1895 Hearse

[BrassBuilder]

Ken,
How did you pick up CAD drawing so fast? Those drawings look like they have some pretty intricate design elements. It wasn't too long ago you were still using your old CAD system...Cardboard Aided Design.
Mike

[xken]

Mike, necessity is the mother of invention and being a designer ( BFA Industrial Design) the package was provided to me at no cost if I learned it so with a friends basic instruction and stumbling along on my own I am still learning it. Also God has blessed me with the ability to learn anything quickly; now I am sure that every professional CAD instructor would go nuts if they saw the way I do it. I never look at the command line and draw intuitively using the command short cuts.

[VintageModMan]

Ken I'm very very interested in this piece of modeling art/craftsmanship and your use of Auto CAD drawing. I really need to learn more in Auto CAD Ken. Also I draw the same way and would have the same looks by most CAD instructors too...lol

May I ask what CAD brand you use? Ive tried Auto Desk and Solid Works.

Great Work Ken and I've admired your work always
Gary

[xken]

Gary thank for you kind words on my work. I use CorelCAD which is both 2D and 3D however, I only use the 2D for the parts and drawing. Google CorelCAD and look at some of the tutorial videos.
Have a great day!
Ken

[xken]

Started to build with wood here are the basic parts to start with. The sides are 1/16" basswood and the inside piece is slighty smaller in the center to provide the window recess. The rectanglar openings in the floor are for the coffin rollers.



Here are the parts in various stages of finish. The floor was painted black prior to adding the walls.



Here the sides are in place and the adding of the driver's seat. I am using the door cut outs as masks for painting.



Here are the bracing for the driver's foot rest. The thin section is 1/16" and tricky cutting with the xacto knife. Once it was cut out I reinforced it with CA to avoid breaking off while adding the rest of the parts.



Here is the painted assembly and you can see the uppainted recess for the windows.




Here is a closeup, the curved pieces are 1/32" basswood cut using the grain of the wood for easy forming.



Here is the plain wooden pine box coffin requested by the client. The lid is removable to store your candy. I have been building and doing the CAD drawings simultaniously to provide the Laser files to Model Expo and while waiting for them I will move on to the brass parts.

[xken]

Not sure how the last picture got posted, but since it is there this just shows using filler to smooth the edges. The laser cut edges will have a slight angle and this picture will be in the instruction to show how to address the joints.

[KURTVD19]

Ken:
The build looks great. I bet the piece by the drivers foot rest is going to get broken by many builders regardless of how many warnings are put in the instructions. No way around it though. See it all the time with thin sections of ships frames near where the grain is weakest by the thinner areas. How about suggesting that the reinforcing piece be glued in place even before the parts are taken out of the carrier sheet? Small laser marks for the reinforcement with the parts oriented so that the pieces are both attached to the top side of the sheet?
Kurt

[xken]

Kurt,
Thanks for the suggestion, what I did on the laser cut was to orient the part so that the thinner sections are in line with the wood grain. I also suggest that the parts be strengthened with CA as soon as removed from the parent sheet. The one thing about advice is that it does not have to be taken.
I have found door hinges at the local dollhouse store which were perfect for the herase. 1/4" high. Here are pictures of the doors in place.




How is the Allerton build coming along?
Ken

[xken]

Moved onto working with some brass for the suspension. Here is the start of the front suspension with the axle and springs. The fifth wheel will use wooden parts which I am waiting for from Model Expo. The axles have a hexagon section in the center between the mounting points.


Here is the rear suspension alomost finished. This is an interesting semi eliptical concept that probably distributed the weight more evenly.
Nuts have not being added yet and on the left you can see the locating point for the axles which are the same front and rear.

Now to finish up the nuts for the rear then back to the front suspension and make the wood parts myself.

[KURTVD19]

Ken:
That's a very elaborate suspension system - especially when the passenger isn't concerned about a smooth ride.
Kurt

[xken]

Kurt,
You are correct; the other interesting thing is that there are no brakes so it must be slow and level rides.
Ken

[xken]

I moved forward to the front suspension assembly which required some interesting intergation of wood frame members reinforced with metal parts and alignment of the central pivot poinr for the front axle.

Here is a sequence showing how I soldered together the parts after they were fabricated. The real nesscessity that is needed in soldering parts with proximity to wood parts is a really hot iron to transfer heat instantly. Again I am using a 120 watt Weller soldering iron even with these small parts and joints.

Here all the parts are assembled together and held in place with rubber bands. All the parts are indexed on a 1/16" aluminum tube. In this confoguration I soldered the top and bottom brass rings turned on the lathe and 1/16" thick. I gathered a drop of Staybrite solder on the very tip of the iron and touched one side and held for good flow and removed the iron as quickly as possible and then with a Q-tip (cotton bud) weted with acetone to cool the joint quickly to minimize the burn on the wood. I then repeated for the other side of the ring. Solder does not stick to aluminum.




I then broke down the assembly and then added the center rings with the wood parts in place and using the aluminum tube for alignment.

You can see that I used aligator clips to hold the parts in place while being soldered.

This shows the finished soldered parts with the center pivot rings that were also turned on the lathe that are 1/8" diameter by 7/32" high. No burnt wood, quickness and chilling with the acetone keeps damage to the wood parts to a minimum.

Here are all the parts dissassembled and cleaned up. The hotter the iron the better the molten solder transfer to the brass joints and less joint clean up needed.

Here are the parts in place now using a Square headed turned bolt 1-1/8" long and threaded with 0-80 threads and using a hex bolt for now to hold together. The upper member is press fitted into two holes on the hearse frame. This is still a work in progress with more parts to be added yet.

[KURTVD19]

Ken:
Great work. This sure is an intricate and pretty complex assembly.

I can appreciate the difficulty of soldering with the part in contact with wood. I have started to use a resistance soldering unit and find that it works great with Stay-brite w/o charring the wood. Also found that the Weller iron with the rotary dial power adjustment is a great improvement over the ordinary soldering iron but since getting the resistance unit I tend to use the Weller unit less than before.
Kurt

[Egon]

Ken is there any connection to a French builder with that rear suspension perhaps Citroen