Yūrakuchō

[Kamome442]

48 minutes ago, Madsing said:

Try 1 to 2 mA and they should be bright enough for the application anyway. I have set most of the LEDs I use to work at around 10% of their maximum current. 

 

Ah thanks @Madsing it makes total sense not to unduly stress components if they work just as well on a lower amperage (milliamperage!?). I can see I will have to do some research and careful planning when I come to wire all this stuff up.

 

43 minutes ago, Madsing said:

English is not my mother tongue and I have been scratching my head about "hatters" for a couple of days (what are they talking about?)

 

Yeah, I can see that would make little to no sense without some context!

Edited December 24, 2021 by Kamome442

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, Madsing said:

Try 1 to 2 mA and they should be bright enough for the application anyway. I have set most of the LEDs I use to work at around 10% of their maximum current. 

Yeah I looked around as many sellers were not giving forward current on them and found varying specs. I expect most all with leads attached are probably 20mA. I too usually run leds at like 1-2mA max. More and dimmer is my motto with leds! Just wanted to put it out there to avoid the magic smoke from getting out of the super tiny leds!
 

jeff

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, Madsing said:

English is not my mother tongue and I have been scratching my head about "hatters" for a couple of days (what are they talking about?), until this morning, when I googled "mad as a hatter" 😅🤣

Sorry, since Joe is British I thought I would invoke Louis Carol for my crazy reference. We can blame Joe’s insanity on maybe whiffing too much ca glue, solder smoke and the like…
 

jeff

[Kamome442]

18 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Just wanted to put it out there to avoid the magic smoke from getting out of the super tiny leds!

 

But the magic smoke is such a pretty blue/grey colour 😧

[cteno4]

And that little fizzle pop noise is just wonderful! But sadly you get the smoke and pop just once…

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

No fizzle pop or magic smoke (yet!) however I have had a chance to make up the first little spot light. 

 

It uses the 0201 LED inside a 2mm long piece of 1mm brass tube. It was surprising easy to make, there is plenty of room inside the tube, I may actually try out a 0.9mm tube. 

I just put a little dab of UV resin on the LED and popped it in the tube then slowly cured to prevent overheating. As you can see there is a lot of light bleed out the back, I will need to find a fix for that going forward, hopefully a few layers of paint will do the trick.

I am really happy with the amount of light it projects, they should illuminate my shop signs nicely.

[Tom C]

That's a fabulous bit of work. Well done.

 

I'm awaiting the 0201's I've ordered to arrive so I can play too 😊

[Madsing]

That’s really impressive! I laughed when reading “there is plenty of room inside the tube” 😀

It looks like the wires of the LED are able to support the spotlight, right?

[cteno4]

Wow that’s impressive tiny spot light. Super simple. I guess the only worry with the brass is to insulate the contacts from shorting on the brass, but pre sealing the led should do that.

 

jeff

[Madsing]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

I guess the only worry with the brass is to insulate the contacts from shorting on the brass, but pre sealing the led should do that.

Good point! I have some pre-wired SMD LEDs where the insulation of the magnet wires has been removed on about 1 mm, and this can even short circuit with the other side of the LED.

[cteno4]

Even soldering heat can burn back the enamel some. 

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

19 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I guess the only worry with the brass is to insulate the contacts from shorting on the brass, but pre sealing the led should do that.

 

That was my worry too, I find it much easier to handle these little LEDs by sealing them with a little dab of resin. It helps to reinforce the soldered joints, as a bonus it insulates everything so I can shove them down metal tubes.

16 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Even soldering heat can burn back the enamel some.

 

I was wondering how easy it would be to loose the enamel coating on the wire, very easy it would seem! I also ran a little resin between the two wires to hold them together and add a little more protection from shorting.

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

18 minutes ago, Kamome442 said:

I was wondering how easy it would be to loose the enamel coating on the wire, very easy it would seem! I also ran a little resin between the two wires to hold them together and add a little more protection from shorting.

 

Depends on the coating. I have several types of the enamel covered wires, and the cheaper types are definitely more sensitive to heat. The higher quality stuff requires me setting the soldering iron to around 400 degrees before the enamel burns off.

 

[cteno4]

Yes I’ve seen variations as well. I got some that I could not burn off well at all and needed scraping to get it clean enough to solder well. Gave up on it for soldering.

 

Also the thinner the wire usually the thinner the enamel coating.

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Digging Holes

 

I had fun day sawing up pieces of wood to finish the lowered floor for the sunken arch. The first job was enlarge the hole I cut this is so I can access the wiring for the lights.

The final hole with internal supports cut way and walls fitted on all four sides:

 

The hole extends out further than the trackbed. This is so the interior can be lifted in and out and then slid forward into position. The Expressway will cover the hole from view. A view of the access behind the trackbed:

 

The hole, at this stage, drops all the way to the bottom of the baseboard. This was a lot deeper than I need so the next step was to work out the new floor height.

I stacked the test arch on a pile of blocks until it was level with the road, then measured the blocks.

The test arch sitting at the correct height:

 

Internal supports replaced, at the new height, plus some extra for reinforcement:

 

The new floor glued into place:

 

Trackbed back in place. The test arch now sits at the right height:

 

The next step is to build final interior on a small raft that will lock in place with magnets.

 

Joe

 

 

 

[Cat]

Hmm, sunken bits are always fun!

[Kamome442]

Housekeeping 

 

I got around to fixing a couple issues today. First up is the baseboard join, which I have been avoiding for sometime now as it involves lining up the brickwork. The first baseboard was something on a prototype and as such the internal blocks were just that. I hadn't yet realised I could include locating pins on them. When I was constructing it the top deck slipped slightly leaving gap to the next board of around 1mm at on end and an overhang at the other. The overhang was dealt with using a sanding block however the gap needed to be bridged. 

