Revisiting Milwaukee Road SW1200 Fuel Tanks

[wazzou]

I'd posted about this some time back, prior to the advent of consumer 3D Printers.
Does anyone think something like this would be now possible with current consumer 3D printers?
What the original interest was, was specific to the Fuel Tank, with Air Tank and Condenser Pipes.
I'd also be interested in the Spark Arrestors as well.

[wcfn100]

I have a 3d drawing for the tank without the pipes. I tried a few jigs to make the pipe but didn’t find anything I liked.



I can see if I have any of the printed tanks if you’re interested.

Jason

[samusi01]

Aren't there shapeways or similar MILW spark arrestors available? Seems I grabbed some a while back for a phase 3 GP9 project that's been stalled for the better part of a year...

[wazzou]

Aren't there shapeways or similar MILW spark arrestors available? Seems I grabbed some a while back for a phase 3 GP9 project that's been stalled for the better part of a year...

Probably, and I can fabricate my own from Styrene, if need be.
I’m more interested in the tank, air tank and condenser piping.

[wazzou]

@wcfn100 , that looks good, though just not the same without the piping.
I’ve got to believe the piping done with Resin will be fragile, but it is such a staple of “most” of that prototype fleet.

[Jim Starbuck]

I did the tank piping using wire on one of my units. Still trying to find the photo though.

CMR Products offers some nice 3D printed spark arrestors in fee different styles like SW and F units.

https://www.cmrproducts.com/search?keyword=Milwaukee+spark

[peteski]

Yes that piping really needs to be metal, or it will shatter if you just sneeze on it.
Maybe a fixture be made to bend and solder it, or photoetch them?  But photoetched ones will not have round cross-section.

[samusi01]

I think it might be worth borrowing this idea:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=56588.msg780221#msg780221

and using it to create a template for the condenser piping.

[wcfn100]

@wcfn100 , that looks good, though just not the same without the piping.
I’ve got to believe the piping done with Resin will be fragile, but it is such a staple of “most” of that prototype fleet.

I was going to add the pipe to the drawing but unfortunately never got to it.

I'm sure someone can come up with a jig to bend the wire.  Part of the problem is that the pipes are curved around the air tanks.  Just forming the wire in a zig-zag isn't hard, but when I tried to curve it, it became difficult to keep the shape.

Jason

[Peachymike]

I believe you could print the piping if you were to use a suitable resin. I do a lot of resin printing (8 printers, it’s a disease!) and something like Siraya Build would be surprisingly resilient. I’ve used it for hand rails that are 2 scale inches with good success, it flexes a lot more than one would think possible. The idea of a jig as shown in one of the previous posts could work as well, and to curve it a pair of hog ring pliers would allow you to curve the loops. These pliers are used a lot by the jewellery making crowd and pretty cheap on amazon. Most have several diameters.