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Reply to "Cost of New Tinplate Tooling"

riki posted:

News to me Bob.  I have only heard him talk. 3 d printing.

Riki,

I produce the Lee Lines Daylight, their aluminum passenger cars (engine is largely aluminum castings - all metal, cars are extruded aluminum with resin cast ends). Also producing the Harmon engines (Challenger, Hudson, Pacific) - these are all metal, aluminum castings, copper/brass, using bild a loco motors. Also the Harmon passenger cars (Bob Nelson's set for example). I did the CAD work on the car sides in order to get my water jet house to cut exact window patterns for the 1948 Hiawatha cars. Only the back half of the Skytop lounge is 3D printed. Those cars are all metal and pretty heavy.

Future stuff will be based on 3D printed models, attempting to make castable patterns so the shells will be all metal. Frames will be machined -  I have had good luck using aluminum extrusions as the basis, fitting the gears inside and using bronze bushings.

Bob's Harmon set is still one of a kind. I had a second set of the car sides made up so that I can either build for me or sell to others.

I have a local foundry that provides the castings from my patterns, they do pretty good work as well. And a good friend who works at a machine shop, so I can get fine machining done once in a while (the GG1 wheels for example are blackened CNC machined steel - extremely nice. )

Getting parts is getting tougher - thanks to Harry Hennings for all that he is doing. His suppliers are getting older too, and MTH is rapidly losing interest in standard gauge so parts are becoming more scarce - I pick them up as I can, especially Bild A Loco motors and the fine motors I'll use for the GG1's and other locos. And I typically build these locos and cars one set at a time, because each buyer usually wants something slightly different and I'm glad to customize to an extent.

Anybody got a medium sized milling machine they want to unload within a couple of hundred miles of South Jersey?

Jim

 

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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