Re: injection molding tooling costs/Terry Wegman
Paul LaCiura <paul.jeseng@...>
What I have heard about Terry echoes exactly what Richard states.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
The two toolmakers I have heard the most about are Wegmann and Paul Lubliner, mainly because they are Southwest modelers (where I am from), and they certainly have my admiration for their abilities and modeling legacy. Wegmann and Lubliner collaborated on N&G Railway Signal Company, maker of HO and O gauge scale operating railroad signals back in the '70's. I was going through school at the time and was spending my dollars on books and tuition rather than scale signals for a future layout. I lamented this later as the signals essentially "went off of the market" when the career the books enabled finally started paying off. So I have been searching for these "works of art" on ebay and elsewhere for many years. I know it has been said before, but it worth saying again, these guys are "perfectionists" in every sense of the word. I had several long discussions with Lubliner in the late '80's regarding how he learned how to create tooling for such detailed applications. Most of what he had to say was peppered with "oh, this is easy and that was simple to do, I can show you in a few minutes how to do it" with a pantograph and his other tools of the trade. Manufacturer's drawings, good photographs and a few supporting dimensions from sketches were all that they needed to create these fine models, and a lot of time and expertise mixed in. But they enjoyed every minute, just like we should enjoy our modeling time too. Like Richard said their thrills were in the research and development of the tooling and construction of the model prototypes. Paul did a fine job in photographing their finished work (I have some 2.5M images that I can forward to those interested) and developing ads in RMC, etc. But when their inventory and/or public interest in the products dwindled so did their motivation to continue producing both established and new/different models. Most know of N&G's searchlight (H-2), lower quadrant Style B and upper quadrant semaphores, but few know about the "other" signals that were tooled but never brought to market. Paul developed working ATSF upper quadrant semaphores and colorlight signals, UP colorlights, etc., but never marketed them. Last that I heard was that Paul was not totally satisfied with many aspects of the signal line and wanted to "retool" most of it. I wonder if he feels the same way about his landmark F-units (which pulled many a steam era freight car) in retrospect. From my perspective, I can't see how either could be improved. Paul Paul LaCiura San Francisco, CA spdaylight.com
-----Original Message-----
From: STMFC@yahoogroups.com [mailto:STMFC@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Richard Hendrickson Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:41 PM To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [STMFC] injection molding tooling costs/Terry Wegman On Oct 11, 2005, at 10:23 AM, ed_mines wrote: If injection mold tooling is expensive to produce did Terry WegmanCertainly he invested a lot of time. But Terry is apparently motivated less by commercial considerations than by proving to himself and others what he is capable of doing as a toolmaker. Once the tooling is finished to his satisfaction and he has made enough test shots to confirm the results, his interest quickly evaporates. Andy Carlson seems able to get some product from him, perhaps because they are personal friends, but otherwise it's like pulling teeth. Richard Hendrickson Yahoo! Groups Links -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.14/130 - Release Date: 10/12/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.14/130 - Release Date: 10/12/2005
|
|