Designing For Laser Cutting

[28ten]

A late night last night saw me redrawing part of the side as there was an error of 1 inch in the sides. A couple of shots of the basic chimney stack and the door surround formed by the laminations. all the surface detail is added in the final stages when I am happy everything will fit.

 

[Steve Cook]

Looks good Cynric
Have you considered incorporating wiring runs for lighting in the basic shell? I know that it would be easy enough to hide them in a corner, but as you are laminating the sides up, could a channel (or two) be included somewhere?

Speaking of which, was there gas, electric or no lighting in the shed - I genuinely have no idea?

Steve

 

[28ten]

I certainly could lighting would depend on the period but from accounts I have read engine cleaners worked at night with paraffin lamps. A dangling bulb in the mess room is tempting though...
£400 of Rowmark ordered today, not all for this I hasten to add

 

[lancer1027]

Cynric, when do i need to place my order for those coach partitions

 

[28ten]

Cynric, when do i need to place my order for those coach partitions

You already have Ill try and get a sample done, post it to you and we can go from there. the partition profile should be the same as I need for the 105, it is just a question of cutting different bits out.

 

[Steve Cook]

I certainly could

Excellent.

....lighting would depend on the period but from accounts I have read engine cleaners worked at night with paraffin lamps.

Thank you, learn something new everyday. Shame not have some form of lighting in the shed itself though..

A dangling bulb in the mess room is tempting though...

At this scale, one should be considering a working light switch

£400 of Rowmark ordered today, not all for this I hasten to add

Hope thats a lot of Rowmark

 

[Steve Cook]

Bit of inspiration for the inside perhaps, page 24, Great Western Branchline Modelling Pt2 - lovely photo of the inside of Bodmin engine shed. Shows four gas lamps mounted on the walls, plus lots of other bits such as ladders, wheelbarrow, oil drums etc. No date for the photo, but not hard to believe that the inside of Wallingford could be kitted out in a similar fashion...

 

[28ten]

Im not saying there wouldnt be any, just the account I read described getting up at 2am, cycling to the shed and working to the light of a single paraffin lamp.

 

[Steve Cook]

Im not saying there wouldnt be any, just the account I read described getting up at 2am, cycling to the shed and working to the light of a single paraffin lamp.

Ah OK. That sounds like a hard way of earning a living though

 

[28ten]

I have started playing with the roof joists for the mess/toilet, in the absence of any detail on the plan I have come up with something like this.


Im hoping Mike or or somebody could point me in the right direction..... Im assuming that they wouldnt bother to build the toilet partition up .

 

[Ressaldar]

I have started playing with the roof joists for the mess/toilet, in the absence of any detail on the plan I have come up with something like this.

View attachment 7427
Im hoping Mike or or somebody could point me in the right direction..... Im assuming that they wouldnt bother to build the toilet partition up .

I think that you would only need the diagonal joist - if only to keep the cost of the original structure to a minimum - they would be spaced between 16" - 24" with battens between for the slates. The horizontal joist would have only really be needed if there was to be a ceiling - something of a luxury for a messroom in those days.

The partition would have been softwood framing clad with tounged and grooved boarding - but not V jointed, and as such, would have been 'self supporting'.

cheers

Mike

 

[28ten]

Thanks Mike would this be more appropriate? (when properly spaced)

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Cynric,

that will do fine, just notch the wall plate for simplicity. All looking quite good.

cheers

Mike

 

[28ten]

Thanks Mike, yes I can notch the wall plate, Ill also stick one in the wall to align the whole lot.
There may well be some more questions later about the main roof

 

[28ten]

This morning I have been making matchwood...



Trying different settings to cut some doors from .8mm basswood. Best effort was this

The power settings still need adjusting though. One reason for posting this was to show the effect of the cut on narrow material, rather like etching, the laser makes narrow sections narrower- if you see what I mean. In the shot above I hadnt allowed for this and the cross braces are very weedy, using softwood doesnt help. Whilst it might only take 30 seconds to cut all 3 pieces for a door, the preceding experimentation takes an hour

 

[28ten]

As part of the proving process I like to lightly laser the basic shape in foamboard to get a feel for the final layout. Rowmark isnt cheap so I would rather make my errors on something cheap what you see here is 1:35 scale with a 12inch ruler for scale. In 1/32 the building is 20 inches long

 

[28ten]

Having cut some samples today, I am less than convinced that Rowmark is best for brickwork in this scale, it lacks the texture of mdf and it is all just a bit too regular. Currently I am experimenting with roughly painting the bricks then using either diluted emulsion paint or polyfiller as a mortar mix, followed by drybrushing brick highlights....... we shall see

 

[Old Buffer]

The planks/doors look very good, I have been speaking to my son in law about getting a laser cutter. The reasoning is, I could cut the sides and ends to size and mark the timber for planked vans and open wagons in one operation instead of cutting with a razer saw. Also make the buildings as you are.
Alan

 

[28ten]

The planks/doors look very good, I have been speaking to my son in law about getting a laser cutter. The reasoning is, I could cut the sides and ends to size and mark the timber for planked vans and open wagons in one operation instead of cutting with a razer saw. Also make the buildings as you are.
Alan

You need to think quite carefully about it, I cut a lot of parts for a local maker of dolls houses which makes it viable, and you do need to be up to speed with CAD as you spend far more time drawing than cutting. You will also need to be prepared to get your hands dirty aligning and tweaking the Chinese models, after 6 months I am still learning, it is not like plugging a printer into the computer (unfortunately)

 

[Old Buffer]

You need to think quite carefully about it, I cut a lot of parts for a local maker of dolls houses which makes it viable, and you do need to be up to speed with CAD as you spend far more time drawing than cutting. You will also need to be prepared to get your hands dirty aligning and tweaking the Chinese models, after 6 months I am still learning, it is not like plugging a printer into the computer (unfortunately)

Guv,
This is exactly what the s/i/l says, but he is clued up with CAD as its part of hs business.
Alan