Huh? I was on YOUR side!
Greg Elmassian said:
p.s. shut up Maynard! I give a complete explanation with 10 yrs of experience and you flap your pie hole. I see why rooster has that on his avatar.
I do?
Everyone relax
I looked at Greg’s pictures and still think it can be done, but it would be a labor of love and each axle/wheel interface would unique. Milling new axles might be faster.
There is a way to set Quartering, by drilling a hole half in the axle and half in the wheel. Replace the drill with rod. Square cut keys are better, but this is way better than glue.
John
John, that is exactly my thinking lately.
I still need to investigate if modifying replacing the axles with non-tapered ones, with a keyway or other locator will even work, i.e. not sure that the mounting holes for the axle to the gear are consistent, and also if the combination of the gears and the hex drive will even ALLOW you to put the drivers in phase. It would SEEM that this SHOULD be, but I have learned over the years not to assume ANYTHING about Aristo stuff.
Even if all that worked, you need new axles manufactured, and then you have to modify the wheels with a metal insert with the keyway.
So, I have been thinking the last few years to just get one set up (back to back) and then drill the hole to hammer a piece of music wire in.
But, that leaves me with the crappy plating/finish on the wheels and a bad wheel contour.
So, I was thinking to have stainless steel “tires” made in the 2 sizes that Aristo used on most steamers, then the conduction and profile problems solved. Of course the stainless tires would have less traction than the pot metal and disintegrating plating of the originals, but should be way better power pickup and wear.
So, the project is good sized in my mind, and I have not gone any further yet.
Regards, Greg
Under the gear I’d also want pass through bolts with washers and nuts to hold the junk together. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I wouldn’t be surprised if those axle ends were free hand ground and maybe 10% passed…
John
Not quite sure what you are proposing. Don’t really understand “under the gear”.
The screws that hold the metal half axles onto the nylon gear can’t go all the way through, they would short the left and right wheels together.
In fact, originally the screws in some cases from each side touched each other and created a “factory stock” short.
I experienced more than one instance of the SD-45 screws touching inside the holes and shorting out as Greg described.
Could not possibly happen according to Aristo.
I backed them out and ground a “smidgin” off the ends and problem solved.
If only the idiots had made three extra offset holes there would have been no possibility of shorting.
Many years ago Grant Kerr had some spacer shims made which worked very well at adjusting the gauge to get it correct.
The SD-45’s occasionally had another odd problem. The Track - Battery switch only isolated one side, meaning it could short out when in battery mode and locos were running back to back.
Greg Elmassian said:
Not quite sure what you are proposing. Don’t really understand “under the gear”.
The screws that hold the metal half axles onto the nylon gear can’t go all the way through, they would short the left and right wheels together.
In fact, originally the screws in some cases from each side touched each other and created a “factory stock” short.
Instead of those short nubbins, a nut could be recessed on the other side to keep them from pulling out, still keeping the sides independent.
That’s what I was thinking… as long as we are redesigning…
John
Well John, We could redesign the axle shaft/gear assemblies, the wheels, and the gearbox, and then go into business selling replacement drive assemblies for Aristo locomotives and scratch-builders. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
So where do we get the start up capital to do that? Maybe I should call Scott Polk and ask how he did it. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
No David, we want Daddy’s money, Not Daddy’s debt!
Next!
True.
john, that gear has a half axle screwed into each side… were you trying to put the nut in the gear? that won’t work if you have one on each side trying to pull against the other side.
Greg
(very sorry about this side track),
Greg,
Looks like 3 screws from each half shaft, they are off set from each side. If you were to counter sink from the blank side just enough to place a nut a tad below the surface, the screws could be run into them … wouldn’t be very strong, but should prevent the half axles from pulling out.
Trying to make a poor design good, not hoping for great.
John
Yeah, right now the same 3 holes are used for both sides… dumb…
Using screws that are longer and alternate the holes would make more sense… by doubling the screw length you make a big difference
Actually pulling the axles out from the gears does not happen too often, most often it is when you have bad back to back on the wheelset and the turnouts have improper guard/wing rail dimensions, then the wheels can be “spread”.
The #1 problem is wheels slipping on the axles, and the number 2 problem is bent axles from dropping the loco, notice the end of the axle pictured is bent.
Greg