Bettendorf trucks for Hopper Car

[dwyaneward]

I have purchase a couple of 2 bay 8 panel hopper car from this shapeways store

https://www.shapeways.com/product/29NB7 ... d=59706661

but I need some Bettendorf trucks for them and not finding a source. I am give a try at 3D printing my own

Photo of current design progress

[modorney]

> I need some Bettendorf trucks for them and not finding a source. I am give a try at 3D printing my own

Looks great - I'll take a dozen.

Will they work with Tillig wheelsets?

I think there is some trick to shapeways pricing - putting multiple parts on a sprue makes the overall cost cheaper - "one" part is really 4 or 6 trucks. Other shapeways experts know more than me.

[ctxmf74]

" I need some Bettendorf trucks for them and not finding a source."

I've used Gold Coast, Possum Valley ,and old HP brass trucks on various models and they all work well. Gold Coast and Possum Valley might not be available now but old HP trucks can be found on ebay occasionally, the nice thing about them is the wheels have more scale size flanges than Tillig and the brass construction is very rugged and trouble free. I recall TTnut offered roller bearing trucks on Shapeways site but I don't know if he made Bettendorfs? .....DaveB

[dwyaneward]

Modorney,

Have not gotten to seeing which wheel set will work yet, Still working on the sideframe details. I am drawing this up at actual size. Then I will scale down to TT and see what adjustment I need to make for wheel set and printing.

Correct on the shapeway pricing some material are better spruce for lower cost. There Is a new Hi-Def Acrylic and PLA materials coming soon for public release it multiply by current model pricing that are not spruce by 12 times due to the material per part cost, so I have been sprucing those parts to get cost back down.

[areibel]

Your 3D print would fit nice with a plastic injection machine. To expand on this idea one could get into brass castings. I've had the idea of using aluminum for casting. With todays glues aluminum would work great. Why aluminum? I played around several years ago with homebrew aluminum furnace to melt aluminum. One could make casting plaster molds and spin cast aluminum parts.

One other thing I've heard of is a metal filled resin or epoxy that can be used to make small injection molds- Larry Sayre sent me some info on it years \ago, I'll have to see if I can find it. That might be another option instead of cutting a mold?

[TiTan downunder]

Could I ask why you didn't just get some of the MTB 70 ton plain bearing trucks from Rob Dikken or TT-west?

These are quite good. I have been using the ModMueller NMRA wheelsets in the 100ton trucks and they roll very well.

Ian

[Richard-B]

Could I ask why you didn't just get some of the MTB 70 ton plain bearing trucks from Rob Dikken or TT-west?

AFAIK... MTB has not released these in production quantities yet.
I've only seen one pair.

Richard
http://www.tt-west.com

[Richard-B]

<snip> Gold Coast {...} might not be available

Why not...?
Lok-n-Roll has the GCR Bettendorf molds... and I believe they are using them to mold their own trucks for their latest cars. (e.g. the colorful ones...)

[ctxmf74]

"Why not...?
Lok-n-Roll has the GCR Bettendorf molds... and I believe they are using them to mold their own trucks for their latest cars. "

Hopefully they'll be easy to get but when things get sold and moved overseas that don't sound like a positive for the short term supply chain.......DaveB

[Richard-B]

Hopefully they'll be easy to get but when things get sold and moved overseas that don't sound like a positive for the short term supply chain...

Actually...
I think Lok-n-Roll is a bit MORE aggressive in their outbound marketing than GCR was...
mostly due to having a broader product line and larger local market.

That said... I don't currently see the trucks on the Lok-n-Roll 'Spare Parts' page
http://lok-n-roll.de/produkt-kategorie/ ... satzteile/