Wednesday 17th May

Worklist:
New lighting
Workshop walls
Crane
(and a bit of laser work)

Geoff presented some new wall lights he'd purchased on eBay (from Germany). They are fitted with some tiny, surface-mount LED's. They are pre-fitted with a resistor for a 3v supply, but come with additional resitors to suit a 12v supply.

We did a quick trial to see the effect and immediately realised that the LED was high-up in the shade and wouldn't be visible, but the light cast might possibly be seen on the wall. We then looked for locations - 1 on the goods shed fascia, over the steps (that Stephen never got around to making). 5 on the generator room and maybe a few on the workshop. The goods shed LED lights had a 3v supply, so the new light could be easily added. However, the wire is incredibly fine and fitting into a fixed, 'finished' building was tricky, but a route was found.

The other two buildings have either 3v or 12v lighting so whilst actual fitting might be an issue, power supplies will not.

Geoff continued with the workshop, finishing the brickwork by filing the corner joints.

Laurence glued Grandt Line bolt heads to the base of his crane.

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Geoff had fitted a full red plastic cover to the laser.

Stephen had been experimenting with paint and dyes to colour sheets of paper for more leaves. Soaking paper in tea had produced a faint beige sheet and another 630 leaves soon appeared.

The packing case experiment wasn't quite so successful. The 'cut' had been aborted due to lack of time and although most elements had been released, a knife would be required for the others. The charring was considerable and so the dense, 2mm MDF, whilst probably suitable for some projects, won't be the material-of-choice in the future.

Wednesday 9th May

Worklist:
Play with the laser cutter
Gasifier bucket assembly
Workshop details

With Laurence investigating the inside of a large, noisy scanner, Geoff and Stephen could play with the laser cutter, with a clear conscience.

Stephen had prepared three drawing files to test different features, all for his Gn15 layout:

1) a sheet of sycamore leaves - cut from an A4 sheet of plain 80gms paper. The sheet was supposed to be coloured to represent autumnal shades, but Stephen forgot to prepare it. However, the result was very impressive and a coloured sheet will be forthcoming.

2) a 5ft dia. cable drum - cut from an A4 sheet of grey cardboard. Apart from basic lines, this test included bold text and wide lines, neither of which appeared beyond a single line representation. However, Geoff tried out a hatch option that worked nicely. Stephen will investigate creating the solid areas in the DWG file. Two passes at high power completed the full cut-through.

3) a packing case - cut from 2mm MDF, scrounged from his local picture framer. The MDF was good quality, dense board and required multiple passes to cut through. In fact, the session finished with the cutter still working and the board looking quite charred. This was partly due to the drawing method where rectangles had been stacked and overlapping shapes were cut twice. We'll have to wait to see how it comes out.

Whilst the last sheet was being cut, Stephen turned to the gasifier bucket assembly and fitted some fine chain. Note the motor control unit hanging down?

The workshop doors had been etched and cut out. Geoff completed sticking the brickwork strips to the door reveals.

Wednesday 3rd April

Worklist:
Workshop windows - finish
Workshop doors - design and start
Gasifier bucket track and gear
Sheep & raddle
Crane details

Geoff was inspired this week and must have accounted for 80% of the completed work.

Firstly, he finished lining the two workshop openings with brick sheet. Then, he glued the window frames onto the clear acrylic sheet *. Finally, he fettled the window units, making them fit the new openings. Note the opening light left slightly ajar.

Stephen and Geoff then discussed the workshop doors (not for the first time). Hinged doors were confirmed for the left-hand end as space was available. For the right-hand doors, space was limited, as dictated by the board joint and, to a lesser extent, the path and steps. Geoff promoted a roller shutter, something he'd employed on Langley Works, his portion of Cottesmore. It could even be made operational.

However, although not averse to roller shutters, Stephen preferred the option of sliding doors. Not bi-parting, but single-sided, as dictated by the adjacent brick panels. Geoff argued that the option would require a lot of metalwork (track, hangers, brackets etc) which would be fiddly. Stephen argued that those very details, together with additional angle closures strips and ironmongery, would create a lovely feature that would cover/disguise what is a very boring wall. Geoff finally agreed that there was enough space and started on the overhead track, as a trial.

Stephen and Geoff also discussed the likely real-life operation of the gasifier gantry and agreed on an electric hoist and manual traversal of the bucket onto the gantry where the bucket would be emptied. Bucket - chain or steel wire? Stephen checked on eBay for fine chain and decided to order some.  Controls and their position? Stephen made up a traditional control box.

Stephen had researched marking on sheep and applied 'fuzzy' blue markings on the rump of the ewes to represent the markings left by ram from 'raddle' on his front .....

Laurence continued with the crane details.

Once Geoff had made the overhead door track, he quickly drew the doors and set the laser cutter to first etch the planks and then cut out the overall doors. However, time was against us and tThey will have to be finished off next week.

First, the planking

The new enclosure and integral extract fan. The orange perspex cover is on order, so until it arrives, certain people can have a bit of fun with the protective glasses.

* Just to keep him in order, here's a sly photo of Geoff's 'mishap' with some masking tape, which he managed to sandwich between the frame and glazing. However, some deft work with a scalpel soon rectified the situation.