Member postings for Adam Cro

Do away with gasket/sealant and make it to take an O-ring. Much better and cleaner solution.

Adam

Hi there, I'm Adam AKA Cro Fittings!

Sorry if you have been having difficulty getting hold of me, I'm constantly on my emails or phone as it lives in my pocket. I will check the website and see if any emails have got stranded between it and my inbox.

Please feel free to email me directly on

[email protected]

I seem to remember the customer who ordered these parts and didn't realise he had now sold the loco on, I have drawings for the remaining parts of the top feeds so it you get in touch I can pass these straight on and help with anything else you may be interested in or have any questions about.

Regards,

Adam

No problem, I know for myself I generally need an X & Y dimension to get a ball park as I don't just do plates all the time but I have some guide prices for rough sizes.

I have my grandfathers 3 1/2" Brit so in this case can go away and measure that up if that is what you were after. If you have questions on the loco I've had his apart in the past so can try help there.

Adam

Hope not a problem posting this but I can offer cast nameplates to your design, feel free to get in touch and I can give more details if interested.

Adam

David,

What gauge are you looking at? What is the loco?

My advice, much like Neils, would be to find a local foundry or one someone can recommend that are happy to work with 3D printed patterns. Take along a sketch or drawing and show them what you have in mind and take on board their advice.

The main things they will advise on is how the pattern needs to be made, whether its a 2 part pattern if you have tapered spokes both sides or single piece on a simpler pattern and what sort of shrinkage is required and lastly where they would want to add their runners too. Don't forget your own machining allowances too!

With regards to having a pattern made for sand casting I have found a place in London called 3D print UK to be very good. They use Nylon and offer a free polishing surface to give a great surface finish.

If you are looking at small gauge locos, for one offs 3D wax printing and investment cast iron could be a better route/cost effective route and experience in this so far has had brilliant results on cast iron wheels.

Hope that helps,

Adam

Martin,

To re-produce your cast item you would be best modelling it in CAD to have a 3D printed master pattern made and then finding a foundry that are happy to work with 3D printed patterns. With the size it is you may be able to find an investment casting foundry that does CI and can do you the mould from your pattern which will give you the great surface finish.If not then finding a sand casting foundry that will work with the pattern.

For the printing there are plenty of online places that can help, one I have used in the past are in London called 3D print UK, very good service and the free polishing service worked great for some sand cast door handles I had done in bronze for a Bugatti.

You need to discuss with them what shrinkage you need to apply to your pattern which the CAD software should allow you to do by "scaling" the part by a certain percentage. If it is for Investment casting there are two types, the shrinking of the wax and then the metal but they should give you the overall shrinkage, the sand casting is simpler only considering the metal shrinkage which again they should be able to advise on.

Last thing to think about is any machining allowance you need to add on the relevant faces and where you can have sprues/runners attached - ideally the machined faces.

Once you have this 3D model you could design tooling and fixtures to hold it with for your machining set ups to make batch machining much easier and quicker.

Hope that helps,

Adam

James,

As useful as the advice is to avoid certain areas on your first attempt I would say also ignore this advice to a certain extent.

These builds will take you years, you will love it for much of the build but you will also hate it so make sure you pick something you like to keep you going when things don't go your way. Pick something that appeals to you and if you are interested in replicating a full size loco to the best of your ability whether this be a general look or to some fine detail then try pick one you can either do a lot of research on or that is in preservation and you can visit now and then for inspiration and dimensions/photos.

There are so many parts to make on a loco you will learn the required skills to do the complicated bits like piston valves and boilers and if not that is where your clubs and forums are a hive of information to help you through those bits so don't ignore a loco you might like because someone said bits are complicated - every loco is complicated in one form or another!

Adam

Thanks all,

Trying to upload photos from Flickr but it seems to have defeated me for now, will be back with the photos I had planned to upload. - Got it, here we go!

The current work on the 9f involves the cleading mainly the throat plate which is rarely done right on a 5" model

Other bits I get up to is machining up various scale castings, at the moment I am working on a variety of things but this is a nice one, a scale 7 1/4" Gresham & Craven SSJ Ejector.  

Thanks,

Adam 

Edited By Adam Cro on 28/09/2017 10:17:30

Afternoon to you all,

Just a quick introduction, my name is Adam Cro I am 25 and have been in model engineering for the last 17 years. I got hooked at a young age thanks to my grandfather whose locos were spread around the house and first got involved in my loco club at the age of 8.

I am currently trying to finish off a 5" 9f which originally started life as a Winson kit but is now heavily modified to be much closer to scale. I ran it for around a year before I stripped it back down to re-do the cleading and get it looking right and I am still working on that now whilst also running my business.

Edited to remove commercial content.

Edited By JasonB on 27/09/2017 15:43:52