Good Morning;

Happy Halloween I will open up the shack.  We are sailing back to Tampa for end of our cruise. It has been a nice week. The Boss got some jewelry and I had time to work on an article I promised John S a long time ago on 3D printing. Still it will be nice to get home. Today I will be trying to use the internet to watch one of our grandkids playing in soccer tournament. He is a senior and apparently some colleges are interested in him.

When we get home I really need to clean up my workbench, I made a mess during last project. Now that it is done it will be time to work on the layout. Well off for another cup of coffee, hope everyone is enjoying a great day.

Jim

Good Morning;

We are sailing back to Tampa for end of our cruise. It has been a nice week. The Boss got some jewelry and I had time to work on an article I promised John S a long time ago on 3D printing. Still it will be nice to get home. Today I will be trying to use the internet to watch one of our grandkids playing in soccer tournament. He is a senior and apparently some colleges are interested in him.

When we get home I really need to clean up my workbench, I made a mess during last project. Now that it is done it will be time to work on the layout. Well off for another cup of coffee, hope everyone is enjoying a great day.

Jim

I will show other parts of the final complex and how the resin printer and laser cutter improved my ability to produce this scene. But time is short today so I hope you enjoy the photos.

Here is one of the outside holding tanks. They are HO scale of real Heinz tanks standing 12 feet tall. Using AI I  figured out what the tapering of the 2 x 10 x 12 would be (they actually made the boards about 12 feet 4 inches long). In HO scale it determined given the diameter of the bottom, I told it I use a .1 kerf for the laser with the basswood board already scaled 2 inches so it told me to have the laser cutter make the shape of each board 1.85mm at the top and 2.15mm at the bottom with the height of 39 mm. 60 boards would be needed to make the tank. AI then told me I would need a total of seven hoops with cinches. It provided the diameters for each circle so that I could push them down to the correct level to impart the realistic look of wood tanks held with hoops. The actual boards were super glued to a mandrel pushing the wood boards flush with each other. The resin printed mandrel was designed using Tinkercad following the taper used in the photo I had of a real tank. It took into account the thickness of the boards being glued. First picture is a screenshot of the CAD for both mandrel and hoops, second is the resin printed mandrel, third the tank with the side boards all glued in place and the hoops being placed. While 60 boards would have been perfect if you look close you will see the sieve I had to make to fill a slight gap when the last two boards met up. I had this issue with all the tanks. Once in place the top boards were located to make it look like heavy boards are holding down the planks, keeping the brine and pickles safe under cover. The brine does a number on the wood so the tanks show significant weathering.

So that is an example of how I used AI, CAD, resin printer and laser cutter to produce something in a manner pretty close to looking like the real thing. 

Well Betty's Pickles is done. It ended up being the most complex and detailed project I ever attempted. It would not have been possible without the resin printer and the 3D resin printer. I even needed AI to help me with the signs. So I will post and explain how these new tools aided in the construction. Currently the model is on a platform as I took it to the recent NMRA Sunshine Regional Convention to get it judged for the AP merit certificate. I only needed one more build to complete the requirements so even though I had not completed all interior 'stuff' I figured it would pass. It did with a 110. I was dinged points for the small amount of description I provided. No matter, it passed. So some photos show it on the layout but on its platform, still it gets you the idea.

Happy Birthday Pam and Tom;

Hope it is a great one. Today is clean up day. I pushed to get the pickle factory done before our upcoming cruise and completed it yesterday. I will put it on the layout when I get back. Then some time off from modeling. Need to do some other things for a change before I get back into it.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Jim

Happy birthday John;

Suppose to be a nice day here in Florida today. I have bench time in my future so it is a great day! Hope everyone else does to.

Jim

Good Morning;

I need to clean up the work bench from all the mess I made finishing up the pickle factory, I had to take the models home due to time conflicts at home so not sure how well it did at the NMRA regional but I am told it made merit at least so all good. 

It is good to see Tom back, hope everyone enjoys a nice day, we have low 70's and sun, fantastic!

