Hello List, Finally got around this week to reworking a pair of Bowser-made zinc alloy replacement driving wheels for Lionel standard gauge locomotives. I used my Taig lathe to turn the drivers to a G1MRA-specified profile.
So far so good. I will post some pix over weekend, I hope, so that you can see before and after views. Only potential problem is that the castings have voids. One of the wheels has quite a few voids in the hub and rim/flange area, but fortunately these opened up only on the back of the wheel. They make the wheel look like it's been worm-eaten. The face of the wheel and tire surface are clean. I will fill the voids with JB Weld epoxy. The voids aren't extensive enough to weaken the wheel much. Might be other voids still under the surface, though. The other wheel has several pinhole voids only, mainly on the back. A couple on the face of the rim. I will ignore these voids. I got the wheels from Toy Train Parts in Kentucky that supplies Lionel replacement parts. Cost was $25 for a set of 4 drivers, which I thought was pretty good. However for an amateur machinist working with a small lathe, a lot of machining steps were required. That plus the potential for losing a partially-completed wheel to unrepairable casting voids, makes the wheels look like less than a bargain. Additionally the wheels are definitely not scale models. No complaints. I was looking for an inexpensive possibility for a basic gauge one locomotive driver for a simple project I have in the works, and not a scale model. Getting two of these drivers to finish up with the same dimensions was a good learning exercise. However if you want to build a loco with 6 or 8 or more coupled wheels, then other sources of wheels should be investigated. Steve, Duke of Spam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://postfix.45mm.com/pipermail/sslivesteam/attachments/20061222/dc9c1c65/attachment.html _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
