DCC Frame Milling / New Frames

[johnh]

Finally get room to start a layout again and need to have some frames milled on some of my older engines for DCC, particularly the old Life-Like FA2s and C424s. I had already managed to score DCC ready frames or mechanisms for most other stuff I plan to keep. Any recommendations?

[woodchip]

One of the TCS CN or CN GP will work in the C424. Did 2 many years ago and can’t remember the style I used. 

[Sumner]

http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Decoder-1/page-15.html

Sumner

[dem34]

And if you neither have a mill or a dremel, a good sized file with a couple needle files will also work given enough time and patience.

[Steveruger45]

I do all mine with a junior hacksaw, metal files and patience.
To clean the files I use a file card and to help stop them clog up I rub the file with school chalk.

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[Southern1970]

Buying a dremel, so I could mill n scale frames, was one on the best investments I’ve made.

[southpenn2001]

FWIW I use a 4" angle grinder with a thin blade (1mm) and then tidy up with a biggish file.
Seems to work ok if you take care to clean up properly and hold the frame solidly enough.

I do this these operations out in the shed. (I don't use the angle grinder in the train room very often).

Steve
Adelaide
Australia

[Pizzaparty]

I’ve been wondering about using an angle grinder! I’m a back of the shop metals class kid, so I’m more used to cleaning up some awful welds but If it works on trains I’m in.

Do you just mark out the area needed to cut then get close-ish and go from there?

[southpenn2001]

Yep that's it. The more you do, the closer to the lines you can work.

I didn't say it in the last post, but take care, wear goggles etc., etc..
Take extra care with the thin blades as they break easy. Ask me how I know........

Steve
Adelaide
Australia

[NtheBasement]

I suspect you won't have enough control with an angle grinder unless you can somehow bench mount it.

I watched a demo/class at a train show.  They used cordless dremels with a small end mill bit.  To control it they gripped the bolted together frame in one hand and the dremel in the other, shoving the dremel hand hard against the other hand or the work piece at all times to control the torque.

[wm3798]

Back when I would do such things I used a simple band saw with a high toot count blade.  The alloys they use on the frames is pretty malleable, so a few passes carefully manipulated, and you can take off what you need in a jiffy.

Lee

[peteski]

Back when I would do such things I used a simple band saw with a high toot count blade.  The alloys they use on the frames is pretty malleable, so a few passes carefully manipulated, and you can take off what you need in a jiffy.

Lee

That is how I recently removed a large chunk of a Kato E7 frame.  Quick and easy.  I held the chassis in a machinist's vise.  I used a metal-cutting bi-metal band.  When I mentioned that in a recent thread, I was told that is how Kelley (the Kato USA "Kobo guy") modifies shells.

[woodone]

Hope you were referring to a hand hack saw and not a true band saw. N scale frames are small, and in some places they are very thin metal. I would be afraid a band saw might grab the frame and break it.
I use a mill and have to make sure that I have good clamping support of the frame.
Even taking light cuts you can get a bind and put a lot of pressure on the frame.
A jewelers saw with a medium tooth count would work.

[peteski]

Hope you were referring to a hand hack saw and not a true band saw. N scale frames are small, and in some places they are very thin metal. I would be afraid a band saw might grab the frame and break it.
I use a mill and have to make sure that I have good clamping support of the frame.
Even taking light cuts you can get a bind and put a lot of pressure on the frame.
A jewelers saw with a medium tooth count would work.

I used a band saw to remove large chunk of metal on the back of Kato E7 frame.  It is single-piece very robust frame.

[mmagliaro]

You guys are brave with the grinders and bandsaws.  I used to do it with a Dremel, hand-held, with light grazing guts (this was just for general milling out of a cavity, not necessarily for a DCC decoder).  Now that I do it with a mill, I am still careful to take no more than .020" off at a time, even though I can clamp the frame in the mill and have it evenly supported all the way behind the place where I'm cutting.  I'm probably just being overly cautious.