North Shore GP38 Project Update 3/21

Wonderful thread; excellent photos and description--looking forward to future installments.

Suggestion:  When you update the thread, edit the thread's title with the date of the update.

I enjoy watching these builds..Santiago was doing an atlas dash 8 a while back..i admire you guys skill level and perseverance.

Nice work!

Update 2/28/19. I now have all the plastic lift rings removed, and hand made replacements installed. I also did a few of the grab irons on the nose. 

The grunt work for this project is almost done, at least for the upper shell. Very much looking forward to working on the unit specific details that don’t require hours of bending and fitting brass.

(By the way, ignore those two extra holes on top the nose... oops! They will be filled in soon.)

You are doing some EXCELLENT work.  Looking forward to seeing the final result.

Regards,

GNNPNUT

3/6/19- Tonight’s efforts brought the replacement of molded in grab irons to near completion. It was really difficult removing the second and third rear grab irons from the top with them being wedged in along the marker light and number board. I took my time with the dremel and a flat xacto blade, and was able to pull it off with *almost* no damage to the surrounding features.

I’m going to adjust the shape of these rear grabs tomorrow, they’re all a little cockeyed right now.

Good work !

Steven Michael posted:

3/6/19- Tonight’s efforts brought the replacement of molded in grab irons to near completion. It was really difficult removing the second and third rear grab irons from the top with them being wedged in along the marker light and number board. I took my time with the dremel and a flat xacto blade, and was able to pull it off with *almost* no damage to the surrounding features.

I’m going to adjust the shape of these rear grabs tomorrow, they’re all a little cockeyed right now.

Did you make the small lift eyelets.  Usually on more detailed models these are plastic. The metal ones, you pictured would be more durable.  Beautiful work, thanks for the pictures.    Mike CT. 

Yes I did mike! I put a .010 steel wire in our vise, and tightly wrapped .020 brass wire around it then cut the excess. It worked well and they came out nice and tight.

I’m tossing around making a jig for these grab irons to get them a little more consistent. Thinking something involving dropping a drill press on them to bend them precisely. We’ll see what I can do after work.

3/14/19-

Got the new dynamic brake blister printed (thanks Charlie!). I changed the design of it slightly since I originally shared the drawing on here, for the sake of making the printing process easier. Here are some pictures of in alone and after trimming/in test fit. I haven’t glued anything yet, but as soon as I smooth over the print lines it will be ready for it.

One question while I’m at it- has anyone ever soldered together a Cal-Scale horn like this one? I used epoxy originally and it just didn’t hold, and I don’t trust CA glue! I was thinking about drilling the holes all the way through the bottom of the manifold and applying the solder from the bottom. 

One question while I’m at it- has anyone ever soldered together a Cal-Scale horn like this one? I used epoxy originally
and it just didn’t hold, and I don’t trust CA glue! I was thinking about drilling the holes all the way through the
bottom of the manifold and applying the solder from the bottom.

What epoxy did you use for the BRass? You should have used JB weld and that should have held the metal to the metal

I did use JB weld. No luck. I think it’s a matter of there not being enough surface area. I was rather surprised....

3/21/19- Dynamic brake blister has been sanded/puttied, and is now installed on the rest of the dynamic brake assembly. I will be permanently attaching the assembly to the rest of the shell shortly as I have no reason to remove it at any point going forward.

Horn situation is still unresolved. Will be working on that soon.

Steven Michael posted:

3/14/19-

Got the new dynamic brake blister printed (thanks Charlie!). I changed the design of it slightly since I originally shared the drawing on here, for the sake of making the printing process easier. Here are some pictures of in alone and after trimming/in test fit. I haven’t glued anything yet, but as soon as I smooth over the print lines it will be ready for it.

<snip>

Nice job, Steven Michael. It appears that the dynamic blister was 3D printed using PLA filament. If this is so, please permit me to make a suggestion for the future. You might try using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer filament in place of polylactic acid (PLA). One can smooth the surface finish of a printed part made of ABS by exposure to acetone (nail polish remover) vapor and save a lot of time sanding and filling. ABS is also a tougher, more durable polymer and it is the polymer with which the shell is injection molded. The principal use of PLA is in the application of biodegradable packaging and it is intended to purposely degrade over time via the mechanism of polymer chain scission (i.e., its molecular weight decreases).

Again, neat job so far. Enjoy!

Bob

Looks fantastic! Keep up the great work!