thibaultron

Well I just rechecked the specs, it does come with the z-axis probe.

Today, "I pulled the trigger" on the new SainSmart 3020 CNC machine. It is a pre-order item, so I'll likely get it next month. I'll post a review when it arrives. Still need to get more bits, and a z-axis probe. I figured that this was about the same price as a 3018 prover with the aluminum motor z-axis conversion. This is setup with a sturdier frame, though I don't know if they will offer an extension kit in the future. I bought it now to take advantage of the free one year software subscription. I'll try that software out, but look for a non-subscrption software when that runs out.

The museum may have used wood, to prevent them from having to disassemble the engine in the future to replace deteriorating leather. If, they ever have to move the display, the leather that still looked good may fall apart. I visited the Aberdene Proving Grounds Museum in Maryland many years ago., and they had dragged most of the outdoor equipment around. All the equipment that had any rubber tires pneumatic, or solid (generally WWI had solid), had the old rubber ripped off or almost completely destroyed. It was quite upsetting to me to see the displays thus damaged. Later they placed them on cement pads with axle supports holding the tires off the ground, but the damage was done.

I would suggest drilling the threads out of the nuts, so that they slip on and off the cast threads, then a touch of glue when final assembly takes place. The glue will fill the thread area, and a touch of paint will hide the glue. No one will know that the threads are not there.

The CNC router I'm looking at takes up about 18" X 12" workbench area, with about a 6" X 10" cutting capacity. I'm going to put it on a shelf above my workbench. Obviously not for large parts, but I will be able to cut most of any bulkheads and small details on it, in the scales I would use. It should also cut things like nameplates, Chesapeake Bay type trailboard carvings, etc. It is even rated for small aluminum carvings. I'll also use it to create replacement keel and false keel pieces for the defective ones in my HMS Granado Crosection kit. I CADed plans for a Maryland Terrapin Smack that it can cut the bulkheads, and deck furniture for on it, as well as the keel and subdeck (in sub sections). I'm also CADing plans for a Santa Fe passenger car, that I may be able to use this to mill the truck frames for. Maybe I'm spending money on it, that doesn't competely justify, but I think I'll get my moneys worth out of it.

I don't have a printer yet. It is on the list for next month, after I order a CNC router this week.

https://www.danapointtimes.com/pilgrim-demolished-no-determination-cause-sinking/ So Sad!

https://www.soundingsonline.com/news/a-beloved-tall-ship-sinks-in-its-berth

Part 012 I added weights while the glue on the last chocks was drying. Here is the frame with all the pieces glued together. The last steps are to trim the chocks flush with the neighboring timbers. As you go up the frame the timbers get smaller as less strength is needed to support the hull. A chock starts out the same thickness as the larger timber, and the end attached to the thinner timber needs to be trimmed to match. I used a combination of a modeling knife to whittle down the bulk of the area, and Rifflers/Modeling/Needle files to remove the rest. Finally I use 400 grit Wet/Dry sandpaper run along the grain of the wood to remove tooling marks. All these files come in various rough to smooth cutting teeth types. The Rifflers files are used for fine metal finishing, in tight spaces, and are very expensive. The Needle/Modeling files are much cheaper, but generally don’t list the aggressiveness of the cutting teeth. I buy a few different sets from different manufacturers of these files, which hopefully will come with smother and rougher cuts, giving a selection to use in my modeling. The ones I show below, are a from a very cheap set, but have the right cutting teeth for this job. First I use the knife to cut a Stop Cut across the grain, along the line of the finished edge. The Stop Cut helps prevent the wood splitting past the area you are removing, as you whittle along the grain to shear off the unwanted portion, The knife may not cut all the way to the bottom the first time, so press it down several times, and check as you cut, to see if you need to deepen it more. I didn’t want to risk marring the finished surface by using a saw for the cut. On larger pieces a saw may be required. Then I slowly split off the unwanted area in thin sections. Note, in the picture below that there is an extraneous laser etched line on the tip of one of the frame timbers. I’ll just have to live with this. The files I use to finish the cut are: a 3 sided triangular file, a file with one side flat, and the other slightly rounded (humped), and a flat Safety File (file on the right below). The Safety File has one of the long edges flat with no teeth. This allows you to file an area without cutting into the adjacent finished edge. Here is a diagram from the Nicholson “Guide to Files and filing” of a Safe Edge. Finished cut before sanding. Finished Frame 7. Note, that I will sand the taper on the inner and outer frame surfaces once I finish all the frames, and can set them up in the Frame Box. I don’t trust my skills at this point to pre-taper them individually. Next time I will start Frame 8

How do you refill the vat in the middle of a print, so as to not affect the print?

A great YouTube site for learning machining is: https://www.youtube.com/c/mrpete222 He is a retired machinist and shop teacher. Warning: A Huge Major Rabbit Hole! For those of us with the 7X12,16 etc. Mini-lathes, there are a huge number of videos on YouTube on adjusting and rebuilding them.

