ian_g_griffiths

Bandsaw blades, try Axminster Power Tools, no association just a contented customer. Ian

To cut a small circular hole, make 2 concentric circles, the inner 0.25mm diameter (the smallest possible). Use the inner as a spot for drilling an undersize hole, about 2mm, then open out to full size using a triangular file as a reamer. Insert the end of the file into the hole and twist, using the corners to gradually remove the unwanted material and produce the correct size hole. This method allows the position of the hole to be altered should it be slightly off centre. Apply a little lateral pressure towards where the excess material is and more will be removed from that side. For larger holes, I find the attached pattern quite useful. drill at the apexes of the internal shape then remove it by cutting between the holes, I use a very small chisel. Extend cuts from these holes to the circumstantially scribed circle and then snap out each resultant wedge. Hope this helps. Ian

Working on building a Garatt at the moment but have done a lot of planning and cutting in the last year, several narrow gauge locos and wagons and a couple of buildings A few thoughts - the cutter is really only for scoring, I use up to 20 passes on 40 thou plasticard to get a clean snap. - draw out all the individual pieces to the sizes required then assemble into a cutting plan. ( more detail below ) - circles are best drawn with two concentric circles, the inner being 0.25mm diameter, the smallest possible, which acts as a centre for drilling out. - if there are a number of complicated curves or arcs, it's best to draw these components at 10 times required size on another sheet, then shrink to the correct size and import. Drawing large and shrinking The silhouette software does not produce curves with lots of points. If you look at components which have arcs, you will notice that there are vastly different numbers of points for each similar curve and the straight on the exit from the curve is frequently a curved line not flat. Working at 5 or 10 times the required size helps to reduce the significance of these anomalies and they virtually disappear when reduced to final cutting size. Multiple Passes and Cutting Plan Multiple passes, whilst helping to establish a really good snap line, tend to lead to small dimples where the blade changes directions on corners. I therefore try to arrange for the change of direction of the blade not to occur on the corner of the component. It's best to cut past the end point by a couple of millimeters then move the blade to a couple of mills outside of where the new line is to start, that way outside corners are achieved by two bisecting lines. (need to find out how to add pictures) Ian

After reading the recent announcement of the new Curio, I emailed Graphtec last night and received the following reply this morning. If you would like to send me a couple of samples of the media you would like to cut I would be happy to test it for you once the new deep cut blade has been released, which I believe to be a few weeks after the release of the Curio. We currently have a Curio here for testing but have not received the new blades and accessories as of yet. One thing that I should point out: whilst the Curio does have a deep cut blade which allows you to cut thicker materials, this is normally aimed at softer materials such as ‘funky foam’ sheets and I would be surprised if it cut the plasticard any differently than the Cameo or Portrait machines do because the media is so dense, and I suspect it will still likely take many passes to score thicker sheets but I can confirm that once I test the media. Any suggestions on the material thicknesses I should send. I was thinking 20 thou, 30 thou, 40 thou and 80 thou. Ian

Suggest you make sure that the lines are exactly horizontal. If the problem still occurs try an initial cut at lighter pressure to establish the scribe mark in the plastic and follow with heavier cuts in the established groove. Ian

Terry, Edit > Preferences and look in the General tab. Ian

I also was born in Portsmouth, 1954, and remember trainspotting from the old iron bridge north of Fratton station. Standing on the handrail and leaning over the top as the WC/BB used to haul the odd train in and out. The 08 shunting the yard, 33s hauling freight and the odd 47 coming in with western region coaches. They were odd things, you needed to collect all the coach numbers a they were not marshalled into sets. Tony, the guy I went spotting with, used to stop off at the rec, in St Marys Road, sometimes and remember well when Underground stock suddenly appeared on the line en route to the Isle of Wight. Ian

Let's hope they are not barking up the wrong tree!

My apologies for those of you who feel agrieved. These suppositions are based solely on the information provided on and through this forum, are solely my deductions and in NO MANNER represent any formal technical analysis of the situation. Nor shold they be construed as a statement from NetworkRail or any appointed examining engineer. I too, look forward to reading the official engineering report. Ian

By the way, great photos. All the views joe public can't get to see. Ian

Jim, More interesting facts. The removal of the trees would cause an increase in the level of the watertable. The wet and cold in the last few weeks, since the trees disappeared, would cause the surface ground to become saturated and the frost would have frozen the water in the surface causing the pores to become enlarged and thus proiving space for even more water to be absorbed. The result is the the top few centimetes of the soil, with the aditional water, would have become much heavier and the friction holding it in place on the slope would have decreased due to the lubricating effect of the additional water. They may have got away with it in the summer, assuming it is drier. Ian

Looking again at the photograph and noting the comment above about removing trees. This would lead to a rise in the water table as the trees are no longer naturally removing the water thus assisting in the lubrication of the slip plane. Super cock up by the engineers. Bet they went for the cheap solution, dig some drains in the face of the slope. If the trees had not been there in the first place, it may well have worked. Now I suspect, with the proximity of the building works at the top of the slope, it's going to be an expensive reinforced concrete retaining wall and some interesting insurance claims by NetworkRail and the builders on the adjacent land. Hope the advising enginner is well insured. Ian

Looks like new counterfort drains dug in the face of the cutting and the slip plane developed at their base. Suspect the drains had just lowered the water content of the overburden sufficiently to remove it's cohesivitity whilst providing a natural fault line for the shear to occur. Like to see the results of the soil tests carried out on the samples, suspect the silt content is qute high. Ian

Would a glass fibre scratch brush help?

Anyone know what plastic the Silhouette cutting mat is made from. Tried using piece of recycled cardstock as a backing sheet and attaching the workpiece with masking tape. The masking tape worked well but the card backing was too soft to give a good cut. Would like to try with a stickieless plastic backing sheet and masking tape. Ian