rbrown7713 Posted June 26, 2015 Author Share Posted June 26, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry B44 Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Man, you really get into it, your cars will be something else for sure! I put cloth curtains in my Pioneer Zephyer when I did an interior on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 3, 2015 Author Share Posted July 3, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 My Lord! If I could make a jig that precise, I would have had much better results with the side rear air intakes on my SD70ACe! I'm not what I used to be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted July 3, 2015 Share Posted July 3, 2015 Man, you really get into it, your cars will be something else for sure! I put cloth curtains in my Pioneer Zephyer when I did an interior on it. Jerry, you made a lot of things that I never saw. Somehow they appear now and then. I'm in awe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 3, 2015 Author Share Posted July 3, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Do you own a Plexiglas company ? Very nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 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. I did get a glimpse of his cars on the site. Maybe I missed a page where they're featured? How good is the article? I may have to order the back issue just to get a better look at what he did. I have a feeling, I'll probably leave my MTH cars alone for now. I'd rather build some Superliners myself. I would have used these trucks if they were to scale. I'd like to see the AML cars when they get delivered. It might be better for me to use the USA trucks??? I admire your diligence on this project. I think it was easier for me to build my engine from scratch! (sorry for the rambling.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Wow That was a mouth full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Hey Sean, did I miss anything? If so, I am open to questions, and what does the "P" mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 what does the "P" mean " a smiley face with his tongue sticking out!" Should look good.. but it's what you can live with... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry B44 Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 I think the smaller ones are better. You continue to amaze me on your dedication to detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Can't wait to see the final product! " normal smiley face " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 The outside is done, I am working on the inside now. Bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Bob, thank you for all the help. I have five or six routers, but no mill! I was a carpenter, ..... among many other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbrown7713 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Engineer Joe, I don't know how involved you want to get into this project, but the molds can be made with a router, and a good table saw. I have done it. Even though I have two mills, one manual and one CNC, the cut distance of the X axis is two inches shy, so I am building a 48 by 48 cnc router. In the US, the price of used machines is way down. You should be able to pick up a mill relatively cheap. You could also build a cnc router, both with manual and cnc functions. If you buy a used mill, make sure that the X axis is capable of at least 32 inches for an 85 ft. car. I will have about 3500.00 in the router, but they can be built much cheaper. Also here are some pictures of the seat mold and the seats. The car should be a 56 seat car, but I doubt that I will be able to fit them in, no matter because you won't be able to see all of them anyway. Most of the windows will be blocked by the blinds in the down position and the rest where I have people, the blinds will be one third down. Bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Thanks, Again! I just bought the mold material from Bity. I should have bought a quart at least. I'll probably burn up a pint (smallest one?) on the first project. Looking good. I just rebooted my computer from factory. I lost all my bookmarks? I always think they'll remain on my explorer??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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