Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

[Trussrod]

Good afternoon from Coarsegold,

According to Wunderground Weather it's 93.9°F going for a high of 95°F with Humidity of 9%, no wonder it feels so comfortable, and going for a low tonight of 61°F, much nicer sleeping weather.

Well I got some response on the last minute pre-sale of the Broadway Limited SW 1500 Switchers so that was good to see. Looks like it quite a nice Loco with lots of DC/DCC features to it.


Say Jeffrey,
[OUOTE]According to USPS tracking my Dremel chuck should arrive today. I've been using the old one this morning. It only jammed up twice. But then I only changed bits twice too. Getting the bit out requires that I remove the chuck and insert a small screwdriver in the rear of it and push the bit out. Then I have to use the screwdriver to force the chucks teeth open. After twelve plus years it's just worn out. No other plans for today.

I did something this morning I'm rather proud of. I changed out two light bulbs in an overhead fixture on my own. There's an exercise machine close by. So I balanced on my one foot and hung onto the exercise machine with my left hand while I reached up and changed the light bulbs out with my right hand. That's an accomplishment in itself.[/QUOTE]


I'm not sure which chuck you ordered, I hope it was the variable one that allows you to just use finger tightening and will hold the tinniest of drill bits on up to the larger size Dremel mandrel shafts. It one heck of a time saver and no locking wrench required as with the old collets and nut arrangement Dremel had.
Also I really enjoy my cordless 10.8 volt Lithimum Battery Dremel tool as it so convenient to use without a cord and has plenty of power and the battery recharges fairly quickly, about 20 minutes if not fully drained.


Now as far as changing the light bulb that was very good just be sure of your of easily excessable hand holds as you did. It just requires a bit of extra engineering.


On a different note about window glazing: A few months back I placed an order with Micro Mart for a couple of bottles of their [wonder] Window Glazing and decided to try it out on an Old Mantua Bobber Caboose I have and run and even though the window sizes, are not that large but one complete opening of about a .25" x 3/16" I figured the stuff should work fine as the old stuff I had from another source, worked fine in larger openings.

Well this stuff would adhear from edge to edge and looked like it was going to work great only to have it let go at one point or another so it didn't form a window pane as proclaimed and I'm rather disappointed.

If it did work like the old stuff it was an easy way to glaze any bare openings you wanted too.


Oh, I thought I'd mention that the Soldering Station, a Weller Style, I bought from Micro Mark which has an infinitely variable heat control, I use mine set at about 400* and even though it takes a bit of time to warm up it cool to hold and solders great. I did grind the pencil point tip into a chizzel < tip though. So far it has plenty of heat to solder the code 70 rail to the PC strips as well as together at the point> of the frog so it should work out fine for not to much of a price.

That's about it for now.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and safe one too!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Say Jeffrey,I'm not sure which chuck you ordered, I hope it was the variable one that allows you to just use finger tightening and will hold the tinniest of drill bits on up to the larger size Dremel mandrel shafts. It one heck of a time saver and no locking wrench required as with the old collets and nut arrangement Dremel had.

That be the one!

 

[kbkchooch]

I'm not sure which chuck you ordered, I hope it was the variable one that allows you to just use finger tightening and will hold the tinniest of drill bits on up to the larger size Dremel mandrel shafts. It one heck of a time saver and no locking wrench required as with the old collets and nut arrangement Dremel had.

I've got 2 of these, and the are OK for light duty stuff. However I find that with die grinders, routing bits or grinding stones, they get loose from vibration. I keep 1 Dremel with the manual collets on it for the "heavy stuff" so I don't get too exasperated chasing attachments across the floor!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Get loose? I never had that problem. If anything the chuck got tighter. I frequently had to use pliers to loosen it.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Disassembled the Varney F3 drive today for an inspection and I liked most of what I saw. There's very little wear on the gears (all plastic). The front (shaft driven) truck was clean. I found a couple of small metal filings in the rear (power) truck and fished them out with tweezers. I can't find any part of the loco they could have come from so I suspect they could have gotten in through the lube hole in the bottom of the truck. The motor is a bit dirty therefore stiff. It can wait until I have access to my cleaning supplies, whenever that is. Probably a couple of months. My father is happy that I'm 'playing' with cheap trains again instead of expensive computers. Little does he know that I'm simply alternating hobbies. Boy will he be surprised! The F3 I polished the other day is already tarnishing so I guess Zamac tarnishes pretty quickly. Got my new Dremel chuck today. For those who are curious it's the type that you tighten with your fingers, just like the old one.

