Speedster wrote: ↑Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:01 pm
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So, I started building a test car, to see how it would turn out.
The car is 1/2" tall, with 4 holes for weights. (I expect the 4th hole to be only partially filled).
Started with a block of basswood (I'll have to repeat with pine, but I don't expect too much difference). It's pretty critical to drill out the weight holes BEFORE cutting the body. I marked the centers with a tap-die, then drilled starter holes, then did the final drill with my cheap HF drill press. Even with the press, you can see the holes aren't entirely perfectly aligned. This concerns me a bit, because we'll have a lot of holes to drill at the workshop. I may make the body a little taller...perhaps 5/8" of an inch to give a little more room for error.
Next, I cut out the shape on the bandsaw (easy enough) and threw it on the scale to see what it weighed. Not too shabby, but we can get lighter than that!
Went to the trusty scrollsaw and did some material removal. Looks kind of like Stan's "Rail Car" now, eh? Took off a good bit of weight that unnecessary wood.
I suppose I could have covered the voids with tape or a label, but I wanted this to be a "wooden" car, so I bonded two pieces of thin 1/64" plywood over the voids. Added a little weight, but not too bad.
The next step will be to insert the lead wire and see how I do on the CoG. If I get a good repeatable build, I'll write up instructions for folks wanting to emulate this design at our workshop.