With all the attachments and a lot of hand work, it would be theoretically possible, but it wouldn't be either easy or the optimum way to make the parts. South bend, however, used attacnments and special fixturing to go quite a distance in that direction.
I heard the same thing about a mill that has a rotary table being able to reproduce it self also years ago. Google either for some interesting reading on both. I have both and it would be a hard call if I had to give up one. I use the mill more but when I need the lathe I'm sure glad I have it. What I actually use more than either is .... ... the mill/drill I have. It is quick and easy to change the speed on it. Love it and use it almost exclusively for drilling and light milling although I did major milling before I got the big mill, just had to take smaller cuts. The real pain with it is that if you have to move the head in the z axis you loose your position. The big mill's table moves in the Z axis so that is a big plus at times. Also the big mill also has a lot larger table with a lot more travel than the small one which is also big some times. Sumner
As a former Quality Assurance Technician I have heard a lot of stories. Yes, with access to a small shop we have done many kinds of things. Then throw in heat treat, polish and weld. Even with antique equipment. A lot more fun that way.
Another good weekend of progress. I made significant progress getting the classification yard tracks laid down, probably 2/3rd done with the yard tracks. I’m finished with tree planting against the backdrop for now. The benchwork narrows from 42” to an 18” depth working to the left, so I’m not as worried about clearance while doing scenery work later on. Finally, some trains ran! I broke in a new GP30 and started to restage trains below, now with power. Once the classification yard is done, I’ll be able to clear out staging and get both yards wired up at once. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Heater/furnace installed. A plumber friend came over to day and we were able to finish the furnace install. Ran the 4" double wall B-Vent pipe up the old 6" double wall wood stove pipe and out the roof. Connected the gas line and I finished the wiring and it started right up. I'm happy this job is over. I need to pretty much drop out of the layout party for a week. We have to go to Phoenix and help Dottie's Mom's partner move from a group home back into their home. He had a brain bleed and ended up in the hospital, then rehab and then a not so nice group home. We are moving him back into their home and setting up at least 12 hour a day care until he hopefully regains strength and can walk with a walker by himself. He is 91 and 5 months ago was easily walking a mile and a half when we were there. I'll probably be able to work some on the coal mine as I'll take the computer but computer time will probably be at a premium. Sumner
For week 4 I moved the wye and lengthened the storage tracks for the power plant I then reworked the connection from the inside track to the third track. Next week (this week) I think I figured out a way to get the Cement Company Diorama back into the layout.
Last Tuesday, I worked on the rail crane that will be permanently stationed on the Drop Curve in the Materials Yard of the Keystone Steel Mill, where the damaged ingot molds are broken into pieces small enough to load into the OHF charging boxes or the EAF scrap buckets. After spending all day testing various linkage designs to animate actually dropping the wrecking ball onto ingot molds, either while attached to a cable or by dropping it from an electromagnet, it looks like I'm not able to get power from under the layout to a magnet that rises and drops from the end of the Drop Curve crane's boom. Last summer, I mocked-up of a working electromagnet on the overhead crane trolley in the Billet Storage area of the steel mill, and that linkage design worked because: 1. the 3 electromagnets were mounted on a spreader bar, 2. the power connection to the magnets was completely separate from the mechanism used to raise and lower the spreader bar, 3. the spreader bar was only rising and dropping about 3/4 inch, and 4. the magnet wire which powered the electromagnet was flexible enough to accommodate a 3/4 inch movement. For the Drop Curve rail crane, the electromagnet has to rise and drop about 1.5 inches. The wires that power the electromagnet also lift and lower it, so they have to be flexible enough to go through pulleys at the middle and end of the boom...and, even at only 30 gauge, they were just too stiff. So...late Tuesday 1/4, I loosely strung the cable (black thread) for the crane boom, fashioned a pear-shaped wrecking ball from some lead car weights, and then deliberately set aside the crane project without stringing up the wrecking ball cable, because I wanted to upgrade the OHF by adding an Evans Designs Model Builder "skin" to the plain white foam board structure to improve the pictures I want to include in the article. On Wednesday, 1/5, I stepped onto a Slippery Slope... 1. When I measured the OHF and Mold Shed structures to determine where I wanted to position doors, windows, and exterior utilities on the "skin" upgrade, it became apparent that the Mold Shed hoist that I added last week would have to be repositioned to provide enough space for all the OHF exterior details I wanted to include on the new "skin", as well as adequately modeling the mold inspection platform, damaged ingot molds, and details in the Mold Preparation Shed. 2. Repositioning the hoist forced me to resize the Mold Shed, so I am totally replacing the warped cardboard Mold Shed with plastic. 3. The improved/re-sized Mold Shed convinced me I should also move ahead now (rather than in March or April) on eliminating the s-curves and crowded tracks south of the OHF...so I tore out the 6 tracks and replaced them with a 5 track ladder and no s-curves. Approximate position of tracks before Jan 10 Old track arrangement south of OHF before 2022.01.10 by ppuinn posted Jan 10, 2022 at 3:30 PM Approximate position of reconfigured tracks after Jan 10. New track arrangement south of OHF 2022.01.10 by ppuinn posted Jan 10, 2022 at 3:30 PM
Late last night (about 2:30 this AM), I finished nailing down the track in the new configuration and took a picture with my iPhone. When I tried to save the picture from my phone to DropBox and then upload it to TrainBoard, I received a message that the C Drive of my laptop is full and can not take any more images. Investigating, I also learned that my D Drive is essentially empty. So, I'm going to be spending the next few days (weeks!?!?) reorganizing files stored on my laptop, stored in DropBox, and in Cloud storage.
