MR engine reviews

snipped-for-privacy@gannon.edu spake thus:

Or better yet, how about finding a foundry that will cast the stuff into shapes more useful for weighting locos, like bars or chunks? Hell, the molds would be super-simple.

Probably a ton or two ought to be enough ...

David Nebenzahl spake thus:

Or better yet, seriously: just get bar stock instead (the Eagle Alloys website says they have that in various sizes) and cut and stack it.

1. What are HSS tools?

1. If it is rod shaped, wouldn't be pretty easy to drill holes in the original seight then simply insert a short piece of rod?

dlm

a cheaper alternative...< While tungsten would be really neat to get this is also what I found, expensive and hard to get. Also melting it would be difficult as my chart shows the melting point to be 3695 K (6191.33F). Which bring me to the next thought, how do they cast bullets with it? Does any alloy (of tungsten) change the melting point "a bunch"?

High Speed Steel. Dremel cutters are made from HSS. It stays sharp when hot longer than plain carbon steel.

David Starr

High speed steel, which better drill bits and bimetallic hacksaw blade teeth are made from. Note that Eagle recommends carbide tools, but that may be for high-volume manufacturing. You should be able to hacksaw it. Particles smaller than a micron may spontaneously combust in air, so don't be engaging in home powder metallurgy unless you have a class D extinguisher. :)

Hmm, HSS is no harder at room temp than carbon steel, it seems...you learn something every day...

Cordially yours: Gerard P.

Are these tools something that the normal hobbist would have? Or would this rod just destroy normal Dremel cutting wheels?

dlm

Dan Merkel spake thus:

You can easily cut any kind of steel rod, including HSS, with Dremel abrasive wheels. I recently used one to cut off a padlock. Just takes some time, patience and not allowing the wheel to bind.

HSS Tools? aka tools made out of high speed steel. Way back when my Dremel set was new, the Dremel folk used to advertise that Dremel cutter bits (cutter tools) were made from high speed steel, which was naturally far far superior to ordinary steel. This was back before tungsten carbide and titanium became available to home hobbyshoppers. Now a days I don't see that much talk/bragging about high speed steel.

The Dremel abrasive cutoff wheels are another story. They will cut anything (at least anything in my workshop). I used one to cut a piece of 1/4" drill rod which was so hard that a new hacksaw blade wouldn't touch it. They are great for cutting rail. I always wear safety glasses while using the cutoff wheels. They are brittle and occasionally they do break under load and fling bits and pieces far and wide.

David Starr

Under substantial load, or under ANY side load.

Occasionally? I've rarely had one "wear out".

If you're not cutting a gap where the width of the cut is critical, I often put two of them on the mandrell together, seems to help.

Don

-- snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net

They do have the reinforced variety, sort of a fiberglass mesh substrate - but still not exactly unbrittle.

I think MR reviews have been very spotty over the years. Back when PFM was in buisiness, (and a major advertiser) they actually compared brass drivetrains. I don't know if it was much of a selling point, I think that people bought brass because they could get a model of a favorite prototype.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned with regard to locomotives is their running environment. Take say ......an Athearn GP9 and a consist of 10 assorted cars. If those cars are built straight from the box, with only Kadee couplers added, you could probably run the train on the flat without too many problems... Provided the trackwork is well executed. Throw the NMRA suggested weight into those cars though, and that same engine would be working much harder. Add grades into the mix like what is seen on countless home layouts. That same single engine is going to stall on the grade. Like the prototype, we are gonna have to add enough ponies into the train to hold onto the schedule. I've run a

Steve Caple spake thus:

As you no doubt know, it's basically an exercise in "how long can I hold my breath and keep this damn tool *precisely perpendicular* to what I'm cutting?". Like someone else said here, I've never seen one of these wheels wear out.

Properly designed, weighted and balanced steam can pull.

Example I have a old (late 60s early 70s)GN O-8 2-8-2 from PFM Tenshodo, NOT re motored yet so it's the original Pittman open frame, I also have a similar GN S-1 4-8-4. On our club layout either of these will take 40 loaded Athearn 34 foot twin hoppers cars up a 110 ft long

I have two Sunset Q-2 2-10-2s, and an O-8 imported in the mid 80s and made by Samhongsa. None of these engines can pull that train unless double headed. I was told not to add weight to these due to the belt drive and they are lighter than the Tenshodo by a lot. The tender trucks are much more free rolling than the Tenshodo but that does not help. I suspect it's partly a lack of torque in the Canon CN-22 motor provided in these engines in addition to the weight and drive system differences. They seem balanced properly so I don't think that's an issue (The stock Athearn USRA light 2-8-2 is tail heavy and balances over the third driver so the first driver does almost no work) Also the springing in the lead and trailing truck seem OK so I doubt they are taking much of the weight. Mind you they are much better detailed then the older engines but can't pull like them.

I'm going to test the USRA light 2-10-2 tomorrow night (CN version with the stock Bachman DCC) to see how it does.

Well... what is your report on the test?

dlm

Hopefully more accurate and truthful than Model Railroader's.

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Didn't get a chance, layout was powered down to change out some Shinohara turnouts for ones modified to be more 'DCC friendly'. Will try this weekend.

What exactly is "DCC friendly"?

You can run DCC with any brand of switch, even handlaid ones, like mine, built ten years before DCC.

-- Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway