Bentley 4 1/2 litre Blower in 1/12th scale - may contain Airfix.

[nick]

2 hours ago, CrazyCrank said:

To give the T50 Bugatti's firewall and engine side plates an engine turning effect, I used ages ago the drill press tool of a UNIMAT 1 (a toy in reality), and a 6 mm diameter rotating wire brush, whose wires had been previously surrounded by a copper cable, to prevent them from spreading during rotation, which would have increased the diameter of the tool and compromised the regularity of the result.

 

On the picture below, the brush wires are free, and after the first attempt, I wrapped them

 

  

 

  

 

As Noel Smith said, to engrave smaller swirls at your 1:12 scale, you could use an 3 mm diameter end mill and practice to develop dexterity.

 

 

 

That’s really nice. I tried a similar approach with a fibreglass pencil.
 

The trouble I found was that the tool deteriorates quite quickly and keeping it consistent was a problem, looks like you managed to overcome this looking at your excellent results. 
 

Nick

[CrazyCrank]

11 minutes ago, nick said:

That’s really nice. I tried a similar approach with a fibreglass pencil.
 

The trouble I found was that the tool deteriorates quite quickly and keeping it consistent was a problem, looks like you managed to overcome this looking at your excellent results. 
 

Nick

 

I've heard somewhere on a YouTube video that professional car restorers use White Spirit to lubricate the tool and the plate to engine turn, during the process.

Probably this technique allow to keep out the metal dust and increase the life of the tool...

 

[Noel Smith]

CrazyCrank referred to the Unimat 1 being a toy in reality.

I have one as well as my more serious machinery. But please do not dismiss it as a toy.

The Unimat 1 is a versatile modular miniature machine tool that can be adapted into a number of different machines by adding various  accessories to it. As far as modellers go who mainly work in plastics, wood and light metals like aluminium and brass a Unimat 1 would suit most needs, be quite versatile and not cost too much in outlay.

For those who are wondering what a Unimat 1 is, look on Hobbies or Hobbys websites and you will get an idea of its versatility for modellers who want to dip their toe in the water and start machining their own parts.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Noel Smith

[Noel Smith]

How are the transkits going Nick?       Any update imminent?

[nick]

Printer I was waiting for looks like it won’t be April now due to China lockdowns😳so not great news

[Noel Smith]

That's a bit of a bummer Nick.

But at least you can continue with the 3D Cad developments in the meantime.

Hope the machine does not take too long as I can understand that you will probably not want to contract out stuff, not so much on cost but control over the quality you want.

All the best!

Edited March 23, 2022 by Noel Smith

[geedubelyer]

Hi, 

I’ve just spent a very enjoyable hour reading through this thread and two words spring to mind......f@@k me! 😵......umm, I mean flipping heck!

 

It’s been a while since this thread was updated. Has any further progress been made.

 

Also, forgive me but, do you have a website where you sell these items?

 

Cheers. 

[HOUSTON]

unobtainium - super-detailed components for the discerning model maker
https://unobtainium.digital/

 

on Nick's  profile.  and he mentioned it on page 2.

Edited November 20, 2022 by HOUSTON

[nick]

Hi all. Long time no see. I have two new printers in the workshop now, neither of which is working to my satisfaction yet. Turns out when resin printers get bigger things get complicated. I’ve made LOTS of modifications including lagging heating and accurate temperature control. I’m getting there, but still not production ready. I’ve also been busy retiring early from my day job and doing the house up. 
 

in summary, Unobtainium will be all systems go in January and I have the CAD done and waiting for some exciting new stuff. 
 

The website is http://unobtainium.digital

 

lastly, I have one of these puppies arriving in January too https://makera.com

 

watch this space!

 

Nick

[Malc2]

Good to hear that things are progressing, looking forward to seeing the results!

 

Malc.

[geedubelyer]

Thanks HOUSTON and Nick. Much appreciated. 

I look forward to the resumption of this project in the new year. In the meantime Nick, good luck doing up your house and enjoy your retirement 

[albergman]

Hi Nick

 

Great to hear you finally have your long-awaited printer.   I'm sure there's lots of guys out there just waiting for your product.

 

Interesting to hear you are about to retire from the 9 - 5 world and I'm sure you'll love it as you seem to have lots of things that hold your interest.   I'm speaking as one who retired 28 years ago and lived aboard our sailboat in the Caribbean for 4 years.   When we returned to Canada I took up scratch building and it has been a wonderful way to occupy my time and keep me busy.    Fusion and a 3D printer were a nice challenge in my advancing years but I'm happy to return to the world of hand-making models ... works for me.

 

I'll be watching your progress with the new machine and that Carvera thingy too ... exciting times ahead for you.

 

Frank

[nick]

Hi all, quick update, here’s where I’m up to with my little ‘printer farm’ I’ve done a fair amount of engineering to temperature regulate and insulate the larger printers as they are MUCH more intolerant of temperature than the little ones I’ve learnt the hard way.
 

I’m slowly starting to get the quality and repeatability I need, but it’s taking far more effort than I anticipated. 
 

 

stay tuned! I’m back at it now. 
 

I’ve got them all running off Alexa voice commands now too, so I can say ‘Jupiter 5’ etc, and it will start the Jupiter to pre-heat and then run for 5 hours before shutting down. This is not as stupid as it sounds because it works from anywhere, so the printers can be warmed up and ready to go even when I’m doing other things, like CAD in the office. 
 

which I’ve also just finished rebuilding for my comfy retirement project - OK, so I made a meal of that too, what the hell 

 

 

 

 

[nick]

On 11/27/2022 at 12:43 AM, albergman said:

Hi Nick

 

Great to hear you finally have your long-awaited printer.   I'm sure there's lots of guys out there just waiting for your product.

