Finally, I've had some weekend accomplishments to report. Saturday morning, my first laser-cut project arrived in the mail. It's a 12" x 24" sheet of 1/16" basswood containing parts for my design for an N Scale sawmill complex consisting of an 8" x 14" main mill building, a kiln building, powerhouse, misc. sheds and a two-story house that could serve as the mill office or a perk for the mill forman. Also a second sheet will arrive Monday with the supporting framework for the 6"x22" raised drying dock, jackworks and railcar loading ramp along with a third sheet with 8 company houses. Since the sawmill building alone had over 100 window openings, I thought I'd try having it laser cut. Despite one serious problem, I was extremely pleased with the results.The openings are cut perfectly square and the etched siding and trim lines are crisp. I know my limitations and know I couldn't approach the clean lines of the laser.
This are the cut parts for the house:
This was the first time I've sent off a CAD drawing to be cut and it was a learning experience. The original idea was to have only the window glass openings cut with frame and trim detail lines etched. However, a problem with importing my AutoCAD drawing into the Corel program used to run the laser resulted in the entire window frame being cut through, leaving me with large empty openings. (This offers me the opprortunity to accomplish something else next weekend: my first plastic casting project in which I attempt to fabricate over 100 windows to fill the openings.) I worked around the software problem and the other sheets are reported to be perfect.
My first assembly project was the two story house. I painted the wall panels with a thin wash of Folk Art white, applied with a small sponge. I then painted all the trim with Folk Art Edgewood Blue.The foundation is a thin coat of DAP Lightweight Spackle, painted gray. Then I assembled the four walls and cut some basswood to serve as a roof deck. The corrugated "metal" roofing is a thin plastic foil I bought on Ebay. I assembled the porch from the cut parts, glued it to the structure, painted it to match the trim and applied some corrugated roofing. After fabricating and installing the windows and tidying some trim, the roofing is going to have to be subdued; the glare off it is blinding in bright light.
I also painted and assembled the walls of several of the small sheds, one of which shows the intended window openings for the mill building. (I made a CAD mistake on this one window and it worked out right. Go figure.)
I also built the Power House including a "stone" first floor made of DAP Spackle and painted the Kiln Building. Finish on the mill buildings will be rather protypically rough. The mill building walls are taped together for now and replaces the printed cardstock walls in the mock-up on the layout. The three foot long N Scale mill & drying dock mockup still awes me whenever I walk by it.
Please excuse the images above, they are from the scanner. Another weekend accomplishment is that I ordered a new digital camera which may better help to show some of the sawmill complex as it develops.
Wayne