Brushs Laser Cutting and 3d Printing workbench

[BrushType4]

Not quite right as a few tweaks needed but a useful building if you’re modelling the GCR in 4mm.

 

[BrushType4]

I've been working on laser cut texture sheets and granite sets have been a bit of a challenge. In fact I was was asked if I could do them and I said sure and took the money before I actually had. So some head scratching and several failed experiments I reluctantly passed the lasered sheets to my customer as the best I could do. They sent me these pictures just now. They might not be as bad as I thought...

 

[Osgood]

That looks really good.
The only thing that grates (oh, there aren't any ) is the flatness of the surface - might it be feasible to laser onto an extremely thin flexible material that could then cover and follow the contours of a profiled base?

 

[BrushType4]

That looks really good.
The only thing that grates (oh, there aren't any ) is the flatness of the surface - might it be feasible to laser onto an extremely thin flexible material that could then cover and follow the contours of a profiled base?

Yep and that was my concern. I tried lasering a variety of profiles but it just didn’t work. However the sheet is just 0.45mm thick so bends easily enough for a road surface.

 

[BrushType4]

I’ve got a little job to make a couple of highland style signal boxes. Now I don’t know much about signal operations but I assume that all signal boxes have levers so thought I’d have a go at make a representation for these little fellows.




I’ve no idea how many levers would be on these boxes so I just made a guess. I think they will look alright through the windows.

 

[paratom]

Track plans lasercut from Templot plans ready to lay.


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Laser cut point work is a great idea and if you have access to a laser cutter even better. My only concern with your laser cut points is the way the webbing has been done. Being at the same height as the sleepers will make them hard to hide why don't you half etch them on the laser cutter so that they are below the height of the sleepers?

 

[Focalplane]

The lasered granite setts are a helluva lot better than cobblestones which is what I was planning using until yesterday. I like them because they look old and worn and anything but perfect. 50 years of hard work at Moor Street would result in a lot of stress. Will they be on your website soon? What sort of repetition is there?

Paul

 

[BrushType4]

Laser cut point work is a great idea and if you have access to a laser cutter even better. My only concern with your laser cut points is the way the webbing has been done. Being at the same height as the sleepers will make them hard to hide why don't you half etch them on the laser cutter so that they are below the height of the sleepers?

The webbing is quite thin and to be honest it isn't seen once ballasted. I can had etch the web as an option but it would double the price,

 

[BrushType4]

The lasered granite setts are a helluva lot better than cobblestones which is what I was planning using until yesterday. I like them because they look old and worn and anything but perfect. 50 years of hard work at Moor Street would result in a lot of stress. Will they be on your website soon? What sort of repetition is there?

Paul

Yep, here. The repetition isn't really noticeable.

 

[Focalplane]

Yep, here. The repetition isn't really noticeable.

What is the size of the sheet? I know I will need several.

 

[martin_wynne]

The webbing is quite thin and to be honest it isn't seen once ballasted. I can had etch the web as an option but it would double the price,

Hi Phil,

It will be seen at low angles unless the ballasting is above the timber tops -- daylight between the rail and ballast is a characteristic feature of bullhead track.

My previous dim view of one-piece timbering bases over traditional templates and loose timbers has changed somewhat since I have been developing Plug Track in Templot. This is all EM:

Chairs resin-printed. Firm press fit -- no templates, glue or gauges needed:

Files for above exported direct from Templot, no CAD program or skills needed. For any gauge or scale. All still very experimental and unfinished. More info at:

Plug Track

cheers,

Martin.

 

[LarryG]

Very progressive ideas there with a firm and accurate footing for the chairs.

 

[BrushType4]

Hi Phil,

It will be seen at low angles unless the ballasting is above the timber tops -- daylight between the rail and ballast is a characteristic feature of bullhead track.

My previous dim view of one-piece timbering bases over traditional templates and loose timbers has changed somewhat since I have been developing Plug Track in Templot. This is all EM:

View attachment 151390

Chairs resin-printed. Firm press fit -- no templates, glue or gauges needed:

View attachment 151391

Files for above exported direct from Templot, no CAD program or skills needed. For any gauge or scale. All still very experimental and unfinished. More info at:

Plug Track

cheers,

Martin.

I was not familiar with your progress in this area, but I have gone down a similar road, with Exactoscale chairs. These are moulded with a round hole in the bottom of the chairs, which is very convenient for fitting to a dowel fitted sleeper. For regular track, very fast plug and play track laying can be achieved with no gauging requirements when using appropriately laser cut sleepers. The web if included, like your 3d printed version can be moved to the edge as well as engraved to reduce the height. It just adds time and cost. I looked into the special chairs for the turnouts and the number of combinations soon gets a bit much for an injection moulding solution. 3d print for these is the way if the appropriate resin is used. Some resin was felt to be a bit too brittle for longevity on 7mm track at least.

I'll catch you on your forums and upload some pictures.

edit: found pictures.

Lasercut sleeper with locating holes.

Dowels fitted

Chairs fit over the dowels.


3d stl of proposed 3d printed chair with plug.

 

[paratom]

Hi Phil,

It will be seen at low angles unless the ballasting is above the timber tops -- daylight between the rail and ballast is a characteristic feature of bullhead track.

