Stainless steel tubing
|
Tom Madden
Detail Associates 0.019” brass wire is D.A. #2506. Their stainless equivalent is #3506. They also have SS wire in 0.010”, 0.012” and 0.015” diameters.
0.020” I.D. stainless hypodermic tubing is available from Amazon/Small parts:
If that link gets messy the Google search term for the tubing is HTX-22T.
I’ve just put a PDF in the Files area describing how I cut stainless tubing for tank car handrail unions. It’s titled Cutting_Stainless_Tubing.pdf.
The acid tank I’m doing now is my first one using stainless wire for the side handrails. Will post photos when the handrails are done. Have done lots of tanks with brass handrails but Bill’s photo should show how that looks.
Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Tom Madden
Here's a link to a photo of a stainless steel tubing union joining a brass end handrail to a stainless side handrail on a Resin car Works acid tank car shell. The union is 0.020" I.D. and the handrails are 0.019" O.D. http://www.pullmanproject.com/SS%20Union.jpg Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Bill Welch
I really like the stiffness the SS wire would bring to the sides, a vulnerable area. I ordered my .019 ID SS tubing from "Small Parts," now "Amazon something" and it was supposed to come yesterday. It is spec'ed with an OD of .025 so I am afraid it will look clunky. Tom would you please share your tubing source and Part#? Thank you for posting the link.
Bill Welch
|
|
|
|
riverman_vt@...
Why the use of the two different types of wire, Tom? Is the stainless wire to stiff/difficult to make the
required curvature for the end and bend to meet that on the sides? Are we speaking of stainless piano wire or something similar? Cordially, Don Valentine
|
|
|
|
Thanks Tom! That's what I more or less expected I guess once the car is painted and weathered the union will not stand out as much. A small price to pay for greater durability! Tim O'Connor Here's a link to a photo of a stainless steel tubing union joining a brass end handrail to a stainless side handrail on a Resin car Works acid tank car shell. The union is 0.020" I.D. and the handrails are 0.019" O.D. http://www.pullmanproject.com/SS%20Union.jpg
|
|
|
|
Tom Madden
---In STMFC@..., <fgexbill@...> wrote : > I really like the stiffness the SS wire would bring to the sides, a vulnerable area. > I ordered my .019 ID SS tubing from "Small Parts," now "Amazon something" > and it was supposed to come yesterday. It is spec'ed with an OD of .025 so > I am afraid it will look clunky. Tom would you please share your tubing source > and Part#? Thank you for posting the link. Hmmmm. The 0.020" ID SS tubing has an OD of 0.028". That's the tubing I use to splice 0.019" handrails and is what's shown in the photo linked to my previous post. The next size down in the product line is 0.017" ID and 0.025" OD. If that's the size you ordered it will be fine for use with 0.015" handrails but not 0.019". The wall thickness on both sizes of tubing is 0.004". Seems to me a 0.028" OD splice on a 0.019" handrail (47% oversize) would be less visually distracting than an 0.025" OD splice on a 0.015" handrail (67% oversize). The Resin Car Works web site has a couple of very useful late 1930's ACF drawings with all the pipe sizes called out. This one, from 1936, shows a tank car AB brake system: And this 1939 drawing shows a dome platform and ladder: All the railings and the train air line are 1 1/4" pipe. The supply line (branch pipe?) from the train air line to the brake valve is 1" pipe, and the air lines from the valve to the air reservoir and brake cylinder are 3/4" pipe. Not sure why there's confusion on what wire size represents each of those pipe sizes in HO. Detail Associates prints that information on the packaging for all of their brass wire sizes: 0.012" wire represents 3/4" iron pipe, 0.015" represents 1" pipe and 0.019" represents 1 1/4" pipe. Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Tom Madden
---In STMFC@..., <riverman_vt@...> wrote : > Why the use of the two different types of wire, Tom? Is the stainless wire > to stiff/difficult to make the required curvature for the end and bend to meet > that on the sides? Are we speaking of stainless piano wire or something similar? It's Detail Associates stainless steel wire, available in four sizes: 0.010", 0.012", 0.015" and 0.019". Straight, 12" lengths packed just like their brass wire, with stock numbers in the 3xxx series matching the 2xxx numbers of their brass wire. I use brass for the tank end handrails because it's much easier to form than the stainless. Even with a forming fixture I still do a lot of fiddling to get the end handrails to fit exactly. It's a leftover habit from my narrow gauge days when I did a lot of brass work - form the wire to fit exactly so that the solder, or in this case the splice, isn't under tension when the joint is completed. I neglected to include the link Bill asked for in my previous reply. My 22 gauge (0.020" ID, 0.028" OD) stainless tubing came from Small Parts before Amazon took it over, but the Amazon link to the same tubing is:
A foot of it ($3.78) will make a LOT of unions. Enough to do lots of tank cars even if, like me, you have half of them go flying off into neverland when you're trying to maneuver them into position! Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Bill Welch
Brass is very springy and it is hard to get it to behave, even with a good forming fixture, which Tom and I have.
