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Author Topic: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug  (Read 8582 times)

steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #25 on: April 28, 2019, 05:17:00 am »

... and the deck equipment in place...
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2019, 08:52:33 pm »

I've been on holiday since the last post back in April but all good things must come to an end and I'm now back at home with time on my hands.

I have been following the forum while on my travels and towards the end of the trip started thinking about this build again.

At home the spring weather is unseasonably cold and windy so I may be able to get in a bit of bench time.

I've taken a few hours the re-acquaint myself with the project. The list of things left to do only stretches to half a page.
Some are quite simple: glazing the wheelhouse doors, and some are quite time consuming: make 14 tire fenders and attach them, plus the nav lights which is my least enjoyed part of any build. Three fire buckets will also be a challenge.

I've had some waterslide decals made up for the safety/fire/liferaft signs. These are from Bedlam Creations and look great so far.
I also had some rubdowns made for this build and 2 future ones. These came from Aeroloft and seem pretty good. I usually get my rubdowns from All Out Graphics and although I have always had good service and quality from them, I just thought that I'd try someone else for a change.
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #27 on: November 13, 2019, 10:47:14 pm »

Slowly easing myself back into this project. The model is 99% finished but that last 1% is sometimes the most difficult to complete. Sometimes I just run out of steam – mostly I get distracted by the next project. This time I'll try and finish this one without getting sidetracked so I've started working through my 'to do' list.

First up: an extra 14 tyres for the fenders.

These are made from some laser cut components that I had cut last year. I had a quite a few cut at different sizes to allow me to make car, truck and tractor tyres. I now have a small bag of each size.

These truck tyres are made up from 3 x 1.2mm discs glued together, with a slightly smaller diameter 0.5mm disc on the facing side. Easy but tedious.

15 in total (I already 3 on my spares box). One extra to cover any mistakes along the way. Next they get an undercoat and a thick brushed on coat of very dark matt grey (95% black), and the fender tie loops attached.

Yes, I know you can buy them but they cost more than I am prepared to pay, by the time you include freight and tax to get them to New Zealand. This method of making them actually works out quite cheap and the end result looks good. Plus I like the idea of scratch building as much as possible.

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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2019, 02:46:26 am »

Well, she's all finished – at last.

The last task was to make 3 fire buckets. At 1/50 they are pretty small. Let's just say that next time I have to do that, I'll get them 3D printed.

Anyway, here it is:
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2019, 02:50:16 am »

... and a few more.


Now, to figure out what's next on the drawing board.
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Dreadnought

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #30 on: November 19, 2019, 05:41:02 am »

That's Great!  :-)) :-))
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hama

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #31 on: November 19, 2019, 08:09:39 am »

Wow! I'd say its stunning!  :-))
Hama
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #32 on: November 19, 2019, 06:36:56 pm »

Thanks very much Dreadnought and Hama
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dave parker

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #33 on: January 02, 2020, 02:47:26 pm »

Absolutely fantastic work

Something to aspire to

Now.... where can I get a laser cutter from???
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JimG

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #34 on: January 02, 2020, 08:46:00 pm »



Now.... where can I get a laser cutter from???
e-bay
Jim
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SteamboatPhil

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #35 on: January 03, 2020, 09:58:49 am »

 {-) {-) {-) {-)
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #36 on: January 04, 2020, 05:20:57 am »

Not as strange as it sounds Dave and Jim. Ebay currently has some refurbished 40W A4 laser cutters for $15, free delivery from China.
I'm almost tempted.
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JimG

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #37 on: January 04, 2020, 12:30:02 pm »

They will probably be K40s, designed for engraving rubber stamps. Work OK for cutting wood although the quality of the mechanism is not the best. Plenty of vidos on you tube showing how to improve them. If they are refurbished then the laser tube is likely to be secondhand, depending on how it was used they may be on there last legs as they have a short life if overpowered. So would probably need to budget for a new tube (they are advertised as 40W but actually only produce 30 - 35 W max) The  software is not supposed to be that good but you are locked in by the onboard electronics.The price $15 with free delivery does seem rather low, enough to be suspicious. (the delivery cost must be more than this.)

Jim
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redpmg

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #38 on: January 05, 2020, 12:53:01 pm »

Steve - be very careful with Lasers - better half has had both a Universal from the states and now a Chinese one - Universal 80w was  - +-85 watt - a magic control system - could reproduce photographs directly etc . Unfortunately it was burnt out by a very bad current surge and was18 years old, so Universal no longer had spares etc . Those are the Roll Royce of lasers with water cooled solid alloy cutting beds and aluminium Laser Tubes - unfortunately the price reflects that and we were not able to afford a new one . it was replaced by a Chinese one with Glass Laser tube , 60watt (about 55 in reality) - a 600/900 nominal bed actually 860/560  - bed is honeycomb metal - literally about the same size as real honeycomb but very difficult to clean if you leave it too long - unlike the Universal bed - engraving ability is not the best - photos are out for instance - everything must be drawn. It requires dxf (CAD) files for input to Lasercut 5.5 which is the controller software. We use Corel Draw. Cutting ability is not that great either - cutting 6mm perspex for instance requires 2 to 3 cuts , 6mm MDF about the same . Ply however is very easy , as is 3mm MDF , perspex , card , polystyrene etc. ABS gives off Cyanide gas which is not very good for you and Old LP's  give off a highly corrosive gas which is bad for both the user and machine  - which were both found out the hard way..........
We will be upgrading sometime this year to a 80w tube, and a new Taiwanese control system/motherboard which handles engraving better and takes direct input from Corel .Anything less than 60w nominal is a waste of time and can only be used for cutting card and other thin materials . If they have the old Lasercut 5.5 control system they are not much use at all because of the difficulty engraving. (yes you can engrave on thin materials). One of the other problems you have is that cutting/engraving is sometimes inaccurate to the extent when making model Willy's Jeep dashboards the engraving for the instruments decided to angle itself at 15 degrees and the steering wheels for Land-Rovers ended up twice the the thickness at the top than the bottom. In both case the files in question were redrawn in full but the problem still persisted..........Rather go for a minimum of 60w - reasonable sized honeycomb cutting bed and ensure it has one of the newer control systems - friend in Oz has a 120w but it has much the same problem as ours with the control system . A movable bed is not really a luxury either if you need  to engrave a box or very thick material . A  rotary attachment is however a luxury - ours has never been used  - although the Universals was for glasses /bottles etc...........
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steve mahoney

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Re: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug
« Reply #39 on: January 06, 2020, 02:06:54 am »

You boys seem to know your onions.
This might be a good topic to start a new thread about: Entry level lasers.
I'll start a topic up and perhaps you guys could give us all some advice and tips.
Thanks
Steve
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