Greengiant

Recently I have been working in a smaller scale than normal for me, that of 4mm. Using the Emblaser 2 to cut 2mm MDF and 1.5mm ply I have the task of constructing the station overbridge, steps and canopies for our clubs new 4mm layout Swanley Junction. Overbridge and canopies taking shape. The overbridge is just a rough while working out techniques. Various experiments with the step units, which I have now decided on the techniques and will be doing the final drawings soon to then start cutting the actual units. The canopies took me back to my model aeroplane making days! Each canopy is in three units because of the Emblaser bed size limit, the units are joined with dovetail tabs which you can see part way along this photo not yet clipped together. This helps with alignment and strength. The end halving joints are deliberately over length, they will be sanded back when the glue has dried. The fascias are cut from 1.5mm ply and laminated onto the MDF and will hide all the joints. Each canopy takes up a fair chunk of the workbench. Martin

I have started reworking the overbridge so it steps up to the booking office on the embankment. Some experimental pieces to try out some effects for the stairway units. An overview with the canopies starting to make an appearance on the platforms. The lefthand end of the overbridge will be reworked to have a step section to match the booking office end. This shows the twin gulley section of the canopies and the construction. I elected not to do any of the open framework because once clad with the roofing sheet it won't be seen! The fascia trims I cut from 1.5mm ply. Many clamps come in handy when assembling the sections to each other, each platform canopy consists of three units, they are joined with dovetail tabs. Each canopy is just under a metre long. Martin

Downloaded from iTunes and played fine on my iPhone. Martin

That happened to me as well, tried three times and restatted at the same point each time so gave up after that. I was using an iPad running Safari, I have not yet tried on my laptop or desktop. Martin

Finally got around getting the E2 camera set up! This has made using up all those odd shaped areas left in sheets a real breeze. Martin

At one end of the platform stands the over bridge and ticket office with platform steps and lift shafts. An initial mock-up was produced to get a feel for sizing and composition, along with some rough cut canopy supports, again to test fitment and composition. Looking from the London end of the platform and showing the height difference from over bridge to the ticket office. To match this up we will create a stepped end to the over bridge. Now looking towards London, the lift shafts are the blocks closest to the camera. Looking across to the ticket office. Martin

We have a footbridge that crosses the mid point of the station platforms, so to construct it we bought in some laser cut sides, floors and supports. To assemble them we laser cut our own gluing jig from 2mm MDF, this holds the sides upright and places the base in exactly the right position, then it is just a simple matter to wick in some super glue. This is the jig in which the sides will be placed in upside down. Two sides and base in place ready for gluing. We also cut some brace and framing sections, these will add some interest and structure to the footbridge. These will be slid over the assembled sides and spaced accordingly, here is one to show how the sides fit in place within the frames. Martin

Interesting, I will have to give this a listen, good to see a UK based podcast. I have listened to the Model Rail Radio podcast for a good few years now, it has passed show 150. Learnt a great deal from listening, especially in the early days about DCC, JMRI, Frog Juicers and Bluerail to name but a few technologies. I am now a regular contributor on the UK friendly timed shows, the next one will be recorded this Saturday 5-7pm. The show has one host and contributors call in on Skype, there are a few of us on from UK, we have even spoken about the slow take up of podcasting in the UK. The host was in the UK a couple of weeks back amd visited our layouts, this will give us plenty to talk about on future shows. Good to see this come up and will follow your podcast. Martin

We achieved a bit of a milestone this week, the first powered run of the RotaYard. We temporarily wired up the drive motor... ...and clamped the belt tensioner in place... ..a rough bit of packing for the end bearings. Traverser plate in position. All ready and fingers crossed while we power up the motor. A short video of the very first powered run. Martin

We are getting nearer to assembling the RotaYard and traverser for testing the installation on the two baseboards. Here are some close up shots of the 3D printed belt fixing/adjuster for the traverser drive belt. We have the presenter of the podcast Model Rail Radio paying us a visit this week, so the workshop has had a bit if a tidy up, although it does not look like it has! Some sections of The Yard and First Sunday in June have been erected so he can see first hand what we have been up to. While doing this we took the opportunity to trial fit up one of the curved lower fascia panels and have a discussion as to how best to achieve the mounting of said panels. The dark coloured bar at the foot of the curved fascia will eventually be painted white, there will also be full height, shaped panels for each end of the layout. While getting things ready we dug out the original concept models which have taken a bit of a battering over time. The first concept model. The second concept model. A few shots of a lower fascia panel on one of the fiddle yard boards. Martin

By way of an update, final fitment of the traverser is nearing completion, the well end panels were drawn up, printed out to test for accuracy, then cut from 3mm ply as three laminations on the laser. These were then glued up to give 9mm which will be deep enough to hold the M6 'T' nuts. The workshop has now been rearranged so the four straight scenic boards can be left up permanently which will help with the track laying. I have upgraded all of the fluorescent lights in the workshop to 6000K LED tubes, these have made a big difference to the lighting. Some were very straightforward to upgrade, they came with a special LED fuse starter, so just a straight swop. Some others were a little more involved, but basically meant removing the ballast and associated wiring, but nothing difficult. Added benefit of instant on and uses a lot less electricity. Martin

The righthand end controller holders have now been cut and partially assembled. Martin

