Pennsylvania A3 Switcher (Kozo)

[Kim]

I started trying to make the face for the dial in Fusion 360, but that was harder than I wanted to tackle at the moment. I could get all the shapes there, but where I got hung up was trying to make two-dimensional things have color and be printable. I’m sure it’s possible, but Fusion seems to wants everything to be 3D. So, I stopped trying to figure that out and just pounded it out in PowerPoint.

PowerPoint has its own peculiarities, such as, it’s hard to make something a specific size or angle.  But I worked it out.  And in the end, it took me less time to do that than to figure out Fusion.  Someday, I’ll get better at Fusion!  I’m already better at it, but my skills are still quite rudimentary.

Anyway, here’s the dial face that I came up with.  I scaled it up and down by a few percent and made a lot of copies, then picked the one that came out the right size.  The two on top have been cut out, just in case you couldn’t tell.


Here’s what it looks like.  The little tick marks don’t align quite as well as the pencil mark one from yesterday, but they're really close.  Close enough for the accuracy of this gauge. 


You can see that I got some oil on the bottom of the dial face (see picture above) so I took the gauge apart, cleaned it really well, to get rid of the oil, and cut out a new one and put it in.   Who wants big oil stains on a brand-new pressure gauge, right?!?

And here’s how it looks installed in the cab.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself! 




This little project has been way more fun, interesting, and satisfying than I could have imagined.  I would highly recommend it as a project to anyone who might be even faintly interested.  And, as it happens, I have a lot of 0.005” phosphor bronze sheet left over and would be happy to share some with anyone who’s interested in making a pressure gauge.  If you’re interested, please just drop me a PM and we’ll figure out how to get it to you.  All it would cost you is the shipping, and it would ship flat, so I don’t think it would be very expensive at all.  I only used about 4-5 square inches of material, so it doesn't take much!

Well, that brings me to the end of a long journey.  Thank you for your help and support over the past MANY years.  It has been greatly appreciated.  I’d never have gotten here without your support. Thank you to each and every one of you! Really, I mean it.  The people of this forum have been invaluable in my learning, and I am indebted to each of you.  Thank you for your support! 

I’ll probably post something to the ‘showcase’ and then call this project a wrap!

Kim

[Dave Otto]

Very nice work on the pressure gauge Kim! I enjoyed the process.
Sad to see this come to an end, it has been a fun ride, and you finished it! Something that I struggle with.

Dave

[crueby]

Agree with what Dave said, its been a wonderful journey with great results!!   




For the dial in fusion, the trick is to make a sketch of the dial face with the outlines of each section of the dial and any text, but when you extrude the sketch any adjoining section would need to extrude to a different height. That will make each section as a separate  face. Then, bring up the appearance panel, set it to apply the appearance to faces, not bodies. Go into the painted appearances, pick the colr for each section one at a time, and drag it onto the appropriate  face. Then you can set the view to be looking down square to the  faces, set style to shaded. Print or copy image to a photo editor, where you can print from. Voila.

[rklopp]

When I was a  teenager I worked in a tube mill. One of my assignments was to make shaped tubing on a drawbench using a "cat-head," which consisted of four shaped rolls in a square frame. The rolls could be adjusted in and out to get the desired dimensions starting from thin-wall round tube. I mostly made tube for helicopter rotor airfoil leading and trailing edges, but the mill also made Bourdon tubes using the same machines. The alloys were usually beryllium copper or stainless steel. My Dad, who was plant engineer, would bring home extras for my Mom to use to hang small quilts and needlework. Why use a wooden dowel when some mil-spec exotic alloy would do???

[Kim]

Thank you Dave, Chriss, and Rklopp! 

Rklopp, that's a great story!  It's great what you can do with a little exotic alloy, isn't it! 

For the dial in fusion, the trick is to make a sketch of the dial face with the outlines of each section of the dial and any text, but when you extrude the sketch any adjoining section would need to extrude to a different height. That will make each section as a separate  face. Then, bring up the appearance panel, set it to apply the appearance to faces, not bodies. Go into the painted appearances, pick the colr for each section one at a time, and drag it onto the appropriate  face. Then you can set the view to be looking down square to the  faces, set style to shaded. Print or copy image to a photo editor, where you can print from. Voila.

And just like that!  Simple! 
I'll have to play with that some and see if I can get it to work. When YOU say it, it sounds quite doable...

Kim

[RReid]

Sweet little gauge Kim. Very much in keeping with the rest of your very fine build. Well done my friend.

[Kim]

Thank you, Ron!
Kim

[gunna]

Sorry for the late reply Kim. I missed the link going "above" the pivot point, I will go stand in the corner.
Congrats on a very fine model overall.
Ian.

[samc88]

Excellent work, really enjoyed following this build. Have you got a next project in mind yet?

[kvom]

Darn, now I need another project to follow daily.   

[tzkelley]

You can't see it but I'm giving you a standing ovation! Seriously, not only is this a beautiful model but your documentation of the progress has been both informative and entertaining. Thank you very much! I hope you decide to steam it someday and, if you do, please let me know; I'd love to drive down there and see it in person. Well done!

[Krypto]

Ya know, making a pressure gauge is not something I would think about making and yet it was totally fascinating side project!  It looks good too!

And again, congratulations on making a superb model! Now that a favorite show has ended, I guess I'll go back to watching Have Gun, Will Travel.

[Michael S.]

A beautiful little pressure gauge.
And it works! I never thought you could build it yourself. You showed me that it can be done.

Michael

[Kim]

Thanks Ian, Sam, Kvom, Doug, Krypto, and Michael! 

Sorry for the late reply Kim. I missed the link going "above" the pivot point, I will go stand in the corner.

Not to worry, Ian!  That was a good question and I was happy to show some close-ups of the interesting (yet simple) mechanism.  I appreciate the interest 

Have you got a next project in mind yet?

Well, I've got a nice backlog of home projects that I need to do, one of which is a good cleaning of the garage, only half of which is my shop!  So that will likely keep me occupied for a few weeks.  But after that, I intended to build a brass skeleton clock.  I've got some plans in mind and will be working on acquiring the required materials and such.

My only concern with this is it's not an 'engine' per se, so I'm depating on whether to post a build on the site here.  Well, it IS a spring-wound engine though, so maybe that will count?    Maybe I'd be allowed to post it to the Oddball sub-forum?

Kim

[crueby]

Years ago I  posted a clock build, labeled as a  'Hravitic Powered Temporal Engine'. A spring one would be a Torsion rather than Gravitic!