| 3d Printing – Version 2 |
 This brings us then to version 2. The flanges have been modified to confirm to Class 125. I recessed a slight area around the opening (forming a gasket surface) and punched 8 holes at the appropriate dia and size (see previous post). Bolt heads were applied at the locations shown in the original drawing.
I applied an ACME 6″ to the side .. and finished up with some clean-up of the valve body. I changed the valve stem hole from 0.034″ (originally for the #000-120 screw I used for the valve stem) to 0.026″ which represented a 1-1/4″ valve stem. This was the smallest that I could (I thought) print the valve stem in FUD. Turned out that .. that wasn’t true .. but more on that later. My original Gate Valves that I scratch-built used #000-120 screws to represent the valve stems. Measuring .034-in dia that scales out to 1-58-in in O scale. Just a ‘tad’ oversize but ‘good nuff’ visually. The problem was that I had to use two screws per valve = basically a hassle. I looked into purchasing some all-thread in that size and was shocked at the price with 12-in of threaded rod costing over $70!!!! Since the valve stems don’t operate .. they just have to visually look like a threaded stem I looked into some alternate methods with varying success. More on that later. |
