Stanton Street, New York City

[Hauk]

Hi Hauk

That's sort of a tough question, because I never really had a problem with scortching, so I never had to develop a technique to avoid it.  Generally I use the lowest power to highest speed ratio, mostly as a matter of efficiency. 

If you have a particular idea for a laser engraved wood structure, I'd be interested to know more.  Send me an PM or whatever.

Here's a photo of the HO scale rough side brick I engrave in 3D.   Thats a US dime on the left for size comparison.  The photo had to be cropped pretty tight to allow an upload here, but you get the idea.


Dave
 

That brickwork is some of the best I have ever seen, regardless of scale and modelling medium!

And I have plenty of ideas for laser engraved buldings, but I am afraid they might be a bit exotic for you customer base!

A workshop /enginhouse/transformator building located in Thamshavn, Norway:


A smaller trafo building from the same electric railroad, Thamshavnbanen:



I could go on and on....

I have a friend here in Norway that have helped me a lot with lasercutting parts. We havent discussed the possibility of 3D engraving, I dont lnow if his lasercutter has this option.

What file format do you use when using the 3D option, by the way?

Regards, Hauk

[DaKra]

Europe is bit too far out for my line, Hauk.  Though I've always liked German Fachwerk and may do one or two.

I use Adobe illustrator graphics on a PC for all my lasering.   

Even without the special driver, 3D effect can be simulated with separate layers of engraving at different power settings.  The laser performs much like a router, you can adjust it to cut at different depths.   In 3D mode, the laser power is controlled by the greyscale on the graphic, so the job is done in a single layer.   

Dave     

[DaKra]

fantastic achievement. Will this also become available as sheet material for scratch builders ?

Jacq

Thanks Jacq.  Yes, brick sheets are something I really have to do.  Because if I only sell it as a kit part, its just a matter of time before its bootlegged by somebody who'll sell blurry castings made from it.
 
Dave 

[Hauk]

Europe is bit too far out for my line, Hauk.  Though I've always liked German Fachwerk and may do one or two.

Yes, I would have been quite surprised if you started to manufacture kits of structures from along the Thamshavnbanen in Norway!
As far as I know, there are no others that models this railway.

The exception is two Dutch guys that model a freelance road in H0e, Orkhavnbanen, based on the Thmashavn railroad. There are by the way some pictures of this layout in another thread on this forum.

But back to you laser engraved brickwork, do you plan to offer brick sheets in 0 scale?

Regards, Hauk

[DaKra]

Have to disappoint you there, too, Hauk.  No plans for anything other than small detail parts in O scale.   

[finescalerr]

Hypothetically, what if somebody asked you to produce an O scale brick structure or walls or street for use in a kit? Or if it were for just a one-off model? Would you do it? Would it the cost be prohibitive to the typical small business or hobbyist? -- Russ

[DaKra]

Hi Russ. 

Its more the dimensions of the finished piece that determine the amount of machine time necessary to complete a part, than the scale.  O scale might require slightly deeper mortar lines, so possibly a bit slower per square inch, but not by much. 

An O scale kit can be made economically.  If laser engraving requires excessive machine time, go to casting from the lasered master.  The walls can be a bit thicker in this scale so that disadvantage in HO is not as present in O.   

Just two problems.  1) I have no experience doing commerical casting.  2) Beat up plastic hand-me-down, 3 rail Lionels scarred me for life.  I have a slight aversion to O scale. 

Dave

 

   

[finescalerr]

I used to have an aversion to O scale left over from my troubled childhood. And, at the age of four or five, I saw an HO around-the-walls shelf layout under construction and fell permanently in love with that scale. To me, it is the ideal compromise for modeling in virtually any space limitation. And I have about half a billion HO standard gauge locos, cars, and structures.

But HOn3 started me thinking. The structure size was okay but the rolling stock was just too small, even for a college student in his prime. A couple of decades later I realized the best scales for building impressive, in-your-face, detailed models were 1:32 and larger. I abandoned HOn3 forever and settled on 1:32 as the ultimate scale for industrial narrow gauge given my space limitations.

Then Bachmann came out with On30 and I started getting a lot of locomotive samples. Frankly, some were darned good. Within the first few years they produced a Porter, Shay, and Climax and, as far as I was concerned, I had everything I needed. So, in 1998 or thereabouts I built a small On30 switching diorama -- with an ore tipple, shack, water tank, and storage shed, handlaid track, the works. And that made me realize the positive attributes of 1:48 scale.

While I still favor 1:32 for narrow gauge industrial, 1:48 narrow gauge becomes analogous to HO standard gauge. At least to me. It is an excellent compromise.

You may find, someday, you wind up thinking along the same lines. One never know, do one?

Russ

[RoughboyModelworks]

I think many of us have preconceived notions of "O" scale based on the crude toy trains of our childhood. The easiest way to get past that is stop thinking of it as "O" Scale and think of it, correctly as it turns out in the US, as 1:48 scale or Proto 48.

Paul

[marc_reusser]

3 rail Lionels scarred me for life.  I have a slight aversion to O scale. 

Dave

Dave,

Repeat after me..."It's not O-scale.....it's 1:48,....it's not O-scale.....it's 1:48.......".   


Marc

[JohnP]

Dave, you have upped the ante for anybody producing kits with bricks. The multilevel detailing is very natural looking because it is not extreme and over pronounced. You sound casual about your technical mastery of your laser cutter but you either have: 1) an innate sense of the way the material and laser light interact via the machine software guided by a personally focused power of perception or 2) luckily stumbled upon some setting the first try that worked and you have not varied far from there.

I vote 1). This is excellent work in 1:87. I designed and sold an etched brass bridge in HO and found the textual appearance had much to do with the success of the model. You have that down pat, as well as understanding proportion and reality-based dimensioning.  Your stuff just looks right. Even the piano on the website looks right.

Oh, and I am modeling in On30 now. It's just HO with a bit more waddle to the steamers. It's safe to come back.

John

[DaKra]

Hi John

Many thanks for the compliments.  I was just looking at the detail view of your bridge model on your website and thinking same about your work, especially the rivets.  Those are tricky as they require uniformity in shape and placement that is difficult to achieve in miniature.  Yours are precise and believable.   Hope you'll start a thread explaining how you built that model. 

As for mastery of the laser, again, thank you.  I'm no longer surprised by people who believe operating a laser is just a matter of telling the computer what you want, like Captain Piquard ordering "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" then a second later the product pops out.  I'm also not surprised by Unibomber types who reject high tech in favor of sticks and mud then suggest that their way is superior.   So it is very gratifying to hear from people who recognize the amount of operator input involved in achieving good output.   

Glad you found this forum.   

Dave