Thanks Pat! I'm going to do something like that. Unfortunately, I don't have an outside track next to the engine house. I could possibly squeeze one on the left side, but the right side is definitely not possible. I'm going to do something. It could be on a flatbed truck, sitting on some cribbing, etc. I've just printed a new generator. This one has shackles on top so it can be hung from the crane. I need to get a junk engine where I can remove all the model stuff and install an engine/generator with the middle covers removed. The crane could be above it with the generator hanging.
Speaking of generators. I painted one of the rejects to show off the multi-layered construction that the Machine grew for me. The shackles didn't print. I had downloaded them from SketchUp and of course half of the faces were reversed. I didn't catch it. DOH! It just costs more time and a little resin, but it's a pain. It's a shame that I'm modeling with a 36 segment circle since the printer picks up every one of them. You can model circles with any number of segments, but it takes more memory and CPU time to render. And of course, this is a close up. The generator is not that big. I mixed up some copper color with Tamiya Gold and clear red. I painted the inside from the outside and touched up the gray afterwards.
I re-touched some of the gantry's yellow. Reprinted the new hoist mechanism which fits very nicely. I also had repaired the hook's drawing so the cable guard actually printed correctly. I tried threading a thread around the sheave and under the guard and it worked. The thread is too fine a gauge. I'll get some correctly sized thread tomorrow.
I needed to rebuild the base of Liam's AC unit. The duct box was for some reason too high and while attempting to sand it down so the legs would touch the ground, they got damaged. I'm growing another leg set, but this time, the box is an integral part. I'm also growing a full 567 set (all at once). Last night's print of the front gear unit failed in a couple of places. The Woodward governor wasn't connected to anything. I checked the drawing and somehow that group of objects had moved slightly forward; just enough to make it not in contact with the front plate. When it's not in contact with a base, the print fails. The fuel filter also failed and I modified it's supports. It's now all growing and I'll see how it works tomorrow.
The last thing was to begin making the lighting system for the engine house. I figured how long the aluminum tube needed to be, cut the tubing with a micro saw, and bent it in a lever-action tubing bender. I threaded the green and red magnet wires through the tubing. I'm looking for an easier way of stripping the enamel off the magnet wire. Any suggestions?
I tested the surface mount LED out of the circuit and it worked. I then thread the tube into the light head and used some medium CA to secure it. I tinned the LED and, after scraping the enamel off the wire, I tinned them and joined the two. The light again tested okay so I pulled the magnet wire and snuggled the LED into the light head cavity. I applied Bondic to pot the lamp into the head and insulate the wires. I then threaded the base onto the tubing with its wires. I also potted the wires into the base so they wouldn't pull. I then tested it one more time in preparation to take a picture. It worked three times until it didn't!
Don't know what happened. I checked the power supply on another free LED and it lit so the power supply was okay. I'm going to stop testing them with a lead with a current limiting resistor and start using the CL2N3 LED driver chip since it would perform well regardless of input voltage.
Even though the thing didn't work and I'm going to have to scrap it since I won't be able to extricate the burnt out LED from the head due to the Bondic, it still looks pretty good. I have extra heads so I'll be able to make more. These fixtures are going to make great street lamps hanging from a telephone pole.
So today wasn't as sexy as others, but progress was still made.
