Here is the drawing Chuck.  Good luck. Bob.

X section SL.wmf

Well, I poured some new window frames today and this time  I added  11 more bolts for more and even pressure and machined relief valleys in the mold so that the  extra plastic would escape rather than building up.  The urethane sets fast, so I barely got all of the bolts tightened while it was still viscous.  I also added some black pigment and if it isn't black enough than I will paint them.  I will have to call the manufacturer to see how many drops per ounce of urethane to use as my scale is not accurate enough to weight 1% of 2.6 oz. of material.  It says that one should not add more than 1% of the pigment or the strength would degrade.  Tomorrow I will open the molds to see how they came out, or if they did at all. Bob.

I spilled the black coloring into some resin one time by accident. The cap was frozen on the little bottle that I had to wrestle free. Anyways it came out very, very dark. I should go down and find the parts and try to break one. I believe they were still strong. After that I ignored measuring it precisely. Just get it close and I think you'll still be happy with the strength. That was with Alumilite resin.

OK Joe, I will keep that in mind.  I have some epoxy resin and I have used pigment with that and also I mix cotton fibers with it and it comes out very strong.  I am going to try that next if the urethane ones are not good. Bob.

The frames came out very good, as far as the shape, very close to the full scale, however the black pigment into the white urethane didn't get the job done.  They came out gray, not black, so next, I will try the epoxy mixture, should come out more like a rubber look.  The size of the glass and the size of the opening in the sides will be critical, + or - about .002 inches, and if I keep those tolerances, should look very good and the glass will be flush with the walls and not set back.  Also, I am experimenting with some window tint, sent for some Model Masters black window tint, and will see how that works out.  Here are some pictures, both top and bottom.  Bob.

I'm not sure how perfect you are going for? They look great from here!!! WOW. Nice work again.

Thank you Joe.  I am satisfied with this part and If all of the frames come out this good, and they should,  it will make the Superliner cars look pretty good, for sure. Bob.

I found this suggestion on YouTube for a shiny stainless look with a Krylon spray can, and it looks pretty promising for my cars, better than anything that I have used in the past.  This was sprayed on the plastic with no primer or prep and not heating up the can, so maybe will even come out better than this, who knows. Bob.

I bought 2 different cans of silver metallic plastic paint for the Amtrak F40PH I was building. It is like they vanished? I looked all around for them. I know they are right in front of me. Usually my girl will help and say to me, "are you blind? here they are."

This time she asked, "are you sure you actually bought them?"

I will post results when my memory returns.... your choice looks very good.

Amazing job there, Bob, as usual!

Thanks Jerry, I want these cars to look good, so I am trying extra hard.  I programmed the outlines for the glass and the opening for the sides and I will cut them tomorrow to see if my calcs. are correct, and then I will make a whole side.  Bob.

Here is a test for fitting the frames and windows and as usual, I will have to make some fine adjustments. Almost ready to cut some side walls. Bob.

They look Great!

Thanks Sean.  I found a video of comparisons of 16 shiny silver like surfaces and am sharing this video.  My choice was wrong.  

 

I finally got a good fit on the side window openings and the fit of the glass, so now some measurements and tomorrow, I will cut out some sides.  I got  my cnc router working like I like it and no glitches so far, so it should cut out some good sides, so we shall see. I will post some pictures when I get them cut. I did a little more looking into painting with the Spaz Stix and here is what they say to do.   Spaz Stix has a 3 part procedure.  First you spray the surface Spaz Stix black, than the silver, then they have a Spaz Stix clear.  I bought a kit with the three cans, so I will see how it goes.  I made another test with the Krylon and I sure like it, but the only thing is that the surface after drying is still tender, subject to smudging, so I am trying different types of clear finishes to see if that helps, might have to use the more expensive Spaz Stix paint, don't know yet, but I am impressed with the shininess of the new silver paints, event the Krylon. Bob.

Outstanding along with your work-around solutions, I am enjoying your project...

Thank you.  I just made my first cut of one of the sides of the sleeper car and will cut the other one when I get back from coffee and then I will post some pictures. Bob.

I have cut out both sides, but only removed the discard from one, so here it is. Came out very good, thanks to my cnc router, so I am on my way. Bob.

I am waiting for a drafting table that I ordered, so nothing to do, so I am going to make a two piece mold for the roof out of urethane, and will show you some pictures. Bob.

These diaphragms will flex. Bob.

Some of you might be interested in a test I just made with a Cricut Explore Air 2 die cutter. Cost about 200.00.   I just made a cut with 1mm==.040 inches styrene,  same thickness as I am making the Superliner sides out of.  I ran the cutter through twice and it cut about 70 per cent through, not bad, just as good as my cnc router did.  I will cut 12" by 24".  I had to bend back and forth to remove the parts, but no more than I had to do with my larger machine.  It prints with a pen also.  I used Turbocad for the file, a .dxf file.  The only thing that I didn't like, but maybe I don't know what I am doing, most likely, is that the drawing came into view huge and I had to reduce the size back down to the original.  There must be a way to match the measurements in Turbocad with the picture the comes up within the Explore screen, I will work on that.  This should be good for making parts from styrene sheets, better than doing by hand, here is a picture. Bob.

money is still tight right now so I haven't moved forward with any type cutters. I have also avoided any 3D printers hoping for better printing and lower costs.

I wanted to get that type of Cricket cutter to make vinyl masks for painting. Didn't think it could cut styrene.

I don't know what thickness you work with, but this cut .040 as good as my cnc router.  My router would probably cut better if I reworked the cutter.  The way it is set up now is I have a spring in my cutter holder and the spring determines how deep the blade will go.  I think with my cutter, I should put a stronger spring in it and then it would cut deeper.  The cut that I showed in the pictures only ran through twice and would have cut deeper if I ran it through 4 times.  I still have to figure out how to bring in a .dfx file with the same size as I drew in Turbocad.  The way it is now is, the drawing comes way too big and I have to reduce the size to what I want.  I want it to bring it in as I have drawn it in Turbocad and then I know the true size, don't know how to do that yet, but I just got the machine yesterday.  The part that I like is this machine has a pen and I hope to print the proper fonts for say, Santa Fe, on decal paper. Bob.

I found out something else about the Cricut cutter.  They came out with the Cricut Maker which has 10 times more blade pressure as the Cricut explore air 2.  This is probably the one to use for cutting styrene.  The Cricut explore air 2 has 400 grams of pressure and the Cricut Maker has 4000 grams of pressure, big difference.  I am sure that is a lot more pressure than my cnc router.  I am going to have to revamp it to get more pressure to go deeper into the plastic to make it easier to remove pieces of the plastic.  Well, I am dead in the water for now.  It is too cold here to pour urethane or epoxy, so until it heats up, I will have to figure out something else to do on the Superliner. Bob.

I am waiting for some urethane, so I am back on the Amfleet re scale.  I cut some window fills to make this thing look more realistic.  The windows on the amfleet are the same as on the Superliner, so I am filling the too large hole on the amfleet and using the frame that I made for the Superliner.  I cut them on my router with a drag knife. Bob.