New to Western Thunder

[kevo]

Hiya everyone.

My good friend Ian Loffman has, by relentless badgering, got me to join this fine site.
My "Bag" is gauge 1, BR blue.
I have been involved with model railways profesionally for about 10 years, mainly designing kits for manufactures (BR Models, Roger Murray, Peter Clark and Peter Besant) and was the production manager at JLTRT for a couple of years. I still do design work, but now have a full time job besides, so the progress has slowed down.
I've been working on a gauge 1 "Peak" for a few years. It's at the stage of running (it's an actual diesel-electric with a 4 stroke engine), and I'm now CNC milling out the cabs, having given up on trying to do it in etch.
If I ever finish it I'll post a picture.
Regards
Kevo   

 

[28ten]

Hi Kevo and welcome  :wave:
I think we need some work in progress shots of the Peak  and something on the cnc milling  8)

 

[Dan Randall]

Welcome aboard Kevo. 

Looking forward to seeing some of your models very soon. 


Regards

Dan

 

[Pugsley]

Welcome!  8)

I hope you get a chance to put some details of the Peak on, that sounds very interesting indeed.

 

[D1054]

Welcome!  8)

I hope you get a chance to put some details of the Peak on, that sounds very interesting indeed.

+1

Sounds a nice ambitious project, and we'd sure like to hear more on this!

 

[7mmMick]

Nice to have you aboard Kev, as per the Guv'nor some details on the milling would be great,

Best regards Mick

 

[Jordan]

Welcome aboard Kevo - at this rate the Gauge 1-ers will outnumber the O Scalers here

Mindyou, I bet none of the others have a G1 loco powered exactly like the prototype - that sounds quite something!!

 

[Phill Dyson]

Hello & welcome Kevo :wave:, I would love to see some of your BR blue stuff too 8)
Phill 

 

[iploffy]

Mr kevo glad you finally made it , To all my fellow Thunderers I have seen the peak and I want one its a lovely piece of work well worthy to be added to this merry band of modellers

Ian

 

[28ten]

Mr kevo glad you finally made it , To all my fellow Thunderers I have seen the peak and I want one its a lovely piece of work well worthy to be added to this merry band of modellers

Ian

Ian,  get round there with your camera then 

 

[marsa69]

Hi Kevo,

and welcome to our merry band

To all my fellow Thunderers I have seen the peak and I want one

Good grief Ian. Don't suggest gauge 1 as well in the garden to your Mrs. She'll grab the crown jewels and give you a new set of ear muffs! 

 

[lancer1027]

Hi Kevo , welcome, i to would love to see some pics of the peak and any BR blue stuff

Rob :wave:

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Kevo,

welcome aboard and I like the others aam looking forward to photos of the Peak.

regards

Mike

 

[kevo]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

I'll dig out some pictures of the "Peak" over the weekend and get some words together.

In the meantime, some words on CNC milling.

A CNC milling machine is in effect an ordinary milling machine with a computer turning the handles for you. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control. The biggest advantage this gives (apart from letting you have your tea while it works) is that the 3 axis – the vertical (Z axis), front/back (Y axis) and side to side movements (X axis) – can be moved in relation to each other. So you can mill curved or angular features as well as along the axis.
But, being a computer, it needs instructions - a program.
Programs can be written by hand using standard G and M codes. “G01 X50 Y50 f500” for instance would move the table 50mm in X direction and 50mm in Y at the same time, giving a diagonal cut at a feed of 500mm/min. That is a very simple example but hopefully you get the idea.
It is possible to write program a machine to mill a Class 47 cab front for example, but it would take some considerable time.
The method would be to mill it in “slices”. Starting at the top the cutter would make a series of passes moving side to side (X axis) moving down a small increment at the end of each pass (Y axis). On each pass the cutter would mill out the profile of the cab for that particular slice buy moving up and down (the Z axis) while moving sideways (the X axis).
By working out the transition point (where a curve of one radius meets another of a different radius or direction, or an angle or straight line) for every feature on each pass you can write a program.
That would require dedication and focus beyond most and hopefully from the above you will realise that although possible it’s not really practical.
A more typical approach would be to start with a 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) model. I’m sure most will have seen a CAD model on a computer.
Being a CAD model it can be drawn full size (in the computer) and then scaled to whatever gauge you like, so “00”, “0” or gauge 1 versions can all be created at the stroke of a key.
CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) is a similar looking program to CAD and can import the CAD model. Many CAM programs have a CAD capacity in fact. The data is used to produce a tooling path (program) for the CNC mill.
This CNC program is entered on the CNC mill, the start button pressed, and away it goes!
So there we are. All you have to do is learn a 3D CAD program, produce a 3D CAD model, learn a CAM program and produce a CNC cutting program, get access to/buy a CNC mill and then watch you CNC mill make the model  – “simples”.
The above is a form of rapid prototyping and used widely in that industry.
I have to admit it is fascinating to watch the mill produce the CAD model you’ve drawn, particularly if there are subtle changes of form (from radius to taper for example) involved as these things are difficult to achieve by hand pattern making.
I’ve tried to keep this technical subject as technical free as possible. If I’ve confused more than explained please let me know.
Regards
Kevo 

 

[28ten]

I started out doing G code back in the day. do you still have access to the cnc kit?
Solidworks or inventor? 

 

[kevo]

Yes, I use Solidworks and I have 2 CNC machines in the garage. As an indicater of the amount of spare time I have one of the machines has been there 18 months and is yet to see swarf!

 

[iploffy]

Come on Kev nice to see you at Telford but we still have to see the Pictures and I still want one

 

[40126]

Come on Kev nice to see you at Telford but we still have to see the Pictures and I still want one

Hi Kev  :wave:

pictures please 

Steve