New brass Milwaukee Bipolar EP-2 clinic- part 2

[skytop35]

I'm thinking about going with Tru-Color. 

Anybody use their Milwaukee colors?

I do. I consider them pretty spot on for Milwaukee !

[u18b]

Just got back into town from Atlanta- and my package from Eric in Canada was here.

Just as a review- this is the stock model.
A couple of you have commented that the bell is not just right.
Also, I note that the horn actually looks kind of dumb.  It is laying right on the hood (right end).



Eric may be able to help.

I removed a KMT bell, and put an Eric steam bell in place.



You will notice that something is not quite right with this bell too.
It sits too low in the frame.
There should be a pretty big gap between the frame and the bottom of the bell.
Like here.



Now the clapper on the bell is fused to the base in this casting.
So I used a #11 Xacto knife and cut the clapper.
I then used a small screwdriver to bend the casting and raise the bell.
Looks better now.





Earlier, I had raised the horn.  And it no longer looked stupid laying on the roof.
But it was a bit fragile and actually, was too long.




Eric's horn looked a lot better.

[atsf_arizona]

This is a great thread.  Thx for doing it together with us, Ron.

[u18b]

Thanks John.

I always enjoy your models.

[u18b]

I'm not posting as much on this thread.
Especially stuff that is identical to the previous thread.

However, I'm focusing on anything different- and that is the case here.  Esp since it involves a new tool.
Nothing earth shattering, but at least useful.

In the previous thread, I don't recall talking about the levelling problem of the front truck sideframes.

In this photo, you can see that it looks like the front truck sideframes are angling upward toward the front.
At first, I wondered if the screw hole was not drilled correctly.
But it is not the frame- but the sideframes.



Here is a closer shot.




The alignment lines show that the sideframe is low in the back and/or high in the front (yellow line).




The sideframe front edge fits into a slot above the snow plow.
So the front could be lowered a little bit by filing here on the underside.
But there is only so far you can go before you destroy the rivets.



Here is the slot.
Another option would be to file down the top of the snow plow.

But that is a pretty thin spot to work.



I spoke earlier about buying these thin diamond dust coated cut-off wheels at Harbor Freight.
I realized- hey, I could use this like a very very thin file.



I can press pretty hard with this steal disc.
A ceramic disc could not take a fraction of this pressure without snapping.




OK.  Much better now.

[u18b]

The next couple of posts this evening probably need to be filed under: 

Bearden....... is it asshatery or are out of your mind?

I've had a problem that I confess I have been obsessing about.

The details on the roof of the EP-2 changed over the years.  Kumata did a pretty good job overall creating three different variations in this new EP-2.

Of course, I see all of this as a starting point.  I don't feel bound by what Kumata did and I want to make these fairly accurate beyond the basics.

On these two EP-2s I'm working on now (E-4 and 5) I started with the later Kumata variation.  But there is one detail issue that has nagged me. 

It has to do with the roof of the B end (that's the busy end). 

Now at this point in the early 1950s, a diesel type horn has been added to the A end.  (In fact, they started adding these horns with the Railroad Fair scheme in 1948).

But what about the B end?

The model has a horn on the A unit but no horn on the B unit. 

Where a horn might be, there is this curved thing.
I have no idea what it is, but it was indeed present in earlier years. 
Here are good shots showing its presence.



And there it is a bit clearer behind the bell near the cab.





My guess- (it is only a wild guess) is that this curved thing held the very unique steam whistle that was part of the early EP-2 identity. 

So the million dollar question for me is-  what is Supposed to be there in the early 50s?

The problems are numerous.
1.  I have collected as many photos as I can.  But it is still not that many.

2. Often times, the angle of the shots is not good enough to tell anything.

3. And lastly.  The area is black.  So it is extra hard to tell anything. 

Look at the following photos.

E-4.  A end.  Bad angle.  Far away.


Hmmmm.  This is a little better.  E-4.  Fuzzy.  Don't see a horn.  But that (whatever it is) looks too small to be the hump in question.



E-4.  Wrong end.  BAd angle.  Ignore my notes on the photo).


E-5.  Correct end.  ALMOST a good angle.  But all that blackness.  Can't tell anything for sure.  Ahhhh!


E-2.  NOW we're talking.  Clearly the hump is gone and the horn is installed in its spot.  (why can't I find shots like this of E-4 and 5???).



THIS is actually the photo I can't get away from.
Knowing what to look for.... I think I can just BARELY see a horn up there on the B end.  The back of the horn is at the red line and the green points to the bell.


So since  I can't shake the feeling that by 1950 this loco would almost surely have a horn on BOTH ends (like E-2), I decided to go with my gut.
The hump is coming off.

I'll post how it goes.
(I hope I don't ruin the model       )

[u18b]

I  used my resistance soldering unit to heat up and remove the curve.

This left two mounting slots in the shell.   Hmm. I wasn't counting on that.  I'll have to fill them.



So I took some brass stock and inserted wedges.  I then soldered them from the inside. I used the resistance soldering unit to make certain I had a good joint.



With the underside firmly secured, I used a motor tool with a cut off wheel to Carefully cut the stock brass down fairly close to the shell. 

I know.  It sounds crazy and very risky.  And I was very very careful.
You can see that I came close to messing up- but that one spot was OK.   



I then used files to VERY carefully make the area even.  Fine sand paper smoothed everything out. 






