JohnGi

You might find this thread useful. It provides a solution which is cheaper than NCE's proprietary unit (works on same principle), and adds a buzzer.

There are a couple of relevant videos in the above linked thread.

Hi,

I have a second hand Roland MDX-15 mill. which I've modified with a slightly more powerful motor, and a speed controller letting me run it up to 18,000 rpm.

Recently I've been making parts for buildings, using Palight (closed cell PVC foam aka foamex) for walls, and styrene for details such as windows and doors.

I find that the problem of melting the styrene is less if you use single flute cutters which are sold for cutting acrylic and other plastics. Less flutes add less heat to the work, and there is more clearance for removing chips quickly. 

Single flute cutters of less that 1mm can be obtained from CNC Plus in Germany https://cnc-plus.de/

Sizes 1 mm and up can be got in UK from Rennie Tools https://www.rennietool.co.uk  (also on ebay), or

from Highland Slate Workshop (ebay only AFAIK).

On 09/03/2020 at 15:01, Compound2632 said:

Thanks both - I think I need to get a smaller (thinner) engineer's square or a thicker cutting mat!

I recently bought a 2 inch engineers square from Faithfull which is a lot thinner than the one I got (from Squires?) several years ago. 

Hi,

It seems from your post that you are moderately experienced with fusion 360, and as you have identified a fluting shape which works, and one which doesn't, it looks very much like a bug in the software. I would report it on their forum, I don't think they are prejudiced against "hobby" users as long as you are asking sensible questions.

Rgds John

There are a lot of these on ebay at the moment. Search for "used halogen transformer". Those that I saw are all labelled 11.6V 4.9A AC.

Runout of the spindle and cutter can also be a problem with small cutters - it can cause some flutes to take bigger cuts than others. Usually measured with a dial indicator. If you don't have one you could measure it indirectly with a vernier caliper by comparing the width of a slot with its nominal width. You would need to make sure that the tool path you use for this eliminates any backlash, and perhaps take spring passes to eliminate cutter deflection as much as possible.

I use fusion 360 to create my tool paths on my small mill. One of the most useful features is the option to slow the cutter as it approaches and exits corners. This avoids breakages where the small cutter is flexing somewhat, lagging behind its proper position, and then suddenly turning through 90 degrees. I expect other tool path generators might have a similar option.

12 minutes ago, flubrush said:

 

I've used Fusion 360 and the methods shown in this thread from a few years ago

 

 

 

Jim.

Hi,

Also see two videos by quarryscapes in this thread 

John

 Hi,

A couple of files are attached. The 7mm association book seems to have the same drawing (by J.A.N. Emslie) as that posted above, but I included it anyway as there was a photo of one of the engines, and some words by David Lloyd.

By the way I think Alphagraphix do a card kit for a Cavan and Leitrim station, possibly Ballinamore (F504). 

Hope this helps.

John

IrishNGDwg10.pdf BackwoodsInstructions.pdf

Just to add Neville posted this to the yahoo group on June 8

Quote

 

Just to bring things up to date, the C & L Passenger Brake and C & L 22L bogie van are now being sent out and should now be available ex-stock, the next to be released will be the CDR Oldbury coach set which will be priced at £115 for the set of 3, plus the usual £3 per order for UK p+p. They will be supplied complete with wheel sets, castings, etches and glazing. 

   On the loco/railcar side I now have all the etches and the castings are in stock or ordered, the mechanisms still have to be sorted out but some will have the option of the original Backwoods drive or a RTR 12mm gauge N-Drive unit, more news will be passed on as things progress, many thanks Nev

 

So he is active, although his website may not have been updated yet.

John

Hi,

I have an unfinished Backwoods kit. I can probably scan the instructions and send you them tomorrow. Also the drawing in the 7mm book, unless that's the same as the drawing already uploaded above by John Archer.

You may want to join the Irish NG groups on yahoo groups - they have a horrible UI but several of the well known Irish modellers are there. 

