William Dean Wright makes a great product for z scale with his Full Throttle line of wonderfully detailed freight cars. If you are into z z scale you know doubt have some of his cars. While his offerings are known to have great detail and interesting subjects, they are also very well know for their plastic cases with wonderful artwork and details. They are also very collectible and many sell out immediately! I know, I was a dealer for him for about 6 years. So here is a little project I made with my Sculpfun laser that you may want to take a look at.
While the hard case and the artwork for the Full Throttle is awesome, I wanted to show off my Blue Coal hopper set a little more. I also have been messing around with my new laser cutter and needed another project to hone my skills. So I laid out a box in my software (Lightburn) and burned a little box. I made the top out of 1/8″ solid cherry and made a bottom for the box out of plywood. I added a couple of engraved lines to serve as track to hold the cars in place. My first one was pretty good but I didn’t like the spacing of the rails so brought them closer together. I also decided just to make the top and slide it over the plastic base. I still have the file for the bottom if I want to go that way.
The box top is quite simple and easy to design. I used 1/8″ solid cherry. For this type of project, solid wood looks so much nicer than plywood. I would recommend having a inexpensive calipers to measure you wood and then adjust the size of your tabs to reduce sanding. My would measured out at 3.4 mm and I set my tabs at 3.5 mm, I will likely bump them up a little more. It’s easier to sand the tabs down than sanding the sides down to meet the tabs. I used a medium CA but you could use wood clue and clamps if you prefer. I used a simple gloss clear coat finish that I sanded in between for a great finish.
My laser is a Sculpfun S30 Pro Max with air assist. I have a Creality hood with a fan to keep the smoke contained and move it out. I have just a cheap calipers for measuring the wood. The solid cherry I bought from Amazon. Walnut, maple, oak and other woods are also available on Amazon. My speed for the cut was 600mm and the power was 85% with 2 passes. For the engrave I went at 6,000mm and 85%, but I later dropped the engrave power to 65% which gave me less of sap burn affect. Keep in mind these were my settings! Run test patterns with your laser for best results.
Full Throttle Z Scale Display Cover
About The Box
What I Used & My Laser Settings
Lasers & Supplies On Amazon
