Containers made of Paper

Paper Containers

How many of you have seen this video:

I watched it.  At the same time I was trying to think of something my daughter and I could do together for our Thursday art project.

I've got considerable experience in photo printing and photo mounting and this video caught my interest.  It looked good enough that I went ahead and bought the whole package of containers.  This is my report....

Here is the link to the place I got them from: http://www.shippingcontainermodels.com/

First, let me show you how some of mine turned out:

Pretty cool actually.  What I have to say about these containers is that, while they won't likely be carried on my well cars, they will help me make a massive container facility.  They cost next to nothing to make.  Once you pay your $27 for a set of pdf's, you can make as many as you want as often as you want.

It's as easy as they show in the video.  After making about my 3rd container, I got it down to making several at a time.  I'm going to do an experiment in a couple days where I see how many I can make while watching a movie.

Here are some tips I have for an improved method of making these containers:

1.  They look fine on plain paper, use regular paper for most of your work.  Using high quality presentation paper makes them more vivid and is better for the most prominent containers that you might photograph or scenes where only a couple containers are present.

2.  Use regular Elmer's Glue All (plain white glue) instead of super glue, it has working time that super glue doesn't.  Also, the first couple I made got a ton of super glue on my fingers.

3.  Use card stock instead of cereal boxes.  It's easier to get and you don't have to raid all your cereal boxes.

4.  Use Elmer's spray adhesive (or for 3x as much money use 3M Photo Mount) to attach the paper to the card stock.

5.  Don't worry if the paper and card stock don't line up because you're cutting it up anyways.

6.  A heavy roller used for countertops and laminates works the best for smoothing the paper and card stock after you use spray adhesive.

7.  Use a rotary cutter if you have it to do the rough trimming, if you don't, then use a decent box cutter and steel ruler for the cuts where you cut material away.  I wrecked 3 different types of rulers before getting out the steel ruler.  The wood ruler with the metal strip is now the wood ruler that formerly had a metal strip.

8.  For the scoring, an xacto #17 blade and a machinists ruler works great.

I'm making some more so I'll continue to update on this project.....

The Kumu Diagram

I'm working on planning for my next layout, which believe it or not is basically a 4-6 track loop.  So what I did was take some of my data and use a social engineering diagram algorithm and this it what I got so far:

I used the Kumu website to do this and Adobe Fireworks to make the image.  Check it out, it's kind of interesting.

Update of Heljan B807 Brewery

So I put two Heljan B07 breweries together for my massive Apollo Brewery complex and here is a little update on what the look like without the side buildings...

Piko BR 55 and electrical shorts

So....you've got a Piko BR 55 and it doesn't run, in fact the red light on you transformer comes on anytime you try to apply power to it...

This is the model we're talking about:

This thing is a bowl of spaghetti when it comes to electrical.  If you fix anything on it you will cause a short in the main pickup underneath.

I've just recently repaired a number of these locomotives and have found them to be advanced projects.  Getting the linkage right after quartering requires a hell of a lot of patience.  There is only one way it can be done, then you have to rotate the wheels to do the same thing on the other side.  Once you do that the previous side needs be done all over again.

Next, if you touch the linkage at all after you're done, you will be starting over, only this time you will notice that a couple bushings have come out forcing you to start again. Each time you get back together another bushing will come out.  Once you reach maximum frustration you will glue them all back in place permanently.

Finally you get it all together and then test it only to discover it shorts.  This short will be the toughest thing to troubleshoot.  And guess what? The first thing you have to do is disassemble everything.

After finally isolating the short, fixing it and putting it all back together - you will find that there is another short.  The last short is the toughest to cure.  You could hard wire everything, but that creates a problem with tolerances.  You can also insulate everything and that has its own problems.

Finally you choose a method of fixing the short and it works.  However all the linkage is hanging down and you back to step 1.

Have fun with this one...

