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Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER) cockup

Burrell Traction Engine,  LASER.




Nearly Christmas almost got our 1 day off to Covid mix. 

Progress has been made however the old 2 steps forward and 1 back also applies, I was fortunate to have a good friend who can laser bits out. So I was able to obtain the spokes for the rear wheels cut nicely. However the old saying measure once and cut many times applies, it remains to see if I have goofed up as I forgot the 2 bends and measured it flat off the drawing.

Following on from this success, I decided to get the strakes also cut but this time being 5mm thick I had to go with a local engineering firm to cut them. I was lucky enough to get a .dxf file sent to me on Facebook. I sent this off, and as work must have been quiet they completed all 64 the same afternoon. 

Disaster number 2, the holes were 1/8" but I wanted them cut 3mm as I was going to ream them out for the rivets to be a good fit. The laser company did say they could not cut a 3mm hole in a 5mm plate, so fair enough just to etch a crosshair, was good for me to locate for drilling and I agreed at that. 

However, they then thought the hole was 3mm, and decided to re-scale the drawing from a 1/8" hole and made the strake 0.06% smaller, which resulted in the 3/4" width being 1 mm shorter and all the drilling crosses being in the wrong place., doh!!

After spotting this and a few emails they decided to cut again, I had to do a fast drawing in the lunch hour and still manage to walk the dog. Disaster number 2 (rushing) !!

I drew it using the only drawing program I had, solid edge and I'm not very familiar with using it.

I added a dimension on a horizontal but forgot that the angle of 26 degrees would mean the part came out thinner than I'd intended by 2mm !!! this time so to sum up, as the strakes need a twist making them 2mm narrower will aid bending them so it's a design feature!.


                                

Left:- a collection of laser-cut parts accurate to 0.1mm but drawn to +- 3mm, and the bottom piece of steel cut by hand in the miller 1mm oversize ready for final machining but 63 more required so I gave up.   




This is the last post this year, if you enjoyed it so far please tell me. I will hopefully continue next year and fingers crossed less mistakes, hope you all have a good Christmas and a safe new year.

If you have any question you can mail me at  :- meredithstephen1@gmail.com

All the best Stephen. 

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