unklian
Western Thunderer
I wondered if any body else on WT got excited about this level of finickyness with track work ?!!
So I thought you guys would like to see what Mike Williams and I have been up to ( and with his approval of course ). Mike had some very nice 3D prints done of LNWR chairs and he tasked me with casting a small quantity in order to make a few lengths of track to display models on. I used the prints to make silicone moulds and then cast the chairs in resin ( the beige ones in the pictures ). The 'fun' bit was turning them into metal. The three bolt heads caused the biggest problem as, with the pattern orientated to cast the gap for the rail, they created a nasty undercut. You may be able to see where this has torn out on the left hand chair in the close up of the G3 assembled sample. Strangely this hasn't cause such a problem with the G1 ones so far. One solution I have tried now with a second go at the G3 ones is to leave off one bolt head and lead the split line through the other two. Which has worked but now the missing bolt head has to be added separately. The process for casting in resin allows for a much more flexible mould and so I have left the bigger end chairs in resin for now. We are assuming of course that resin chairs would not be strong enough for general use.
This last picture is the Gauge 1 castings .
So any thoughts or ideas, anyone else looking for a small quantity of company specific chairs ? I am probably sticking my neck out here, but please don't expect me to make thousands straight away. Or is there a much simpler type of chair out there ?
So I thought you guys would like to see what Mike Williams and I have been up to ( and with his approval of course ). Mike had some very nice 3D prints done of LNWR chairs and he tasked me with casting a small quantity in order to make a few lengths of track to display models on. I used the prints to make silicone moulds and then cast the chairs in resin ( the beige ones in the pictures ). The 'fun' bit was turning them into metal. The three bolt heads caused the biggest problem as, with the pattern orientated to cast the gap for the rail, they created a nasty undercut. You may be able to see where this has torn out on the left hand chair in the close up of the G3 assembled sample. Strangely this hasn't cause such a problem with the G1 ones so far. One solution I have tried now with a second go at the G3 ones is to leave off one bolt head and lead the split line through the other two. Which has worked but now the missing bolt head has to be added separately. The process for casting in resin allows for a much more flexible mould and so I have left the bigger end chairs in resin for now. We are assuming of course that resin chairs would not be strong enough for general use.
This last picture is the Gauge 1 castings .
So any thoughts or ideas, anyone else looking for a small quantity of company specific chairs ? I am probably sticking my neck out here, but please don't expect me to make thousands straight away. Or is there a much simpler type of chair out there ?