Silhouette SD

[Dave Schneider]

It has a little bit quiet in this thread lately so I thought I would give an in-progress shot of the scalehouse I did last night. This is made from .020 styrene, and the boards are all scribed in. This thing is rather tiny as you can see the 1/2 inch marks on the cutting pad. I'm sure some people could make these cuts without the SSD, but I know that I couldn't do a very good job. The windows are made from white vinyl stuck to clear styrene, and the individual panes cut out with. I have commissioned a working scale track (ie. the points work, not the scale) and am just awaiting delivery. This should make for a very nice scene on the Beer Line. The prototype for this scale house is North Milwaukee at the start of the BL. There was a scale at Gibson Yard on the section I am modeling, but I haven't found any photos of it so this will have to do. I have plans to include a scale mechanism inside the house as well as a stove.



Best wishes, Dave

[sirenwerks]

Looks great Dave! I'm curious about the scribing. First, it gives the impression of clapboard, but I imagine super-up-close the scribe is just piles of styrene on both sides of the cut trench? Does the prototype have clapboard or tongue & groove siding? I'm curious to see if a coat of paint will heighten the clapboard effect.

When combining scribes and cuts, does the machine intelligently combine the two processes on its own? I'm a bit confused on this, whether you have to swap out a scribing blade for a cutting one; meaning the machine would have to perform the scribe patterns first, then come back and cut around these. If the latter, I assume the machine's lining everything up somehow since the right angles are so clean.

The stick-on vinyl is such a great idea for the window detail. Are you planning on using them as-is or adding additional strip styrene to create more molding layers?

I have been thinking about how this machine could be used to create stock car sides. Given its precision, it seems like you'd be able to cut different layers of a car side - one of horizontal slats, one of vertical braces, etc. - pre-aligned in a fret, glue them stacked together, then cut the unneeded part of the fret away; no jigs necessary.

[Dave Schneider]

Byran,

Thanks for the compliment. You are correct around the scribe. In this case I laid out two very closely spaced lines (actually rectangles because that simplifies the size of each board). I think that this process could be used to simulate clapboard, as the siding on my house sticks out less than an inch (.00625 inches in N scale). The prototype looks like tongue and groove, but maybe it is like boards nailed horizontally. If you zoom into this picture you can see part of it. http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/djs_ank_ak/Beer%20Line/NorthMilwaukee_1968c.jpg

As for cutting vs. scribing, this is a bit confusing. There are different caps that control the depth of cut. It is on the first page or two of this thread. I use the blue cap, shallowest depth for the scribing and the pink cap for cutting. With .020 styrene, you really aren't cutting through, just scribing deeply to snap. You can also control the force (with the AI plugin) or the thickness (with the Studio software). I think of this as how hard the pen smacks into the piece, but maybe this isn't correct. At any rate, I use a low value for thickness (10) for scribing and a high value (30) for cutting. I set up the artwork as two registered versions in Studio and change the cap and settings between operations. It tracks back extremely well and I have never had a noticeable problem with registration. With the AI plugin you can lay these out in layers in one file and then pause between them to do the cap change. The force change is done in software.

I plan on adding a sill for the windows and I don't think that there was much in the way of trim.

Best wishes, Dave

[Dave Schneider]

Here is a photo of the North Milwaukee scale house that just arrived in my email from my friend John Kosma! Looks like tongue and groove. Even though the window covers are painted gray, I am going to stay with white as seen in the 1968 photo. I'll use some black or dark gray chalk to tone them down.



Best wishes, Dave

[sirenwerks]

Good info. I was wondering if pre-scribed sidings could somehow be used with the SSD. Jamie's motel looks like he used a clapboard and I had been meaning to ask about the registration process, but now that I see yours I'm not so sure. Thanks and keep the great models coming.