My previous dim view of one-piece timbering bases over traditional templates and loose timbers has changed somewhat since I have been developing Plug Track in Templot. This is all EM:

View attachment 151390

Chairs resin-printed. Firm press fit -- no templates, glue or gauges needed:

View attachment 151391

Files for above exported direct from Templot, no CAD program or skills needed. For any gauge or scale. All still very experimental and unfinished. More info at:

Plug Track

cheers,

Martin.

I agree with Martin about the webbing being seen unless you pack the ballast above the webbing which would be unrealistic with bullhead track. I suppose the webbing could be trimmed off once the point work was glued down, so why leave it on once the track is down? Half etching the webbing would take more time and make the product more expensive but I suppose you pay for what you get. I have half etched the webbing in EM gauge so in S7 it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

 

[paratom]

Hi Phil,

It will be seen at low angles unless the ballasting is above the timber tops -- daylight between the rail and ballast is a characteristic feature of bullhead track.

My previous dim view of one-piece timbering bases over traditional templates and loose timbers has changed somewhat since I have been developing Plug Track in Templot. This is all EM:

View attachment 151390

Chairs resin-printed. Firm press fit -- no templates, glue or gauges needed:

View attachment 151391

Files for above exported direct from Templot, no CAD program or skills needed. For any gauge or scale. All still very experimental and unfinished. More info at:

Plug Track

cheers,

Martin.

Very nice chairs, what printer have you used to print them. I have been experimenting on my printer to produce Midland Railway check rail chairs for EM that have a 1mm gape as apposed to .8mm which the commercially available ones are.

 

[martin_wynne]

I was not familiar with your progress in this area, but I have gone down a similar road, with Exactoscale chairs.

Hi Phil,

Yes, been there and got the T-shirt a few years ago. I called this the Exactopips system in Templot. This for FDM printing:

In the original Exactoscale system the chairs have an easy clearance on the moulded pips, it is intended to use gauges in the usual way for assembly, with adhesive.

The downside is that you are restricted to the chair prototypes provided by Exactoscale and their continuing availability. But the main reason I threw them out of the window with some force is because the rail is canted in the chairs*, and the extremely poor fit on the currently available rail sections -- see various topics on the Scalefour forum. The Templot plug chairs are for vertical rail, and the actual rail section dimensions can be entered as required before exporting the STL file.

If you decide to make your own chairs for the Exactopips system, you have the difficulty of supporting them with a flat base for printing, and without the plug base in 4mm scale they are much more fragile and difficult to handle. The plug base solves all that. Also of finding a suitable adhesive -- the Plug Track chairs are a press fit and any adhesive is only a backup and mostly not needed. Also the plugs are rectangular so not only gauging the chairs but also aligning them in the socket at the exact angle required for the rail.

But I will be adding an option for Exactopips in the STL 3-D timbering export -- I want to add all possible options which anyone might want.

*Canted rail is an utter no-no in my book below about Gauge 1. Impossible for anyone to actually see in the smaller scales, but making pointwork construction vastly more difficult. It is all but impossible to put a bend in a canted rail, as a switch set or knuckle bend, and then get the rail to sit flat and level. Even the prototype has difficulty, but has the advantage of heavy chair castings, spacer blocks and bolts. A small flimsy bit of resin or moulded plastic is no match for metal geometry. And if it doesn't sit flat, gauging is all over the place. Joe Brook Smith invented his system of soldered ply construction with vertical rail, which served the hobby well for many years, and still does. No-one ever claimed that they could see his rails weren't canted.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[martin_wynne]

Very nice chairs, what printer have you used to print them?

@paratom

Hi,

Thanks. My resin printer is an Elegoo Mars 2P : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FR2Y1PT

The resin is Elegoo "ABS-like" Resin.

Details of how to get from Templot to finished S1 chairs here:

Experimental Plug Track: 3D-printed, CNC-milled, laser-cut

It's now possible to do the same with L1 bridge chairs. More to follow.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[paratom]

@paratom

Hi,

Thanks. My resin printer is an Elegoo Mars 2P : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FR2Y1PT

The resin is Elegoo "ABS-like" Resin.

Details of how to get from Templot to finished S1 chairs here:

Experimental Plug Track: 3D-printed, CNC-milled, laser-cut

It's now possible to do the same with L1 bridge chairs. More to follow.

cheers,

Martin.

Hi Martin
The Elegoo is a great printer for the price. I have a Nova3D printer which is similar and can produce fantastic prints. Have you tried using the washable resins, I have started using them on my printer and I am very pleased with the results and of course the cleanup is less of a hassle. I plan to produce more point chairs that aren't commercially available for my layout. I have seen some people experimenting with printing out points with the chairs attached to the sleepers but I don't think that will ever catch on as you can't get the same level of accuracy as you can with injection moulding. I have found that you can get a bit of shrinkage on 3d prints, not what you would want if you are printing point work.

Tom

 

[BrushType4]

Intentio 7mm chairs fresh off the 3D printer.




Mixing laser and 3d printing technology Intentio plug and play track is Ideal for 32mm but particularly 31.5mm and 33mm gauge enthusiasts who want to lay track perfectly gauged fast.

When combined with templot plans, many yards of track can be laid accurately and fast.

 

[Mike Garwood]

Phil

Is any of this going to be available in 4mm? Specifically P4?

I really like the look of this.

Mike