murrayec

Hi DC I have posted up the set-up in 'Tips & Tricks' ;- http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4586-Hot-Wire-Foam-Cutting-By-murrayec?p=69591&viewfull=1#post69591 Eoin

Hi Here are the photos of my home spun Hot Wire Foam Cutter;- The table was based on the size of the Proxxon one, great for small stuff but not for big sheet. After making and using this I recommend a table of at least 3 times the size if you have the space, and at least 400mm high- that is the length of the cutting wire. The fence guide is shown;- 30mm aluminium angle fence clipped to the board edges. The table is marked out with lines at 10mm ctrs to aid squaring the fence to the table if required. The arm is 19mm aluminium rod with ms fixings, the upper hot wire connection to the arm can be moved back to set the wire at an angle to the table- this arm allows a max angle of 30deg. A sliding fence is shown;- for trimming foam lengths square to the left edge of the board. Its two aluminium angles stuck to a 45deg set-square, one faces down to catch the edge of the table, the other facing up to push the foam into the wire. I also use an adjustable set-square to set different angles for cutting. Note- you need some form of adjustment on the arm so that you can square up the cutting wire perpendicular to the table and perpendicular/parallel to the left edge face of the board. I always use the left edge as my datum to keep things square. The last photo is of the controller;- it's a two stage heavy 6v transformer, it works 6v and 12v. The twelve volt is achieved by connecting the two stages together giving 12v at high current- that's controlled by the toggle switch.* The stat varies the voltage in both 6v and 12v modes, its just a standard household light dimmer switch. 12v at high current is used with the thicker hot wire material, it's about .8mm and holds the shape its bent into, even when glowing RED!. I tried to run the system with the 12v workbench power supply under my controller in the photo- it was fine with the thin wire but it could not heat the .8mm wire at all and began to make a loud hum! So I built my own. When cutting irregular shapes I print out the part from the drawings on heavy paper, cut it out and then pin it down on the foam and use the edge of this template to cut out the foam shape. It takes a bit of practice to cut the foam like this, trying to rotate the foam on the table, move it by the wire at a constant rate and keep to the edge of the paper template- practice makes perfect.

Hi I just subscribed- been meaning to do this for a while and you reminded me! Eoin

Hi I picked up a fabulous diorama for the N DART at the Bray Show yesterday, done by the expert miniature dioramaist!- Kinvara-Train- just look at the reflection of the DART in the water- amazing Eoin

Hi Here is a small update on Closetmodeller's Greystones Layout, work has been progressing slowly but we are having fun;- Track is finally down with the ballast now to be completed Blue sky painted in and everything under-coated Closetmodeller cut and mounted the preliminary drawing of the station building to get an idea Finally Closetmodeller's vintage steam loco! Eoin

Hi kevrail has hit on it! work on what we want and when we feel like it I'm afraid to make a list it would have to go back about 20 years or more! Eoin

Hi Just gets better and better When looking at the photos I keep expecting to see the figures move! Eoin

heirflick See the link on this page http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4533-Silverfox-D-Class-Shunter?p=68518&viewfull=1#post68518 Eoin

Hi I should have said with my post above;- I love Silver Fox models, sure they are making models of Irish, and close to Irish that nobody else is doing. I have two Class C & A SF kits I'm currently working on chassis for- this appears in another thread on the forum. I'm also making C & A chassis for other peoples SF kits Silver Fox rock for me Eoin

Hi Weshty It's an internal recess for the hand break handle- the break shaft runs up tight to the back wall of the cab with a single arm handle on top, when rotating it one would bash into the cab back wall so the clever design department came up with this excellent solution!! Eoin

Hi Ah! the old Class 08- when I was 9 or 10! I had a fleet of them painted Valspar orange bought in Wigadors!- memories... Though this tread reminded me that I'm working on a D, not touched for a year or so and still at prototyping stage, I grabbed the box down and took a few shots;- Mine is going to be green Eoin

Hi All We had the Modular Seapoint Layout at the Wexford Show last weekend and Dave took a few shots of the work in progress;- Dart cantenary spars have been installed. Viewing area handrail installed. Upper section of the footbridge installed. More detail to the cannon added. Eoin

Hi All Here is some footage of the show taken from Baseboard Dave's quad-copter;- and a few shots from the ground on Monday morning before the show opened;- Eoin

.....that disapproving eye is for you after knocking over his vodka, and look the other one is on the Bud! priorities what... Happy Easter all Eoin

Hi All Great to meet all who came over to say hello today, with all the talking and things to do I never got to take a few pictures! Yes lots of layouts- leaning to the N Gauge side, and loads of things to buy!! A well presented show and very easy to get around- hopefully more will come tomorrow! I picked up a nice little N Gauge white metal kit of a 45t Boom-handler / Reach-Stacker;- Looking forward to seeing and hearing a sound Class C loco a forum member is bringing in tomorrow. We have to invent a barrier system without those mad feet that everyone trips on, their disastrous! Hopefully will get a few photos Eoin

