I have been playing with some different plastics... and here are the results The bottom row of rivets in the top most plastic is the final version nice round and to scale. There is a quarter there underneath for scale reference. The paint is still wet and was brushed on. Almost no scanning lines here in this plastic and the nicest rivets. Imagine all the possibilities now? Can some one here give me dimensions and pictures of a corrugated side car or a gondola. I am eager to try one, ofcourse If I make it I'll send you one too. Kim
Is that the results you get from Delrin Kim? It looks good, but can you glue it and does paint stick? If so, it might be my new favorite plastic!
Ben, it is Delrin, it lasers good. Chris, I take a sheet of plastic and laser them in raster mode. In raster mode the laser is like a 1200 DPI black and white printer, black being max laser power and white no laser power. so if you draw a circle and shade it spherically with white in the center and shading down to black on the edges it will laser a semicircle on the plastic like a rivet. So drawing and shading different shades of B&W you make this surface 3D. There are many limitations like the depth of cut and undercuts but.... it feels like I have a 3d printer. Kim
Could you use 3D software to do this? Not that it looks like you need it though, the rivets look good!
Other Materials Kim, Looks great!. I was discussing this with Robert Ray and told him about the materials I used when I was building models at Disney. I used the Universal Laser sign making plastics because they came layered in colors and cut great. I would raster/vector out the window panes to get the dark blue exposed and leave the white overlay for the window frames. This stuff cuts like a dream, you can sand it smooth if necessary and use glue on it. Check the Universal Laser site under materials/sign making. The stuff is 1/16 thick and comes in all sorts of combinations. I'm hoping Robert gets some and tries it for his Wood Chip Hoppers, I think he will be happy with the results. Cheers Joe MTL/Brand X
Yes, I got your email this morning Joe. I have been using that 2 color sign plastic with decent results, except when I was trying to make the deep rib woodchip car. Yesterday after work I ordered 10 sheets of the Acetal plastic to try out. I will see if it is any better than the sign plastic at all. Kim has a 1.5" lens, so that may be the difference too, since I have a 2" lens, although I have focus tweeked! Still, I like the results Kim is showing with those gondola sides, and I want to do a few of the louvered side mill gons for my collection, but gluing is a concern.
Ben, The drawing is close to what I used, you have the concept right. Joe, I ordered $100's worth of plastics from different vendors, ordered one of most Rowmark laserables at 1/32 and 1/16 and tried them, I could not make much difference with the naked eye or 10X magnification but with photos I could see all the fine details. The advantage of delrin is the details from the drawing came out nice, it is much more stronger than acrylic so I could laser it very thin and it does not warp under heat. The cons are, delrin is like teflon and need special glues ( one time expense for Z scale) unless one scrapes it each time before gluing and the paint needs some form of sealer to avoid scratching off. Rob, The delrin still has the rastering lines visible. so I tried 2" and 4" lens and got better results with a 2" lens, it was a trade off like how much smudging you want. with 1.5" sharp details and 2" and 4" the details were smudged but the raster lines were smudged too. I think the raster lines can be covered with lacquer, it is just the beginning, it is a matter of time before you find a work around all the bugs and come up with a way to easily use this. Worst case one could use rastered derlin as a master to cast in resin or brass. I'll try to cast them in brass just for the kicks... Kim
While reading this post last night! Last night, while reading this post, I had the idea of using this type of development as masters to creat cast resin copies. Would work great! Kim, you never fail to amaze me with your experimentation of your laser. Keep on keeping on! Great job guys! Hobo Tim
Cyanopoxy from Cool Chem will glue delrin. Painting delrin is always iffy, but a flexible film type of paint is your best bet as it will encapsulate the model. It's kind of like shrink wrap at that point... it may not stick well to the delrin, but it will stick to itself and as long as it doesn't get nicked or scratched too bad, it will stay in place on the model. Pactra Racing Finishes and Accuflex/Modelflex would be my first suggestions.
The cool thing with the laser (and other 3D printer technology) is that you can also print negatives so that you can make 1st generation castings.
What? Wait a minute and put the thread on pause, you were working at Disney? mg: and now your working at Micro Train? Ok! that's it, I'm officially jealous!!! Man!!! You have good contacts! What kind of models were you doing at Disney? If it is not to personal. Ben
If you remember John Olson from the 80's in Model Railroader. He worked for Disney too. He made scenery for rides.
I think I remember reading Malcolm Furlow, also from MR in the 80's, worked for Disney doing scenery for attractions. I have several of his books from the day. Remember the San Juan Central series?
Malcolm is a painter now in the Southwest. I have the book on the SJC, plus all issues of MR it appeared in. He is probably the reason for my stray narrow gauge modeling. Some of this paintings: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Malcolm%20Furlow&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Hey "Rivet" heads, get over to this rivet thread: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=84325
Wait a minute. You guys are using a laser printer to do this? A laser printer like you use to print on paper? How can you print on something that is 1/16th inch thick? Thanks.