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/00n3_modellers/info

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/irish_three_foot/info

(including Neville, the current owner of the Backwoods 00n3 range)

Hope this helps.

John

Hi, 

I enjoyed reading the article in BRM, particularly as I live in North Kent. We used to have lunchtime drinks at a different North Foreland pub. It was in the High Street between Chatham and Rochester. It's closed now.

John                              

On 16/06/2019 at 11:13, Alan_LSWR said:

Plus we now have the anti-alias firmware but logic tells me that anti-alias can only compensate for coarseness in the slicing software and not the physical finesse of the printer.

There is a good explanation of how anti-aliasing works in this thread on ngrm 

http://ngrm-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23532-anycubic-photon-users-group/&page=3

See post about half way down on page 3 by Mark Greenword (greenwoodma).

The video he links to is also very good.

John

On this 1856 map Gillingham is centred around St Mary's Church, and is larger than New Brompton. On the 1869 map New Brompton is larger than Gillingham. The railway station would be at the southern edge of the of orchards? between the two places. The football team also used to be called New Brompton - the changed their name in 1912.

PS rather unusually this map shows Chatham dockyard rather than leaving a blank space.

Nearholmer, Thanks for reply, I see exactly what you mean.

Here is a google satellite view. I see a tarmac area with parked cars on the line of the tunnel breaking the line of the streets and houses - this is Medway Used Vans - which fits in with what you said about sterilised land. Further south on a similar, but slightly different,  alignment there is a row of lock up garages, a social club, and an diagonal alley way which continues as far as Marlborough Road.

Here is 1898 OS map. 

Here is 1907. They're starting to build houses over the tunnel in Marlborough Road and College Avenue - the air shaft is in someone's back garden.

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The only curiosity about the tunnel that I can spot on maps is that the eastern third of it runs below what might be called a "sterilised strip" of land, on which nothing seems to have been built. This is very unusual, and implies to me that either it was built "cut and cover" (dig a trench, build a tunnel, bury it), that the ground was very unstable, and/or the tunnel very shallow, and that perhaps the railway company retained ownership of the land above the tunnel, perhaps with a view to opening it out to become a cutting if it all proved utterly unstable.

You probably mean the western third. That 'sterilised' land is part of the Great Lines which was military property. It probably avoided housing development for that reason. As you probably know this area is part of the North Downs (chalk) and there are often steep changes in elevation. Cut and cover is unlikely, the Lines are much higher than the railway - I'd tell you how much but I can't find my OS map at the moment.

I happen to live in Gillingham. The book linked to by Mike Storey is very interesting, and I recognise several of the place names in the engineer's evidence. 

It predates the line's actual construction by several years, and it seems to be describing a proposed route along the Chatham waterfront, approaching within 100 yards of Gun Wharf, and tunnelling under the Great Lines (called the Chatham Lines by the engineer in the book), at a point which just avoids the fortifications and the military cemetery. I assume the fortification referred to is Fort Amherst. I'm not sure about the cemetery, it might be near the back of the old Chatham town hall. The competing proposal seemed to tunnel under the "citadel" - also Fort Amherst? Both these lines would have been some way to the north of the current line. There must have been some reason why the current alignment, which has two extra tunnels - Chatham tunnel as mentioned above - and a further tunnel under Fort Pitt was chosen instead, although Gillingham tunnel (897 yards) is slightly shorter than the tunnel (1000 yards) proposed in the extract.

EDIT:

Just seen Andy Hayter's comment.

Starting at Gillingham

Under Balmoral Road

In cutting

Enters tunnel near Canterbury Road - this must be Gillingham tunnel referred to by Paul. 

Under Great Lines.

Exits near A2 in Chatham

Crosses A2 at Luton Arches.

Runs to south of Chatham town centre

Tunnels under Westmount Avenue - this must be Chatham tunnel

Chatham station.

4 hours ago, sharris said:

On 27/05/2019 at 16:41, Phil S said:

A model railway is not a life-critical system where lives are at risk if a point occasionally fails -

 

Really? I run three point control systems in parallel with a voting discriminator at the points in case one of them is sending the wrong signals. 

