Building the modeling desk Part 2

Well the modelling desk is pretty close to finish now. Just a few minor details need to be done.  The selves went in really nicely and all works well. I just need to add some lights and its all good to go.  I’m really happy with it as has given me heaps of room to do all my modelling.

I recently did another test etch with a different etching solution that i had been reading up on. I’m not happy with the results. It proved to be a very uneven etch and took way to long (20mins). Not all is lost as i got my alignment perfect this time which i was happy about.  With that all happing i wasn’t really sure what to do next, but luckily for me i had a chance to talk to Phil Badger from Badger Bits and he gave me a lesson on how to do. Phil is the guy to talk to about this as he used to teach etching in tafe and has done many etching himself.   He made some great points and i learnt a lot in the 30min chat we had.  So it’s back to the drawing board for a new etching talk which means track work is on the back foot again but hopefully for not long. For some reason I’m really keen to have sleeper plates on my track so i have to get this right before anything else can move along. Very frustrating, but I’m sure the results will pay off with some very nice and once off looking track.

In other news I’ve been working on several different 3D printing parts as well, which are looking very nice. I will post some pics of them later on this month.  I thought of getting the sleeper plates 3d printed, but i need them to be brass as it will conduct the power to the rails.   

Building the modeling desk Part 1

With our recent house move i needed to make a new modelling desk. I normally have a few projects on the go at once so i need some good working space. When i was making up the design,  i decided to have 3 main sections on the desk. Machining,  Assembly and a drying/holding section. The room the trains are in now has a nice window/ door way area. I wanted to be near a window for the views, but mainly so i can have the window open when working with glue and soldering.  Down below are the materials i used and an outline on how i built it.

Materials used.

4x 1800x 600x 18mm laminated pine sheet (desk & boxes)

3x 1200x 140x 19mm pine plank (upper shelves)

2x 1800x 140x 19mm pine plank (upper shelves)

1x 1200x 184x 19mm pine plank (upper shelves)

1x 1800x 184x 19mm pine plank (upper shelves)

3x 1200x 600x 3mm Mdf sheets ( backing on shelves & boxes)

5x 550mm shelve running kit

100x 25mm timber screws

I first made up the two boxes. These boxes are at each end of the desk. They are 720mm high by 600mm wide and 550 in depth. First i needed  to trim down the laminated pine sheets. I trimmed off 40mm on the sheets. This was down to make a 40mm lip on the desk. I used a power saw and a metal guide bar to get a nice straight line when cutting the wood.  Next was to install the draw runners.  These are very easy to install. I set the centre height i wanted for each draw and than drew a line across the two sides of the draw.  I than screwed in the runners with the supplied screws, using the line as a guide. The boxes were than screwed together using the normal method of using a pilot hole, and counter sinking the screws. A 600x 600mm Mdf sheet was nailed onto the back of the boxes to act as a backing.

Cutting guide

Centre line for shelf runner

Installed runners

Finished boxes

Close up of box

Next was to cut the desk out, this was fairly easy to do. Because i have an angle turn in the desk  i had to get angle right before i made the cut.  One length is 1800mm long and the other side is 1000mm long, both 600mm wide.  Once this was done the desk was screwed down from under the desk through the boxes. I also screwed in a piece of wood to support the join on the desk.

I than made up the upper shelves to go on the 1000m length desk. This was made nearly same way as boxes. I used 140mm wide shelve with a height of 600mm. I used a 184mm wide plank to go top. I plan to add some led lights along the overhang. Work has started on the second shelf and will explain more in part 2.

Half finshed desk

Half finshed desk

2013 in review, what's planned for 2014

Well It’s come to the end of another year so I thought I’ll give a review of the year of what’s happen and what’s planed for 2014.

2013 has been very busy outside of Bendigo, a house move, working lots of days and the birth of our daughter, time sure has disappeared. With all that happing not much was done on Bendigo. I was hoping to have most of the rail laid by now. However many parts have been design for etching which took a lot time. I had to spend a lot of time making up parts for the future to fill up the minimum A4 sheet needed for the etching house. Once that was done I them made the decision to do the etching myself. I’ve also have decided that some of the etch parts I will now get 3D printed, which will be better with detail and strength. So it was a wasted few months, but many things were learnt so there is still a positive to it.

Doing my own etching has been a great learning process. The first run didn’t quite work out, but I was still very happy with the result.  I’m now looking at a new etching solution that does not need to be heated. I’m in the process of getting these acids.  Having a non heated solution will be a lot easier to use and I will be able to build a simple etching tank.

What’s for 2014

The first thing for 2014 will be the construction of my new modelling desk.  This will be a purpose built desk that will give me plenty of room to work on all my projects. I normally have a few projects on the go at once, usually a loco, rolling stock, a building and track work. So having set areas of space is important.  The desk is 1800mm long by 600mm wide and also 600mm high.  The angle bit is 1000mm long and has the same height and width.  I have also made a top self to run a bit of track for programming loco and speed testing.  The middle tower will hold power packs, soldering iron and a Pr3 interface. The two boxes below will hold draws, the one on the left will hold a mitre size and other tools. The one on the right will be for storage of models that are drying. The desk will have three many sections from left to right, Machining, Assembly, and Holding. I look forward to getting this done as I will be able to unpack all my train stuff and I won’t need to use the old small round table.

