Blog- Fen End Pit's Blog - Stour Valley in P4, making sleepers

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<p>Yesterday I popped into Makespace and cut some test sleepers. I wanted to make sure I'd got the right allowance for the laser width in my drawing. I also cut a test part in the .8mm sheet of ply I'd bought from City Cycles in Ely on Saturday (we are very lucky to have a shop that sells model and craft items in Ely!, too much of this country is a model shop desert). The laser cutter is worked by controlling the speed and power of the laser to get the right level of cut so you can see from this test piece that speed 64 - power 30 cuts the ply while lowering the power at the same speed just makes a mark on the surface. You can also see how lowering speed increases the level of charring and at speed 2- power 100 gets pretty close to starting a small fire!</p><p> </p><p>

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Having adjusted the drawing last night I went back today and cut 200 plain sleepers and some point timbering in various lengths. The cut is just right as the ply holds together just to the point where you bend it and the sleep breaks off. The widths comes out at between 3.32 and 3.36mm width (should be 3.33333mm) and 34.2mm long (should be 34mm). This counts as close enough for P4 in my book! Total time on the cutter was about 3 minutes.</p><p> </p><p>

So the ply cost £12 for a piece 4' x 1', that will make several thousand sleepers, a little better than paying £5 per 100 from certain other sources.</p><p> </p><p>

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Time to get some glue out!</p><p> </p><p>

David</p><div id='attach_wrap' class='rounded clearfix'>

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