut notched half way thru the width of the chipboard or corrugated cardboard to make half lap joints like the inserts in a case of wine. Hey if you could get some of those inserts you could just cut them down to the center section even! Doesn’t have to be pretty as never seen. The  just PVA glue it well in place or even hot glue gun with good fillets. You would be amazed how strong you can make a cardboard structure like this with some internal bracing.

 

i would also suggest hitting the whole thing with a few light coats of clear matte lacquer or acrylic spray. This will also stiffen things some as well stop any moisture intrusion from humidity changes or scenery stuff and paints.

 

jeff

[kami_illy]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Doesn’t have to be pretty as never seen.

 

Exactly, that's what i did. Used whatever was left and glued it under the base board.

In my tests with the shorties and compact Kato tracks there was some noise (well, it was louder than running the tracks on the dinning table...) but still ok. And with some cork i think you won't have any problems. 

[marknewton]

On 10/9/2020 at 3:00 AM, Kiha66 said:

Looks great Mark!  What do you use to attach the detail parts such as numberboards? 

I use 3M brand double-sided tape. It's very thin and very sticky. I've used it for about 5 years now and none of my numberplates have fallen off, so I'm happy with it.

 

 

I cut a short length of tape and attach the numberplate to the sticky side.

 

 

I then use a Xacto chisel blade to trim the tape and backing paper to the edge of the plate. Use the flat side of the blade as that allows you to trim right up to the edge neatly.

 

 

Trim all four sides.

 

 

Once you've trimmed all four sides, turn the plate over and carefully remove the backing paper. The adhesive film that remains is very sticky, so you have to carefully position the plate before pressing it onto place. The adhesive will grab straight away, and that's the job done.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

Another solution I’ve seen was to cut chunks of that like 1.5” acoustic egg crate foam rubber panels and just squeeze fit them under modules with the egg crate pointing up to absorb sound under the module to help stop resonance. You can get the cheap stuff they use for packing equipment don’t need the really high end acoustic stuff.
 

ballasting is the thing that can increase noise as PVA makes everything uber hard. Turns out using acrylic medium instead of PVA can deaden some of this as it makes a soft ballast that you can actually pick at it if needed to change something or just cleaning up a little. (try picking at PVA cemented ballast, you have to use water to soften it up for any amount of repairs). There was a chap a decade or so ago that did a great article comparing rail on masonite, homasote, and cork roadbed and then PVA and acrylic medium for the cement and did db tests. I think his tests were in Ho though which of course will have different acoustic properties than n scale. From what I remember the big winner was acrylic medium. Homasote and cork I think came out very close. Worst was PVA on masonite. It’s always a big debate like track cleaning and kind of depends on what sort of layout/modules you are doing, scale, etc.

 

jeff

 

 

[Kiha66]

Thats brilliant mark, thanks for the tip!   This seems like a much better solution than using glue

[cteno4]

Mark, if you want thinner 3m makes a transfer adhesive. Basically just the adhesive bit of the double stick tape. Works and apply the same way just no backing film in the middle so as thin as can be and squeezes into all the nooks and crannies well since no backing film in the middle. They use it to tack on car detail parts.

 

jeff