It turned out actually better than I expected. Plus, since the area will be black, any slight imperfections should not be very noticeable.

Now the tricky part will be to mount a brass horn. The tricky part will be soldering it in place since I don't want to melt my good patching work thus far. 

The last step was to use a motor tool to cut the excess brass and solder from the inside of the shell.
You can see the spot that needs to come down.




I confess I hated risking ruining this fine brass model.  But all turned out well in the end.
And now the horn on the B cab looks great.

[u18b]

Remember, I'm building two of these EP-2s at the same time.

E-4 is finished.  (was)

The one that I changed above was the second of the pair-  E-5.

So I now needed to go back and remove the bump from E-4.

One change that occurred to me was- the stock bump has mounting projections that fit into the slots in the shell.
So instead of me removing the bump from the shell-- then filling the slot with brass shim.....

Why not just destroy the bump on the shell-- and leave the holes already plugged.

So that's what I did.

Before.




Carefully attacked it with a cut-off wheel.



Then differing bits as I got close to the shell.



 
Filed smooth.




Sanded.  Horn mounted.



You can see from this side that this is really a rather delicate operation.  That cooling coil comes VERY close and great care must be taken not to damage it.




Glad to have this done successfully.
Now I can get back to detailing E-5.

[u18b]

Since my last post....

I finished constructing E-5.

So now, E-4 and E-5 are built.  Here they are together.



The next step is to clean, sand blast, and air erase them.
Then apply primer.

[u18b]

By the way, I added up all the changes I make to these models.

Turns out that as I build these Kumata kits, I make over 50 changes per Cab- or total, over 100 changes per locomotive.

(no wonder they take so long to build!)
 

[u18b]

The theme of this post is- Challenges.

The construction of E-4 and E-5 is finished.  Since I was waiting for the Tru-Color paint to come in, I decided to turn my attention to a couple of other things.

I started building E-1 and ran into two problems.

First, when I was soldering the brass tubing to the main frame to create a sort of sill, disaster struck.
The best joint is created by the resistance soldering unit because there is so much heat sink action going on.
And I had to crank up the juice to get a heated joint fairly quickly.

ZAP!

Without realizing it, one of the electrodes touched the ladder.... and melted it in a micro second.
Sigh.



I felt panic for about 5 minutes and decided I might as well start looking to replace it.

I looked in my box of etched parts for ladders.

Hmmm.  Wow.  The Walthers ladders look almost perfect! 



The spacing was exactly the same and the sides were a little wider.
A few passes of the file and.....

Presto.  I honestly cannot tell which is the Kumata ladder and which is Walthers.




So assembly continued until I got to this moment- piecing the shell to the walkway.
DANG!
The screw holes did not match up with the braces in the cab.
In this photo, I have already corrected the bottom brace, but look how far off the top one is.




Here is a closer look.

You can see how far out of alignment it is.  I figure the cab on this unit somehow got build not close enough to the nose.




Now, it is not uncommon in these kits to have the holes not line up perfectly.  But usually it is off by a few microns.  A few passes in the hole with a round file to elongate the hole if fine.

But in this case, we are off by a full millimeter or two.   Opening up that hole would make it huge.
So I decided to fix the brace.

Here it is.
Grabbing it with the resistance soldering electrodes got it off fairly easily.






I then took a file and cleaned up the shell, trying to get most of the old corroded solder off.

I then took some K&S brass channel stock for making a new brace.
The hole would need to be moved outward.




I figured drilling and tapping would be easier before cutting.






I tinned the back and the side with solder.  I used a little bit extra on the back.



This is such a little piece that it is hard to hold on to.  Adding a screw helped.



This resistance soldering unit I picked up has paid for itself.  I'm really glad I got it.



Not bad.




Now THAT is better.

[u18b]

A future challenge will be to make castings of the new boiler room.

I have future plans for a couple of old NJ brass EP-2s.
But the problem is the boiler room.  The boiler room originally was delivered with a door and ladder.
The NJ model has this.

But that door was filled in and the ladder removed by about 1930 (middle black days, and long before the colorfull Hiawatha days).

So while I still have some of the new boiler rooms, I want to make castings for the future.

More on that in the days to come.

[peteski]

Ron,
you always keep mentioning that you bought this resistance solderign unit on eBay?  Why is eBay so prominently mentioned?  Would you keep mentioning the source of your unit if you bought it directly from the manufacturer or from some industrial supplier (like Granger or MSC)?

From what I remember your unit is a well-made American Beauty 250W unit.  I think you bought it new. So (unlike some cheap knockoff or home-brewed units) it works really well. That  is to be expected since those are industrial-quality soldering stations.    So back to eBay - did you get it for an unusually low bargain price on eBay?  Was it an auction or a BuyItNow price?

[u18b]

Hmmm.
Not a knock off.  It is an American Beauty.  Correct.

Based on my pricing, new ones are about $500.

Used on ebay varies from full list, to 175-200 on low side.
I scored this one for about 150 or less.

So I guess I'm just really thankful for what I felt was a good deal.

[peteski]

Hmmm.
Not a knock off.  It is an American Beauty.  Correct.

Based on my pricing, new ones are about $500.

Used on ebay varies from full list, to 175-200 on low side.
I scored this one for about 150 or less.

So I guess I'm just really thankful for what I felt was a good deal.

Ah, so you did get a great bargain on eBay!  Duh!