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Thanks for your input Jerry, I am just trying to make it look better. I am all done with making the fixtures for the blinds. Now I am putting some together, finally. Bob.
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I decided to make the straps smaller to better represent what I think is the width of the straps on the prototype blinds, 1 inch I think. Do they look better or not? Bob.
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Hey Sean, did I miss anything? If so, I am open to questions, and what does the "P" mean?
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The article in the June and August issue is verbally described in detail, but no real close ups of his procedures. The trucks remained stock MTH. The diaphragms were made of folded material of some sort. He replaced the full length of plastic where the windows are, so that he could more replicate the window schedule. Mine are not accurate. His are 82 ft. cars, mine are 85 ft. I stretched my trucks to scale and used the hard diaphragms and made them to move in curves. He did make his windows look more scale. The cars are beautiful. The interiors are outstanding. I don't know if he wanted to keep their methods secret, but no close ups of the procedures. I am finishing up the fixture for the open blinds today, it came out excellent. The Plastruct white color seems a bit too white, but I can't find any real good closeups of prototype blinds. My Z axis of my mill kept messing up and skipping some lines in the program, so I did the Z axis manually and it worked perfectly. Do you have a mill? I don't know if you could make the mold for the Superliners without one, but I did make the observation car without one by using a router and a very complicated jig. I previously said that I would not stretch another MTH car, but I have my eye on my B and O observation, and now that I have done it once, I think this one would be easier. Bob.
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No, but I wish I did. I am lucky enough that in Tampa there is a company that sells scrap metal, aluminum, steel, and plastic at reduced prices, so it makes it a little easier because they will sell me small quantities. Today I am making a new jig for the straight slat version for the blinds, I didn't like the first one, too difficult to work with. This one is more like the 34 degree one only 90 degrees. Thanks Sean, maybe I can eventually get done with making tooling and actually make some blinds. Bob
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Here is the final blind jig, boy it took some doing to be able to get the blinds out without sticking to the jig. These slats are at 34 degrees. I am abandoning the type of jig with the dowels because they come out and are too difficult to put back in. The 90 degree jig will be made like the 34 degree one. Bob.
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Well, I have redesigned the blind fixture. The old one was flawed because I kept getting ca on the jig, so with this one the ca is kept away from the jig, so it will be more easily removed, here are some pics. These have .010 slots that the slats fit into, so it makes it easier to align. Bob.
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Hey Jens I have some pics of some mth O gauge cars that I picked up on Ebay. Just an idea, but for the design couldn't you use the O gauge for the design of the mold, just change the scale. These cars seem to be very accurate, but I couldn't prove it. They have interiors and everything. Bob.
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Since I posted last, I have made two more jigs. One for closed blinds and one for blinds at 45 degrees. I will use all of them on the car. Here are some pics of the jigs. Bob.
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Yes Jerry, what else have you done that we haven't seen? As to the jig, I cheated, I used a CNC mill. It was easy to make. I use Mastercam as my cadcam program and the mill controller is Anilam. Took longer to write the program then it did to make the part. I don't know how much you guys want get into it, but these small micro mills are relatively cheap. Bob.
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Yes, we do get into it, don't we. I love it. Your curtains look excellent, I hope to have an interior that looks as good as yours. After trial and error, the only glue that would work was CA. I finally got one out of the jig. Please show us how you did the curtains, we might want to put curtains in also. Bob.
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I am getting ready to make some blinds for the car, so here is a jig that I made. The dowels are 1/32 by 3/16. This will allow me to orient the blind slats while gluing. Bob.
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Well, the June, 2007 arrived and I read the article that Jack Verducci wrote about stretching the MTH passenger car. His cars are beautiful, especially the interiors, he went all out. He is a member of the BAGRS club and you should all go see the website and explore the whole thing. It is unbelievable. Go to bagrs, then go to links, then the Lackawanna Railroad.com, or you could just go to lackawannarailroad.com. and there you will see the cars that he built, worth the trip. I have since changed the material that I will use to make the blinds, I am going to use plastruct, .010x.060 styrene flat for the slats. I wrote a program for the fixture to hold the slats and align them. It has 106-- .03125 holes for alignment. I just ordered 200 - .03125 x 3/16 inch stainless allignment dowels for the alignment jig. I was going to use small lengths of piano wire, but when I cut them, they left a ruff end and that is not acceptable. The nice thing about making them instead of a picture, is that you can see through them. After seeing the interiors of his cars, I just have to try to make them as good as his. You should have seen my cnc mill drill those 106 holes, it looked like a made scientist at work. I am cutting the glass right now, the frames are all done, they came out well, just what I wanted, they don't protrude too far and the glass is almost flush with the outside wall. I will send pics. as soon as I have something to look at. Bob.
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I think I have found the perfect material for blinds. I bought a roll of white aluminum flashing for roofs. I can cut it on a paper cutter. I am working on a jig for positioning while gluing. I think I will have three positions, all the way down see through, 1/3 down folded, and all the way down shut. If this works out, I think it will look nice, lot better than printed on a piece of paper. Bob.
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I found a picture of some blinds and just glued it to the back of the frame, but they don't look like train blinds. Bob.
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Thank you. I am trying to figure out now how to simulate blinds. Haven't figured it out yet. Any ideas would be appreciated. Bob.
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Thanks SteamPower4ever, I just ordered them. I want to see how Jack Verducci did it., How do you like my window frames? I made my frame holder out of wood and while the frame came out OK, tomorrow I am making a more substantial holder because I was getting too much chattering out of the cutter. The wood seems to want to vibrate and resonate. This time I'm making the holder out of aluminum, I'm sure I can get rid of the chatter. Bob.
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I wondered what happened to you Rayman4449, how have you been doing? Thanks for your compliment, I added two more pictures with the window frames after I polished the frame and what a difference. Well I am all tooled up to make the rest of the frames. Blid, thank you, I was beginning to think that was a wives tale, imagine someone else as twisted as I am for attempting such a project. It is turning out OK though, and I think it will look OK when I get the windows in. Thanks for identifying the issue with the MTH stretch, I will try to find it some where, thanks again, Bob.
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Here is my first window frame out of aluminum.. It will look better when I polish them and get the glass in them. Bob.
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Where can I find that article? Bob.
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Thanks, but if this machining doesn't work out, I will certainly entertain that idea, sounds like a good one. I hadn't thought of that. I just bought 50 bucks worth of aluminum and several cutting tools, so I hope it works out. Bob.
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Thanks Sean, coming from you, that is a compliment. Well off to the metal surplus store to see if I can get some aluminum to cut for the window frames. Bob.
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Now for the really big deal, windows. I am going to try to make some aluminum frames, with luck I can make them look good. The silver frame in one of the pictures is paint, and I don't like it, so that's why I am going to try aluminum frames. Here are some pics. of the almost done car. Bob.
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I read the whole story from the president of Rapido and boy can I relate to the difficulty of capturing of the true shape of the bulldog nose. I don't feel so bad now as my cab was done by looking at pictures and various drawings and sculpting my desired shape. I finally got what looks like to me a satisfactory likeness, not perfect, but good enough for the girls I go with. Bob.
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Thank you steam power, my contraption on the mill worked after getting used to the setup, had to do one side over, but it is good now. Will never do a kit bash again, whew what a lot of work. From now on I will just use my own molds. For one thing, I won't have to match paints, make parts, stretch the roof, grind the welds on the roof. All I have to do now is fit the interior, lights, move one truck, paint the roof and a few other things, and it is done. Thanks again for your welcomed encouragement. Bob. I will attempt to put a youtube video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRFNopKcBuQ
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