scanman

Hi guys Having spent the last few days entertaining relatives I thought it was time to get back to the workbench. I've been trialling various materials at various settings on the Emblazer. Hopefully the attached 'PDF' will be of interest. Interestingly I had the same results with 0.8 ply that Nick got - and MY ply was reputedly laserable... .materias and cutting info.pdf. If anyone has trouble opening it I can put it up as a '.doc' Regards Ian

Hi Mikkel - We've not actually modelled Burghclere - the goods lock-up (cannot really call it a 'Goods shed' is a new addition - we needed a short end board to turn the layout from a 'through station' to a terminus (makes it about 3m shorter, so more attractive to some exhibition managers. Mostly it provides 'headshunts' for the platform roads - but one road is available for some basic goods facilities. As I'm also a big fan of the DN&S, 'Burghclere was an ideal choice - particularly as the Karau,Parsons & Robertson book has a (2mm scale) drawing! Funnily enough, I started a model of the station (complete with limekilns) in 'EM' many years ago. House-move meant no room for it so I switched to 'N Scale U.S.! What goes around comes around... I'm half-way through drawing up the building, complete with 'proper' brickwork - should be far enough advanced to laser-cut them over the weekend. I can get on & finish the LBSC wagons at the same time! Regards Ian

Hi Mikkel - Close ups to follow - the wagons still need some more paint added, but they should be complete by the weekend (although there's no rush - the owner is currently en route to Austria for a fortnight!). IIRC the wagons are from '5&9 Models' - and are suitable for the period 1860-1910. The move to the 'LBSC' livery took place in the 1890s - so might well have been seen alongside your 'red' GWR wagons! With regard to the laser cutter - I'm merely follwing in the footsteps of giants - altho8ugh more will appear here as I have to build a goods facility for the Club layout (based on the small lock-up fascility at Burghclere on the DN&S line.) Regards Ian

Nice progress Mikkel - and congratulations on the 'BRM' entry. Your fame is spreading wider and well-deserved! Regards Ian

Interesting 'issue' today chaps. whilst cutting, the program stalled - with the laser in the 'on' mode (There's a young lady on a beach in 'Oz' complaining about her new tattoo) Anyone else had this problem - and is there a 'fix' without pressing the 'abort' button, or si it because 'Vectric' is a 'beta' program?? I see now why you DO NOT leave lasers unattended! Regards Ian

No entries for a while - and here's the reason... One side of the workshop, where I've now installed an 'Emblazer' laser cutter. To those who are not aware - the story is on the 'special interests' forum - look for 'Darkly Laser'. Best £750 (including import duties) that I've spent in... Well. we won't go into that! Suffice to say I'm REALLY impressed -although like all things it has a 'learning curve'! Given my penchant for making buildings & brickwork, the cutting runs can be a bit time-consuming - and you DO NOT leave a laser cutter unattended.. Mine has stalled twice, with the laser 'on' - there's a girl on a beach in 'Oz' complaining about her new tattoo :-) Answer? The workbench on the opposite side is an ideal place for model-making - in this case some wagons for the 'Midhurst' commission. (1860's livery - no lettering, just the 'illiterate mark' for the LB&SC and the wagon number. Mikkel - if you're reading this, you might like to have some 'foreign stock on 'Farthing'...! More later - got some more brickwork to lase! Regards Ian

They say that 'practice makes perfect' - so here's some practice that's not yet perfect! Wall sections in 'English Bond', 7mm. Each brick is individually drawn and aligned. Definitely needs more practice! Cut into 'Daler Board' at 10mm/sec & 80% power. Took 3.5 hours to do the run..... Daler board again - 10mm/sec at 57% power. This (with mods) will be the 'goods platform' on the club 7mm layout (the rectangle on the right is the location of the 'lock-up' (based on Burghclere on the DN&S) I'm 'somewhat' pleased with the 'diamond pattern paviours' (thinking how long it would take to scribe them by hand) but having drawn it in layers in 'CorelDraw' then transferred it using EPS - the layers merged... Think I'll try again in 'TurboCAD' and transfer as a DXF... Tomorrow! I'm using Dalerboard at the mo' 'cos I've got offcuts - once I'm happy the designs will be cut in 3mm MDF or 1mm ply.

Have a coffee in 'Costa' or 'Starbucks'. The seats/sleeper strip/fencing is free...;-) Regards Ian

Cheers guys - CRACKED IT! Had a 'lightbulb' moment and hit the 'calculate' button in the toolpaths' menu (Mind you the light switch was reading a tutorial...!) First cut 0n 250GSM card - settings 10mm/sec at 100% with 2 passes. A BIT strong - the brickwork came out as confetti and I have brickwork etched in the baseplate.:-( Better - 0.125" card - 10mm/sec/ 80%, 1 pass. Right - on to some REAL work (A Great Western platform surface in 'herringbone' brick) (nothing says it has to be easy)! and my very grateful thanks to you all for your support and suggestions (BTW 'EPS' and 'DXF' both work fine). Have a good remainder of the weekend - especially Chris, hope you are drying out mate. Regards Ian PS the 'etching' of the base plate has given me an idea... Set up a straight line pair of paths where the origin is at 'y'=5mm & 'X' = 5mm. Set the laser to about 80% and etch a locator mark in the base-plate. Anyone see any problems??

