Kaidhuri

Hi Jim thanks for the reference, I've tracked down the book and will look it up after the football! I've done some crude repeatability tests using the Silhouette Portrait set to score on setting 2, speed 1 and 33 "thickness". A couple of (not very good) photos are attached. I compared two sets of score marks (inked in for visibility) one on 0.25 plastikard and one on 0.5 pk since these thicknesses are the panel layer and base (main side) layer thicknesses. Scoring rather than cutting produced a small difference much as I found with the cutting a few days ago. I also compared two sets of score marks both on 0.5 pk and found a small variability within the length of the test (crosses against the non-aligned marks). Your Jenkinson method will overcome these small differences - I guess the trick is knowing that they can occur, For the All First, I chopped up the 0.25 layers compartment by compartment and set them on separately. On the next one, I'll try the bending approach. Kaidhuri Hi Jim thanks for the reference, I've tracked down the book and will look it up after the football! I've done some crude repeatability tests using the Silhouette Portrait set to score on setting 2, speed 1 and 33 "thickness". A couple of (not very good) photos are attached. I compared two sets of score marks (inked in for visibility) one on 0.25 plastikard and one on 0.5 pk since these thicknesses are the panel layer and base (main side) layer thicknesses. Scoring rather than cutting produced a small difference much as I found with the cutting a few days ago. I also compared two sets of score marks both on 0.5 pk and found a small variability within the length of the test (crosses against the non-aligned marks). Your Jenkinson method will overcome these small differences - I guess the trick is knowing that they can occur, For the All First, I chopped up the 0.25 layers compartment by compartment and set them on separately. On the next one, I'll try the bending approach. Kaidhuri

Hi.....the metal is 1mm thick steel plate (B&Q too expensive for the steel but various suppliers online can produce a piece cut to size) double sided to a piece of chipboard. I put a piece of varnished paper on top of the steel - the type that comes in every pack of Epson photo quality inkjet printing paper. MEK doesn't seem to stick to it or flow about on it much by capillary action. I also have some "office" magnets from first4magnets which are stronger than the latches and will hold down a 2mm thickness of styrene.

Jim, thanks for the information - I tried reading all the back posts but there are a huge number and I missed your notes about sheet expansion when cutting. I never noticed this happening when cutting styrene by hand (maybe I was just too inaccurate!). I have a copy of David Jenkinson's book on carriage modeling somewhere about and will dig it out in the next couple of days and refresh my memory on the whole topic. The attached pic is the All First sitting on the "metal desktop" held together with B&Q's best magnetic latches (and some others) for checking prior to cementing. The tumblehome is formed in three layers in a jig but I still use a modified Jenkinson method with a false "wall" up to waist level. Many thanks your advice. Kaidhuri

....so the cutter works just as described in the various posts on this topic. It'll cut through 0.25mm stuff cleanly enough and will score 0.5mm deep enough to crack out without too much cleaning up. Some work-in-progress is shown in the photo: the brake end and part of one side (7mm/ft) MET first generation bogie stock carriage. Most of the rest of it is cut out and now waiting assembly. Have managed to separate the different cuts/scores by colour so I can now do the cut outs in setting 8 on .25mm stuff and then "draw" all the paneling, door openings etc in setting 1 or 2 using the pause command to allow the cutter to be re-set. Will post further WIP when progress is made. A carbide tipped engraving tool arrived from USA today - I need some planked partitions for the carriage interior so will now have a go with that. More anon. Kaidhuri

Andy - thanks for the reply. I guess what you're saying is that the machine is actually checking the styrene sheet size before starting cutting - I hadn't thought of that although I ought to have guessed it as I have a plotter (for drawings) which does exactly that! Otherwise, I'm getting the hang of the cut settings and am already producing better stuff than I could by hand/eye. Maybe I'll post some examples when I've produced something worth looking at. The current project is some first generation MET bogie coaches which I need for a long planned but not yet started West London layout in 7mm. Many thanks Kaidhuri

Can anyone help?!"...I'm a new member with a new (couple of weeks old) Silhouette Portrait which I hope will allow me to continue modeling in styrene - I have an eye problem which makes marking out and hand cutting (7mm/ft scale) coach sides and similar.well nigh impossible. I've produced CAD drawings using Rhino and have exported outlines as DXF to Silhouette. I've been unable to fathom out why, when the drawing is wholly inside Silhouette's red cut border line, not everything cuts! I won't describe it any further as it may be a familiar problem to users of the machine which has an obvious solution...