Building the Balmfort steamloco in Fn3

Good morning,

some weeks ago, I've started a new project in Fn3 (1:20.3). I'll build 5 Balmfort steamlocomotives.

First part was the drive mechanism. I've used styrene sheets and my cnc-mill to cut the parts. The rear axle can oscillate (? pendeln) to get always all wheels on track. The siderods are made of brass.
15motor_4.jpg

15Antriebe_2.jpg


Actually, I'm working on the chassic of the loco. Here are some pictures of the first parts. There are still some errors in the file, so I have to do spme corrections.
15DCP04037.JPG


And here is my little cnc-mill
15Fr_se_3.jpg


To be continued...
 

Matthyro

Will always be re-membered
Interesting project Gerd. Where did you get your CNC- mill? Looks very interesting.
 
Good morning.

Here are some informations about my cnc-mill.

The cnc-mill is from EAS-Gmbh. It is the samll one who is calles "BGS60". We've got the chance to buy a display model, so the price was okay.
You will find more information about the mill at the EAS-website.
http://www.easgmbh.de/cnc/index-cnc.htm

But the mill is not the only thing you will need. To control the step-motors, you need a interface beetween your PC and the mill and a spezial software.
We are using parts from a german electronic market.

The software runs only with MS-DOS. There are many problems by using this software in Windows-DOS-Mode. By the way. Most milling-software I know will work in DOS.
So we are using a own PC for the mill. The secound advantage is, you can work on new drawings and files on the other PC.

To create the drawings, I'm using AutoCAD.

Last weekend, my little mill was very busy....
 
Hello again,

here are new pictures of my loco in process.
The first engine is half done and looks great. But step by step.

On saturday, I've cut all parts out of styrene sheets.
15Teile.jpg


This will be, for example :

The breaks
15bremsen.jpg


The watertank (bottom is missing in picture)
15Wassertank.jpg


Part of chassic
15Oberteil.jpg


Boiler
15Kesselteile.jpg


Now I can begin to build them up.
This are the parts of the chassis
15seitenteile.jpg


All parts are screwed to 3 brass connectors with 2mm screws
15Rahmenmontage.jpg


So here I am now. The valve gear will be redesigned and many parts are still missing.
15urmodel_a.jpg

15urmodel_b.jpg

15urmodel_c.jpg

15urmodel_d.jpg


I hope you will enjoy this model ;-)

By the way, there are 352 rivets at the moment, but 50 more to come.
 

neilmunck

Member
Hi Gerd,
That is really good work. It reminds me a lot of the Backwoods Minatures kit for a similar locomotive in On3/30. Your one looks great. I'm very impressed with your milling machine set up.
 
Last week, I've spend some time on multipling the chassis of my balmfort.

5rahmen2 (Waldbahner)
155rahmen2.jpg


5rahmen1 (Waldbahner)
155rahmen1.jpg


Next will be the valvegear-dummy and the Boiler on each loco.
 
Hello,

here is a new picture of my balmforts in process.
Last weekend, I've build 5 smokeboxes with stacks out of brass. Every one is assmebled out of 4 parts, solderd together.

Next will be the other 4 boilers.

15kammern.gif


Gerd
 

belg

Member
Gerd this is a great project, but what happened to your LPB and his side kick did they quit their job? Why are you making five? Do you have a shot of a prototype for this and how do you make all the rivets ? Thanks Pat
 
Hi,

the loco shown in the picture will be my one for my office.
The other 4 models are for sale to get money for my modeling budget.

By the way... The rivets are made out of rivets ;-)
I've spend hundred of aluminium rivets on each loco. The shank messures 1mm diameter and is 4mm long. The head of the rivet is 1.5mm diameter.

To get the right positions, the holes in the styrene parts are drilled with the cnc-mill, before milling the parts itself.
Here are the parts of the watertank. You can see all the holes for rivets.
15Wassertank.jpg
 
Hello all,

Here are some new pictures of my balmforths in process.
Most parts of the 4 boilers are finished. Assembling will start next month, because I will go to holiday next week.
15Kesselteile2.jpg


This is the valvegear-dummy. All 5 pairs are finished.
15steuerung2.jpg


And this are the newest parts. The cylinders.
I've used brass and copper.
The hole in the pipe wass milled on my cnc-maschine.
15zylinder.jpg


I'll try to get one of this locomotives finished until Friday, because on saturday, I'm going to a modell-railroading-convention and I need some results of my work for presentation.

Lase but not least... Thats me. The pictue is some weeks old. I'm setting rivets on the parts of the watertank. Thats a job for some crazy guys like me ;-) By the way, each model will have ca. 450 rivets!
15Waldbahner.jpg
 
Thank you for your comment.
This evening, I'll try to get the roof on one of this locos. I hope I can finish this project next month, so I can start some other models.
 

spitfire

Active Member
Wow Gerd!! I have the utmost respect for anyone who scratchbuilds locomotives!! Not only that, you seem to like little bunny rabbits too! :D

Val
 
I'm very interested in the CNC machine - although I speak some German it's not sufficient to run something like this and there seems to be no English version of the site.

Does anyone know of a similar machine available in the English speaking world?
 

TrainClown

Member
Wish I had a milling machine like you have there. So you make stuff for sale. Have you ever considered making parts for sale? Someone could send you the specs and you could turn out the parts needed. Just a thought.

Real nice work ;)

TrainClown :D
 
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