Milling Machines

Garden Railroading
1

Greetings,

In MR’s book, Mountain to Desert, by Pelle K Soeborg, he describes how he scratch builds his structures by making scaled drawings and having the parts, i.e. walls, roof, etc cut on a computer-controlled milling machine. He says this process speeds up scratch building. Question, does anyone know the names of companies that have computer-controlled milling machines and does this work for modelers?

Thanks - Jeff

2

The only affordable CNC mill I have seen is the SEIG KX-1. http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machines-Accessories/CNC-Milling-Machines/Sieg-KX1-CNC-Hobby-Mill The question you really have to ask yourself is:" This machine costs £2,600 -could I spend the money more usefully elsewhere?" In my case the answer is a most definite YES!!! My mill cost me £220 and my lathe £199 both were brand new. I have cut wheels to 95mm diameter and milled chassis rails over 65cm long on them. Are they perfect? -no. Are they usefull? -yes. I would advise you to buy a good set of X-Acto knives and some Japanese woodworking tools. This is an example of a scratch built building made via hand tools. Having looked at the time taken to measure, transcribe to CAD, and then upload to CGODE, load the machine, set the cutter, align the start points and then FINALLY start cutting. You have to do this for each piece… If you have sufficient money to throw at it then I might admit that the production of a model building might be faster than doing it by hand. regards ralph

3

They are excellent machines, do extremely exact and repeatable cuts. If you have a money tree in the backyard then go for it. Once you have a building in the computer it can easily be modified for another building. I prefer to spend my money “in the railroad” instead of “in support of the railroad”.