USATC S-160 Consolidation

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Dick_Morris
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Dick_Morris »

A good photo of the casting that VOG sent to me.
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Crosshead casting reduced.jpg
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Benjamin Maggi
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Benjamin Maggi »

That is pretty neat!
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Sandiapaul
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Sandiapaul »

Thanks for the info on the casting technique, it seems to have worked well!
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makinsmoke
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by makinsmoke »

Hi Dick,
Thanks for the posts on 3d and casting Laird guides.

Any idea if you and your friend would be open to selling them and possible cost?

Thanks,
Brian
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Dick_Morris
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Dick_Morris »

Any idea if you and your friend would be open to selling them and possible cost?
Brian,

I've always held the belief that if I start charging for my hobby, it would no longer be a hobby.

I don't know if VOG would be interested in making a couple, but postage for even small parts from the U.K. tends to make things pretty expensive.

I don't object to him using my stl file to make a couple of the crossheads for someone else.
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Dick_Morris
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Dick_Morris »

My second and third attempts at lost PLA casting. The door dogs, only 5/8" long, came out well. The only finishing work required was to open the cast-in holes by about .010" and use a belt sander to remove the sprues.

This was my second attempt at the crosshead casting. The mould cracked on the first one and the bronze flowed out the bottom. The one pictured would be usable if the imperfections were repaired with a little bondo, but I'm going to cast a couple more because I'm sure I can do better.

Two photos show the parts immediately after casting and after the investment has been removed. The other two show them after the sprues have been removed. The crosshead still needs to be machined.
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Door dogs reduced.jpg
door dogs on door reduced.jpg
Crosshead2 reduced.jpg
Crosshead reduced.jpg
FKreider
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by FKreider »

I saw the VOG video but I had no idea this build thread was here, awesome! Glad I can follow along with your progress. I am currently set up for sand casting however I hope to move into investment casting within the next couple of years.
-Frank K.
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Dick_Morris
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Dick_Morris »

VOG has been at it again. This is what he did with the 3D drawing we used to make a replacement builder's plate for the prototype Alaska Railroad #557. I got a copy and sent it to him and this is what his efforts produced at 1/8 scale, 1.125" diameter. He has a video of it being produced at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDl3vzZy0qQ

This process has changed the way I've been looking at making some parts. The amount of detail he is getting prompted me to buy a 3D resin printer and I've spent the last few days on a learning curve to get good 3D prints that I can use for casting valve gear linkage parts. I think it's practical to expect that the cast parts will have enough precision that the only milling machine work will be to to drill and ream the holes.
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builder's 1 cropped.jpg
builder's 1 cropped.jpg (19.62 KiB) Viewed 14217 times
FKreider
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by FKreider »

Awesome!
-Frank K.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Dick, are the materials you use in your new 3 D printer, strong enuf to use directly as patterns? Charlie Pipes made up some Shapeways 3D printed 6” pony wheel patterns for me a few years ago. But he felt they weren’t strong enuf for the sand casting process, so made a mold and reproduced them in Quickcast for greater strength.

Just wondering if size makes a difference, or have the resins improved?

Thanks
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Dick_Morris
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by Dick_Morris »

Glenn - The short answer is yes.

I have two 3D printers which use different technologies, both bought within the past three months. (These things have become unbelievable cheap - I paid about $275 each. The total cost for both was $100 less than I spent on my first dot matrix printer 35 years ago.) Both would make patterns suitable for sand casting, but because of consumables' cost and build size, the filament printer would be better suited than the resin printer for sand casting patterns. The high resolution of the resin printer is better suited to investment casting. To use, the printed pattern from the filament printer would need to be painted and sanded to remove the small ridges left in the printing process so it would pull cleanly from the mould.

I have a couple of half finished 15" long main rods on my milling machine that I started several months ago. Because of the curves at the end of the flutes and around the ends they have taken many hours and set ups to get to this point and they will take several more hours to finish. On a CNC mill they would have been relatively easy to make. After getting my feet wet with 3D printing, I think I will be changing course and print a pattern on the filament printer and sand cast them in aluminum bronze. (Because my printer is limited to a 6" x 6" x 6" envelope, it will be printed in three pieces which I will glue together and put on a match plate) The prototypes were forgings, so after the casting is polished it should look like the prototype although nickel plating would make the color better.

The 3D drawing for the builder's plate in the video was originally drawn for a replacement for the plate for ARR 557 which was stolen at least 50 years ago. I tried to ram up in Petrobond a plastic pattern made on a 3D printer several times. The pattern didn't suffer, but the person who made the drawing wasn't able to put draft on the letters and I was unable to get a clean mould. A flexible mould was eventually made is was used to make wax patterns which were investment cast in iron as shown in the photo.

Here is a video showing use of a 3D printed pattern for sand casting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMn4ETyLpDc
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557 builder's plate reduced.jpg
FKreider
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Re: USATC S-160 Consolidation

Post by FKreider »

I just cast this safety valve dome the other day with a 3D printed pattern, had to ram up the mold 4 times in order to get it right and the print held up just fine. I wouldn't give it to a foundry to have a production run of parts made with it but its plenty strong enough for hand ramming.
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