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I always admired these rural utility poles that would pop in and out of the trees along the PA Turnpike somewhere out around Youngwood. They had these amazing big green insulators on them and I always thought they’d look cool on my layout. Recently wanting to try a resin printer, I went and snagged an Elegoo Mars 3 Pro and thought that trying to replicate those insulators in clear green would be a good first project. The insulators have vanished over the years but some quick internet searching led me to finding out that these poles also had many admirers in the insulator collector community. I was able to find out that the insulators were Hemingray Provo No. 0 types and was even able to locate some dimensions.

I doodled up a couple versions of the insulators in Tinkercad and then decided to try making the crossarms after finding scale drawings on Alamy of all places.

My first print was successful after a quick setup of the machine and installation of the slicer software. These were single piece upper and lower crossarms. Please excuse the mock-up and quickie paint job as I was excited to put them together and get some color onto them. I needed to see if I was onto something!

85A47628-3767-4B79-94D4-3BE6E1AE2AE8E1E6D6CA-4D46-4EBB-B7B6-6FBE1693C8EF2B8A6256-7623-4C4C-BED2-EF41E5A77952E863C0E5-3060-4D21-A2E0-A61E91372E74A4DC29A8-2A30-4790-B297-62039D3487CC

I thought it might be cool if I could print the insulators separately. I was thinking about mounting the insulators to the pins so you could see the pin inside the clear insulator. This time I modified the petticoats to be hollow with a hollow bushing to accept a crossarm pin. First print was a fail as I did them with the petticoats on the platen. I had only one survivor.

193847C2-BCBC-41F9-B241-B3636B6A37B77A423673-863E-45E0-96F5-E5B0D6E39E8D

On the next print I flipped them over and it seems most survived:

2D61116E-AB8E-497C-9736-660FDFCA3A74676C1977-EE52-4447-ADA0-A9DA6919603B

The next experiment will be to print the crossarms and pins in a solid color resin and then install the insulators after I assemble the poles.

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Last edited by Norm Charbonneau
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That’s funny, I just found a 42 this weekend out in the far reaches of western MI:

8F65E3C1-080A-4D83-A0DF-908A25D4D617

All, thanks for the kind words on my latest experiments! I hope to get back at it by the end of the week. The individual insulator print needs a few more tries. I may try to suspend them with supports on the next try. Can’t stick them to the petticoat as it is very thin. May try sticking them to the sides with them inverted. At least I can get a feel for the capability of this style of printer.

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Last edited by Norm Charbonneau
@GG1 4877 posted:

Very cool!  I used to collect insulators and still have hundreds of them in milk crates.  The colors and styles are so varied.

The most common insulator I found in the Mid-Atlantic was the Hemingray No. 42.  They came in several iterations and colors with the most common being aqua in color and having round drip points on the bottom.

May I suggest the Western Reserve Insulator Club.  Email newsletter is $7 a year.

https://www.insulators.info/clubs/wric.htm

Lou N

@Lou N posted:

May I suggest the Western Reserve Insulator Club.  Email newsletter is $7 a year.

https://www.insulators.info/clubs/wric.htm

Lou N

I'll look into it Lou.  I have an early edition Milholland guide and used to subscribe to "Crown Jewels of the Wire" during my teens and 20's when I collected most of mine.  Like a lot of my hobbies, I go through phases and sometimes circle back and sometime don't.  Still waiting to circle back on this one. 

I have about 30 in my collection that are considered rare or at least uncommon. 

However, for a layout I would personally stay away from the unusual colors as the most common colors were clear and green / aqua.  Only once did I see a carnival glass insulator on a pole in Hawely, PA and the pole was 40 feet tall.  Even as a fearless teen I wasn't about to shimmy up that pole!

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