Jim

Good Morning;

Well I have the windows and sliding doors open today, first time that has happened an a few months. Very nice out this morning at around 70 degrees. Good to see ACL Tom up and about too. 

As for me my bride comes home today from a 4 day trip to Las Vegas competing in a big dragon boat race. They had 48 teams and Deb's boat came in 2nd for the 200 meter beast cancer race. Afterwards they found out this tournament does not separate by age so they were racing mostly much younger people, her boat is 55 and up with 2 that are in their 80's. Made coming in 2nd that much more special.

So today I need to turn this house back into a married home not the bachelor pad it had become. I have the sheets in the dryer and the mop on standby. Hope everyone has a great day.

Jim

Good Morning;

Good to see you Tom checking in. The weather is indeed nice today in upper 60's to start. Watched my USF football team win yesterday. Also ran to Ocala to retrieve  the models I displayed at the Sunshine region of the NMRA regional convention, a drawbridge and pickle factory. The pickle factory isn't done overall but the structure itself is. I wanted to see if they could pass merit score so I could finish up the AP Structures category  NMRA has. They both did, the bridge just, and the factory with room to spare. There were a lot of models in the judging this year and the quality really looked good so I am just happy I achieved the merit level. I was not able to stay for the evening banquet (it was going to be four hours long) so have no idea who won in the various categories but they sure had a lot of neat stuff to choose from which was nice to see. 

Today I will be cleaning up the house as the Boss arrives back from her dragon boat contest out in Las Vegas. Her boat came in 2nd in the 200 sprint race which was great, there were 48 teams so a pretty big deal. They came in 4th in the 500 meter so just missed placing in that one. When finished they found out the races were not by age as most of these are. Their boat is 55 and up and they do indeed have a couple in their 80's. The boat that beat them in the 200 was  up to 35 years old so made their second place that much more special. Also explained why they could not keep up in the longer races. She is happy so all is well.

Well I need to clean up the house so have a great day.

Jim

Great to hear from you Dave and glad to hear you are on the mend finally. Best wishes

Jim

Good Morning;

Apparently the cold front is reaching down to Central Florida. They say we've reached the high already at 72 and temp expected to fall all day. A nice change for us. The Sunshine Region NMRA is this week also. I had plans to be there for all three days but not to be. Wife is out of town, things had to be done around house and so I managed a couple of hours there. I did drop of the pickle factory to have it graded for the AP Structures category, hopefully it will pass. It is really not finished, a lot more interior details and landscaping to do but the structure itself is finished so we will see. 

Well off to a cup of coffee and time to go pick up the model. I have more to do today so won't be able to stay there for afternoon but might get to see one clinic that looked good. Have a great day.

jim

Good Morning;

Warm in Central Florida. Expect near 90  I guess. Oh well, the wife is participating in a boat race starting today in Las Vegas so I am on dog sitting duty. Gives me some time to get things caught up and put away where they belong. Hope everyone has a great day.

Jim

Good Morning Folks;

Rick thank you for the picture, great way to start the day. I got the Thursday chores started, garbage out, kitchen clean, dishwashing going so enjoying my coffee and catching up on what is going on.

I was up until Midnight working on the pickle factory as I had plans to show it at the Sunshine Region NMRA Convention starting today in Ocala. I figured I'd finish up today if I pushed hard and have it there by tomorrow. This morning it hit me, why? I had begun to do stuff that resulted in me saying 'that's good enough' and I was doing that often. Time to stop. The model is not going, it will get done right , not just 'good enough'. So that clears my day some. I will get some work done on it today, mostly getting rid of the 'good enough' stuff. When it is finished I will simply post some photos here.

Well time to walk the dogs, have a great day.

Jim

Good Morning Folks;

Greeting from Central Florida. We are a little overcast and humid but expected to be only 81 so nice for us. I have bench time scheduled to finish the model on the bench and football this afternoon on the TV. Hope everyone has a great day.

Jim