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Laser cutting - Now with 1.5mm MDF

Fen End Pit

Entry posted by Fen End Pit

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The 1.5mm MDF I ordered arrived today, the 1mm was out of stock. 1.5mm is the same thickness as the width of a header in 4mm so this allows me to interlock the walls on the header joint. I deliberately drew the 'tab' of the header .2mm over length to get around the problem I had previously that the 'tab' was not quite long enough to lie flush with the 'slot' when the wall was put together.

 

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I also cut a piece of the MDF to be a sanding jig. By putting the wall through the jig I could lightly sand the ends of the 'tabs' to remove the charring from the MDF and get them exactly the right length for thickness of wall. All that is needed is a couple of strokes over some sandpaper. Obviously the MDF jig gets a bit thinner each time but I'll cut another one for the next building so it only has to be used 8 times before it is discarded.

 

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The resulting edge doesn't then show up as a wildly different colour to the main walls which I hope will make painting easier.

 

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A piece of 3mm MDF was cut to form a central core for the building. I'm hoping that 2 laminations rather than 3 won't be a problem given the sizes involved.

 

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Again the building slotted together perfectly and sat down into its base. This picture is without any glue holding it together which is why the tops of the walls have a slight gap.

 

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The 3mm inner core is cut with some larger rebates around the windows so that I can fit some glazing in later.

 

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Now to glue it up and paint it, must be more patient this time and apply more, thinner, layers of primer and let them harden properly before trying to get the mortar layer on with the acrylic. Mind you, it doesn't look like the weather for being in the garage with an aerosol.

 

David

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BlackRat

Excellent! What a whole load of possibilities this new technique opens up!

Dunno if its a fluke, but its come out looking like nicely weathered yellow brick to!!

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Tim Horn

Nice work David :)

 

I've got on ok with the mortar painting. I just use the Artist acrylic straihgt out the tube for now, then wahsed off with IPA on kitchen roll straight away. You just need to keep trying stuff until you find a method which works for you.

 

I've always tried to apporach my model with a dead scale build,so things look to scale when I take a picture. I have ordered some 1.5mm mdf to give it a try and see how the interlocking bricks come out.

 

Roof trusses test TJH02 25th January 2013 Copyright Tim Horn

 

Roof trusses test TJH01 25th January 2013 Copyright Tim Horn

 

Keep at it :)

 

Cheers

Tim

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