Sounds good... but I'm not so sure I'd trust it. I suspect there would be a lot of inconsistencies in the expansion of the mold due to (possible) variances in the density of the mold and possible air pockets in the mold... and you'd end up with something resembling a flexed slinky. LOL
But seriously ... John Degnan [email protected] Poster Child For Moderation ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Werre" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 11:33:14 AM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Re:amazing new kitbashing product Along with Pieter discussion about kit bashing different types of GE engines, I might mention about an amazing possibility that was brought to my attention last evening. The San Jacinto Model RR club is a group of all sorts of modelers, in all levels and in all scales. One of our members is quite famous in the G world. Barry Bogs has scratachbilt and won many awards for his work in casting parts and assembling both steam and diesel engines. Barry had indicated that he dreamed of just shrinking things or enlarging things for his needs. Well, last night he introduced an industrial product that is locally made that comes in two versions that fills that dream. One version has the ability to expand a mold and the other shrinks it. A friend of his introduced him to the product because he wanted to reduce things, while Barry wants to enlarge. My understanding is that this modeler is already using it to reduce the size of HO shells to N scale. I'm told he's selling the results on E-bay in the $500 range. The process involves pouring this product around an item. After curing the resulting mold. it is then submerged in plain water. After several days the mold will expand as much as 60%. After that a more typical RTV copy of the mold is made and urethane castings are then poured. If the mold gets too large you simply let the water evaporate from the mold until the correct size is reached, then at that point the mold is then kept in an air-tight bag to prevent any further changes. We were shown expanded copies of a silver dollar. After three stages of 60% enlargements it reached the size of a dinner plate. All this happens without losing detail. Barry hasn't had the opportunity to play with it personally, but the product is reasonably priced and readily available--the downside is I've forgotten the name of the company. I'll have to make some phone calls and find out the exact name, but they do have a website and U-tube videos showing the process. And to prove we can always learn something new, the main speaker at the event last night dealt with setting standards for operations--things like car weight, trucks and wheels. I know Ed L and Dick K and others have talked about this several times. Many of his points were well known to me, but he brought up lubrication of both wheel bearing (where necessary) and gearboxes. He highly favors automatic transmission fluid for nearly everything. He likes it in gearboxes because it sticks to the gear without being thrown to the sides of the box. He likes it for brass type wheel bearings because it doesn't seem to attract dust and fiber. He also indicated that plastic wheels build up a charge that will actually attract dust from the ballast unto the wheels. I've heard that statement in the past but this guy was an electrical engineer, so his opinion did carry some weight IMHO. Bob Werre PhotoTraxx On 11/1/11 8:56 PM, Pieter Roos wrote: > > Hi All; > > For those noting that the Lionel UBoat is a bit too early, I'd like to > note that a U33C provides a GE C-C truck drive and a shell that is a > better starting place for most later GE locomotives than we have to > date (the U25 being a bit of an oddball IMO). > > I should think that the U33C could become some of the Dash-7 models > with some careful work, and with careful surgery you could probably > swap parts between the AM U25B and the Lionel engine to make a U33B, > possibly U23B and a U25C. If you don't want both engines (I not sure > how many roads owned both the U25C and U33B), sell the one you don't > want - I imagine there would be takers for a well done custom build of > that type. > > Pieter E. Roos > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
