ENROUTE ADVENTURES: Building a train

WELCOME!

It is hard to believe that it was only seven years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research I quickly found out that with the relative simplicity of EnRoute, CNC routers were capable of just about anything imaginable. This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as we continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful software... -dan

Friday, February 1, 2013

Building a train - Part ten

It was finally time to assemble all those pieces. The geared trucks for the locomotive were first.

I assembled and glued the pieces together, then used the air powered die grinder to round the edges and add character to the 'cast metal'. The larger pieces were glued using PBBond-240 one part urethane glue which is activated by water while the smaller ones were joined with a two part epoxy glue.

Then I applied (with a brush) two coats of Modern Masters (water based) iron paint, allowing time to dry between coats. Once the second coat was dry to the touch I sprayed on the reaction solution. The rust began to form in minutes.

After half an hour I applied a second coat of the rusting solution. This sped up the rusting action. I took this picture about half an hour later as I turned out the lights to go in for the night. Tomorrow morning the reaction will be complete and the rust will be much redder than than the orange we saw tonight.

I'll post a follow up picture tomorrow showing the result.

-dan