Brass0four Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 (edited) As to requiring light to work by, I have found by accident a solution to the problem. I purchased a led lightbulb from Tesco's last year, that I use in my cheap table lamp. Then my son did break the opaque glass cover. The best bit is the light still works, and after removing the glass bits, I have been left with a VERY bright white light, perfect for modelling with. By bright, I mean it is painful to look at, but is perfect for lighting things indirectly. Interesting... I recently bought an LED bulb (4 LEDs) to fit as a spot on a painting, previously conventionally lit. It took a while to get used to the colour temperature but now I like it much better - it's nearer to the north-light I painted in (see my gallery) I'll definitely look into this. Thanks, Tony. Edited December 28, 2013 by Brass0four Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 The GN Deansgate Bridge painted, and mounted temporarily on the brickwork buttresses and support walls - Facing South South side looking West with Trafford street on the right Looking North East over the bridge from Bridgewater Street in the foreground Looking East Deansgate/Trafford Street corner with a view under the bridge looking North East The structures are all made from 5mm foamboard with a 1.3mm card facing, and finished with printed card brickwork, etc. Still a bit of brickwork and buttress headers to finish 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Looking absolutely excellent as always David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenman Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 I keep clicking the button that says "Craftsmanship/Clever", but what I really want is a button that says "Absolutely, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly amazing". Awe-inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Paul 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phixer64 Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Ron, this is still some of the best modelling I've seen to date, fantastic work. All the best for the New Year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Ron, Superb work. As a matter of interest, how long do you think it took you to build this bridge? You seem to model at a phenomenal rate. All the best for the New Year Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 Ron, Superb work. As a matter of interest, how long do you think it took you to build this bridge? You seem to model at a phenomenal rate. All the best for the New Year Jeff Hi, Jeff The actual build took about 22-25 hours The bridge location plan was produced in June 2007 Research for the bridge dimensions, structure and detailing took place during January/February 2008 The drawings were produced during February 2008 The drawings for the individual laminations were produced in March 2011 These drawings were checked, and merged into assemblies and saved as DXF files for the cutting machine during 16-19 December this year Cutting was started on 17th December, with the build started on the North Face on 18th December, followed by the South Face on 19th and 20th December Detailing completed on 22nd December, with the deck started on 24th December, and completed on 25th December along with some extra work on the parapets Bridge building completed on 27th December, and painted this morning How many hours to build ? At a guess - Research 15-20 hours Drawings 30-35 hours Cutting 3 hours Building 22-25 hours Painting 15 minutes Total 70 - 85 hours (or 2 to 21/2 weeks) The really important and critical areas are research and drawings, some 45-55 hours Hope this is some interest and help Ron PS. Photography and Forum Time not included 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Thanks Ron, Very interesting Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallows Close Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Ron, Your latest bridge has raised the bar (again!). Absolutely stunning. Best wishes, Chris. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bri.s Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Amazing modelling ,can't wait to see you running trains on your layout ( I know it'll be a while yet)but your layouts going to be amazing Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Trials on the cutter using a revised drawing originally prepared for etching the railings on a viaduct bridge on the MSJ&AR line, which runs immediately adjacent to the Cornbrook and Castlefield Viaducts The Cornbrook Viaduct behind, with the Castlefield Viaduct just visible further back CAD drawing of a single railing section Half bridge length of one layer of the railings cut from 5thou styrene - the damaged section can be cut out and replaced Half bridge length of second layer of the railings cut from 5thou styrene 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJChurchward Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 One of the attractions in this thread is seeing you go ahead and build models which anyone else would immediately dismiss as impossibly difficult. Having that cutting machine available to you is certainly a great help - modelling cast iron components from laminations would just look awful without accurately-cut layers. I'm sure that in years to come, this layout is going to be spoken about in the same breath as The Madder Valley, Craig & Mertonford, and Buckingham. It's a great privilege to be able to watch it being built. Keep up the amazing work, Ron! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) Repair, lamination and top layer strips almost complete the first half (299mm) of one side of the bridge railings - Three laminations and the repair Top layer strips added Edited January 8, 2014 by Ron Heggs 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
artizen Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I can't believe a cheap craft cutter can cut that cleanly and accurately and all in a relatively tiny scale as well. Access to technology like this has revolutionised the way we think and work. I doubt very much if the brass etchings would have yielded a substantially better result and at least the cutter gives you immediate, clean access so you can finesse the design as you go instead of spending money and waiting. Of course, once started with this, you realise that the only way forward is upwards in quality!!!!! More power to your elbow - or is that your plotter/cutter. This build only gets better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Having caught up with your recent work Ron, I really shouldn't be surprised at how good it is, but it is stunning Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 I can't believe a cheap craft cutter can cut that cleanly and accurately and all in a relatively tiny scale as well. Access to technology like this has revolutionised the way we think and work. I doubt very much if the brass etchings would have yielded a substantially better result and at least the cutter gives you immediate, clean access so you can finesse the design as you go instead of spending money and waiting. Of course, once started with this, you realise that the only way forward is upwards in quality!!!!! More power to your elbow - or is that your plotter/cutter. This build only gets better. Hi, Ian The secret with obtaining reasonable quality cutting appears to be to use thinner media with a smaller depth of cut, thus exposing less blade and reducing the inevitable surface disturbance This unfortunately means that the tendency for the styrene to curl is still a major risk - still it can be overcome at each stage of the layering process by immersion in boiling water with metal rulers clamping the pieces flat, and then plunging into cold water I am going to try a similar cutting process with card to check out the results Cheers Ron Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallows Close Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Exquisite Ron... Best wishes, Chris. