Laser Cutting and 3-D Printing for Railway Modellers E-Book

Bob Gledhill

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Although most people have heard of laser-cut and 3-D printed model railway parts and kits, most modellers have little knowledge or experience of them. This fascinating and well-illustrated book describes in non-technical language how these machines work and how railway modellers can use them to produce remarkable models for their layouts. With reference to the different modelling scales, the author discusses in detail the advantages and disadvantages of different types of machines, and the materials they employ. He also shows how beginners can install and use 'Sketchup Make', a free CAD (Computer Aided Design) program from the Internet. With step-by-step instructions and accompanying photographs, the author takes the modeller through the early stages of using this program before providing many examples of how to design model railway related items such as laser-cut roofing tiles, palisade fencing, brickwork, and the detailed elements of station awning. In addition, he demonstrates how to create 3-D printed furniture, barrels, packing crates, guttering and down pipes, rivet heads, and a workman's hut.The CAD skills learnt whilst following the clear instructions on how to draw these examples will enable modellers to design their own model railway parts, which can either be produced on their own machines or be sent away to be created by one of the many 'bureau' companies. Clear step-by-step instructions are given along with over 430 superb colour images.

Leseprobe

LASER CUTTING AND 3-D PRINTING

FOR RAILWAY MODELLERS

BOB GLEDHILL

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Bob Gledhill 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 227 4

Disclaimer

The author and the publisher do not accept any responsibility in any manner whatsoever for any error or omission, or any loss, damage, injury, adverse outcome, or liability of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any of the information contained in this book, or reliance upon it. If in doubt about any aspect of laser cutting, 3-D printing and railway modelling, readers are advised to seek professional advice.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to those members of Manchester Model Railway Society who were the first to see and try out the first few chapters on their ‘improvement’ course, and to Ralph Robertson in particular who gave me detailed feedback and many helpful comments after reading the entire script.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Ken Shipley for his help and support in the early stages of writing Part II: Laser Cutting. Finally my thanks to my wife, who has had to endure a winter of discussion on writing and chapter headings instead of the usual chat about ‘what I have just made’. Her support and proof reading have been invaluable.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I: CAD

1INTRODUCING CAD

2INSTALLING AND SETTING UP SKETCHUP MAKE

3INSTALLING AND USING NETFABB

42-D CAD BASICS

53-D CAD BASICS

62-D AND 3-D ADVANCED CAD

PART II: LASER CUTTING

7ENHANCING YOUR HOBBY WITH A LASER CUTTER

8LASER CUTTING MACHINES

9THE LASER CUTTER

10MATERIALS FOR LASER CUTTING

11PROJECTS: LASER CUTTING

Introduction to Laser Cutting

Laser Test Piece

Roofing Tiles

Window Frames

Palisade Fencing

Post and Wire Lineside Fencing

Laser-cut Brickwork

Station Awning Detail

12HINTS AND TIPS

PART III: 3-D PRINTING

13ENHANCING YOUR HOBBY WITH A 3-D PRINTER

143-D PRINTERS – WHAT’S AVAILABLE

15THE 3-D PRINTER

16THE 3-D SCANNER

17MATERIALS FOR 3-D PRINTING

18PROJECTS: 3-D PRINTING

Introduction to 3-D Printing

3-D Printer Test Pieces

Furniture

3-D Station Name Board

Barrel

Packing Crate

Guttering and Downpipes

Rivet Heads

Workman’s Hut

19HINTS AND TIPS

SUPPLIERS

INDEX

PREFACE

I have always been fascinated by technology, and sometimes a technology comes along that will change the way we work. Thus it was that in 1983, I bought a second-hand Sinclair ZX81 and started to learn how to program it and find out what it could do. Now computers are part of everyday life, but back then this was a marvellous and novel little machine. There were several computer magazines that had in them printed programs for games you could type into your computer and then play. Many didn’t work the first time, and most of the fun was trying to ‘de-bug’ the instructions and get them to work.

I returned to 4mm-scale (or strictly speaking 00-scale) railway modelling when I retired, having had a Triang TT layout in my youth, and found it an absorbing hobby with so many different skills to be learnt and models to be made. As you can imagine from the above, I quickly embraced DCC and computer control (via an ESU ECos controller and the excellent Traincontroller program).

I then met a member of the G-scale group, who meet at Keighley Model Railway Club, and joined, so now also have a G-scale garden layout. You will see examples of both scales throughout the book.

One of the members brought a cardboard tree, cut out on his wife’s ‘Craft Robo Cut’ machine. Thinking this might help with the making of cardboard buildings I did a search of the internet for ‘cutting machine’, and among the listings was a laser cutting/engraving machine.