Work has been progressing on installing a camera into the gantry crane. We have managed to cut down the antenna that transmits the camera picture back to the handset screen, this along with the transmitter is located in a cabinet on the rear of the crane cabin. Just need to add a short length of plastic pipe over the lower section of the antenna to the cabinet and thinking of just blackening the final top section. Designed and 3D printed a mount for the screen at the front and the camera receiver at the rear, the mount just clips to the top of the transmitter. This set up is purely to test the concept and a custom controller box we be designed and built to house all the necessary hardware and electronics. Initial testing is encouraging once you get used to the concept that when operating the crane in normal mode, you stay still and the crane moves, when using the camera the ground moves, felt odd at first, but after a while we soon became accustomed with switching from one mode to the other. We just need to change the camera/screen 'ON' time from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. Martin

First off, apologies to those that were hoping to see us at the Longfield show the end of this month, the organisers forgot they had invited us and unfortunately it is now too late now to fit us in the show. Therefore our next outing with the layout will be at the SWING show in Littlehampton, Saturday 18 May. In the meantime, having now completed three exhibitions with The Yard, experience has shown although the original controller holders worked well for the purpose they were designed for, simply just to hold a controller while not in use, rather than just be left on a seat or shelf with the risk of accidental damaging by knocking on to the floor. This is one of the original holders. What did become apparent was it held the handset fine, but if for any reason you wanted to operate while in the holder it was not a good design. This style of operation want, only became apparent after many hours running the layout, the locos never really run more than about speed step four, we always use the '+' and '-' buttons rather than the control knob for speed setting, we find it gives much finer control. We sit down to operate so no real need for the controller handset to be mobile, with this in mind I designed units that would hold the controller securely at a 30 degree angle, can be operated fully without needing to hold the handset and be easily removed if required. I drew out the designs in Adobe Illustrator, imported into LightBurn and cut them on the Emblaser 2 laser cutter in 3mm ply. This shows one holder and the single angled mount for the lefthand end controller. It will be fixed to the existing shelf using threaded and smooth captive 'T' nuts. The complete unit test installed. I will probably lightly sand and radius the edges before priming and painting black. A second unit for the righthand end will be a double unit, that way we can leave two locos with individual controllers programed. Martin

That’s odd, I thought we were going this year with The Yard? We do not appear on the layout list, if this is the case I will let the team know they have got the weekend off. Martin

I see you have crossed to the dark side! My one came with two smoke boxes and no firebox. Interesting, someone on the 12 February 2015 said ‘It's all rather impressive - and rather tempting! However, we're not going down that road...!’. Have a good one. Martin

When I read ‘Mechanical horse’ I thought he cannot be serious, Giles has lost the plot, then I read on and phew, it has wheels and not legs! Martin

Camera now mounted in the cab floor. To house the camera transmitter and antenna we have drawn in CAD a case that will mount on the rear of the cab, there is also a cover that just clips in place giving us easy access if required, the hole at the top of the case is for the tube in which the antenna will be hidden. This will have some brass wire handles added and then be painted and weathered as a metal casing. These are the CAD drawings. The main part that will bolt to the cab rear wall. The cover that will clip over. The case with the transmitter installed and yet to have the plastic pipe added to cover the antenna. Martin

Footpath sections for the road bridge have now been cut. One section had to be jointed I so used a manhole cover to help disguise the joint and form a self aligning joint. Martin

Another option RP Toolz bending tool. https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/product/handle-bending-tool-rp-toolz-rp-h Martin

Initial weathering done, next up is to take it to the club and do the initial fitting on the layout before doing the final weathering and adding a few rusted corrugated roofing sheets. Just four weeks to go before the next exhibition appearance. Martin

I have updated the Firmware on my E2 to D123, this has made a big difference to cutting ability, with 2mm MDF I used to need four passes at 4mm/sec, it would just about get through in three passes but used the fourth to make sure, it now does it in just two passes at 4mm/sec. Speaking with Darkly, they said amongst other things the firmware improves focussing, this was confirmed when running the focus calibration tool, everytime before my best focus was at 4 on the image, now it is at 0. So if you have’nt done in yet, update your firmware. I am really enjoying the LightBurn software, this is light years ahead of LaserWeb and so easy to use and customise, although I do my main drawing in Adobe Illustrator, I use it in the day job so a natural for me. Have placed an order with Trotec for some of their laser card, my wife has a list of items she wants cut for her card making hobby. Not cheap by any means but cuts without burning. Martin

I now have some close up photos of the parts we have 3D printed or CNC'd for the traverser. This part is the unit that transfers the drive movement from the belt to the table. The belt which we will cut to length just slides into the unit from the side, the teeth printed in the slot locate with the teeth in the belt, this gives us the ability to adjust belt length by one tooth which means final tightening will be minimal, plus we can buy any over length belt, no need to buy one the exact length. This is an end view, the lower slots are for the belt, what will not be obvious is the slot on the upper part. This slot is wide enough for a nut over the flats, which means we push in a nut which is now captive and will not rotate to receive a bolt from above through the traverser table to allow the fixing in place of this unit. This is a 3D printed mount for the end belt pulley attached to the end of the traverser well upright. Here is the end wall of the well showing the belt pulley wheel and two 3D printed end stops which also house the plunger pick ups, only one plunger has been fitted at the moment. One of the linear bearings mounted on a rail showing how the end stop and pick-ups will interact. A close up of one of the stop units showing clearly a Pogo pin, you will see the head on the Pogo pin is made up of a series of points, the benefit of this type of pin is it is effectively self cleaning, it rotates in the housing giving a slight movement which should ensure any dirt on the contact surface is cleared. A very short video showing this end stop in action. Martin

I have started the weathering and assembly of the lean-to for Theobald's Yard. Martin

The layout has been a long time waiting for a lean-to structure alongside the engineering works, at last I have got around to cutting one out. Will take this to the club tonight to check it will fit before gluing and painting. The strip along the bottom of the photo is just a jig for the legs when fitting to the layout and not part of the structure. Martin