[pnolan48]

I think Dave's got it right. I say "think" because I haven't had much more than a few hours to experiment in the last few weeks. With thicker materials, .020 and .030 styrene, I use the "deep" cut pink cap at maximum pressure (33) and a slow speed (2 cm/sec) for both scribing and cut-and-snap. On the exterior snap lines, there's no problem, although my scribed lines are not spaced closely near the edges. On interior cuts, I've used a knife to deepen where I want the cuts, and usually have to cut all the way through. I think it's possible, using layers, to make cuts two or three passes, and scribing just one. I've done that to cut sections for ships. The exterior cuts are one pass; the slots in the vertical keel and sections are three passes. I still have to use a knife to finish the slots.

I plan to make a locomotive body out of multiple layers of thin stock, perhaps even paper. When making architectural models, I learned just how strong paper can be. I will have some time this next month, so I think I'll start on my long-delayed Baldwin Centipede.

I've found the precision much better than expected or needed. I do have questions about how long this cutter will last cutting thick materials.

[sd80mac]

Thanks guys, for the updates. I'm pretty much sold on the concept of this machine. Also, the fact that the price of locomotives and rolling stock is going up lend all the more to a resurgence in of the art of scratbuilding, or scratchbashing. Between sheet and strip styrene, and commercial and handmade parts, I should be able to come up with some fairly decent models.

I do have a question about th Sillhouette cad software; how do you join individual lines? I downloaded the program but found it a dit difficult to grasp the use of it. I use Alibre Design, and while it's primarily a 3D program, it does have 2D capability with layering. I'm kind of wondering if I can print directly from it...I guess I'll know once I have the machine!

Donnell

[Dave Schneider]

Just to complete the scale house thread, here are a couple of pictures of the final product.
   


Building the Beer Line a half a square inch at a time!
Best wishes, Dave

[pnolan48]

Neat, Dave!

I haven't turned to land buildings yet, as ships are complicated. As I posted earlier, it might be better just to cut the darn hull out of wood.

My question: would this have been easier with clapboard stock, a few good windows (scarce these days), and an X-acto knife.

I love this SD cutter, but feel we should be looking at it as a quick prototype machine, rather than as a producton machine.

[Dave Schneider]

Thanks Pete. I am happy with it. As for your question, I think that this was much easier than using clapboard stock as most of the cuts were rather delicate. There is very little material left between the three windows, which fit in a space a little more the 1/2 an inch wide. The same is true for the angled wall and window. It is nice to just lay it out and press the go button as making square cuts is always a bit challenging for me. It is also nice to make the window and door what ever size is needed.

As for your final comment about quick prototype vs. production, I don't know if I understand your point. 


Best wishes, Dave

[sd80mac]

Hey Dave,

How do you dimension lines and shapes in the Sillhouette studio drawing program?

Donnell

[SkipGear]

I should have something to show of this later this weekend.



I had to completely re-redraw it, making sure to end all the polygons going the same direction. I did a test run a few weeks ago with drawing as I had it, and the random direction that the bricks were created in caused problems as the knife had to flip back and forth different directions and caused tracking issues.

While redrawing, a friend went down to the building and took some better measurements for me. The first version ended up a touch small so this one is now scaled properly also. I also recreated the brick pattern a little better also. Every 5th course had bricks layed side ways instead of lengthwise. (the picture is of the original drawing)

[Scottl]

Thanks to all that are advancing this thread.  Tremendous modelling and potential here!  I am loving it.

[pnolan48]

. . .It is nice to just lay it out and press the go button as making square cuts is always a bit challenging for me. It is also nice to make the window and door what ever size is needed.

As for your final comment about quick prototype vs. production, I don't know if I understand your point. 


Best wishes, Dave

Square cuts are hard for me, too.

As for quick prototyping vs. production, my thinking was that the Silhouette might produce the first prototypes before sending a project to another, bigger cutter. My mindset was on producing many models, rather than singles. Just a brain fart on my part. I'm so wrapped up in my ships these days that my thinking is too narrowly focused.

[ncbqguy]

Dave-
I think the siding on the scalehouse is "Novelty" siding.   This was a form of tongue-and-groove.  The top of the board has a quarter circle profile which makes the square edge of the board above a drip line.   The scribe line in N Scale gives a good representation of this as nobody is going to be able to see that the groove is half circular.
Charlie Vlk