Hi Walter Lovely stuff, I love the road paving on the one above, and the van- their lovely models Eoin

Hi Yes it was a great meeting of the Gauge O Guild, we get to see some of the work in progress on the models and discuss ideas n problems. Also to see some excellent models running on the layout as Warbonnet's expert photos display above. Thanks to the MRSI guys for hosting Eoin

Hi Guys Here is some 'Pudding', I recently did some tests on this subject;- Eoin

Hi Guys The 4F is a ringer for the SG & SG2 there were 15 of them which CIE had 8. Main things to be done is; Remove the top of the Belpare boiler and make the sides flush. Add sand boxes to front spalshers and fill in between middle and rear splashers. Change the dome to bigger and rounder top. Install ovely windows in cab. Remove hatch on roof of cab and fill. Cut back overhang on cab roof. Remove railings from tender and extend up sides in solid. You now have a SG2 with some beautiful detailing!! Eoin

Yes One example in North Wales railway- a restoration of a narrow gauge loco had an all welded firebox and boiler installed, the design was based on the traditional fire tube principal without a water tube firebox and boiler, and it incorporated some modern design concepts- it is written that when they completed the loco it exceeded all expatiations by maintaining full boiler pressure for over an hour on two domestic-sized buckets of coal- when running, pulling a large load they don't carry coal they just stoke up at the end of each hour run. If the water tube system was used efficiency would be greater again! but this construction moves to far away from the loco's original design and was not used- heritage loco. And there is one problem for the modern system! most guys working in this field are historical groups and stay within the loco's original design, implementing some modern concepts for; efficiency, safety and ease of use, but staying within a historical control. If a modern oil burning system was used or the instant steam system I mention above- thing would only get better... I believe in the States some of the loco restorations are implementing oil and gas burning systems, the 'Big Boy' I believe is one? It would be interesting to see data on the efficiency now and back in its day to see what kind of improvement has been done. Though with this loco its power to weight ratio is crazy and they are working with old style tech and its not new! In my discussions on the instant steam boiler system it was estimated that the loco could run full time for one week on two large domestic cylinders of gas. A number of assumptions were made here as the full system was not designed and we were only looking at theory and viability. Eoin

Hi Live Steam! A very powerful gas that can do huge work and be generated by simple means- it's just that the old boys that tinkered with engine design stayed old hat! When British Railways built their last boiler for their last loco 'Evening Star' although bigger it was not much different from Stephenson's 'Rocket' but with a superheater attached. Bullied was the man, he was one of the first to adopted welded boilers, and welding throughout the locos construction, cutting manufacturing costs by half- he was before his time but to late in the competition with diesel and still slightly old hat. He was working with a grossly low thermal efficiency system mainly due to the boiler design. He was to early for new advances in the manufacture of water tube walled fireboxes and other more modern build methods which ultimately led to high thermal efficiency steam locos fired on oil and gas.... Most of this work carried on through the 60's, 70s & 80s in Africa, China & Brazil or Argentina- guys like David Wardale & Dante Porta. How CIE ever thought that turf would work with the old boiler design, with it's low thermal efficiency using coal to start with! About 2 years ago I with others did a feasibility study on building a replica steam locomotive- we do have dreams!, I spoke with a few engineer's in England and found a company who were involved in making the wheels for the 'Tornado' A1, a very nice helpful man- he even came back to let me know that they still had the mould blanks to cast the wheels we needed! He put me in touch with a company that manufactured steam boilers, the kind we put in office buildings and Hospitals to work heating systems run on gas or oil- very popular in Finland, high in efficiency. They manufacture a product which is mobile, a self contained burner and boiler in a small handy package that fits in a small car trailer, they gave me the spec of the machine and after a discussion with the engineering wheel man, a few calculations done he concluded that the system would produce plenty of steam, to much for what we wanted to push! It's a very efficient system, it works like a power shower- fires water into a container in front of the burner and instantly turns it into high pressure steam. No fire warm up time, just wait for a head of steam and your on the regulator. The boiler company were to get back to me on the suitability for our application, the project sort of fizzled out and I never chased them up! I know this is not the same as burning coal, making noise and getting a black face, but live steam in modern design systems is 2 to 3 fold more efficient than the old locos- what a pity the old boys couldn't in 100 years change from Stephenson's original design. I still love them though, beasts.... Eoin

Weshty Nice one, knew it was something like da!....... Eoin

Hi JHB Just browsing David Holman's article in Railway Modeller and up pops this post on me screen...... Like the new avatar Eoin

Hi All If you mess about with fibre optics for lights on your models- get down to Tiger for their 'LYSFIBERLAMPE' for €4.00- one of those dodgy droopy 60's fibre optic lamps run by battery- but it has about 237! optic strands sticking out the top that would keep a modeller supplied for a life time! Eoin

Hi Me to, looks really great and a fine article Congrats David well done- I see you had the same turntable problem with the bus and luggage wagon! Broithe - got to get yourself a brolly! Eoin