Page 19 of 30

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:20 am
by Glenn Brooks
More or less sitting here all weekend watching paint dry.


More accurately - watching rust dissolve. On Friday, broke down the two existing old rusty trucks and placed the side frames and bolsters in my homemade electrolysis tank. One last set of side frames is cooking off this evening, then everything gets doused with a final coat of phosphoric acid and a new coat of primer.

Hoping the last two side frames will keep working in the tank. The first batch of stuff reacted vigorously to the electrolyte, but the second batch hardly discharged anything while I was watching.... hoping the bath still conducts enuf electrons around the tub to do its job.

I had hoped to make this a quick three day build for this flat car. Now going on four weeks... so it might be appropriate to offer up what is turning out to be my sentiments about finishing this build.
7660C5AD-8DFC-4107-BA87-35A3D2162577.jpeg
Tomorrow will tell the tale, hopefully.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 3:34 pm
by rkcarguy
Could be quite the opposite problem. A bath full of dissolved rust conducts electricity, and no longer provides a semi-conductive medium that aids in removing the rust in the first place.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:36 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Ryan, I think I’ve narrowed down the problem to a 1 in a million bad cell in the new battery I bought last week. Two different battery chargers can’t bring the battery over 8.1 volts, even with a brand new battery charger. Iam suspecting the battery doesn’t have enuf current to activate the electrolysis process. Back to Costco for a replacement.

Glenn

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 10:49 am
by rkcarguy
Hmmph, the Costco batteries are supposed to be the good ones still made in the USA. So many are all made in China now.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:44 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Welded the stake pockets to the frame yesterday. Saw a guy on u tube drill holes in some part for a fab job and weld the fitting to the structure. So tried it out on the stakes pockets. Seems to work quite well. Also the weld spots kind of look like rivets, so good to go, I think! Added an under coat of metal primer and “hung ‘er up to dry”.

Three day job getting close to the finish. End of the month maybe. Still need to mill down my old tight grain fir flooring boards to make the decking.
02670AE1-644A-4F50-98E6-BB04950596C3.jpeg
7497A382-43FD-4810-8FE2-ADDFAA22FA4B.jpeg
20D97FE0-335B-4E28-80E3-259AE3E50161.jpeg
AFB3809D-903A-45E7-B0D5-41B4FBE46312.jpeg
Finally added a coat of undercoat and “hung ‘er up to dry”
61DA9D3C-D333-47F8-8C7C-48C576B6B992.jpeg
A3B947BB-0573-4132-97C4-AC43C565AE18.jpeg

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 7:06 pm
by Kimball McGinley
Plug Welds!

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:01 pm
by rkcarguy
Looking good! I've plug welded stuff with both the TIG and MIG before and it does resemble rivets. Of course the flat cars I'm working on have 4 bolts each holding the stake pockets on, which means 36 x 4 drilled and tapped holes:(

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 10:28 pm
by Glenn Brooks
Plug welds indeed! Thanks guys, good to learn something new.

I like these a lot better than edge welding all around the pockets- particularly with my old Trusty tombstone stick welder.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 7:30 pm
by Glenn Brooks
top coat going on, finally - Railroad Red - if there is such a thing for the frame, and gloss black for the running gear. No depression era black on this Pike!

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 8:26 pm
by NP317
Exciting progress!
Russ

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:17 am
by rkcarguy
Looking good Glenn! Can't wait to see it rolling.
Hey, BNSF is doing some work on the Sumas sub and they have a crane sitting on a siding. It's a fairly short thing with beefed up Bettendorf style trucks under it...the bearings and bolsters look bigger. Let me know if you want some pictures of it. Obviously not steam, but it appears to be fairly old judging by the construction, with a pretty new coat of black and yellow paint on it.

Re: Woodinville Shops

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 11:35 am
by Glenn Brooks
Yes, photos would be very interesting. Iam still thinking about how to build one. We’ve given up on the steam version, not enuf time available to make the all gears and required motors, in favor of a smaller MOW style with electric ATV winches.

Thanks
Glenn