Ditch light instalation


Those were 5mm Red LEDs that I turned down on a lathe to exact fit. Same for the Ditch lights which used 5mm golden white LEDs. When the hole is to deep or to small I use 1 LED and Fiber Optic as I did with the B40-8 in the Photo thread.

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Mark that is amazing! I could not imagine turning an LED down on a lathe. You truely are hardcore when it comes to lighting.
 
IDK about hardcore but its one of the main reasons I bought a lathe. After making and selling a bunch of marker light kits I invested the money in a milling machine to so now I can make lots of different parts and modify whatever I want accurately.

Here is a set I have made using Overland castings.

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I've been able to turn down some LED's w/a fine file, but they are pretty ragged, but they work. I had to fit them many many times in the hole before I got what I needed. A lathe would work 100% better. Mark, how about 1 of those cheap lathes at Harbor Freight? It's a miniature wood lathe. A metal lathe turns a lot slower than 1 for wood & a high speed 1 would heat up the bulb to fast. I'll start watching yard sale for small lathes.
 
I picked up both the lathe and milling machine from Harbor Freight. Then I modified them with various parts from littlemachineshop.com. Considering I also wanted to work on metal the wood lathe didn't fit my requirements and with a machining background I know what I wanted out of the machines and I do have plans in the future to make them both CNC when time and money permit.
 
MGWSY said:
I get all my LEDs from EBay as I found out that they are the cheapest. I got lucky with the round white ones and got 2 3000pc rolls for a nice price. There is a guy that sells Warm White LEDs in various SMD sizes for a good price to. The warm ones ended up being 10 cents each so I bought 1000 to tinker with. They are from Hong Kong and arrived quickly seller is bestshop2008hk. Its a lot better then paying between $2.00 - $3.00 per LED like some of the US sites are charging. I use the 0603 size for my installs. Below are some pics of 2 different LEDs the smaller square one being a 0603 size.

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Click to expand...

I just tried searching for bestshop2008k and didnt find anything. Are there any current sellers on ebay right now for these 0603 lights?

Also. Im intested in completely re-lighting a bunch of modern Athearn BB diesels and im wondering what Kelvin scale these warm white leds might be? Kelvin seems to be a scale of light temperature which the higher the kelvin the more blue in the white color light. Do you happen to know what Kelvin number works best for modern diesels?

EDIT. I found bestshop2008K but it must be bestshop2008Hk. I just happened to search for 0603 LEDs and they came right up.
 
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Here is an Athearn CNW unit that I am working on for another forum member. I removed the light bulbs , turned down 5mm Warm White LEDs to.062" Dia for the Headlights and assembled them. Here are the results which look much better then the lightbulbs which are to small for the openings. Working on the ditchlights next.

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Mark, is .062 the standard hole size for Athearn engines or just the Dash 9 in this case? What about headlight spacing?
 
The .062" was for this unit and it slightly varies for each loco model. But they are pretty close. I will have to measure each model and make a list for future reference. For Athearn I still have a RTR GP38-2, 3 GP60m's, 3 SD40-2's, 1 SD38, 7 Genesis SD60I/M, 3 SD70M's, and a bunch of other units to do.
 
Sizes vary from .070" to .060".

For the ditchlights I drilled the original castings out to accept a DW Lens on the front and a surface mount 0603 LED from behind. I used Microscale Kristal Klear to secure the LEDs in the housing. Then I routed the magnet wire along the body slowly securing it with dabs of CA. Wired them up to test them and then soldered everything to the decoder..
 
Typically $35 - $55 depending on Loco and Decoder used. Price includes parts and labor for Front and Rear Headlights and Ditchlights if unit is equipped. If unit needs Ditchlights then add price for DL castings + $6 per end.
 
You should do an article on this. It would be a big hit. Im a big CNW guy and have a few of those CNW units you show in the pics. This is right up my alley.
 
Hey Mark just wondering if you sell LED conversions for the bulbs in Athearn SW1500's? Also, have you ever modified the class lights on an SW1500 so that they work?

I would like to buy some LEDS for the headlights at the very least if you have them available.:)
 
Mark G

I'm trying my hand at changing lamps to LED's. Seemed simple enough. It's a Proto 2000 GP38-2. The infamous ones where the decoder burns up because the lights are wired wrong. I fixed the wiring, the decoder is safe (Digitrax DH165LO) and I thought putting a small brass tube in to hold the LED's in place was a great idea. I'm re-thinking that as I don't think there is enough space between the weight and shell to even sneeze at!

First, what gauge wire to you use for the headlight assemblies? Yours are really nice, I have some room (large room) for improvement. Do you solder the resistor near the LED or the other end? How do you hold the wire to the LED in order to get a good solder connection?

I'm getting back into modeling railroads and of course, picked a HARD project, rather than a drop in the decoder and run it.

Thanks in advance,
Scott - Virginia Beach, VA
 
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