My scanner seems to be fine. It measures correctly. Thanks.

Flatbed scanner. I hold the area to be scanned and place a book on it to hold it flat.

Part 011 First here is a picture of two of the frames nested in the small box, as I mentioned in the last post. Yes, that second frame is Frame 7, finished. This one should be able to hold another layer of frames. Back to the construction of Frame 7. Once again I started by taping down the frame drawing I printed on cardstock after scanning the drawing in from the plans (a good choice as described below). Then I glued down the upper frame shims, and applied clear tape over the drawing areas, to keep the frame parts from sticking. Note: that the drawing for Frame 7 shows that the upper half of the frame (Black) is shown offset slightly higher than the lower (Red), I missed this, but there is enough meat on the frames that sanding can correct this. When cutting out the frame pieces, I hit upon an idea. One of the standard ways of filling gaps, is to mix sawdust with the glue you are using, and there is a lot of sawdust left between the parts and the carrier sheets. I had been throwing this away, but now I free the parts over a piece of paper and sweep them into a small container, for later use. I decided to build this frame differently than the first. Instead of building the first layer, complete with chocks, I built it by gluing the mating ends of the frame pieces together before hand. I did glue in the keel chock with the lower frame, as this set the gap to fit over the keel. The reason I did this was there were gaps between the mating ends of the frame sections on Frame 6, where I didn’t trim the length of the chocks correctly. Everything looked good when it was on the drawing, but they were noticeable once I removed it. I also, with this frame, started building the upper frame half on top of the lower as I worked up the frame. This insured they were both following in line, unlike the problems I had with the lower frame not lining up with the upper, on Frame 6. As I would span a chock space with an upper frame section, I would go back and remove the frame and fit the chock in, after the glue on the frame section had dried. This gave me tighter joints between the frame section ends. I generally let the glue set overnight, and it was at this stage when I decided that, while the glue dried, I’d build a simple plastic model between gluing. This worked well, until I knocked over the plastic glue bottle onto the frame at the above completion level!! I can report that Elmer’s will stand up to being soaked with plastic glue, at least the brand I use! The cardstock frame drawing, not so much! I had to remove the drawing scrape the paper off the shims, and glue them down to a new copy of the drawing. At this point I forgot to put the clear tape down, and had to carefully separate and clean the frame, the next time some glue got between it and the frame. Sigh. After this fiasco I continued building the frame. Here and on the other side, I did glue in the chock to make sure it fit in the notch of the shim piece. The blocks used for weights below, are cheap (at least 20 or so years ago) 123 machining blocks. The 123 blocks are 1”X 2”X 3” blocks that are a standard part of machining setup pieces. Normal 123 blocks are drilled and sometimes tapped in several places, hardened steel blocks used to insure your work piece is set squarely in place for machining. These are a cheap set with only the one hole. The tip sections of the upper and lower haves sit against each other, with no resin spacer, like those used for frame 6 During the construction, I had a labor dispute with some ants as to who the workbench belonged to, and had to settle the disagreement with Extreme Prejudice! The finishing of this frame and the start of Frame 8 will continue in the next part.

She had her surgery last week, and is recovering well, thanks.

There will soon be more updates. My time lately has been taken up with preperations for and the actual surgery my wife needed. I am also having problems sitting at my computer due to pain from my bad hip. I've completed two more frames, and have the photos, but have not been able to do the writeups, yet. Hang on and more parts will be posted soon.

Wonderful!

The host of this plays a bit of the fool, in his videos, but here is the starting of a SD-40 locomotive, as well as three different Trackmobiles.

The free version of Fusion, has another program NetFab, that I use to check/correct my SketchUp projects before I send them to Shapeways, that does a good job of fixing those missed connecting edges.

Thanks, I wondering about how to treat the IPA.

The 600X600 would do it. So for Sainsmart you would have to get the 4030 with the 6060 extension kit.

Of the generally considered afford about ones for hobby use Sainsmart seems to have one of the best reputations. They have the 3018 Prover (made with aluminum frame)(don't get the cheaper of their models, or the off brands which are made with bakelite parts in the frame) with a 300X180mm table (slightly smaller cutting area, of course, about 6"x10"). They also have the 4030, 400X300mm. Both have extension kits available to increase the cutting area. The 3018 can be enlarged to 300X400 with about 10"x12" cutting area, and the 4030 to 600x600. There are many really cheep versions of these out there, but they are also cheaply constructed, with no customer support.I found this company after watching videos by one YouTuber who had initially purchased one of those cheap units, and had many problems with broken/nonfunctional parts, and no replies by that manufacturer. There are also other quality makers of the 4030 size cnc carvers, but price goes up acourdingly. Get on YouTube and search for the SainSmart machines, lots of good tutorials.

Look up Walthers, the biggest Model Railroad supplier.

Welcome!

Welcome! The Model Shipways three pack would be a good start. The older Midwest kits are also good starter projects. Bluejacket also has some beginner level kits. Model Shipways will replace parts you damage.