Santa Brought Me A Laser

[finescalerr]

My current spouse wants me to build a model of our house. I need a laser to cut the parts so she commanded Santa to bring me a low power, relatively low cost unit from Australia called the Afinia Emblaser. I've been fumbling around with it and managed to produce parts for a 1:48 scale farm wagon to go with that "little house on the prairie" I finished a month or so ago. (The problems I experienced getting somebody to cut the windows for that model, their mediocre quality, and the month it required to mail parts back and forth are what made my wife demand the laser.)

The photo shows some test pieces for the wagon. I built them up from layers of parts I cut from Strathmore 300 series velum and Wausau 65 pound Bright White cover stock. I stained them with SilverWood. The wheel is less than an inch in diameter and consists of 20 parts: two hubs, each made from 8 pieces, two spoked wheel centers, and a thinner outer rim on each side. To put things into perspective, the wagon side boards on the right are 2.5 inches long.

I am insane for trying to build something so small in 1:48; an appropriate scale would be at least 1:24. Better would be 1:8 like Greenie's models. Anyway, the wagon will take a long time to build and, when I eventually finish and then calm down by drinking six or seven bottles of fine cognac, I may attempt the model of our house.

Oh, the things I do for my wife ....

Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow! Those look good, Russ!

[Bill Gill]

Russ! You've been hiding some of your talents under a bushel basket!
Those tiny parts look very good. You seem to have assembled all the first wheel parts just fine, so the rest of the wagon and then the house should go well.
Good work for trying your new tool.

[WP Rayner]

Looking very good Russ. Congrats on adding the laser cutter to your arsenal... you must have been a good boy last year! That will certainly save you a lot of the time and hassle of dealing with outsourcing the process.

And now we know why there's such a supply shortage of fine cognac...

[Design-HSB]

Russ, congratulations to such a woman. In any case, not only cleanly cut but also carried out an excellent detail construction beforehand. I would like to see the 20 individual parts of the wheel after cutting.

[Rail and Tie]

-1 for not engraving the outer metal band on the wheel.

as someone here on the forum says...

Acceptable...  or something like that!

Very well done mate. Congrats on the new toy.

[Bernhard]

A good investment, and you seem to have mastered the machine quickly. The parts certainly look good.
I've been a good boy, too. That's why Santa also came to me and brought me a CNC milling machine. I was already thinking about adding a laser unit next to the spindle. What can you cut with it? Can you also cut thin nickel silver sheet?

Bernhard

[finescalerr]

Helmut, I can't show you all the pieces of the wheel but I can show many of them. I added text to the photo to identify the pieces.

I built eight half-hubs from a "large" (just over 0.25") Strathmore disc; then two slightly smaller discs, one from thin cardstock and another of the same size from Strathmore; another pair of slightly smaller discs from the same papers; a Strathmore ring; and finally a nut in the center. I assembled each hub by slipping the parts in order over a vertical piece of wire on a styrene base, staining them, then gluing them into a single unit. The result is a slightly conical half-hub to match the shape of actual wagon wheel hubs. Each wheel has a front half and a rear half.

The basic wheel consists of a sandwich of two spoked centers of 0.016" thick Strathmore to create the proper thickness, a thinner (0.012") outer rim on each side, and a strip of 0.012" thick card for the tire.

Those keeping score with calculators will notice in my first post I added the parts incorrectly, hadn't included the tire (because I hadn't installed it yet), and came up with 20 parts. The correct number of parts per wheel is 19. I don't want to be accused of exaggerating and be sent to the corner on New Year's Day.

I completely understand if some of you fell asleep halfway through this description so, when you wake up, just move on to the other threads. They are much more interesting anyway.

Russ

[Chuck Doan]

Wow! That looks like fun. Assuming you have applied for your Emblasing permit?

[Rail and Tie]

"Those keeping score with calculators will notice in my first post I added the parts incorrectly, hadn't included the tire (because I hadn't installed it yet), and came up with 20 parts. The correct number of parts per wheel is 19. I don't want to be accused of exaggerating and be sent to the corner on New Year's Day."

I stand corrected!  I will go stand in the corner now...

[Krusty]

Very nice. Normally I loath laser-cut wagon wheels 'cos people insist on cutting them out of a single piece of plywood, complete with exaggerated grain going in all the wrong directions. Yours are spot on.

[Bill Gill]

Russ, The tiny pieces went together really well. Will you infuse the parts with something like thin cyanoacrylite to seal and stiffen them?

[Design-HSB]

Russ, thank you read with excitement and interest and thanks also for the illustration. Yes, by doubling in different thicknesses, excellent 3D structures can be achieved.

[TRAINS1941]

Well that's just amazing beautiful work!!

Guess you were lucky when your wife picked you to be her husband!! 

Jerry

[shropshire lad]

Well that's just amazing beautiful work!!

Guess you were lucky when your wife picked you to be her husband!! 

Jerry

  Her first choice is spending time in San  Quentin , so she had to lower her sights !

  Happy New Year , Y'all.

  Nick