Click to make bigger

 

Once the desk is done I planned to get right into rail laying. I hopefully my etching skills will be ready and my 3d parts as well. I plan to start with the straight track and then moving onto the turnouts. I will also be starting work on the brick/stone road bridge as this needs to be done so i can get the landscape heights right.

2013 had many learning curves, slow progress on the layout but I’m hoping in 2014 will show the fruits of 2013. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

My first etching

Well I got to do my very first etching the other day. It went fairly well, there are few things to work on, but it was a great first effort. I wont go into too much detail on the process, as I want to be able to get all the steps 100% right first.

The main thing that went wrong in this test was that the top pattern moved by about 0.5 mm to 1mm in the exposure process, which lead to the holes not being perfect. I felt I got the etching time right, however I do need to build an improved etching tank. I will need to make one that will be able to take A4 size brass sheets. I’ve added some photos below of what went on. You can see in the final shots of the brass how the topside is not right, but is something that I can work on. I used .25mm brass sheet in this test.

I hope I will be able to do a more in depth blog on the whole etching process soon.

October Update

Good news Bendigo A box survived the move! bad news no work has been done on the layout since the move, but this will change very soon.  Well the house move went very well nothing was broken which is always nice.  Now that the whole house is nearly all painted i can start to think about doing some work on the layout. First thing is i plan to build a new modelling desk in the spare room. This should be alot better than the old round table i was using. I will post about this new desk soon, as its not yet built but have planed it in my head.  The one thing about painting a house is that it gives you lots of thinking time.  Here are some changes that i will be making to make the layout better.

1. I have removed the curved backdrop.  I have done this for two reasons, i need better access to the back for landscaping the foam. Should have shape the foam before gluing down. The other is ive change the way the layout will be built in the shed. The curved back drop will be apart of the internal frame work of the shed. More on that some other day.

2. Etching, the cost of etching is very high so im going to give it a try myself. One problem using a etching company is that they need a minimum size of a A4 sheet. So when testing parts you have to fill up a whole sheet first with parts to test. This is were i have lost a lot of time designing parts to make a full sheet.  About half the parts i was going to etch that need etching to be spot on, im now going to get 3D printed. This will be easier to build these bits as i will not need to worry about etching tolerances and fold lines etc.  The parts i will etch myself are going to be the sleeper plates.  I will post later on DIY etching. It is a long progress and will take a few goes to get right.

3. I have change the layout width from 700mm to 800mm. This will hopefully help balance the layout. I want to get the scenery to track ratio right!

4. I have done a draft plan of the whole layout in the shed with mainly the bench work shape and walkway widths done. I have also worked out the locations of the stations, yards and infrastructure

Sorry that progress has been slow but hopefully things will start to pick now. Im hoping track work is only just around the corner.

On the Move

Well its been a huge few months in our personal life with the sell of our house and a purchase of our new home on a very nice 11.5 acres up in Gembrook.  So Bendigo has found its new home, just need to build the shed for it to go in.  So with all the fun of selling the house, no work has happen to Bendigo, but my brain has still been coming up with some new ideas for the layout. 

With the pending move not much work will happing on the layout but more behind the scenes stuff will.  I really need to finish off the etches and than make up the final test parts for all the track work.  Some parts will require some moulding to be done so I will need to learn how to do that. For that will be my main focus of work. Like everyone I also have a pile of half done models that need to be finished off so will try and get them done and posted up onto the blog.

For now I thought I might post just a couple of before and after photos of Bendigo A Box area. The before photos (taken in the 80's) are from stationpast.net and have been used with permission and the after photos were taken by me in Jan 2013. Stationpast.net has a large range of photos of stations and yards from the past all over Australia. I also have some photos taken in the 60's but will save them to compare with when ive built more of the layout.
Click to make bigger


Bendigo A Box

Same shot but taken back more

Old site with the concrete
steps still in place










Taken from road overpast looking
towards Bendigo (left side of bridge)

Looking the same way towards Bendigo
but on the right hand of bridge

Towards Bendigo A Box

 

Towards Melbourne




Top end of yard looking
towards Melbourne

Note the buffer stop still there
from above photos














Same of the photos don't match up very well but it gives you an idea of the area anyway. Thanks for looking and im sorry work has been slow but it will all be all worth it in the end. If you have any photo of Bendigo in the 50's, 60's and 70's please let me know at bendigonscale@live.com.au

March Update

Well March has been and gone and not much was done on the layout. I had planned to finish off the etching design work and get a test run done, but my PC had other ideas. After the motherboard failed I had no PC for 3 weeks.  With that and other things work etc, I only got around to doing one end of the end plates.

These are fairly easy to make by using 12mm ply wood. The trick is to make two a once so you have one already to go for the next module.  To make the end boards I clamped the ply to the frame and than traced the outline of the land onto the wood.  I than cut and sanded the ply to match the land form. Once I was happy with shape I than glued and screwed the ply onto the frame the same way I did the curved brackets.  There was a small gap between the ply and the foam so I used a little bit of wood filler in the gap and than sanded it back. Once dry the sleepers than can be laid over the top.

With my PC now back im hoping I can finish off these etches and than get into track laying. Looking forward to making and detailing the turnouts and compounds which should provide some really good post.