That's good input. I just did a search and Amazon has it for $27 plus change. It's expensive, but if it works then it's worth it. Besides, I get my retirement from Henkel so giving them some business is a good thing. I'm going to buy it. How's its shelf life? BTW: to keep CA for a long time, put it in the freezer. It stops it from curing due to atmospheric moisture. Henkel is now the world's largest producer of CA. They make it machines that are kept below freezing.
Exercise day so only a couple of hours. Finished the drop platforms by crafting some lift cylinders and mounting them.
The cylinders themselves are Plastruct 1/8" tubing. The piston rod is 1/16" steel rod I had lying around. The ends are some Evergreen styrene bar cut cubic, drilled for the 1/16" steel. After putting the two together with CA I shaped the curved end on a sanding block and drill for 1/32" brass rod. The holes were then located on the load rack and pin with the brass rod. The whole deal is held together with CA.
I added some NBWs to dress up the assembly. These may be a tad oversized, but once on the layout towards the back wall, behind all of the other plant units, it will not be seen. It's just for my enjoyment.
I noticed on the picture that their drop platforms had a shaft that extended from one side to the other so I installed one here. It too terminates with NBWs.
Here is the rack with the racks installed. I'm glad I elected to put on these details. They make sense. If this model was produced by Tamiya or Trumpeter instead of Plastruct, all of these details and many more would have been included.
I then started building the "flexible" tank filling apparatus. It won't move, nor would I want it to since it would surely move into the path of an oncoming train. I used the picture I had to guesstimate it shape and size.
I'm basically using solid 1/16" brass rod, plus some larger tubing which it telescopes into. I made some flexible joints by slicing off some Plastruct 1/8" pipe using the micro saw and a v-block to hold and align the saw. The slices are very thin.
I couldn't move the joints over the bar when the bends were made so I would put on a joint, make a bend, put on the next joint and so on. Then I had to add a larger piece, and finally solder this to a pivot tube with a diagonal brace. This was done with the RSU. Because I had those plastic donuts already installed I used a forceps to act as a heat sink so the plastic wouldn't melt.
Here's the first one sitting on the drawing from which it was created.
Here is it separate so you can better see what's going on. There's a counterbalance cylinder that mounts on top of the main piece which I'll add.
I took the whole deal back to the railroad and positioned the fill apparatus where it would mount on the rack and checked clearance. It ran into the top of my auto rack so I re-bent the arms to position the nozzle end in its safest position. I'm also going mount the rack another 1/4" farther from the track then I originally chose just to add more safety margin from collisions.
I stil have more stuff to do on this arm including the pipe couplings at the bottom which connects to the supply system, and the pivot assembly that mounts to the rack itself. Full work session tomorrow (other than having the HVAC tech coming) so I should probably finish it up. Also, made two more light housings.