 

You can see the gap on the (left) below along with the little piece of brickwork that has been flapping around at the end of the board, for sometime now, patiently waiting to be glued. On the right the finished brickwork. I just need to add the decorative brickwork along the top and some packing pieces to behind the bricks to fill the gap.

 

This does mean that one arch is 1mm wider than the others and a little misshapen, which I will hide as best I can with careful sanding.

Overall I don't think it is obviously different to the other arches.

 

The second issue goes back to when the baseboards were designed. When I used the aerial images it wasn't possible to see the edge of the wall because catwalk sat over the top of it. I had to make a guess and it seems I was about 1mm out, don't get me wrong I am quite proud I got it that close and it hasn't been an issue until now.

When it came to making the retaining walls for the bridges everything had to line up for the tracks, this meant the only way I could account for the extra 1mm was to starch the sides. Shown below with the blue arrow.

 

My only grip with this was that it made the part of the wall closest to the viewer look a little dumpy especially in the area circled in yellow.

 

I could have just lived with it but that is not the Yurakucho way 😀

So I cut along the back of the last arch with a saw and carefully sanded a transition on the edge of the trackbed to pull it in by 1mm (as seen below on the left). Once glued back together (right) I get to have a nice accurate bridge support.

 

There is a small hole fill at the top then the brickwork can be built up to the top of the wall.

 

Joe

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Kamome442

[Bubule]

Wow, it’s a fantastic thread ! The scratch building is raised to level of art there ! I am very impressed by the amont and the quality of your job. Pretty impatient to see your future realizations. 😍

Edited January 8, 2022 by Bubule

[Kamome442]

Hi Jef, Thank you for the kind words, it is going to be a long journey. The problem with scratch building is the time it takes to design and build however I get a lot of enjoyment from doing that and I like the idea of having something that is one of a kind. This is the first time I have built a layout by myself and it has been a pretty steep learning curve. Thankfully I am now at the point where most of what I have to do is a copy of what did on the first board so it just a case of getting it done. 

Hopefully there will be more frequent updates and a lot more progress this year!

 

[Kamome442]

Fit Check

 

First job of the day done, fitting the bridge support on the other side of the road in its final position. Now I can check that all the calculations were correct and the bridge actually fits in the gap. Thankfully it is pretty close to a perfect fit, there is about a 0.25mm gap between the bridge and the supports. The top of the bridge deck is even level with the track bed (I wasn't expecting that!).

 

I also thought I would test some netting I picked up. While it is a little over-scaled I don't think it's too obvious. 

 

Next job for the day is to start the sunken arch interior.

 

Joe

[Bubule]

Wow so many nice details 🤪 Great job. The photo etched grid is amazing 🤩 !

[Kamome442]

Thanks Jef, the grid is actually a fabric. It's called Tulle, I think it comes in lots of different sizes but this was the smallest I could find. 

I did look at etched meshes but I find they look too chunky.

[Madsing]

Hi Joe,

I'd like to try etching, and I am looking for a chemical etching service not too far away from where I live. After a quick search, I have found companies that do that mostly for signage. From their web site, I see stainless steel, aluminum and brass with thicknesses ranging from 0.5mm to 3mm. 0.5mm still seems thick to me. Would you mind sharing the specifications that you give to your subcontractor? What should I ask them?

Thanks, Marc

[Kamome442]

Hi @Madsing I am more than happy to share what I can. 0.5mm is probably doable but is pretty thick for N-scale stuff, by comparison I use 0.25mm for most of my etches. The company I use is called PPD.Ltd, as they are based in the Scotland I understand that isn't convenient for your needs. They refer to themselves as a photoetching service, their focus is etches for architectural model makers, jewellery makers, model rail and sculptural model makers. I don't know if that would make a difference with regards to searching for services near you. If you would like I can DM you a link to their website to give you an idea of what to look for. My reason for choosing them was really down to price, the quality of their website (a detailed run down of their pricing and lead time for each metal, many of the other companies I looked at just say e-mail for a quote) and a willingness to do single sheets and small batches per order.

 

As for what you should ask about, you probably want to know the minimum design tolerances for full and half etch details and the spacing between parts. How small you can make a hole will likely depend on the metal thickness.

 

With regards to the specifications I use they are taken directly from PPD's website. They give .pdf's explaining the metal thicknesses, for example they offer 0.1mm to 4mm for Brass or 0.04mm to 6mm Stainless Steel. The tolerances vary depending on the metal but the general rule is the minimum dimensions of an etched part needs to 1.5x the thickness of the metal. So if I wanted to make something in 1mm copper they would need to be no smaller than 1.5mm x 1.5mm. The absolute minimum dimension they will accept is 0.18mm so if I wanted to use 0.1mm brass to make say handrails, the minimum thickness would be 0.18mm (not 0.15mm). 

 

0.18mm is also the minimum thickness they will allow for half etched details, so for my manhole covers for instance all the little circles, diamonds and squares need to have a diameter of 0.18mm and a spacing of 0.18mm between each detail. That said I have been using this company for around 5 years and know them quite well. I have managed to get them accept below that on a couple of occasions with a minimum of 0.15 on some details. They did contact me advising me I should not go ahead but if I was willing to accept the risk of the details not coming out correctly they would do it. 

 

For thinner metals (anything below around 0.2mm) they will not accept half etched details only full thickness etches.

You will probably find each company will have different minimum tolerances I seem to remember seeing someone using etches with a 0.1mm half etch tolerance on their layout. 

 

Hopefully this is helpful if you want anymore information let me know. 

Joe

[Madsing]

@Kamome442 Thank you very much for the details. It is really helpful. The project I have in mind is a high rise crane. I’ll post about the progress!