Yūrakuchō

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, Madsing said:

@Kamome442 Thank you very much for the details. It is really helpful. The project I have in mind is a high rise crane. I’ll post about the progress!

 

That sounds like an amazing project!

[Kamome442]

I couldn't agree more @gavino200 that is going to be a fascinating project. @Madsing I will be looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, I hope you are going to include some lighting at the top!

[Kamome442]

Take Shelter

 

I have finished the other shell for the sunken arch. I decided to use some left over pieces of 10 thou styrene and not a 3D print. This was to allow some flexibility when adjusting the shape of the arch to match the outer wall. 

The design was drawn up in Illustrator and the parts cut using a Silhouette cutter.

 

Once complete the walls of the shop fit into the cut out section, represented here with thin card.

 

This is roughly what you will see looking through the arch.

 

I also created a section to fit behind the shop so that the illusion isn't broken if you look through the windows.

 

Looking at the real arch there are a few nice little details to capture.

Source: Google Streetview

 

While they are probably not going to be visible once the arch is in position it never hurts to include them, just in case. I also scratched fine lines on all the surfaces with a scalpel to represent marks left by formwork on the concrete walls and ceiling. Hopefully it will be enough for the lighting to create faint shadows on the walls.

 

 

The next job is to create the floor and raised section to match up to the road.

Joe

 

[Bubule]

As usual, very nice work ! 😊

[Madsing]

Again really impressive. I feel dumb still using a knife with styrene sheets 😪. I love the small details that you capture…

What’s the thickness of the styrene sheet that the Silhouette can cut?

[Kamome]

Always amazing to see your progress. Really makes me envious as I’m so limited for space at present. I’m pretty well versed with Illustrator but how intuitive are the cutters? This is definitely the way the hobby is going with jumps in technology with 3D printing etc.. 

 

(Wayne’s World moment) “We are not worthy!!”

[cteno4]

5 hours ago, Kamome said:

(Wayne’s World moment) “We are not worthy!!”

Oh so true!

 

im on the left and Kamome is on the right.

 

jeff

 

 

[cteno4]

Excellent! Well someone had to say it…

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

17 hours ago, Madsing said:

What’s the thickness of the styrene sheet that the Silhouette can cut?

 

@Madsing not very thick, it is really meant for cutting paper, card and vinyl. 10 thou is the thickest I have used and you would need to set the blade depth to maximum to cut all the way through. I like to set the depth a little lower and cut about two thirds or the way through. This is because you put the styrene on a feeder sheet with a sticky surface, I have in the past deformed fine parts peeling them off however with a half cut fine details are supported. Then I run a scalpel down the lines to free each part.

 

16 hours ago, Kamome said:

Always amazing to see your progress. Really makes me envious as I’m so limited for space at present. I’m pretty well versed with Illustrator but how intuitive are the cutters? This is definitely the way the hobby is going with jumps in technology with 3D printing etc.. 

 

Thanks @Kamome it feels like things are progressing a little more quickly now. I have had the cutter for years and to be honest I didn't use it very often. This was beacuse the drawing software it comes with is not very intuitive. then about 5 years ago I found out there is a plug-in called Silhouette Connect that allows you to print straight from Illustrator or Corel Draw and that was a game changer. There are limitations compared to a laser cutter as it cuts using a tiny blade that can spin 360 degrees. If you want to cut a small circle (less than 2mm) the blade will tend to exert a sideways force as moves in a tight circle and this will deform the shape. To make the small holes I need for uplighters I have just been making a cross using two small lines. Once cut I then drill out the hole by hand.

 

That said I find I use the cutter more than the 3D printer for most things. I like the fact fact I can go straight from my dimensional 2D drawing to precisely cut parts and not have to draw anything up in 3D. It also still feels like model making to put everything together, with the 3D prints it sometimes feels like cheating🙂

 

Here is my drawing in Illustrator for the raised floor of my arch. With the plug-in I can send it to the cutters software from the file menu.

 

Once it is sent over I can adjust the depth, speed, number of passes and force of the cut before hitting print (It says unavailable because I didn't switch the cutter on when taking this screen shot).

 

There are more options at the top, I only really used these when doing the bricks. I can set lines in different colours then have separate actions for each. For the bricks I have vertical lines (creating individual bricks) with one pass and less force and horizontal lines (rows) with two passes and more force. This means I can cut out the rows of bricks without each row falling apart.

 

This is the cut sheet still on the cutter.

 

Here is a close-up of the results.

[Kamome442]

The first three lights are in place on the sunken arch.

I coated the underside of the raised deck with tin foil to prevent light bleed. Then cut thin rings from 1.8mm brass tube to line the sides of the holes drilled through the styrene. This tube was filled with clear UV resin with a 0402 LED placed in the resin before curing.

 

Lighting test.

 

A close up of the light and shadow on the side of the arch.

 

I just need to add the steps then I can fix it onto a base.

 

Joe

 

[Madsing]

Once again thank you very much for the detailed explanation. It is really useful in my constant search for better tools. 

I initially thought that “thou” was a typo in your first post. I now understand that “thou” = “mil”. 😅

[Kamome442]

20 hours ago, Madsing said:

I initially thought that “thou” was a typo in your first post.

