Third Rail Chairs - N Gauge 3D printed, pack of 100

[LASteve]

Mine's the 14th. Must be something about Virgo perfectionists....

Bob

Bob, you'll be happy to know that your old blue-grey 4-CEP will be the "crash test dummy" - sorry, prototypical trial unit - on the new insulators.

[themadhippy]

   

It's my birthday next week.

    Really?   Mine's on the 21st    Small world, eh?


Mine's the 14th. Must be something about Virgo perfectionists....

seems it wasn't just my parents who saw  the new year in with a bang

[RBTKraisee]

Just a quick update:   The 1.5x size chairs turned out too large.   I'm printing some at 1.2x now.   I'll take photo's and post them to the guys in the morning.

Ross.

[RBTKraisee]

I have replaced Steve and Dave's chairs with the slightly larger 1.2x version and put them in the post today, so we'll give it a few days for those packages to arrive and we'll see what they say.

Dave actually whipped-up a quick test piece using the original size parts and painted three, one in black, one brown and one white.   He sent me a picture privately by PM so I shan't post it myself, but it looked really cool and I think we can all encourage him to share the picture here

Ross.

[David7]

Dave actually whipped-up a quick test piece using the original size parts and painted three, one in black, one brown and one white.   He sent me a picture privately by PM so I shan't post it myself, but it looked really cool and I think we can all encourage him to share the picture here

OK, arm twisted, but please bear in mind this was a quick mock-up to test the chairs and various colours of paint on the rail and track bed. You will need to overlook the over-scale ballast, it was all I had on hand.

The chairs are tiny, but with care can be fixed to the sleepers quite easily with superglue. This piece of track is Peco code 55 with concrete sleepers. The angled chair (10 degrees) fits fine. I secured the code 40 rail using a general purpose glue (E6000) as it allows more time to adjust the 3rd rail before curing. It seems to hold quite securely.

As Ross mentioned I painted them different colours - from left to right: black, brown, white. The black and brown become hard to see when the track is weathered, so I am inclined to keep them white, or white-ish, even though their real life equivalents would be rather mucky.



The next step is to test the new version on a curved section of track.

[RBTKraisee]

Thanks David!

As the very first attempt to use these, I think that needed a mention, and I for one think they look pretty cool in white

Ross.

[RBTKraisee]

After a bout of computer sickness I'm back on the case again and as a treat I picked up one of these today - its a Jaxa Wrench, normally used for removing the backs of wrist watches, but here it will be converted into an inexpensive rail bender.   It cost me a whopping $7

Although the original guy who converted one of these into a rail bender drilled his out to use larger bolts to mount full bearings on them, I'm going to try to cheat and 3D print a set of rollers that will just slot straight into the fittings (perhaps strengthened with a central brass rod).   They might very well not be strong enough (I just don't know) but drilling the fittings isn't something I'm comfortable doing without a drill press, and mine is currently not local to me so I'm trying to find a simple alternative.

With a little luck, I'll hopefully be able to experiment with bending some track a little later this week

Ross.

[njee20]

Unless you're trying to bend to really small radii I can't see how that'll be any use? The rail is far too flexible. If you buy a 10m length of code 40 from the 2mm SA it comes rolled up into a 6" coil, and that immediately springs back when you 'unwind' it.

It's not a tool I've ever heard of being used in track building.

[Thebaz]

I believe that the chairs should be at 4,6 or 8 sleeper spacing dependant on curvature, etc according to clag.org.uk, so I have worked on 6. I built a test section this year using dressmakers puns on every fourth sleeper and it looked a bit too many, but 8 looked too few. Bearing in mind I have a lot of points that will take up some more. If I assume 6 per foot then that should bring it down to around 2000........ A bulk discount would be good, might help a bit with the postage. I'm quite happy to be a UK distributor to save on collective postage, with the only proviso being I'm not actually living in the UK! We've sold up in France and are due back mid-October, so happy to be involved from then.

Dave

I counted the chairs at my local station the gap seems to be 7 in the main. Which conveniently happens to be right inbetween your two guesses. I then used this on my layout.

Sadly I'm a bit too late for these chairs and have used track pins painted white instead. They're so small though it's just not going to notice. I could be interested on a future layout - it would certainly save on repeated drilling into sleeper edges with the Archimedes bit.

[Southerngooner]

Glad to hear I was in the right area! I think you'd still need to drill holes with these, particularly on corners, but on straights it's probably going to be OK.

Dave

[Mr Sprue]

I trust you guys aren't going to try gluing these pots to Peco Flexi Track sleepers are you?

[Southerngooner]

I was going to take the original advice and use the sprue to fix into a hole, but also see how glue worked without drilling. Why, do you think there will be a problem?

Dave

[Calnefoxile]

Ok I'm sold. I'll take 4 packs should be enough to do Hedges Hill Cutting.

I've got the 2mmSA Code 4 and it seems a lot more flexible than Peco Code 55 or 80 (Which is actually the same just a different profile)

Just let me know how I get hold of some, i.e who's doing the 'importing' for dispatch in the UK.

Cheers

Neal.

P.S. Happy birthday to Ross for today and anyone else who's birthday month is September along with mine 

[emjaybee]

At last, some who recognise that September is the best birth month.

[Southerngooner]

I did a test piece of 450mm of 2mm code 40 on Brickmakers Lane, on a sweeping curve of about 1.2m radius, and it needed to be soldered to every other pin (spaced at one every four sleepers) to keep it's shape. I suspect every 6 sleepers and glue might be OK......

Dave