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Ok so here we go on yet another installment
of stupidity, bad language and worse grammar in my version of planet Jandowae.
This time I thought I would depart from the norm (as I do from time to
time) and actually have a useful little corner. This time we are going
to install some Fibre Optic lighting in some locos. |
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First things first, I started with some 1.5mm
and 1mm cable I bought from Gwyder Valley at the Toowoomba Show.
Obviously I used a 1.5mm and 1mm drill bit in my pin vice also.
Now most of the "info" I have found on fitting these little devices
of mental torture have suggested drilling holes into the LED itself
and fitting the fibre optic wire into the end of the LED. |
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| Personally I went a bit shy at the thought
of this in the same way as a vestiophobic person tends to shy away from
Jeans West (as a point if there are any vestiophobic people reading this,
please feel free to tell me what the alternative is, without getting arrested
in any way). In any case, I opted to make a "light box". I did this by
using some old pewter blocks I had lying on the |
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work bench (and that had on no less than 4,687,902
occasions been used by Jade to justify her claims that I "collect
all manner of junk and will never use any of it"). Soooooo, with
these VERY handy little bits of former junk now finding gainful
employment in the locomotive lighting field I set to work on drilling
some holes in them.
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The first hole I drilled was a 3mm
hole for the LED. I drilled into the box around 3mm to allow the
LED to sit snuggly inside with as small an amount as possible protruding
out, I then set to and drilled two 1.5mm holes (slightly angled
towards each other) from the other side so they met up with the
hole for the LED. |
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With this done, I drilled two 1mm holes angled
again towards the centre of the 3mm hole. In the end you should
have a box with five holes drilled in it. The 1.5mm holes are
spot on for the headlights with the 1mm holes designed for the
marker lights.
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The next step was to run some fibre
optic cable through the holes in the loco shell and into the light
box. I made sure to test everything at this point to make sure I
hadn't pushed any cables in too far. I then applied a very small
amount of super glue around the edges of the cable and the light
box to make sure they did not fall out. |
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With that all done, I again tested the whole
system to see where the "light leaks" (yes I am still inventing
new terms here) were coming from. A quick dab with some black
paint soon fixed these up and then it was time to re-attach the
shell to the mechanism and away we went.
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| So now we have QR Narrow Gauge locos with
DCC, Sound, Directional Lighting and marker lights… What more could you
ask for? |
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So with that all sorted out it was
time for me to get back to work on my World Domination Plan (version
136), involving a roving band of deranged parking inspectors, a
singing gold fish and four million miniature Pammy Anderson clones.
All in all, things should be very interesting over the next little
while on planet Jandowae. |
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