 

I have 1:76 scale funerals for all the victims of my point failures 

On 18/05/2019 at 16:33, Glover said:

This is a bi-annual subscription magazine covering the modelling of Irish railways.

I recently reestablished my subscription after forgetting to renew. I subscribed (paypal) through the website https://newirishlines.org/. The blog seems not to have been updated for a couple of years but as mentioned above the online archive is accessible to non-subscribers.

John

Hi, Unless you have some particular need to use 3d printing I would consider Alan Gibson item 4M92 universal coupling rods for 4mm scale 

http://www.alangibsonworkshop.com/Catalogue.pdf

As far as I know you solder two half etched pieces together to give the length you require. Probably best to use a jig to accurately match the axle centre spacings. I've never used them myself but I expect someone on rmweb will have done. Check the kit building and scratch building forum.

Hope this helps, John

On 10/05/2019 at 20:03, martyn11post said:

 

Hi Colin,

 

This sounds good but I couldn't find a UK supplier? Lots of Australian sites, but I can't afford the postage!

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

Martyn

In UK 4D model shop have corrugated sheet (various size corrugations) in various materials - lead, brass, aluminium and styrene. 

http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop?term=corrugated sheet

Also Ambis engineering copper (?) sheets were mentioned previously, available from Hobby holidays.

John

22 hours ago, Hot.In.Sing said:

As a long term observer of RMW I'd like to thank all contributors for the many happy hours I've spent browsing and reading about model railways I can only dream of.

 

As a Man United fan, given tonight's Liverpool v Barcelona game I'm also not writing DJM off just yet.

 

You may interpret that as you please 

Well that was a bit off topic, but after Spurs v. Ajax we do seem to be living in an age of surprise turnarounds.

On 26/03/2019 at 22:57, m0rris said:

Good idea, it is a strange search engine where the more words you search for the more results you get.

If a site has a bad search engine then you can try using google with the "site" keyword. This doesn't work for all sites - they need to be set up so that google's bot can index them - but it does work for Shapeways.

e.g. in google search bar type "site:www.shapeways.com land rover discovery scale model". 

YMMV

21 hours ago, flubrush said:

I downloaded a copy of NanoCAD referred to earlier in this thread and that seems to work well and is very similar to AutoCAD LT and Draftsight.  I seem to have downloaded a completely free copy and not the limited offer free copy and I'm not exactly sure how I did that. :-)   I'll keep working with it and see if it times out at the end of the month.   But I would be prepared to pay about £150 for a non-subscription copy since it is,  to all intents and purposes,  AutoCAD LT under another name.

 

Jim.

Yes, the similarity with Draftsight makes it an easy transition.

From this page https://nanocad.com/products you have a choice of

• Nanocad Pro/Plus/Mechanica/Construction/Construction Site/3DScan - all "Download Free Trial"
• Nanocad - "Download Free" - this was the last option on the page

I think you and I must have both downloaded the last one which claims

Quote

nanoCAD is a professional grade CAD tool. It has a familiar interface, powerful drafting and design tools, native DWG compatibility, and an open API. And it's totally free to use and share. No catches, no gotchas, and no compromises

So it really shouldn't time out after thirty days.

John

Related thread on another forum https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/230270

One of the posters there suggested some alternatives to DraftSight

Quote

 

For those of you that don't want to pay anything may I recommend LibreCad or else the free version of Nanocad.

If you do want something that your going to pay for then you might as well go for Bricscad. More expensive then Draftsight, cheaper then Acad, but a whole lot better toolset and support then Draftsight.

 

For some of these free tools loading dwg files is a problem.

• LibreCad crashed when I tried to load some of my previous work
• Qcad looks like only the paid for version will load dwg - it is considerably less expensive than DraftSight though.

The free (registration required) version of Nanocad did seem to load my previous work and it looks to be at least as good as Draftsight. I think I will switch to using that for 2D work,

Rgds, John