Weekend Update 3/9/14

[mark dance]

Craig

...by coincidence my 9 year old daughter brought me one of her books today because it had trains in it.  And lo and behold: a picture of the old Cisco bridge.  I just had to share it.



md

[peteski]

My weekend accomplishment was to photoetch some lightning rods and weather-vanes, and install them on a barn which resides on friend's layout.  The glass ball is made from a small drop of tinted transparent casting resin.

Here is the home-brewed photoetched fret (chemically blacked).



And the barn.





It is a model of a dairy farm, so I thought this would be appropriate.

[primavw]

Peteski, very nice! I have been interested in trying my own photo-etch at some point. Do you plan to weather the barn?

[peteski]

Peteski, very nice! I have been interested in trying my own photo-etch at some point. Do you plan to weather the barn?

Thanks!
It is my friend's layout, if he wants it weathered, it will get weathered, if not, it won't. But probably not. It is located on an active farm, so it would be kept in good condition.

[craigolio1]

I love those old photos of this bridge.

Peteski those are very cool.  I have to try my hand at etching.  I have everything I've just never got around to it.  With my new bridge project I see an opportunity.

Craig

[PGE-N°2]

Just catching up on last weeks thread. Love those Baldwins. Too bad I can't model everything. However, the Milwaukee did have some Baldwins, but not on Lines West.

[peteski]

I love those old photos of this bridge.

Peteski those are very cool.  I have to try my hand at etching.  I have everything I've just never got around to it.  With my new bridge project I see an opportunity.

Craig

Thanks Craig
The process is not very difficult (but I guess there was a learning curve which I passed long time ago).  While I have done many home-brewed photoetched sheets (and circuit boards), you are one step ahead of me, having done commercial photoetching. I have not attempted that yet. 

I had some problem with etching consistency on the last few frets. The 0.005"  brass doesn't seem to etch evenly: parts of the sheet are not fully etched, while other areas are over-etched.

[craigolio1]

Thanks Craig
The process is not very difficult (but I guess there was a learning curve which I passed long time ago).  While I have done many home-brewed photoetched sheets (and circuit boards), you are one step ahead of me, having done commercial photoetching. I have not attempted that yet. 

I had some problem with etching consistency on the last few frets. The 0.005"  brass doesn't seem to etch evenly: parts of the sheet are not fully etched, while other areas are over-etched.

No commercial experience here.  I've done a few circuit boards my self but that's it.  It looks like I'll be getting some parts commercially etched.  I need about 500 links in 9 different sizes.  The plan is coming together!

Craig

[peteski]

No commercial experience here.  I've done a few circuit boards my self but that's it.  It looks like I'll be getting some parts commercially etched.  I need about 500 links in 9 different sizes.  The plan is coming together!

Craig

Duh!  I somehow had you confused with Scottl!  Hey, you both model Canadien railroads!   

[craigolio1]

Actually Scott is helping me with the process.  We are the Borg.  You will be assimilated.

[randgust]

If you're talking about the micro-mark type system using ferric chrloride, I had a similar problem that I actually 'beat'.

My kids had tons of plastic K'nex parts lying around, including the motor drive and a plastic boat propeller part.

I made a removable shaft drive down into the ferric chloride with that propeller on the end as a circulator, battery powered.   It worked much, much, much better than the bubbler, and decreased my etching time dramatically.   Keeping the ferric chloride circulating constantly is the key here.

It actually did work for one-off stuff, I was more interested in production, and the size limitations didn't help either.

[peteski]

If you're talking about the micro-mark type system using ferric chrloride, I had a similar problem that I actually 'beat'.

My kids had tons of plastic K'nex parts lying around, including the motor drive and a plastic boat propeller part.

I made a removable shaft drive down into the ferric chloride with that propeller on the end as a circulator, battery powered.   It worked much, much, much better than the bubbler, and decreased my etching time dramatically.   Keeping the ferric chloride circulating constantly is the key here.

It actually did work for one-off stuff, I was more interested in production, and the size limitations didn't help either.

Well, I have been doing this many years before Micro-Mark even offered one of these for sale. I have etched my PC boards since the mid-70s and I started etching parts in the early 90s.  I use ferric chloride, but without any agitation. I simply float the item to be etched on the surface of the etchant.

Until few years ago I did this at a room temperature, but (especially in the winter) this was a very slow process. I picked up a small hot plate with precision temperature control.  I use it to warm the etchant to about 30-40 deg. C. That speeds up the etching. But maybe the slower, room temperature etching was more even, because I used t get better results in the past.

The tray I use to hold the etchant us small (about 4" X 7") and I only put in about 1/2" of liquid.  It would be hard to install an agitator in there, but thanks for the hint anyways.