Pennsylvania K4 Repaint

Started by ACL1504, March 17, 2020, 05:57:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ACL1504

Quote from: Bruce Oberleitner on March 21, 2020, 09:35:22 AM
Hey Tom,
I saw your K4 video yesterday and you've got some good tricks on tuning up steam locomotive mechanisms.  Also, the City of Miami running in the rainstorm was a pretty cool video as well.

Hope you and the babe are doing well.

;D ;D ;D


Bruce,

Thank you, much appreciated. Thank you also for the email the other day. Great to hear you are doing well. The Babe and I are fine and I enjoy the "you need to stay in the train room" for two weeks.  ;D ;D


Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

Quote from: bparrish on March 21, 2020, 04:21:40 PM
Tom..............

You talked about how you owe yourself 180 bux..............  My first thought is.......... who is your collections enforcer?  Hope he does not rough up up too much.


Then, right after that............... so what.............  If you conduct business anything like I do...........

You lose a little on every deal but you can make it up in volume.

So much for Bob's school of advanced business.

see ya
Bob


Bob,

Like you I've lost on deals and made some on others. Life is good when it comes to this great hobby.

The $45.00 an hour is just a way of saying how much I would be charging others for this one. It kinda scares most people away.

Tom ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

Quote from: deemery on March 21, 2020, 05:39:49 PM
"You can make much more money with oats before they go through the horse."


That's what I learned about business economics ;D


dave


Dave,

Caveat emptor is what I learned in economics.

Tom 8)
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on March 21, 2020, 08:02:59 PM
Great video.  Thanks for posting it.  I think I may know of a certain locomotive Mr. Driggers was talking about.   ::)


Jeff


Jeff,

Thanks for the comment. I didn't realize you were a customer of Thom's. However, there is none better to make repairs and get it running like a swiss watch.

Tom ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

Quote from: postalkarl on March 22, 2020, 03:46:06 AM
Hey Tom:

Wow looks like a lot of work. I'm following along.

Karl


Karl,

It is a bit of work but will be worth the effort in the end. Thanks for following along.

Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

I had to drill out the micro mini bulb from the headlight housing. It was epoxied in and I knew an Acetone bath wasn't going to cut the epoxy.



I also needed to make the repair on the broken link bearing support.

I used a self closing tweezer to hold the two parts together. I used a brass Dremel disc brush to clean the area to be soldered.



Continued -
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

I didn't want to unpack my resistance soldering unit and instead decided to use the Micro Mark micro torch.

The Tix solder is on the left and the Tix liquid flux is on the right.



The torch is powered using Butane.



Continued later this afternoon -
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

I cut a very small piece of Tix solder (the photo is enlarged).




I polish the parts to be soldered and add a little liquid flux to the parts. I then place the solder on the parts as shown.



Continued -


"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

The micro torch flame is adjusted and then the flame is put to the solder. It melts the solder almost immediately and the parts are now soldered.





The solder melts at around 275 degrees F. The holding power is about 4,300 pounds per square inch. So, this part won't be breaking again anytime soon. You can use a soldering gun, iron or torch. I just like the color of the flame.

Continued -



"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

While I was at it, I resoldered the other support side.



I soaked the parts in Acetone to strip off the old Floquil paint.

NOTE: Acetone is nasty stuff so use the appropriate gloves and protective eye wear. Just giving a friendly warning on my part.

After removing the old paint, the parts were washed in warm soapy water. I then washed/rinsed them a second time in just warm water and set aside to dry.



Continued -



"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

In the photo below note the shadow of the Pennsylvania and the trim. I've only seen this when stripping old Floquil paints. The occurs when the decal set not only sets the decal but a shadow of the decal through the paint.

Over the past 45+ years I've used Scalecoat paints exclusively. I've stripped many of my brass for updated paint and I've never seen this.



Continued  -
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

I mentioned earlier the inside of the tender brought back memories of old.

In the days of PFM analog DC sound, the tender needed to be modified in order for the PFM speaker to fit. The trick was to be able to cut the inside tender brace as shown in the the photo below. However, extreme caution was needed so you didn't cut through the tender side. I can honestly say I never ruined a tender by cutting a hole in the side.







Continued in a few.
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

ACL1504

The speaker needed to be trimmed as well. In the photo below you can see how we cut the speaker to fit the modified tender. The cut speaker never lost any sound due to this.

Even today, with DCC TCS WOW sound, I still have some old PFM speakers in the loco tenders. I'm in the process of replacing the PFM speakers with the new TCS 28mm High Bass 4W speakers.





Painting starts tomorrow.
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

NKP768

Great post Tom - brought back some great memorys of the stuff we used to cram inside things. The modern day DCC decoders and speakers are a real god-send. I wonder how many of those engineers and firemen Weston sold.
Doug

Powered by EzPortal