 

Oops sorry @Madsing I totally didn't consider some units of measure are completely meaningless outside of a few countries! 1 'thou' is 1 thousandth of an inch so 10 thou is about 0.25mm. I did use 0.5mm card on the cutter to make quarter scale model of the layout. It did cut it however I turned the cutting speed all the way down as I was worried I would damage the blade. It made the cuts without any problem, looking at the blade it is wedge shaped getting continually wider as you move from the tip. I assume this is to prevent it from snapping too easily. This does mean on deeper cuts you tend to get a 'v' shaped channel instead of a fine groove, another reason that I tend not to cut all the way through when using it.

[Kamome442]

 Time to add a little mood lighting to the exterior of shop. 

 

One more set of lights to along the lower wall and then it will be time for paint.

[Bubule]

Amazing work !

 

[Madsing]

I can’t wait to see it after painting!

[Kamome442]

Thanks @Bubule, this has been a fun little project to work on. I am with you there @Madsing I am hoping to get some painting done while I have a week off work mid February. 

 

I did want to get the last of the lighting in place today, while I didn't get quite that far, I did get the base completed.

 

The raised strips of wood hold the roof in position.

 

Once the shop walls are in place it becomes apparent there is a decent amount of wiring to hide away. 

 

Once everything is painted I will run a couple strands copper wire around the roof for the wires to feed into.

I did try to get a nice shot of the base in position, my camera had a little trouble working out where to focus so this was the best I could do.

 

I will get the last few lights in place during the week so that I can focus on getting the other arches underway next weekend. On the plus side the share a common design so I should be able to build them all at once.

Joe

[JR East]

That's really a great job !

[Kamome442]

The Art of Procrastination

 

I have known for a while that there is some line monitoring equipment attached to an E235 Series on the Yamanote Line, there is possibly an E233 or two with the equipment installed too. I believe it is linked to the white lines painted along the tracks. Beyond that I didn't really know much about it. Curiosity finally got the better of me today so I decided to jump on the world wide inter-web and see if I could find any pictures or videos of it in action. 

 

It seems there are two sets that there are two sets that carry inspection equipment, Set 49 has track inspection modules under car 4 (this was the one I was aware of). Set 12 also has a bunch of extra boxes, cables and two lights mounted on the roof of car 3 for the overhead wires. This video link shows the two sets quite nicely. 

Source: Goodチャンネル Youtube channel

 

A screen shot from around 23 seconds, showing the lighting on set 12

 

And Set 49's track inspection gubbins in action at 2 minutes 14 seconds

 

So it goes without saying I wanted to see if I could recreate at least on of these units! Armed with some card, tin foil and an LED I mocked up a rather crude box (not to scale) just to see if I could project light on to the track.

 

I did try to capture both the spot light and the laser light (the latter didn't really work but I was just using a red Sharpie)

 

It is quite a pleasing effect and would certainly make for an interesting train to catch in action. At a later date I will try to make a more accurate version. I will likely make a little metal box with a thin slot at the bottom to direct the light, then 3D print a little cosmetic cover to fit around it.

 

Anyway I better get back to working on the layout before I get distracted again.

Joe

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Kamome442

[Madsing]

Interesting distraction. My day job is in computer vision, so I am interested in this kind of inspection system. I wonder how to reproduce the sharp linear laser line that gets projected onto the rail. We would probably need some sort of lens…

[cteno4]

I wonder if it were to go thru a slot with two longer parallel sides to help collimate the light.

 

jeff

[Madsing]

I'd like to try, there is not a lot of space down there...

If anyone is interested, this is a description of the inspection system: https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2018/20180704.pdf

 

[disturbman]

I’m thinking someone must have reproduced the underfloor equipment for this unit. It might be possible find them YJA or uploaded to 3D printing services.

 

@Kamome442, next step is renumbering the consist to match formation 49.

[Kamome442]

7 hours ago, Madsing said:

We would probably need some sort of lens…

 

I was thinking along the same lines @Madsing, though I was also thinking that getting to focus into a thin line on the track would involve a lot of testing and a degree of colourful language.

 

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I wonder if it were to go thru a slot with two longer parallel sides to help collimate the light.

 

Interesting, I hadn't considered that approach Jeff, I have some 1mm brass L-beams kicking around the place. I could try placing them back to back and see if the light passing through the middle creates a clear line.

 

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

I’m thinking someone must have reproduced the underfloor equipment for this unit. It might be possible find them YJA or uploaded to 3D printing services.

 

@Kamome442, next step is renumbering the consist to match formation 49.

 

Hi @disturbman, I had a little look around this morning, I found this on Twitter from おでん who has scratch built the unit. Here is a link to their tweet:

 

Details were thin on the ground however it looks to my eye like a 3D print, as some of the details look a little fuzzy from being built up in layers. The box to the right and the two white domes next to that are also part of the system. I couldn't find any uploaded to a 3D printing service, to be honest I am not sure I am using the correct wording when searching. If I can get a lighting effect that I am happy with I will draw up a 3D print for each of the parts, I will make sure they are freely available for others to download.

[disturbman]

4 minutes ago, Kamome442 said:

 I couldn't find any uploaded to a 3D printing service, to be honest I am not sure I am using the correct wording when searching.

I’ll see if I can find anything, there is a wealth of resources online. I have seen a few people produce underfloor equipments for a full range of sets, either from the main manufacturers or for the Ironcole.

[Kamome442]

Thank you @disturbman, it will be interesting to see what you can find.