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJChurchward Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Hi, Ian The secret with obtaining reasonable quality cutting appears to be to use thinner media with a smaller depth of cut, thus exposing less blade and reducing the inevitable surface disturbance This unfortunately means that the tendency for the styrene to curl is still a major risk - still it can be overcome at each stage of the layering process by immersion in boiling water with metal rulers clamping the pieces flat, and then plunging into cold water I am going to try a similar cutting process with card to check out the results Cheers Ron Ron, After reading that post, I went back to have another look at the photographs you uploaded, and noticed that the machine seems to have a problem in tight corners, and when cutting a curved line. Your bridge girders were excellent - perfection in fact, but the railings are rather more intricate, and I wonder if they are too intricate for the capability of the machine, or whether it is possible to fine tune its operation. I'm tempted to buy one of these, primarily for producing the beading layer for laminated plastic paneled coach sides, and I hope that my expectations of the machine are reasonable. I'm trying to understand how the shape is created. Is it the blade which moves, the job, or both? Does it behave rather like a flatbed plotter, moving the blade along the X axis and the bed along the Y axis? Presumably the blade is lowered at the start of a cut, then the blade (or job) is moved to the end of the cut, and then the blade is lifted. Looking at some of the small pierced apertures in the railings, it's clear that if the path of the cut is curved, then the blade is moved in a curved path while twisting to follow it. Straight blades like to make straight cuts, and so twisting the blade would cause it to act like a lever between the two sides of the cut, distorting the plastic sheet on the outside edge. If that happens to be the waste side of the cut, I wouldn't expect it to be any problem, but if it is the job side, there may be some tendency to move the job relative to the bed, or whatever you have for keeping the work piece in place. How is the work held down? If I were cutting these shapes by hand with a scalpel, I would adopt different strategies for cutting different kinds of shape. I would not cut exactly to the finished line of a curve immediately, but gradually remove selected areas of material such that the cut distorts only the waste side. I would prefer to lower the blade to 'start' both ends of a straight cut before moving it to join them, since the tip of the blade is not symmetrical, and I'd like a vertical end to both ends of the cut. Does the machine take the file you give to it and decide for itself in what order to do the work? If there's an opportunity to impose some user control over this, it might be possible to create additional shapes for cutting first, in order to mitigate the distortion. Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJChurchward Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Oops - I've just sorted out a PC problem which meant I couldn't view video, I'm now seeing much of the information I needed. The video instructions are very good, however I wish I'd been able to find it in text somewhere. Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted January 14, 2014 Author Share Posted January 14, 2014 Oops - I've just sorted out a PC problem which meant I couldn't view video, I'm now seeing much of the information I needed. The video instructions are very good, however I wish I'd been able to find it in text somewhere. Andy Hi, Andy Yes, cutting these railings is a real 'tour de force', pushing the cutter to its limits in terms of accuracy of cut, and use with styrene The size of the railings is actually 3/4 of the railings as cut - i.e. cut at 37mm, should be 27mm high. So the challenge is now to rescale the drawings, and try another round of test cuts using both 5 & 10 thou styrene The cutter works in a very similar way as a pen plotter. It appears to use a similar algorithm to determine next cut and direction of travel (economy of movement), regardless of the order and direction the vectors/lines were drawn to create the cutting file. The styrene is held on the cutting mat by a self-adhesive surface which works quite well, as when the cut is finished the longest job is removing the waste material from the mat By separating the vertical, horizontal and curved lines into separate layers/files and cutting them in sequence, this reduces the creation of square corners being rounded, but does mean that the cuts for square corners may not touch precisely everytime Will try and take a picture of examples of this (very, very small detail) Cheers Ron Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJChurchward Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 (edited) Ron, How does imprecision arise at corners where lines in different layers intersect? Surely a point in 2d space has the same co-ordinates, whichever layer we consider? Or - are you unloading the cutting mat to clear waste after each layer is cut? Andy Edited January 15, 2014 by GJChurchward Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Heggs Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Hi, All This may not be the most appropriate place to mention my recent health problem which has kept me from this forum and many other activities this last week On Tuesday last I suffered a heart attack whilst asleep, which fortunately has been sorted over the last five/six days in hospital My heart has been found to be in perfect working order but required the insertion of three stents in the coronary artery All is now stable and working OK, but I will need a few days to recover, especially from five days in bed without any exercise Cheers Ron Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery Ron. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter findlay Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Ron, Hope you are back to full health soon. Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Taz Posted January 21, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 21, 2014 All the best Ron. Hopefully some modelling will be just the sort of therapeutic activity to help you on your road to recovery. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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