Well done, Bill. Your craftsmanship in building the light should be applauded. I'm planning to add these to my Empire when I've progressed to that stage in my railroad.
THAT is pretty darn creative. Looks incredible! With your jig they all come out the same... and they cost a fraction of what a purchased light would cost. And the purchased lights would probably be plastic.. I gotta try it... thanks for sharing! 🤠 As I'm just getting started in model railroading I may decide to make videos on my journey down the model railroading rabbit hole. I'll let you know if I make a video of these! Of course I'll credit you and link your video. This is the second one of your how to videos I'm trying myself. I'm subscribing - keep 'em coming!
I have used a similar idea but ended up putting only one wire (insulated) thru the copper (or brass) tubing and soldered the other wire from the LED to the tube. The bottom of the tube then became the negative on all my lights and the wire that went to UNDERNEATH the layout came thru from the LED as positive, The LED had somewhat stiff 'legs' so it was useful to have the look of a metal bracket with the shade coming UNDDER the wire brackets...The copper tube would have wire soldered into it and now I have both positive and negative under the layout ready to be wired into either series or parallel for access to power...
Great little project. The best way to cut that tubing is with the edge of a file. Score each side a few times where you want to cut then bend the tubing at the scores a few times back and forth. The tube will break off easily and won't leave a burr on the inside.
These are awesome. As soon as i seen the build i purchased all the supplies. As for filing inside use a 6:57 welder torch tip cleaner. 1 thing i did not figure out was the length of the tube pre-bend. I will take a guess and figure about 25 on the ho scale of the ruler or is that too much
Very clever. I wonder if you couldn't find a finish nail the same diameter as the inside of the tube and jam it in there while you're doing your cutting so as not to create inside burrs when you're cutting. Granted you'll want to rotate as you cut instead of going straight through so the softer copper cuts while the nail doesn't but maybe worth a shot? I wonder what they'd look like with a patina on them could give a nice green look if you can pull it off right.
Good idea. I have some steel piano wire that might do that job. I've been using a thumbtack to widen the holes after cutting but clearly my way isn't the best way.
You could always use the copper tube to replace one of the conductors for scale and feed the remaining wire through the pipe. I'm going to be giving this a go for that scale shortly.
Those are very contemporary lampposts. That’s a great idea and you also showed how to make the ‘volume manufacturing’ device.
Well done, Bill. Your craftsmanship in building the light should be applauded. I'm planning to add these to my Empire when I've progressed to that stage in my railroad.
THAT is pretty darn creative. Looks incredible! With your jig they all come out the same... and they cost a fraction of what a purchased light would cost. And the purchased lights would probably be plastic.. I gotta try it... thanks for sharing! 🤠
As I'm just getting started in model railroading I may decide to make videos on my journey down the model railroading rabbit hole. I'll let you know if I make a video of these! Of course I'll credit you and link your video. This is the second one of your how to videos I'm trying myself. I'm subscribing - keep 'em coming!
I have used a similar idea but ended up putting only one wire (insulated) thru the copper (or brass) tubing and soldered the other wire from the LED to the tube.
The bottom of the tube then became the negative on all my lights and the wire that went to UNDERNEATH the layout came thru from the LED as positive, The LED had somewhat stiff 'legs' so it was useful to have the look of a metal bracket with the shade coming UNDDER the wire brackets...The copper tube would have wire soldered into it and now I have both positive and negative under the layout ready to be wired into either series or parallel for access to power...
Great little project. The best way to cut that tubing is with the edge of a file. Score each side a few times where you want to cut then bend the tubing at the scores a few times back and forth. The tube will break off easily and won't leave a burr on the inside.
These are awesome. As soon as i seen the build i purchased all the supplies. As for filing inside use a 6:57 welder torch tip cleaner. 1 thing i did not figure out was the length of the tube pre-bend. I will take a guess and figure about 25 on the ho scale of the ruler or is that too much
Such a great idea and we'll executed. Appreciate your time in showing the technique 👌 Bravo.
Nice! And, Nice layout too.
Amazing❤
Great idea. What is the inside & outside diameter of the copper tubing?
[thank, you for youre great video]👍
Outstanding.
Very clever. I wonder if you couldn't find a finish nail the same diameter as the inside of the tube and jam it in there while you're doing your cutting so as not to create inside burrs when you're cutting. Granted you'll want to rotate as you cut instead of going straight through so the softer copper cuts while the nail doesn't but maybe worth a shot?
I wonder what they'd look like with a patina on them could give a nice green look if you can pull it off right.
Good idea. I have some steel piano wire that might do that job. I've been using a thumbtack to widen the holes after cutting but clearly my way isn't the best way.
Hi Bill, really a great tool 🙂but I was wondering can it be used also for N-scale?
I don't see the leads of the LED fitting through a copper tube that is the right diameter for N scale, so I'd have to say no unfortunately.
You could always use the copper tube to replace one of the conductors for scale and feed the remaining wire through the pipe. I'm going to be giving this a go for that scale shortly.
6:16 small round file.
I'm new yo this kind of train building . can you supply part numbers to help. I'm interested in learning and doing and watching your channel. Thsnks
Links to the parts used are in the video's description.
Have you a code number for the LED
I assume you mean 0603. It can be found on the Amazon link in the video description.
Where did you get the ruler?
I picked this one up in Amazon. amzn.to/3oJt7Ni But I bet you can find one cheaper searching on Google.