Member postings for Ron Laden

Ah I see what you mean Duncan, sorry, me being a bit slow.

Hi Joe, so very sorry to hear your sad news, really feeling for you and your loss.

Can I just suggest Joe that the orders can wait you need some time off to be with your wife.

Best regards

Ron

Well whilst waiting for chassis parts to arrive I have started on designing the loco body. The main body panels will be from 6mm Birch plywood with some thin sheet aluminium and plastic etc.

Obviously this will not be a scale loco but a sort of look alike, "very loosely" based on a 03/04 type shunter. The size of the body will be no where near scale, thats impossible as having to house the 12 volt leisure battery dictates the sizes.

In fact the driver would have to be 9 feet tall to stand on the foot plate and look out of the windows.. so at best it will be cartoon scale.

Update on the parts I am waiting for is another 2 weeks so will just have to be patient.

Ron

Thanks Duncan, no I will be drilling the feed hole prior to pressing in the bush. I am maybe misunderstanding this but what do you mean by the joint line..?

Ron

I have decided to go with the oilites for the axles. I was speaking to a guy yesterday who used them on a twin bogie/4 axle electric loco. The loco is 5 years old and the oilites are still good today.

I had an idea, knowing that oilite bearings like to be bathed in oil I thought of a simple way of achieving it.

The rough sketch shows the 9mm hole for the suspension spring which sits centrally above the oilite. I thought if I drilled say a 3mm hole down through into the bearing location (before I fit the bearing) it would provide a well to feed the bearing. I,m guessing but say 3 or 4 drops of oil just to sit in the bottom would probably be enough and it could be topped up as required.

Whether it is worth doing I dont know but it certainly cant do any arm and is very simple to do.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 18/05/2018 09:59:58

Thanks Howard/Brian

Well thats needle rollers out of the window. I dont want to build in potential problems, I will stick with plain bearings for the reasons you suggest.

Ron

Thanks "not done it yet"

Needle roller bearings would be an option actually, they would fit the axle boxes. Having just done a search you can get them with one closed end which stops the ingress of dirt and helps retain the lubricant. Needle, Oilite and Glacier are all cheap and all available in the size I need.......Hmmm.......decisions..decisions.

Ron

Thanks guys, Howard I was looking at Glacier type steel/bronze bearings yesterday and wondered if they would be a better option than oilites.

I dont have the space for ballraces so it is plain type bearings I will be using.

Ron

Another beginners question:

Will oilite,s be ok for axle bearings on a small electric 5 inch loco..?

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 16/05/2018 10:38:53

That was some loco Jeff, thanks for the pictures. I see from the picture of the motors that they were mounted on the axle as you can see the axle bearings below the motors. This is the way I am mounting my motors, the motor mounting plate has a central bearing which the axle runs through. With the axles having suspension (springs) it was the easiest way I could see to maintain the relationship/position between the motor pinion gears and the drive spur gear which is fixed to the back of the wheels.

I am reasonably confident it should work ok but wouldnt want to count my chickens too soon.

Since I started the design I have changed the gear ratio, due mainly to availability of suitably sized gears at the right price. The ratio is now 6.25 to 1 this should give approx 7 - 8 mph top speed. I have gone with MOD 1.0, I considered finer gears but I thought MOD 1.0 had a little more meat to them without them being too coarse.

There is no clever calculations to any of this its mainly my gut feeling with a bit of "if it looks right it probably is"

I,m getting itchy fingers as I want to get the build started but as I dont have any machining I have to rely on other people for machined parts. I can and will do a lot by hand but at the moment still waiting for chassis parts before I can make a start.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 16/05/2018 09:43:04

You cant guarantee the output Roy, they are off the shelf can motors and unless you have a duff motor the two motors output should be within 3 or 4 percent of each other and they will be fine. The motors are driving the same spur gear and will balance out albeit one will be working a little harder. Obviously if you had motors with a difference of 10% or greater then that would become more of an issue.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/05/2018 19:08:05

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/05/2018 19:10:01

Hi Jon

No the axles are independent of each other, each one driven by two motors

Ron

Well my motor controller arrived today, got it from Ebay (Chinese) 12 volt rated at 40 amps continuous - 60 amps max for short periods and cost is less then £15.00. Comes with a rotary speed control and a reversing switch.

I connected it up to the four motors and it works (always a bit doubtful with Chinese stuff). As best I can tell at the moment and with no load all four motors appeared to be running about the same. I need to find my digital tacho and then I can check them for sure.

Now, what it will be like under load I have no idea, will it turn faulty or go up in flames I just dont know. I have had the top cover off and it does have some meaty looking components so here,s hoping.

At less than £15 I just had to give it a try, if it fails I will just have to get a better one but the one I have my eye on is over £100 so I,m keeping my fingers crossed.

Ron

I,m not expecting sports car performance Perko, just hoping my calculations are correct and if so it should give me 6-7 mph. I am going with sprung axles so that should help a bit with the traction. As best as I can tell at the moment the dry weight should be around 10-11 kgs and the leisure battery I have my eye on is 17 kgs so a total of 27-28kgs.

Also from the calculations I have gone with 6.25 to 1 gearing which again I hope will be ok considering the motors I am using.

Well I guess there is only one way to find out and that is to get it built and give it a test.

Cheers

Ron

The motors 4 x 12 volt 65 watt, axles, wheels and gears have arrived.

I have to modify the axles and gears, fit the pinions to the motors and spur gears to the back of the wheels.

I have no machining facilities apart from a small pedestal drill but a friend is doing the basic chassis side frames and motor mounts, the rest is then down to me.

Looking forward to making a start.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 13/05/2018 09:20:18

Can anyone tell me what is the latest revision.

Thanks

Ron

Thanks guys, the GL5 standard I looked at gave 4.625 (117.4 mm) as the back to back but mentions a back to back of 4.687 (119 mm) for better clearance of check rails. Our local track is raised so no points but I may one day visit a ground level track with points.

Ron

Re-visited the design and decided to go with sprung axles, it means some more parts but I think it will be an improvement. My only problem is that apart from a small pillar drill I dont have a lathe or a mill so I have to buy in/get made all machined parts, I do know a couple of people though so that helps.

Ron

p.s. Anyone have any thoughts on the back to back measurements..?

Hi Red, well only scary in that my main passengers will probably be both our great grand daughters (5 yrs & 6 yrs) and our local track is a raised one. Not only raised but some of it is on elevated banks so wouldnt want any accidents.

I,m quite happy with my design and I,m hoping that it should run well but I,m now wondering if I should add suspension to improve it further. I went back to my drawings earlier this evening and it wouldnt be that difficult to add spring mounted sliding axle boxes. As it is at the moment the axles are fixed and running in bearings mounted on the chassis side frames.

Will have to give it more thought and decide which way to go fixed or sprung.

Something else which threw me somewhat is the wheel back to back dimension, from GL5 specs I have drawn it up as 4.5/8" - 117.4 mm. I received 2 axles and 4 wheels today and the axles are giving a back to back of 119.2 mm. I,m now wondering if that is too wide but the supplier said it is all to GL5..?

cheers

Ron

I must admit I didnt imagine any of this, its all sounding a bit scary...

Ron