Large Scale Central

First laser building project

Modeling Technical Modeling
#21

Thanks guys!

Dave and Chris, the etching and openings will be in the thin outer “sheathing” layer; this is the inner structural core. At least that’s the plan, we’ve yet to see if it works! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Cliff

#22

Kind of like this, I suspect:

It will be very interesting to see what you come up with for the siding.

#23

Cliff Jennings said:

Thanks guys!

Dave and Chris, the etching and openings will be in the thin outer “sheathing” layer; this is the inner structural core. At least that’s the plan, we’ve yet to see if it works! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Cliff

I forgot you are going to make your own windows. Take a look at what Dennis does, his method works really well. You need to test out laser cutting styrene, that material is not really very laser friendly as it tends to melt more than cut.

Chris

#24

Bruce Chandler said:

Chris Kieffer said:

Very nicely done Cliffy, but you got to excited and forgot door and window openings. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)Are you going to finish that out, or is it just a test piece?

Chris

Looks very nice, Cliff. But I’m sure you don’t need openings for windows and doors. I NEVER put them in and just use the acrylic wall for glazing. However, you may want to allow for some ventilation to let hot air out…

Yes, I try to have some kind of opening to vent my buildings. its amazing how hot they can get on the inside, with just an hour in the sun.

#25

Thanks Bruce and David for raising that ventilation concern, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.

I’ll have to check out what Dennis does Chris, thanks. As Bruce suggests, I’m going to attempt a laser-cut overlay of .04 styrene. I got a couple of 4x8 sheets a few years ago from a local plastic supplier, I think maybe $20 per sheet. So I need to start with that.

Bruce, yep, the clear acrylic is the window glazing on mine, no openings. Is that pre-molded stryene (that you’ve manually cut)? Looks great!!

#26

Cliff Jennings said:

Thanks Bruce and David for raising that ventilation concern, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.

I’ll have to check out what Dennis does Chris, thanks. As Bruce suggests, I’m going to attempt a laser-cut overlay of .04 styrene. I got a couple of 4x8 sheets a few years ago from a local plastic supplier, I think maybe $20 per sheet. So I need to start with that.

Bruce, yep, the clear acrylic is the window glazing on mine, no openings. Is that pre-molded stryene (that you’ve manually cut)? Looks great!!

I didn’t manually cut it - I ordered it from Tap Plastics already cut to the size I wanted. If I had done it, it would be neither straight NOR square…

#27

Bruce, sorry I wasn’t clearer, I was referring to your outer plastic surface. What is it, and how did you cut it?

#28

I got in some design time this afternoon, and here’s the sheathing overlaid on the core structure.

The un-detailed outline patterns work out like this:

I can’t cut them yet though. This is the stage where I need to do lots of learning on cutting and “engraving” the sheathing material. As Chris pointed out, stryene may be real finicky here; and I may need to change materials and thickness & etc. if that doesn’t pan out. Also, I need to define what to engrave, starting with lines for joints between boards, maybe some nail holes. This will be done in Autocad (that is, strictly 2D, not in the 3D computer model), with much experimentation. For any wood grain though, I’ll just use a wire brush and call it a day I think. So, long ways to go on this step.

After the sheathing is done comes the detailing. For corners, I figure styrene angle. But for door & windows, 3d printed.

I had to finalize the window & door designs, because they drive the openings in the sheathing. I haven’t forgotten about the ventilation, just haven’t done it yet; but it may involve a drilled hole at the peak on front & back, and some 3DP louver glued over it.

Shingles… I hope to laser cut strips from .04 styrene, pre-stain and apply them in rows. That’s way down the road though.

Thanks for viewing!

===>Cliffy

#29

Cliffy,

Some info that may help: https://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/show-material/145-styrene-white

Chris

#30

Cliff as for venting …think on the 1:1 scale …ridge vent …however when playing with plastics “remember” some are UV treated some are not…Different materials…I honestly do not know what will work with a laser cutter but I have been playing with these composite materials for over 10yrs myself.

I can tell you that a razor saw dragged flat across the material makes for fantastic wood graining though. Depending on the graining you are after just change blades from rough cut to fine.

Why not just work with wood material and think on a 1:1 scale …hell you’re building houses !

#31

That was a helpful article Chris thanks!

Hi Rooster, yes, I’m probably going to do an under-eave louver vent, just like a regular house. Agree on the UV stuff, and I’m counting on the paint to help. And I agree, abrading with razor saw is great on styrene. Also wire wheeling. I may treat sheets that way before cutting, if I can’t get the laser to cooperate for “grain.” Or takes too long.

Wood’s another fallback, but only if I can assure its longevity in painted form, adherence, etc.