Tom I misread the specs on the tubing you are using. If mine EVER comes, we should be using the same thing. I also ordered more tubing to use with .015 wire as I have not made up my mind which wire size to use (yes despite all of the evidence). I am torn because I don't want the pipe unions to be too clunky. I don't remember if I have said it on this list but I have used .015 wire for the handrails on the 7-9 tank cars I have built so far because that was size of the Wire and Tubing Martin Lofton included in his 8K AC&F insulated tank car kit. I assumed it was correct and the rest is history. I even purchased a length of the .015 ID tubing from Martin to use with IM, L-L styrene models and Speedwitch and SC&F kits. I am very torn. At some point soon, I will post photos of the fitting I use to cut the tubing. Bill Welch
|
|
|
|
Tony Thompson
I've used the stainless tubing for a handrail "union" on several tank cars. My cutting technique is to put the handrail wire inside the tubing, then cut off both tubing and wire in one cut with an abrasive disk. That way, there are no burrs inside. Works perfectly, though a certain fraction of the cutoffs are now in new homes somewhere on my floor.
Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA 2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com (510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, tony@... Publishers of books on railroad history
|
|
|
|
ed_mines
Years ago I used the same technique as Tony when building scientific equipment. I currently cut the brass Albion tubes with a rat tail file with nothing inside the tubes and the tubes seem to be resistant to deforming. There are a lot of brass bits in the carpet beneath my desk. Maybe the next person living here will think they are gold. Ed Mines
|
|
|
|
Scott H. Haycock
Bill Welch Wrote: "Brass is very springy and it is hard to get it to behave, even with a good forming fixture, which Tom and I have." Bill, or Tom, Could you tell us about this fixture? Or, maybe post a photo of it? Scott Haycock
|
|
|
|
Tom Madden
Scott Haycock asked: > Could you tell us about this fixture? Or, maybe post a photo of it? I posted a pdf file showing my method to the Files area last week. It's titled If that link doesn't work maybe this one will: Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Bill Welch
Scott, it is pretty much the same one in Sunshine's kits and will be in the Yarmouth kit and I assume RCW is using ti too.
Bill Welch
|
|
|
|
Bill Welch wrote
Brass is very springy and it is hard to get it to behave, even with a good forming fixture, which Tom and I have. What do you use for a forming fixture? Can you post a photo? Forming the curved hand rails for tank cars is definitely a challenge! Tim O'Connor
|
|
|
|
clamp them with a hemostat or other scissor type clamp first so they won't fly away
I've used the stainless tubing for a handrail "union" on several tank cars. My cutting technique is to put the handrail wire inside the tubing, then cut off both tubing and wire in one cut with an abrasive disk. That way, there are no burrs inside. Works perfectly, though a certain fraction of the cutoffs are now in new homes somewhere on my floor.
|
|
|
|
Tom Madden
Tim asked: > What do you use for a forming fixture? Can you post a photo? Forming
> the curved hand rails for tank cars is definitely a challenge! Here's a photo of the cast resin forming fixture. They are $64 each from Resin Car Works but Frank will include an acid tank car kit for free. :) Martin also included this in many of his tank car kits. Tom Madden
|
|
|
|
Jon Miller <atsfus@...>
You folks will enjoy this. I ordered a 12" length of SS
hypodermic tubing from Amazon. .02825 OD by .01975 ID. It came in
a plastic tube with plastic ends caps. Nothing new yet. Now the
shipping container; 24" cardboard tube 1/4" thick cardboard with
steel end caps. And of course lots of packing material inside. The
cost to me was $3.67 with free shipping!
-- Jon Miller For me time stopped in 1941 Digitrax Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI User NMRA Life member #2623 Member SFRH&MS
|
|
|
|
ed_mines
worth every penny! Ed Mines
|
|
|
|
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FMYLZS/ref=biss_dp_t_asn Robert Simpson ---In STMFC@..., <atsfus@...> wrote :
You folks will enjoy this. I ordered a 12" length of SS
hypodermic tubing from Amazon. .02825 OD by .01975 ID. It came in
a plastic tube with plastic ends caps. Nothing new yet. Now the
shipping container; 24" cardboard tube 1/4" thick cardboard with
steel end caps. And of course lots of packing material inside. The
cost to me was $3.67 with free shipping! -- Jon Miller For me time stopped in 1941 Digitrax Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI User NMRA Life member #2623 Member SFRH&MS
|
|
|
