Laser Cut Cobblestone Streets and Paving

[Hector Bell]

Hi Russ,
thanks for the explanation.  If only I knew what the bejayzuz you were talking about, but I get the gist.
If you can clean that up in the pootah, then it will be a lot better.  Smooth off yer nodes, bro!  All that stuff.
BTW, I checked out your brownstone site.  Very nice stuff you do, but I must take you to task on the comments about English and Flemish bonds. They are most certainly NOT for effect and accents!  They are found in all 9" walls, I'm looking at one where I sit.  It's an agricultural house built in 1912.  Solid, but not fancy and it is a rather strange mixture of English and Flemish, probably reflecting changes in that one hundred years.  Walls between properties are also usually English bond for self standing support.
American bond would, I imagine be prone to internal bowing if the leaves are only tied at every 6th course, unless you have a well established steel tie technique.
Don't forget, in Europe, especially England, we have brick everywhere because we have the clays from which they are made.  We have also been doing it rather longer.
My friend's house, partly 15th century, partly 14th century had the usual mediaeval thinner bricks in it's sole plate and even thinner paviours on the floor, but the soleplate bricks were still an approximation of English bond.
The rest of the house was timber frame and wattle of course.

So, if you're stuck for something to have a mess around with one rainy day, we'd all appreciate some of your lovely brick sheet in English bond, old son.
Ta very much!

Martin

[DaKra]

In my experience, almost nothing works on the first try.   Making natural looking cobblestones using a milling machine and a computer graphic is relatively ambitious, so I'd expect quite a few more rejects before a convincing product.  But I believe there is a potential solution.   Like Edison said about inventing the light bulb  "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"

As for .eps files etc.  I know almost nothing about them, not a computer guy.  I take a trial and error approach.

[DaKra]

Just to add a photo to the discussion, here is a laser engraved HO cobble street section.  I've been talking over improvements with BKLN since then.   But I believe it shows the potential for computer graphics + machine. 

[NE Brownstone]

Hi Martin, thanks for the info on the bricks.  In my own defense, the only examples I've seen of English and Flemish bonds were esthetic in nature, but that's over here. You're right, you guys have been laying brick long before this place was even considered real estate.   I'm sure any original brick lay was intentionally structural and patterns were a form follows function kind of thing, but from what I've observed that by the time this place became fully industrialized most masons were using the American bond as typical with accents of English and Flemish bonds.  The one example I have of a Flemish bond is questionable if it's a true bond and not simply a hanging wall with a bunch of half bricks.  

Good question about the bowing.  I assume(key word) the other common courses were interlocked with the internal bricks by the mortar.  I'm not a mason by day, so I don't know. Also, most of my examples are from 1900ish industrial buildings, which tended to have quite a few courses within each wall and end up being one homogeneous mess that would keep the outer layers of bricks from bowing or falling away.  I guess.

You're right about the rounding of nodes and like Dave says, it's quite an ambitious project.  And, he's right about getting it right the first time.  Nothing worse than checking the drawing over and over and giving it the green flag only to find the things you missed are the first things you see after running the machine for 30-60 minutes, or more.  Back to the handwork.  Actually, I always need to go back and handwork all walls, regardless.  The human touch is what gives it the randomness.  It can also ruin the piece.  

The machine I have is not a means to the end.  It's just a tool, or a step in the process for making tooling and I never had any illusions of me taking a picture and converting it into code and ending up with a finished product.  I wish.  

I'll adjust the site to reflect your insight.  I'd rather someone correct me than for me to pass on erroneous info.  Thanks again,

[Hector Bell]

Russ, thanks.
It was not meant as a criticism of your excellent site.  Heaven knows I've been on the rough end of that before myself with my slot racing bodies site!
I was reading it wrong, in fact.  I was taking your comments on English and Flemish bonds from, naturally I suppose, a Limey perspective.  It didn't occur to me that those bonds might be used in America at all!  In which case they probably were used for aesthetic accents, though, if used properly they do tie a wall together nicely.  Our industrial buildings display a quality of bricklaying that is often staggeringly high.  I once stood looking at a place in Tamworth, Staffs. which had typical glazed Staffordshire brick laid in such a way that the mortar was little more than 1/8" thick and perfect.
It had been a chapel, I think, but was now used by a hi-tech outfit who designed lube systems for Indy cars!!
I stood there so long taking pictures that they came out and questioned me.  They seemed put out by my being more impressed with a long dead brickie's skills than their hi-tech pumps or whatever they made.

Of course, where a 9" wall becomes a 13" wall, the bond changes yet again and I haven't studied enough to pass an informed opinion, but I shall go looking for some!  That could put the cat amongst the pigeons on both sides of the pond!

BTW, are your walls etc done in plaster?  Maybe I was tired last night late, but I didn't get the info immediately.
NOT a criticism.  I can't look now, I have an engine in pieces and the sun's out!
Tea break over, back on me 'ead!

cheers,
Martin

[eTraxx]

From "Technical Notes on Brick Construction" .. there is (1) Structural Bond - The method by which individual masonry units are interlocked or tied together to cause the entire assembly to act as a single structural unit and (2) Pattern Bond - he pattern formed by the masonry units and the mortar joints on the face of a wall. The pattern may result from the type of structural bond used or may be purely a decorative one unrelated to the structural bonding.

Basically, English and Flemish bonds alternate with bricks that run at right angles to the face to tie everything together (headers and stretchers). The Running Bond where there are just stretchers (the long side of the brick) are decorative since they lack the headers that tie the wall together .. metal ties can be used .. but they are largely used in cavity wall construction and veneered walls of brick.

[Hector Bell]

That ties in (no pun intended) with my ONC Building Construction, except that a single leaf wall of stretcher bond isn't purely decorative.  Many low walls, like front garden walls and the walls of conservatories, outside toilets, little sheds, etc. will likely be single leaf.  This difference is another little thing that brings a model scene alive.
It is also why a two story extension to a house would always need a double leaf wall in the first place to build upon.

Many car garages in domestic applications are single leaves of brick or block, but need a brick or block pillar (9x9) every 8 feet.

Stretcher bond also is the norm these days since all walls have to be cavity and insulated, but are generally tied with steel butterfly ties with a drip notch in their centres to stop condensation gathering.
The Essex Design Guide over here allowed wooden internal structures to be put up with a single leaf external wall in brick, but I have no information on how they are tied to the insubstantial plywood interior "leaf".

I saw the show town for the Essex Design Guide being built and although these new and rather looser rules were at work, the quality of brickwork was very high compared to the average modern build.  I actually saw an old brickie hand rubbing red bricks to effectively carve the date into a section of brickwork in the frontage of the Town Hall.

When I lived in Devon, there was a new cheese factory being built at the bottom of the village, mainly by Irish brickies.  They were paid, in 1972, £10 a thousand and regularly laid 10,000 bricks each per day!  £100 a day was damned good money then and they spent a good deal of it in our shop in the village square. Times wuz good!

Martin