Building the Balmfort steamloco in Fn3

[Waldbahner]

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.

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.

And here is my little cnc-mill

To be continued...

 

[CN1]

Nice work :thumb:

Amazing set up

Please, Keep us posted

 

[Matthyro]

Interesting project Gerd. Where did you get your CNC- mill? Looks very interesting.

 

[Waldbahner]

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....

 

[Waldbahner]

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.

This will be, for example :

The breaks

The watertank (bottom is missing in picture)

Part of chassic

Boiler

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

All parts are screwed to 3 brass connectors with 2mm screws

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

I hope you will enjoy this model ;-)

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

 

[Chessie6459]

Very Interesting & Great Job on what you have accomplished so far. :thumb:

 

[neilmunck]

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.

 

[Waldbahner]

Last week, I've spend some time on multipling the chassis of my balmfort.

5rahmen2 (Waldbahner)

5rahmen1 (Waldbahner)

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

 

[Matthyro]

Thanks for the update Gerd. A very interesting project.

 

[Waldbahner]

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.

Gerd

 

[belg]

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

 

[Waldbahner]

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.

 

[Waldbahner]

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.

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

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.

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!

 

[Matthyro]

Nice to see your photo showing you hard at work Gerd. The detail you go to is amazing.

 

[Waldbahner]

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.

 

[LIRR]

Amazing.

And by the way, that pirate figure is hilarous.

 

[Sir_Prize]

:thumb: Wow!
That's some crafting!
With... ummm... err... Tour guides... Ya, tour guides...

 

[spitfire]

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

Val

 

[Badyin Macfadyi]

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]

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