Well that's all for today. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[Boris]

My Varneys were from the mid '60s. That leaves a whole lot of room from the Late 40s to compare to. It is good to see your "Frankenstein Locomotive Shop" actively rebuilding old junk into useful power. It's also good to hear that you are getting about, and becoming "adventuresome". It's impossible to keep a good man down.

My wife's visit to the Doctor was unusual, in that the road to the office was obstructed by the Police. Seems that earlier in the day, a garbage truck took out a power pole, and JCP&L was still attempting to repair the problem. In any event, the Doctor's office resorted to battery powered LED Coleman Lanterns for power, and the Doc had to actually write prescriptions the old fashioned way. Da Boss's prognosis was favorable, with a large degree of improvement.

On the way home, we stopped at Wegman's and selected a gourmet Fish entree, (Talapia) with a veggie course for dinner. prep was to bake the fish and stir fry the veggies. Fantastic!

Time to go, have a good evening,

Joe

 

[railfan]

Here is a multi-purpose train that originated from my main line earlier today......and by now it must be hundreds of miles....OUT THERE .....somewhere? I'm not sure. Please come home little sheeba!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVNIBoGcMXc&feature=youtu.be

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Saturday, September 7, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

80s today with possibility of rain late.

 

[Bruette]

First of all and since I am in the coffee shop good mooring everybody!

That is my kind of train! I like that!

What does that Chessie covered hopper have in it? Maybe it's sugar from Domino's sugar in Baltimore? That was my favorite car on the train, but I am biased towards Chessie and if it was B&O too! My eyes are not good enough to tell as it went by, but the good thing about watching trains on video, I replayed it. I still could not see if it was B&O but I liked see it again!

Thanks for sharing it!

Louis

Here is a multi-purpose train that originated from my main line earlier today......and by now it must be hundreds of miles....OUT THERE .....somewhere? I'm not sure. Please come home little sheeba!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVNIBoGcMXc&feature=youtu.be

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My Varneys were from the mid '60s. That leaves a whole lot of room from the Late 40s to compare to. It is good to see your "Frankenstein Locomotive Shop" actively rebuilding old junk into useful power.

If you look at my first photo in reply #795 you see two Varney F3A's. The one on the left (undecorated) is from the late forties/early fifties time frame. It was originally a dummy unit but is now on an Athearn blue box powered drive. The one on the right (Burlington) is from the sixties. It has a plastic body, metal frame with metal trucks, plastic gears and drive shaft, DC-71 Pittman motor.

 

[Boris]

Good Morning:

It's a chilly 47° and sunny this morning. Looks like another nice day.

The F3 on the right resembles what I was referring to. Jeffrey. Only, as I recall, the plastic body has an exaggerated cast vestibule on the rear end, and only a 4 wheel drive. Could be wrong about that, my family moved while I was on active duty with the Army, and much of my stuff was never seen again.

Have a good day!

Joe

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The F3 on the right resembles what I was referring to. Jeffrey. Only, as I recall, the plastic body has an exaggerated cast vestibule on the rear end, and only a 4 wheel drive. Could be wrong about that, my family moved while I was on active duty with the Army, and much of my stuff was never seen again.

The four wheel drive models I know of had cast metal bodies and Pittman DC-60 motors. The first Varney F3 I know of to have a plastic frame and plastic body was offered from 1955 to 1961 and was tauted as "Brute Drive". It had the Pittman DC-60 and eight wheel drive. Models offered after that were considered RTR and had plastic frame, body and trucks, had eight wheel drive and were powered by the Japanese KM-1 motor. Not the best choice for a motor as they had quality issues and were considered to be unreliable. The earlier F3's were made ith a higher standard and were powered by Pittman motors ranging from the DC-60 to the DC-71 (that I know of) and many examples are still running today.

