Rob R
Western Thunderer
Col,
No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you can usually only laser cut from one side, so if you want your planks marking inside and out you need to use two layers.
Modelling GWR 4-plk opens in 7mm... which kit to choose?
- Thread starter Dog Star
- Start date
No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you can usually only laser cut from one side, so if you want your planks marking inside and out you need to use two layers.
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
adrian
Flying Squad
I'm not entirely sure that is the case anymore. I've not seen any results to confirm accuracy but the latest Emblaser cutters and include a camera alignment combined with the Lightburn software. If my understanding is correct you could etch and cut out from one side then turn over the side and using the camera to align it etch the planking on the reverse side.
adrian
Flying Squad
It'll be 1.4 mm after you give it a quick sand to smooth it out 1.5mm BR Grade Birch Laser Plywood, 600mm x 400mm sheet
JimG
Western Thunderer
Rob,
I've laser cut and etched from both sides on an Emblaser 1. I've got a guide set up to the 0,0 point on the bed of the Emblaser and I butted the material up to this for repeatable positioning. When doing the drawings you've got to remember that one side is the mirror of the other in the X axis. You've also got to cut the material to an accurate length in the X axis so that when the material is flipped in the x-axis to deal with the second side, everything lines up.
I did this some years ago to produce some S scale open wagon bodies and it worked quite well. But I remember that the main consideration when flipping the material for the second cut was, as well as butting the material into the 0,0 guide, that the material had to be at exactly the same angle along the X axis or you got registration wandering off along the X axis. I think I tried to avoid that problem by making the drawings and material short in the X direction and tall in the Y direction to minimise drift due to any X axis misalignment.
I use Cut2D Laser to produce the files for the Emblaser and I think the latest version can handle both side etching. I haven't had a need to do both side etching since I upgraded to the latest version so I'm not sure how much help it is. But I'll maybe go and have a look now.
Jim.
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Amazing what pops up on WT when the question is simple and interesting.
Tim (@Tim Giles), the etch is marked "W005".... so what else is up your sleeve?
regards, Graham
Overseer
Western Thunderer
I think you are right. I don't have a four plank kit handy but the 3 plank kit has side doors 33mm wide instead of 35 plus a bit (for the splay in the door) to match a 5 foot clear doorway. Easy enough to cut each side into four pieces and remove a millimetre from each end of the sides and add a couple of mm to the centre of the door. OK for one or two wagons but doing more would be no fun.
Unsurprisingly, the ABS white metal kit has the doors the correct width and the body length and height correct. I am pretty sure David Parkins does not have any stock of the dia. O5 four plank but does have a few of the broad gauge version (kit O-249) with the same sides, the ends would need to be cut down for standard gauge and the grease axleboxes swapped for OK oil axleboxes.
And of course the 0.5 will return in much upgraded format both top and bottom - but I’m saying no more about this at present. It is, after all only one of over 200 wagon kits to be released/re-released.
Etch looks very good and could be useful for lots of wagons.
What brakes do you use to complete the chassis.
Do you sell these or are they just for your personal use ??
Rgds Keith
Tim Giles
Member
The etches were for my own use, but maybe I could be persuaded to get some more made if there is sufficient interest.
The observant will notice a mistake I made with the artwork leaving the W irons separate instead of half fold lines which is now corrected. So if I ran off some more then I would have the photo tool updated.
As far as the remaining components are concerned I produced springs, brakes and axleboxes on the companies 3D resin printer, a facility no longer available to me as I have left that company. However ABS DC3 brake castings are suitable substitutes as well as spring and axlebox mouldings from the Slaters cattle wagon and Peco Buffer/Coupling Set RO-3.
Looks very nice. Only fair to point out that the ABS packs will not be available once existing stocks are sold - see ludicrously low prices on our web site. I never intended keeping them available, other than from the complete sets we inherited.
Such parts will be heavily adapted in the complete wagon kits, when they return. These sets result in too much inventory when coupled with our military ranges, which have priority. In fact we have just melted down around 300 part sets of D/C brake gear. I imagine Adrian kept them intending one day to cast up the missing parts. Life is too short for such shenanigans!
Last edited:
AJC
Western Thunderer
The same is true, incidentally, of the 4mm version of the five plank (which is 1mm shy of a scale 5' on the built up version I have knocking around). I'd not have thought to check and now I'll have to do something about it...
Adam
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Please let me know if and when you do produce more underframe etches.
thank you, Graham
I would be interested in three etches if you get round to doing them Tim. I would probably use the brakes, springs and axle boxes from the Coppercraft kit though, just remove the w-irons from the solebars and pare away the springs and axle boxes.
Nick
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Fraser,
Looking at a range of drawings for the 4-plk wagon, dwg. no. 6668 has wood rather than metal for the curb rail and for the end rail. As a result wagons built on osL407 are 2'8 1/2" rather than 2'7" for bottom of curb rail to top of sheeting - those measurements are under the capping strip (which is 3/8" thick).
regards, Graham
Last edited:
Overseer
Western Thunderer
Graham
I quoted the dimensions given on the diagram in A Pictorial Record of Great Western Wagons, 2'4" internal height and 2'7" over curb rail, so 3" thick floor. I don't know enough about variations in these wagons. I presume there were differences as it was an old pre diagram book design which was updated over the years. Would you be able to put together a list of the variations?
I need to buy one of the 4 plank kits to see what needs to be done to it, I bought the 4mm kits when they were first released, I think they were 94p each at the time. Just pulled out the kit instructions for kit 1004 - "About 200 of these 1902 built wagons were produced under various numbers. It was then decided to concentrate on the larger 5 plank O4 Diagram and most general goods open wagons built afterwards were to this latter type. Despite this the O5 is an interesting wagon adding variety to any train, moreover the body parts, in conjunction with the side lever type brake may be used to depict many earlier types."
I do have the 3 plank kit which was used as a fill in wagon on my 1870s Highland layout. It is part way through being converted to grease axleboxes and has been fitted with the original version of Exactoscale sprung w irons, as well as Peco buffers. Not sure why Cooper Craft made the three plank kit as I don't think it matches any real wagon. The number on my one was on a 15'6" long wagon not 16'. This one started out painted red but I repainted it grey so it stood out more against the 'red' Highland Railway wagons on the layout. I think I bought this kit during the W&H Models closing sale in 1994, as I worked nearby.
I think the Cooper Craft mouldings look good and worth doing a bit of work to correct the dimensional vagaries.
Not sure if you have seen these photos with GW 4 plank wagons at Aberdeen in the 1930s
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Well that is just what Chris Brown (@chrisb) and I are doing at the moment. Today we spent three hours reviewing four GW drawings of the 4-plk open goods wagon, dated 1880s and 1890s, to try to identify variations in the as-built wagons.
Really? The GWR built more than 25, 000 wagons in the same style of 4-plk wagon from 1880s into 1900s.
I have not seen these photos before, thank you. Just the two photos showing low-sided GW open goods wagons? Can these images be added to Chris's photo folder of prototype 4-plks?
regards, Graham
Overseer
Western Thunderer
The photos are crops from photographs in the Aberdeen University Archives Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners Collection - https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.co...INST:44ABE_VU1&collectionId=81151708240005941 . There should be no problem adding them to your files for research purposes, acknowledge Aberdeen University Archives copyright. There are probably more including GW wagons, I haven't specifically looked. The Archives can provide higher resolution copies if you ask them, if needed for publication.