Nice work! I might be a little concerned by the S-curve formed by the switch in the curve on the 2nd photo...
Been making good progress. All of the slide switches and linkages have been installed. Locomotives and cars have been testing all of the track and turnouts. Now the wiring of all the connections for turnout position are being wired to a terminal strip for the LED display panel to be connected. Next I will be starting the panel itself and have some parts on order for that. So hopefully next week I can report some progress on that. A new post on my blog explains in more detail. https://palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com/2022/01/controls-for-carlin-part-1.html
I had one those inspirational moments and I figured out how to get the Cement Company Diorama back into the layout. Once I selected the corner I had to adjust the mainline tracks. Then I placed the diorama on the corner so I could determine what I had to remove from the diorama and from the layout. Cut and remove the foam board from the layout to fit the diorama. After trimming/removing parts of the diorama I put in place. Lastly I added the connection track using some flex track and a #4 switch. Next - More Roadbed.
That's exactly the idea Joe! The port-a-toilet rental business is really a lot bigger than people might think and they have to be stored somewhere when not in use. With that said, I made very little progress this week. About all I got done was painting the roofs on these "gems". Hopefully this comeing weekend and week will see a bit more progress. There are 111 (I think) in this picture for those keeping count at home!
Having gone as far as I can for now with the wiring under the Carlin section, I started work on the control panel. Got the acrylic panel cut out and using the graphic as a pattern, drilled all the needed holes. Twenty five 5/64" holes for the LED's and one 1/4" hole for the switch. Then another copy of the graphic was placed between the acrylic and a .030 sheet of styrene and all of the holes were made through the paper and styrene. All of the LED's were a snug fit but still got a dab of clear E6000 adhesive to secure them. Then started the wiring by connecting all of the cathode sides together. The pair of stubs will hold the small PC board with current limiting resistors for each of the LED's.
Glad you could re-use that section of you old layout on the new one, that is a great little industry scene. And I like the orientation of it with the shed and track being on the outside. Years ago I had one of these in N scale but had the shed being hidden by the silos and for me it ruined the scene.
Brad that is really nice work. What are the dimensions of the panel. I'm assuming the LED's are showing the route selected with the turnout. How are you throwing the turnouts and how is that activating the LED's. I think I remember that they are all thrown manually except for one. Are you using DPDT switches in the manual controls that power the frogs and the LED's? Have you posted in the past pictures of the manual controls (I'd be interested in seeing any that you have). Thanks, Sumner
The panel is 3-5/8" tall and 10-7/8" wide. The LED's for the spur tracks are red / green to indicate aligned or diverging points. All of the other LED's are green with each representing the point position / route. I am using a DPDT slide switch mounted on a bracket cut from aluminum channel. One set of contacts is for the frog and the other set for the control panel LED's. A pair of holes are drilled through the handle of the switch with one holding a piece of either .032 or .039 steel wire depending on the stiffness needed. This goes up through the deck and to the turnout. The other hole has another steel wire that goes to the fascia knob. Here is a close up of one of these.
ime to put down the roadbed. At this stage I will not being attaching it to foam as I need to make sure there are no problems with the track once it is on the roadbed. First area to be done is where the third track passes the passenger platforms. Roadbed is down. I did cut out for the platform foundation. For the next industrial siding I chose the Golden Valley Canning Company. I made cardboard mock ups of the footprint and used them to figure out where the structures will go.
Nice setup. I like the way you have reinforced the ends of the throwbars. I've been running the wire up to the throwbar between the points but might start using the location on the end of the throwbar like what you are doing. Maybe somewhere down the line I could design a switch machine to go over it there. I bought a resin printer but haven't used it yet. It might give the detail I'd want that is a little outside of what is possible with the FDM printer I've been using. It would really be nice if I could get a working flag in N scale but that might not be feasible. Sumner