 

[Espeefan]

My father is happy that I'm 'playing' with cheap trains again instead of expensive computers. Little does he know that I'm simply alternating hobbies.

I do that too. I switch off from my trains to my 1/32 slot cars. Keeps me from getting burned out on either one. It's also fun to open up the throttle on a slotcar and go like hell down the track after all that slow speed freight train operation!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 77° with 90% humidity. The high will be 95° but will feel like 103°.

with a

Nothing special going on today. I have my eye on a few Ebay auctions. Nothing planned for today but I'm sure something will turn up.

 

[Boris]

Models offered after - 1961 - that were considered RTR and had plastic frame, body and trucks, had eight wheel drive and were powered by the Japanese KM-1 motor. Not the best choice for a motor as they had quality issues and were considered to be unreliable. The earlier F3's were made ith a higher standard and were powered by Pittman motors ranging from the DC-60 to the DC-71 (that I know of) and many examples are still running today.

The ones I had were purchased between 1962 and 1964, so they fit in the final category. Varney still had a good reputation back then, so these were a real disappointment. Although my then LHS criticized Athearn's "rubber band drive", he sold a lot of them. He would always push the Mantua RTR (Tyco) F9s, which were another F7 version, the powered A contained dual drive motors (pancake?). The second A was unpowered.I never had the money to buy the Mantuas, but I could afford the Athearns and Varneys.

I had forgotten about a lot of these older diesels, until you started commenting on them, and acquiring them.

Joe

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

He would always push the Mantua RTR (Tyco) F9s, which were another F7 version, the powered A contained dual drive motors (pancake?).

The Mantua F9 used the MU-2 motor that was built into the truck. It wasn't a pancake but a regular with dual shaft ends that were geared directly to the axles. These motors gave good service if maintained properly and were in Tyco/Mantua locos for the most part until Tyco introduced it's badly designed and cheaply built Power Torque drive that brought on the end of whatever quality Tyco locos had.

*

Been working on the metal F3A this morning. I cut out the front coupler opening in the pilot and I drilled out the portholes. That was almost like w*rk! The coupler opening isn't exactly squared but it's good enough for me. I drilled a pilot hole with a 1/8" bit from the back side. Then using a cordless slow speed drill I went to the next bigger bigger bit and wallowed the hole out to either side then went to the next bigger bit, etc until I got up to 1/4". I then used an engraving bit of all things to square the hole (oval at that point) as much as I could.

For the portholes I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole dead center in each one without a drill press, just my Dremel held in my hand. It took a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of care. I then used the cordless drill again as I had to go to a 5/32" bit then a 3/16". Using my Dremel again I used a small diamond bit to clean up the holes and remove any burs. Now for the photos.

 

[railfan]

Nice work Jeffrey. Very unique metal body with all the modifications.

 

[railfan]

What does that Chessie covered hopper have in it? That was my favorite car on the train, but I am biased towards Chessie and if it was B&O too! Thanks for sharing it!

Louis

You bet Louis! It does say C & O on it. Chessie and Ohio I guess. It is one of my favorite hoppers too. I'm afraid to open it up though. I bought it second hand......so I'm not sure where it's been or who messed with it.

 

[Bruette]

Hey Railfan,

That is Chesapeake & Ohio.

I'm with you, I would not open it, let them deal with it when it gets to the customer!

Thanks again for sharing it with us, I enjoyed watching it.

Louis

You bet Louis! It does say C & O on it. Chessie and Ohio I guess. It is one of my favorite hoppers too. I'm afraid to open it up though. I bought it second hand......so I'm not sure where it's been or who messed with it.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Won another Varney all-metal F3A in an Ebay auction today, one of the very few times I've bothered to compete in one. I usually just pay the 'Buy-It-Now' price and be done with it. However this time there weren't any on the buy it now list but there were close to a dozen on the auction list. I tried for a pair of Varney metal F3B shells last night but was outbid and the same on a metal F3A this morning. Third time was the charm. Put in a max bid of $21 and I came out as top bidder. It should be here by the end of this coming week, sometime from the 10th to the 12th. I intend to put it on an Athearn drive like I did the one I worked on today.