Small Plastic Gear Repair

I was working on a Piko BR 86 that had a worn out idler gear.  The locomotive could run forward, but not backward.  Upon inspection of the gear I observed that the teeth were worn away on the side engaged when going in reverse.

I researched everything I could find about methods used to repair, remake and fabricate gears.  I learned a lot and chose to try a method where I would use baking soda and super glue.  When mixed, these two products make a very hard cement like substance.

My plan was to carefully wrap the gear with foil and then apple the baking soda and super glue to the gaps.

Once I had the foil on I noticed that it was a lot more durable than I expected.  The method of making the foil fit the gear is to turn it with its mate.  While doing this I noticed that it actually worked pretty good.  There's a few rips and tears, but they don't matter because the gear is just slightly bigger now making for a deeper mate with the worm gear.

Another benefit is the fact that the torque of the metal worm gear is applied to another metal surface making for a smoother working part.  So I just added a couple drops of superglue to hold it in place and it works pretty good.  When it finally wears out, it's easily replaced.

Here's a picture:

Caring for and Quartering of Steam Locomotives

Caring for Liliput Class 91 2-6-0 Steam Locomotives

1. DO NOT handle the locomotive by the drivers or they WILL bind and the locomotive will stall and need to be quartered.
2. Use two hands to handle the locomotive and beware small details – one hand on the cab and one hand on the valve gear.
3. A Rix Railer is a nice tool to have when placing locomotives and cars on the track.
4. DO NOT run the locomotive at maximum power if at all possible – the locomotive has enough power to throw itself out of quarter even without moving a train.  Slow speeds will keep the locomotive from binding.
5. If the locomotives stalls, expect there to be a bind in the drivers that requires quartering.
6. To prevent binding, an eyeglass screw has been used on the fireman’s side front driver.  At high speeds or heavy loads you will throw this rod off.  Gently replace the driver back onto the screw and reduce speed or lighten the train.
7. The main gears have been lubed with white lithium.  This grease is especially good at NOT spreading all over everything.  When cold, this grease is stiff.  A couple medium speed warm-up laps results in a very smooth and quiet operation.
8. DO NOT perform a torque test. This is not a diesel locomotive.  The torque test will cause a bind and will require the locomotive to be quartered.
9. Operate with small cuts of cars – this is a small shunting locomotive that was not meant to shove heavy trains.  Build trains a few cars at a time and leave the heavy work to heavy class locomotives.
10. You can learn to quarter your locomotive.  First study the forums and all the advice you can get then apply this rule:

On the Engineer’s side all driving lugs are placed at 12 o’clock.

Rotate the loco as if on a turntable.

Now on the Fireman’s side all driving lugs need to be matched at 3 o’clock.

Think carefully before twisting a wheel into proper quarter.

One wheel at a time.

Have patience.  This skill is very hard at first, then very easy once you catch on.

After you fail 3 times, stop and goto a Yogi and have him slap you in the face 27 times then drink a 6 pack of beer and start over.

Marklin Layouts and DCC

So I have a friend who is a Marklin modeler.  His thing is scenery, but with this new layout he has he got Marklin DCC and asked me to do the electrical.  Now I've never worked with AC trains before so I was a bit unsure of what to do.  I studied up a bit and brought my tool box over and went to work.

First thing that happened was I determined that we didn't have the right power supply, completely wrong model.  So he over-nighted the correct power supply but it came with a bare wire adapter.

So I went to Radio Shack which was still open but almost empty and they still had the plug matching station with most plugs still on the rack.  The M plug fit the best, but they didn't have one, so I took the next best thing which was the K plug.

I installed the K plug and and tested the voltage at 20 volts.  Everything was perfect.

Then, since I can read German I was easily able change the language on the Mobile Station to English and start using the functions to troubleshoot the trains....

One at a time I tested the 3 locomotives.  2 only buzzed very faintly and 1 does run for 8 seconds then stops.  Then when I press the stop button again it goes another 8 seconds, but no reverse and no speed control.....

and the troubleshooting goes on.....