Giles

My lovely wife kindly bought me a Stepcraft 420 for Christmas and Birthday (probably for the next ten years!). It arrived as a kit of parts and an instruction manual, which took an out two and a half days to build up (carefully and conscientiously). The instructions were actually very accurate and good, and the manufacturing quality of the machine is superb throughout. I wanted the 420 instead of the bigger machines in order to mill loco frames etc.., rather than to carve large pieces of timber, so a smaller size equals more rigidity (they use the same extrusions) and also take up less space. The 420 works a nominal A3 work-piece, which is more than adequate for me. The assembly went together with no problems- and very little confusion - every piece fitting together extremely well. The profiles pieces are 10 and 12mm aluminium, and the extrusion are a heavy section aluminium, cut perfectly square. The End result is a very rigid, back-lash-free machine, which I'm hoping will produce accurate work reliably. Software however has been difficult to get going- insofar as the supplied disc corrupted and left me having to do work-arounds, which I did manage to do successfully eventually - but it has taken me three days from completion to getting things moving under control. Having said that, I have just pretend cut (without a tool) a loco frame successfully, with the machine doing absolutely everything it should. I am therefore extremely pleased with it, and looking forward to actually cutting metal. I will obviously break a few tools learning the best parameters, but that is par for the course (I need to use 1.2mm cutters for much of the work...) Stepcraft 420 by giles favell, on Flickr Stepcraft 420 by giles favell, on Flickr

Those expansion links are infinitely better........ I was lucky enough to have some old Stelfox ones that were produced for the Garrett 30 odd years ago, but your treatment has done the trick.

A pleasure Eric! If you have any questions do say - but we very much look forward to seeing another one built! Best Giles

Happy Christmas to our friends here....! My dearest lady has given me a Stepcraft 420 kit for Christmas (and next Birthday!) So there may be a slight deviation in techniques as we go....... I hope you all have a lovely time as well!

Free upon collection. Between six and twelve (I'll check if anyone's interested) lengths of 3lb/ft rail, used , but got life for a garden railway. Can take away on a roof rack, although it will sag at both ends! Collection from Greenford, Middlesex the sooner the better. They've been sat beside the house for fifteen years and we're about to have some building work done.... Now rehomed- thank you...!

I always have the window frames as one layer and the window panes as another layer and order the pane cutting first for exactly this reason

Interesting- I've not yet commissioned my E2, so I've not come across this problem. The E1 is fine in this respect of course. It may be that cutting in Trotec would just hokd on enough at the right setting - but that doesn't help much with ply

I have one in my armoury, and i findbit extremely useful. I usually run a piece of thin ply or MDF most of the way through and then tape it down. This then fully supports the work piece that you are cutting, and prevents 'break-out' out bending. I also use mine for cutting brass and nickel-silver - which it does very well.

Absolutely! Fountain Road, Edgebaston, just off the Hagley Road, school, Lordswood Grammar Technical, Bearwood Models....

If anyone wants the Hatchet 1:43 ACE RT, I've got three or four brand new unopened in their blister packs - but with one mirror snapped off (still in the blister pack) for £22 each PLUS Postage. PM me if they're of any interest.

I only found out about this at Warley. I shall certainly have one, having regularly used the 11, 6 and 9 in the early '70s, both going to school and going into the centre of Birmingham. Even when cycling to school it was possible to grab the rail for a tow, until the conductor noticed....

That 25 really is superb now - absolutely lovely job on the weathering!

Here's my lifting arms - joined with a hit of tube in the centre of the frames Garrett lifting arms by giles favell, on Flickr

My 'knob' was done with a blob of epoxy resin... IMG_1166 by giles favell, on Flickr

Nice Martin, very, very nice....... As long as this doesn't mean you won't come out and play any more.... Chris - PM sent!

I do like those Martin - these are definitely superior to yer average.....

Simply marvellous! I'm very much looking forward to the video. I hadn't realised until you said that some of the Deltangs had a built-in servo slow - I shall have to get one and try it....... Of course the other thing one may be able to do (how many servo slows has it got?) would be to put an ADD board onto the servo output and take the drive from that (as I did with my crane winch motors) but with a servo slow attached, would it control accelatration? or would it only act as a brutal speed limiter.....?

Lovely work! Strangely, I DO cut my bricks as rectangles - this is because when I started (Initially) cutting them as horizontal and vertical lines, I found that the E1 would get 3/4s through the job and shift half a mil, thus trashing the whole damn thing..... Dominic sent me a partial fix, which was slowing down the speed at which the carriage moved whilst not burning, but it still happened. I've found rectangles more reliable, although yes- slower. I've known people get slight over-runs into the top of the brick below from the vertical line as well, which is worth avoiding if it starts happening (just stop the line a fraction shorter). I also tend to cut at 100%, at around 6 or 7mm/sec for fewer passes - and seem to get away with it!

Agreed - although I wouldn't mind betting that they haven't made an absolute fortune on the E2, as the development has gone on for so long.... ultimately the major weakness of the E2 would appear to be the current software (one of the many strengths of the E1) and and very glad that has been recognised. I'll be one of the first to pay up the the New software, if it's remotely like Cut2Dlaser.... and doesn't cost a bomb....

Youre quite right.... memory failing! It was the lifting arms to had to make, together with their shafts! The castings were very nice - they were Stelfox castings from thirty years back, specifically for the Garrett (I got when myself and a well known kit manufacturer were going to produce a kit of this - but it was pre-empted by this one). I doubt that these are available anymore though. I think I too ended up drilling these in situ. The biggest problem being working out where to drill the hole.....

The shipment company deal with the taxes and bill you for it - about £350.

The information is sparse... You will need to make lifting links, as they are not supplied 2017-12-07_06-44-52 by giles favell, on Flickr Garrett valve gear by giles favell, on Flickr The grab post is tapered on the full size, as looks nice if one has the facilities to do it. I spun some wire down in the late which did the trick. A drill would do, with a needle file...

As I've said, I think it's a vast improvement, and the comments have been taken on board. Certainly from the information available, the register points that I have been able to ascertain are within a whisker.

That's the one.... It may be driving a little Stepcraft, if I'm not getting too far ahead of myself!

Martin - that's looking excellent - quite up to standard! The visual on the lens cleaning is extremely useful as well. Thank you..... Good news about the software - I wasn't looking forward to learning it. I think father Christmas has a new to arriving at the end of the month, which requires me to learn Vcarve, so im reluctant to get into too many....