Once I discovered I could actually purchase and own a laser cutting machine, and from a company only four miles away, I became really excited again! The prospect of being able to draw and design something on the computer screen and then actually cut it out to sub-mm precision was a thrilling prospect. Not only could I hope to produce professional-looking items, but I could produce them in quantity.

For me, learning CAD (computer-aided design) was done on an adrenalin rush of excitement and anticipation. I bought CorelDraw and spent many enjoyable hours learning how to use it, laser cutting items as I did so.

My greatest reward was in discovering the techniques required to enable me to laser engrave realistic-looking stonework on to ordinary mount card. I could make realistic ‘Northern’-looking stone-built houses, retaining walls and so on, without having to use paint or plastic sheet. Not only that, but as a bonus, the laser-engraving technique gave the surface a textured finish. The output might not have been finescale, but it was certainly better than anything I could have produced by painting plastic sheet.

More recently, and for over twelve months, I absorbed the news of each new 3-D printer with growing anticipation and excitement. I sent off for samples, read reviews, and eventually took the plunge and bought a Makerbot Replicator2. This proved to be a good ‘starter’ machine, as Makerbot had made the printer driver software very user-friendly, and the machine itself worked without too many problems.

Whilst looking at these machines and deciding when to buy one, I realized that CorelDraw would not cope with 3-D drawing, so I downloaded trial versions of about six different 3-D drawing programs and tried each one for a couple of hours. I chose Sketchup as the program I seemed to get on best with. It is very different in the way it works to CorelDraw, even though many of the concepts are the same (drawing rectangles, circles, straight lines and specifying dimensions). It also had the advantage that the Sketchup Make version of the program was – and still is at the time of writing – free.

I have therefore chosen to use Sketchup Make as the CAD package in this book, and which is therefore illustrated the most, but the reader needs to be aware that there are other programs around, some of which may better suit your learning style. This one program will produce both 2-D drawings for the laser cutter and 3-D for the 3-D printer.

Since purchasing the Makerbot Replicator2, I have built a couple of other 3-D printers from kits as ‘Christmas present’ (to myself!) projects (Printerbot Simple and Renkforce RF1000), and have bought a cheaper, semi-kit printer to evaluate for club use, the Hobbyking Print-Rite DIY printer (also advertised as the Colido DIY 3-D Printer). I illustrate and discuss these printers in Part III, the 3-D section of this book.

As you may have gathered, I find CAD drawing and the production of models via the laser cutter or 3-D printer an absorbing hobby in itself. I do now tend to look at kits in model shops and think ‘I could make that’.

True to ‘Sod’s Law’, three weeks before I was approached with a view to writing this book I had dismantled my 4mm railway to begin another, so many of the photographs in the book are of isolated items, rather than showing them ‘in situ’ on a layout.

If you simply want to continue to model in traditional ways and enjoy doing so, then this book may not be for you. If, however, like me, you enjoy learning new skills and techniques and embracing new technologies, or just like to see how many bought items are made, then I hope some of my knowledge and personal experience of laser cutting and 3-D printing machines will be of interest.

Bob Gledhill, 2016

INTRODUCTION

This book shows you how laser cutting and 3-D printing machines can be used to enhance our railway modelling hobby. It sets out to explain how these machines work, with copious examples of what they can produce, and the pros and cons of ownership. If you are thinking of buying a machine, have just bought one, or are simply interested in how they work and what they can make, then this book will prove of interest.

These are highly adaptable machines, and my examples show how a wide range of model railway items, in various scales, can be produced including window and door frames, fencing and walls, platforms, entire wagons including wheels, complete buildings, various brackets for servo-controlled points and signals, and even ultra-lightweight baseboards.

Various 3-D printed items in 4mm and G-scale. These are printed in different coloured filaments (plastic), with one of the huts and platform suitably weathered and/or spray painted. 4mm items include signal heads with feather, ladders, huts and platform. G-scale items include the signal lever frame, window frames, roof tiles and guttering. The odd-looking object to the left in front of the platform is a servo mount for operating semaphore signals.

The book takes you through the stages of getting started with CAD (computer-aided design) so you can draw the items you require in a format suited to laser cutting/engraving and/or 3-D printing. After reading this book you should be well on the way to understanding the basic processes involved, and be able to produce items of your own.

For many of these I will take you through the stages necessary to do the actual working drawings, for others I will simply give some useful information on how they were produced. I have tried to assume no previous knowledge of using a CAD drawing program.