 

Interesting to hear you are about to retire from the 9 - 5 world and I'm sure you'll love it as you seem to have lots of things that hold your interest.   I'm speaking as one who retired 28 years ago and lived aboard our sailboat in the Caribbean for 4 years.   When we returned to Canada I took up scratch building and it has been a wonderful way to occupy my time and keep me busy.    Fusion and a 3D printer were a nice challenge in my advancing years but I'm happy to return to the world of hand-making models ... works for me.

 

I'll be watching your progress with the new machine and that Carvera thingy too ... exciting times ahead for you.

 

Frank

Hi Frank, great to hear from you and glad you’re still enjoying the modelling. 
 

hopefully have something interesting to show you soon. 
 

Nick. 

[HOUSTON]

Your "print farm" looks good from here { no printing  of sows ears mind you.      }.

Take your time.. what with the home renovations and printer set up, you have gotten your hands full Nick...

AND now Christmas is  almost here.

   

have a day !!

HOUSTON

[Noel Smith]

That is some serious investment there Nick!

Look forward to seeing what you start producing in the new year.

Best wishes for the season.

[nick]

3 hours ago, Noel Smith said:

That is some serious investment there Nick!

Look forward to seeing what you start producing in the new year.

Best wishes for the season.

Not very Bentley, but the bigger printers are finally starting to earn their keep after extensive teething trouble, here's a 1/12th DFV that just came today

 

 

Nick

[albergman]

Is that a single print Nick?   I can see a split there so maybe it's two?   Mind blowing that all this precision can be obtained at the push of a button.

[nick]

1 hour ago, albergman said:

Is that a single print Nick?   I can see a split there so maybe it's two?   Mind blowing that all this precision can be obtained at the push of a button.

Yes that’s a full 1/12th engine on my mid size printer. 
 

today, here is 1/8th version on my large printer

 

 

hard to get scale, but the plate is 286mm x 166mm on that picture. 
 

it’s a terrible photo and I needed to beef up the supports on the heads as one failed, other than that for a first print, I’m fairly satisfied.

 

[HOUSTON]

Outstanding  work updates. 

Very nice  job do far.

 

HOUSTON.

[Nick Belbin]

19 hours ago, nick said:

today, here is 1/8th version on my large printer

 

 

 

Now we’re talking - I’ll be needing one of these.

 

Nick

[nick]

I've been busy again...

 

For a while now I've been pondering how to do louvered bonnets, they are easy enough to draw, and they will print, although they would be weak. The issue has always been how to support them for printing in such a way that the supports can be removed without scaring on such frail surfaces. This is the hard bit.

 

Anyway, I had another idea. First I drew a test piece in fusion, which is easy enough:-

 

I then used this as a cutting tool for a solid block, which I then split into pieces to form a pair of dies, with a void the shape of the plate

 

I've never understood how the opening was made in louvres, I always assumed it was pre-cut in some way. It was only after talking to an old engineer mate that I realised that it was actually sheared by the die - like how scissors work, if you have two blunt surface passing next to each with little or no gap, the shearing motion cuts.

 

SO the front face of louvres is an exact fit on my dies with no gap, so a shearing happens (in theory)

 

EXCEPT my dies are printed resin (plastic) my louvered test panel is ali (metal) so what kind of an idiot attempts to cut metal with plastic?

 

This one.

 

Nobody was more surprised than me when it worked bloody perfectly first time as well.

 

 

I need to make some changes, the 4 3D printed locating pins aren't strong enough and break after a few uses

 

 

so for V2 I will just print holes in both dies and use metal rods.

 

Now I know this has a chance of working, I will draw an actual bonnet next and see what happens.

 

So for my next trick I will be attempting to cut titanium with cheese

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Nick

 

[albergman]

How cool is that??    So let me see if I follow you entirely.   There is a matching set of male and female louvers which have a gap between them to accomodate a sheet of whatever metal you put between them.  Then you apply pressure how ... with a vise?   or clamp?   or hammer?

 

Amazing that the plastic is able to shear the metal (if this is how it's being done) and I wonder what kind of lifespan the male louver will have before it loses shape.   Not a big problem as I suppose you can just print a replacement.   Just like the real world ... a use the male till worn out and get a younger, stiffer replacement.

 

How thin was your ally sheet Nick?

 

I assume too that the male part was a solid?   i.e. there would be no "air gap" under it?

 

Too clever by far!

 

Frank

[nick]

Frank, yes that’s exactly how it works.
 

I’m just using a vice for pressing at the moment.

 

the ali is .3mm thick about the right scale thickness for 1/12th bonnets I reckon!

 

I don’t suppose the 3D printed tools will last, however there is method in my madness.
 

For those paying attention, my shiny new 4 axis CNC machine arrives next month, and the same Fusion360 drawn dies I’m currently 3D printing, can also be used to generate the tool paths for this new machine, so if I can crack it with these resin prototypes- good for only a few prints each most likely, then I could make better dies from brass if I go into ‘production’ with this technique. 
 

anyway,

 

happy Xmas everyone, it’s nearly that time now!

 

Nick (not St. by any stretch)

[Noel Smith]

That looks good. The nice thing about 3D printing is that for this application wear will take place rapidly when punching takes place using the printed material, but you can quickly remake the punch and die set to replace it.

If it is intended to make louvered panels ready for the modeller to use  punched in Brass or Aluminium, maybe Nick will be looking to have steel punch and die sets made for constant use from his STL files?

 

I made a louvre tool from a hardened punch ground to suit and the die from pieces of gauge plate. My limitation is that I can only punch one louvre at a time on my toggle press. It works pretty well on the litho plate that I used.

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Noel Smith