Giles/Jason - Thanks for the info. As Giles says, at the end of the process the laser appears to have something to cut - trouble is - it cuts a series of dots (looks like the corners of the bricks) rather than lines... I've tried varying the settings - same result. The laser IS working properly - I did another test cut with the 'calibration' file. Looking at the 'Cut2D' image, the brick outlines are broken, rather than solid, and don't have the 'track arrows' present in Jasons' image. GRRRR!

' ELP! I'm creating files in 'Coreldraw', then exporting them in .eps format. Cut2D recognises the artwork, but when I try to sent it to 'Vtransfer' it says 'no cutting paths detected'. As I'm creating brickwork with courses in individual bricks, does this mean I have to creat a path for each individual brick??? If so, when I create one brick, can I select/copy and retain the cutting path? I'm hoping there'sa short cut to this - I'd HATE to have to re-draw everything! I have checked the 'Darkly' forums but cannot find anything there (but that could be me!) and I've read MOST of the pages on this topic.... Any advice gratefully received. Regards Ian

Up & running at last! I had a problem getting the laptop to recognise the driver - kept telling me 'wrong machine'... I was in the proces of contacting Darkly when suddenly the problem disappeared - proof of the pudding is in the eating! Now to create some REAL files! Thanks everyone (including 'Darkly' if you're lurking) for all youre help & support. Regards Ian

Hi Chris Funnily enough I've just opened an 'addendum' to the downloaded instructions. A single page showing the switch positions for the 4w version... DOHH! Regards Ian

Chris - a picture is worth a thousand words - and (Having nipped up the garden to the workshop) I can conform they are still there - just my c,,p eyesight. And in the morning i'll nip back up and reset them all to the 'on' position.... Hope the weather improves - although its giving our rugby team a couple more days to get over the jet-lag!!! Cheers mate- should be able to try cutting in the morning Regs Ian

Hi folks - I've now received the replacement parts from 'Darkly' - Brilliant service - and am about to fit the board. In his opening article 'Monkeysarefun' (Chris) suggested altering the dip switches. A millimetric examination doesn't reveal any.... My board says it's 'version 2' - so is this a mod that has taken care of the issue? As usual, any info gratefully received! Regards Ian

Right - time to stop 'lurking'!!!! I've been following this thread for a few weeks, and so far you lot have cost me about £750... My 'Emblazer' arrived about a week ago, and assembly was proceeding famously until I came to fit the pulleys to the stepper motor. On one of them the set-screw threads hadn't been cut deep enough enable the screw to bear against the 'flat' on the spindle. Brilliant service from 'Darkly' - a replacement (and modified gantry arms) are due to arrive tomorrow. (I fully support the idea they should be able to register on the forum). My main interest is in architecture and a couple of other strands that I won't go into at the mo' - suffice it to say that 'google' searches for suppliers of 0.25mm MDF have drawn a resounding blank. This tends to suggest it's not available - unless anyone can suggest otherwise??? Okay, off to do the first test drawing - a brick wall in 'English Bond' topped with a paling fence which will be integral with the wall (ie providing the fill) in 7mm. I'll be working in 'TurboCAD' converting it to a 'pdf' - unless anyone has a better idea?? Regards Ian

Hi Claude My client had the station building made by another modeller (although I re-did the doors & windows later and made the canopy). The model was constructed from a single 'artists impression', the only view available! I modelled the bridge according to the information given to me by the client...

I've been working regularly with my client on the 'Midhurst' model - mainly concentrating on track & point electrics (not my strong point...) a couple of weeks ago we had a VERY frustrating day, when, no matter what we did, we could not get a point to correctly polarise the crossing. The second factor in this tale is the timesetting for the model. 1860... The only horsepower available was, well, horsepower! So as a little compensation for the 'wasted' hours, I made this from the 'Dart Castings' Governess Cart'. Happily the client loved it. Annoyingly we traced the issue to a faulty switch in the point motor!

Ahhh, Vobster... Where's the quarry??? :-)

Okay - I didn't win. Against that, neither did anyone else! Unfortunately there were only three entrants on the night, out of 6 that were promised. All three layouts which were exhibited had 'teething problems'. Mine - having happily run with a pair of croc clips acting as the power feed - suddenly shorted completely. Only when I got the layout home did I find out that the pins on a (brand new) 2-pin socket had closed up and were shorting... So, by a unanimous decision, judging has been put back about three months. So we're still in there! Right. Off to practice some moves!

