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My Laser Cutting workbench and my odyssey in model buildings.


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I never had much success with MDF but your cast iron bridge piece looks great. For the Westbury shed, have you looked into birch plywood? Thin pieces like your wall and roof support might be stronger with plywood than MDF.

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I never had much success with MDF but your cast iron bridge piece looks great. For the Westbury shed, have you looked into birch plywood? Thin pieces like your wall and roof support might be stronger with plywood than MDF.

This is 7mm scale so those MDF parts are bigger than you may have realised. I did think about using ply but I didn't want the grain to spoil the finish.

 

The test structure was very robust and the glazing will increase the strength. Can easily be handled.

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I have to say in my experience, brick and concrete are best produced in MDF and for wooden structures I use ply, for fine structures top quality avation ply for things like rough wooden items like sleepers I tend to use poorer grade ply or even solid timber to let the corse grain come through onto the model, this would largely still be relevant in small scales like 0(7mm) although as you get smaller like 00 I think the benefits of using high cost ply compared to MDF starts to deminish given that grain in 4mm and below is so fine that it would be hardly visible, and to scale that the denisity of the wood would limit you to quite exotic hardwood vaneers, maybe worth it for coaching stock say be possibly not worth the effort with structures.

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Have you got any further with the warehouse modules/bundle you mentioned further back in these posts?

Yes, did you get the link? Have a look and let me know what you like and I'll prioritise those parts first.

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A bespoke building just having a final check for fit before final printing and posting off.

 

Nothing is glued at this point. Note that the brick pattern is off as the laser was run quickly to print off a sample and not setup as it should have been. I must kerb my enthusiasm!

 

post-1485-0-74371800-1427310381_thumb.jpgpost-1485-0-40429000-1427310343_thumb.jpg

 

Its been designed to enable the painting of the fiddly parts before assembly. You don't have too though and more skill painters won't be worried about painting once assembled.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I needed some station awning brackets for a project. They really should be etched but I thought I'd see what could be done with the laser. So here is the prototype;

 

post-1485-0-29591700-1436379777.jpg

 

First attempt in card;

 

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A couple of alterations and 1mm MDF with card laminations has produced this;

 

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I've put a rule there so you can see the scale. 

 

I'm quite pleased and didn't take long at all.

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Laser cutting does do brickwork nicely, but designs need to consider brick sizes on corners. My idea I am playing with using 3D printing is corner sections, which connect to each all. I think it might be trick with laser cutting though.

Edited by rue_d_etropal
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  • 4 weeks later...

While Pete has been painting I've been thinking about the next small building. So while the sun was shining yesterday Pete and I went to survey a LNER P/way hut local to Bury St Edmunds. [disclaimer mode/on] Note we had permission and I don't encourage anyone to trespass on the railway. [disclaimer mode/off]

 

Quite productive and managed to get the first draft model off yesterday evening;

 

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Extreme Phil, I like the subtle touch on the re-draw of the hut.  You get the hint of where those boards had been before, supporting iron.

 

I've been busy busy these last weeks so I'll call by to see what warehouse modules you now have and pick a few types up if you have some overs.  I'm not sure how my warehouse is going to be built so I'll need to play about a bit with the order of the modules.  

Due to space limitations I think I'm going to have to go by way of an angled low relief building, angled something like from the hip at one end to near a full roof at the other.  But then I might decide to make it a flat roof with a raised front castellation if simpler.

 

Cheers

 

PS. Ref the hut above.  One thing has just struck me, if I was full sizing it I think I would have all the sleepers level at the bottom thereby only requiring me to cut for the roof slope.  Probably be a little more up and down on the side by side placing too.  Just thinking.

Edited by Barnaby
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While Pete has been painting I've been thinking about the next small building. So while the sun was shining yesterday Pete and I went to survey a LNER P/way hut local to Bury St Edmunds. [disclaimer mode/on] Note we had permission and I don't encourage anyone to trespass on the railway. [disclaimer mode/off]

 

Quite productive and managed to get the first draft model off yesterday evening;

 

attachicon.gifphoto 1-2.JPG

 

attachicon.gifphoto 2-1.JPG

 

attachicon.gifphoto 3.JPG

I do have original LNER drawings somewhere.

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Ok, a prototype question regarding the ballast bin. What holds the real ones together? Surely the old sleepers aren't just placed next to and on top of each other? I presume some sort of metal spike is driven into them. If so, it would be good to see this added to the model.

 

Edit, nope, looks like you need some vertical strips on the inside:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cessna152towser/2474380076/

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