[edit] Here’s some “wood” siding that I made from styrene a few years back. For un-painted small buildings it would be ok. But this was pretty labor-intensive, and the mine buildings are too big to mess with it. They will also be painted, so a lot of attention to grain would be lost. Mainly, I think I should etch the board divisions, maybe scrape and ding some, but attempt a finish that looks like faded paint on wood.

Thanks for helping me to think it through.

Cliff

#32

Today I got to start testing on the .04 styrene material. To make a log story short, these are the settings I found most useful:

  • Cutting: 12mm/sec @70% power
  • Engraving: 100mm/sec @70% power

Probably too heavy on the nail holes, I’ll adjust that.

For the record, I’m using the following procedure on these files.

  • In SolidWorks:
  • 3d model files created (serves all parts)
  • 2d flat drawing file created, showing each sheathing part flat to the screen
  • SW drawing file exported to DWG or DXF (acad) format- In AutoCad:
  • SW export file opened
  • Nesting / copying of parts
  • “Engraving” (board lines, nail hole circles) created
  • Scaled up to metric (25.4x)
  • Parts set to colors that correspond to RDWorks cutting, engraving, etc.
  • Cutting file(s) exported to DXF format- In RDWorks:
  • Play around with scrap and get the speed / power level right
  • Acad export cut file opened
  • Layers (based on color) checked for speed / power settings
  • File sent to the cutter

Here’s another shot, showing a 3d printed window test piece.

Some opinions after these tests.

  • Should probably “pre-grain” the whole sheet first with a power sander and a 60 or 40 grit belt.
  • Should flatten the sheet first somehow (I had the stock in a roll for a few years, and the part tended to pop up after being freed from the weighted-down sheet)

Some findings:

  • At least for this .04 styrene, the cutting went well. Probably less fumes and smoke than the (thicker) acrylic.
  • The engraving went quite well, much better than I expected.
  • However, the end of an engraved line goes beyond its graphic instruction line, by the radius of the puddle that the laser is melting
  • For nail holes…
  • I started with Point entities in Acad. Though they were conveyed via the DXF to RDWorks, and though the laser seemed to stop at their locations, the infinitely-small point resulted in an infinitely-small puff of beam (and no nail hole).
  • So I redid the nail holes with small circles (~.5mm), which resulted in what you see. The laser had to create a finite thing.
  • But since the circumference of that circle determined the dwell time of the beam, I’ll use circles of about half that size in the future.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for viewing,

===>Cliffy

#33

Cliff - the siding looks great - I didn’t think the laser cutter would do that well with it.

NICE!

dave

#34

Cliff Jennings said:

Bruce, sorry I wasn’t clearer, I was referring to your outer plastic surface. What is it, and how did you cut it?

Ah, that is Precision Products Siding…1/24 brick…cut with a knife and a straight edge…

Great name - Precision…too bad the bricks don’t line up from side to side…but…it’s still the best stuff around. It holds up VERY well outside.

#35

For vents…you don’t have to be fancy…

I got these from Amazon…

They can be put in almost anywhere and you don’t have to add a screen for bugs…

#36

Cool looking siding, Cliff. Almost makes me want to get a laser…

#37

VERY nice Cliff !

#38

Thanks very much gentlemen, it means a lot that you like the like the results so far!

Neat vent Bruce, and only 1" diameter. I’ll sure file that away.

The next step with the siding experiment is graining. I took a belt sander and wire brush to a small sheet of stock, roughing & scratching the surface in one direction. Then I re-ran the part (this time with smaller nail holes).

So now I had 2 versions of part to play with pre-staining with, one smooth and one “grained”. Here’s the smooth part with India ink smeared on and wiped off a few times.

And here’s the “grained” version with the same treatment.

Here’s a comparison,

BTW, the new part seems flatter only because I cut it in a different direction on the (curled) sheet. Need to flatten that stuff out… maybe roll it up the other way for a while…

The more dramatic streaking of the first part is probably due to the ink’s behavior on the glossy surface. When wiping it down, there was a certain break-away pressure threshold where much more ink came away (vs being lightened up). Kinda fun and random effect, though the grained version didn’t have that quite as much. In either case, playing with slight squirts of Windex on the paper towel added to the variability.

Anyway, seems to me the grain treatment is worth it. Less shiny, held the ink better a lot, and probably will hold paint better.

Now I need to do all the other sheathing panels.

Thanks again,

===>Cliffy

#39

Cliff Jennings said:

So now I had 2 versions of part to play with pre-staining with, one smooth and one “grained”. Here’s the smooth part with India ink smeared on and wiped off a few times.

And here’s the “grained” version with the same treatment.

Much better.

#40

Very realistic grain effect, Cliff -

dave