Hi Geoff I picked up your comment about photos. If you can connect your camera to the computer, it's not too difficult. Windoze will identify that it's connected, and if you've got a suitable image handling program (most digital cameras have one in the package) it will ask you if you want to use it. When you're ready to copy the images, designate a folder that you can remember! Dont just shove them in 'my pictures' - you'll never find them again! The next part is trickier. Most cameras save the image in a file anything up to 25 mb - and RMweb will only let you load file up to 1mb! So you need to downsize... The program that came with your camera MAY do this, and I think windows imaging programs do it as well. I use a very old version of 'Paintshop Pro'. Whichever program you use, select an image and look along the various routines on the top row - one of them should have something like 'resize'. Click on that, and it will give you various options - usually as a percentage. This is really 'horses for courses' and trial and error! Having got the right(ish) size, save it under another name - something indicative - and preferably in a new folder (that way you won't accidentally try to upload a 'full fat image!) If you're taking a lot, its an idea to use as sequential numbering sequence and after each uploading session pick it up where you left off, i.e. the first image might be a track plan - becomes '01-trackplan.jpg' followed by '02-tracklaying.jpg' etc. Uploading to RMWeb is easy - at the bottom of your entry-space is a 'attach file' block. Click on it and it will ask you where the file is. point it at the relevant folder, select the first image, 'okay' it in the dropdown menu and then when it shows up in the blog-space click 'select this file'. It then moves into the blog-space with an option to 'attach this file'. At the relevant point in you text, click that, and a line of text (NOT the image) appears in the script. When you've finished, click 'publish' and THEN the image appears! It sounds complicated and 'techy' but once you've done it a few times you'll soon get the hang of it. The 'attach file' bit is quite clever - it remembers which folder you last uplaoded from and, if you don't manually add the images, it will do so automattically at the end of the post! Hope this is not too scary! Regards Ian

Another solid day's modelling, concentrating on stock, scenics and architecture - not necessarily in that order..... First job was to tome down the scenic base using acrylics. Much better... At the same time the roads went in, and the rear access path to the terrace. The buildings are a bit 'gappy' round their bases, but a bit more scenic work should resolve that. Then the 'wadding' (see the earlier post) was applied using latex adhesive. Time for coffee & walk the dog to allow the smell to dissipate! I spent the afternoon sorting out the rolling stock - just spraying & brush-painting. Unfortunately the transfers I ordered a fortnight ago have still not arrived -fortunately the colour variations will identify the wagons in the shunting challenge. The evening was spent building the last of the house-backs, and finally assaulting the wadding with yet more acrylics! It looks 'not too bad' to my eyes, although more weeds, climbing bushes etc wouldn't be amiss. Ah well, quite pleased with the progress so far - and by this time tomorrow, the challenge will be over and life will return to what passes for normal in my house! In the meantime. off to bed for a (relatively) early night! BFN Ian

Another fan of 'Vallejo' acrylics! I've ben using 'em for a couple of years now. Brilliant!

Too green at the moment! Attendance at the 'Basingstoke Show' (well done to the organisers - about the right combination of trade & layout - more anon) limited the amount of time working on the layout. However, Friday afternoon was spent adding the groundwork framing - the usual strips of card, held down with latex glue (think 'Copydex' - but not too hard, theres' good, cheaper alternatives out there!). Big advantage over PVA - it drys quickly - in fact you can use it like 'Evostik') - in fact so quickly that prior to departing for the show set-up on Friday night (hindering with 'Llangerisech'!) I was able to make a good start with the 'bandaging' (I used to use 4" cotton bandage, cheap from any chemist, but sadly no longer available) in the modern era using 'Spontex' cleaning cloths (a big roll for about £3!) held down with the afore-said latex glue - Home from the show tonight (clutching the usual bag of 'goodies') and the surface was rock hard. Plastered up with my usual mix of 8 parts water, 2 parts PVA, 2 parts acrylic paint and six parts plaster... The green is fairly violent, but is only there to stop any subsequent chips showing white - next job will be to paint it with other suitable acrylic colours before the addition of 'ground effect'. The eagle-eyed among you will note that the 'pannier' now sports the CORRECT colour scheme! No, I havn't been out in the workshop with the spray-gun.. That bag of goodies contained a ''Replica Railways' 5700 pannier body. And a couple of 'Wessex Wagons' - adding screw-link & 3-link took about an hour... So now about 70 working hours in to the project and I can see a 'sort of finished' line in sight. Tomorrow will be spent sorting out the paintjob on the scenery, spraying the wagons,building the last two house-backs and then adding the ground cover. I MIGHT even get a lie-in on Tuesday morning! Thanks for reading, Regards Ian

Hi Mikkel - a bit late coming to the party - but fascinated as ever! Those wagons look brilliant in the oxide livery!