The Eiffel Project

[Tonino]

Hello my friends,
I'm here again with one of my crazy projects. This time will be a new kind of paper model trying to depict the Eiffel Tower in the best detailed way I'll be able to manage.
I was always fascinated by this great monument, the complex structure has always represented a challenge for a crazy modeler like me that I could not avoid to take.
Recently I was in Paris and, standing in front of those huge pylons I started to take a lot of photos... the idea was already growing in my mind...



Once returned home I talked of my idea to Nando (a virtual friend met here at Zealot who became a great friend in the real life that I meet everytime I am in Turin) and Nando talked me about a wonderful book about Tour Eiffel that I immediately ordered to Amazon. That book was originally published by Gustave Eiffel in 1900 and is a collection of many of the original drawings utilized for the building of the real thing. Even if you don't want to build the tower is such a pleasure for the eyes that should be in every bookshelf.



The documentation is OK, now let's talk about the model...

My idea is to merge some details realized with the usual papercrafting techniques and other cut with my laser engraver. There are many models of this subject around but everyone has to keep the detail level somewhat under a certain degree where the usual manual cutting would be impossible. I want to push my model above that level hoping that the result won't be too fragile to stand up...

The best Eiffel model around, in my opinion, is the Schreiber one. It offers the option to cut many of the apertures between the lattice and obtain a very good level of detail (take a look to the thread by @tino here at Zealot to have an idea). I started buying the Schreiber model and studying the build process of that model. Then I scanned every page and reduced to 80% as I don't have the space to keep a model more than 1 meter tall (my wife point her finger to the suitcases everytime I talk about building a new model, especially if it is a big one... I think this is a sort of subliminal message...) My tower will be "only" 80 centimeters tall...



Next phase: I started tracing on the scan every detail, every single beam, every rivet, to prepare the file I would later send to the laser. In the image you can see I used different colours to trace the lines. Every colour will be associated to a different laser mode. Some will be full thickness cut, other will be surface engraving, other will be area engraving... and so on.



Here is the first batch of lines traced on one of the first floor parts. The cut lines are the red ones. As you can see I would like to cut most of the details of the structure.



After some tries varying the laser parameters (mainly speed and power of the emitter) I determined the right program to send to the device for every kind of line previously traced.



And this is the first piece I realized to test the procedure...





It will be a long journey...

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

That looks like it is qoing to be quite the project! You are off to a great start! I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[mijob]

Wow thats an great project gone keep an eye onthis one.

 

[zathros]

Most people, (well, a lot of people) build this model and don't cut out the dark spots. You have gone the tough road. I would offer one suggestion, when you finish a delicate section, do something to keep out the moisture. I saw one of these done, and rather well, it 2 years, despite being in a controlled environment, it bent over. A good Satin finish clear coat. Tig welding Wire (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW)) going up the full length, glued to offer support hidden inside the model, is one method. If you go to a welding shop, you can find this stuff at 1/2mm in thickness, and even thinner.

 

[Tonino]

... do something to keep out the moisture...

Dear John, your ever-appreciated advices are one of the most precious resource for us Zealot members. You are always here ready to reply with some good idea to enhanche our works.
Regarding moisture I think I'm not going to have problems because all the lasercut pieces need to be painted and I've already bought a spray can of a suitable "Eiffel colour" to paint, and, hopefully, seal the parts. Talking about the colour was not easy to choose the right one, but we will talk about this in another occasion.

... Tig welding Wire ...

This is a good idea. Really I'm planning to use CA glue to join the parts along all the vertical lines. I think the glue will harden considerably the cardboard so, maybe, this will stiffen the whole structure enough to prevent collapsing. I'll do some try.

Talking about laser cutting, this is an art that need to be learned and perfected with experience. My first run was not successful. When the laser cut the bigger triangles they tend to get in the way, pushed by the air flow (the laser has a compressor that blows air in the burning spot to limit burn width). Those triangles tend to interfere with the laser beam, masking areas (1) or deflecting the beam (2)



Furthermore, I realized that when I drew the lines, I hadn't considered the width of the laser beam, which is very fine (about 0.1 mm), but cannot be ignored. In some places (3), the areas defined by my drawings were too small, and the laser ended up burning almost the entire beam.

This is especially evident in the ornaments surrounding the large arch: they were almost completely burned.

so I deeply modified all the drawing thickening the thinner parts to compensate the material burnt by the laser

This is a sample of the modifications done.

The result is absolutely satisfying



To get rid of the "flying triangles" I put several "bridges" to keep the parts in place after cutting (see the photo below). This resolve the problem but forces to remove all the triangles manually after the laser has finished his work. So there is still some manual cutting work to do. This explains the presence of all those triangles in the photo of my previous post...)



Now I've corrected the file and I'm going to cut the actual parts that will form the external sides of the first floor.

 

[Chuffy70]

The book really looks interesting, and has intrigued me to find out more about the towers construction.

So far your build calculations have given you an impressive start, of which I look forward to more.

The tower is is only a short Eurostar journey away for me, I really should take a look-see

 

[Sky Seeker]

Dear John, your ever-appreciated advices are one of the most precious resource for us Zealot members. You are always here ready to reply with some good idea to enhanche our works.
Regarding moisture I think I'm not going to have problems because all the lasercut pieces need to be painted and I've already bought a spray can of a suitable "Eiffel colour" to paint, and, hopefully, seal the parts. Talking about the colour was not easy to choose the right one, but we will talk about this in another occasion.

This is a good idea. Really I'm planning to use CA glue to join the parts along all the vertical lines. I think the glue will harden considerably the cardboard so, maybe, this will stiffen the whole structure enough to prevent collapsing. I'll do some try.

Talking about laser cutting, this is an art that need to be learned and perfected with experience. My first run was not successful. When the laser cut the bigger triangles they tend to get in the way, pushed by the air flow (the laser has a compressor that blow air in the burning spot to limit the burn width). Those triangles tend to interfere with the laser beam, masking areas (1) or deflecting the beam (2)

View attachment 227454

Furthermore, I realized that when I drew the lines, I hadn't considered the width of the laser beam, which is very fine (about 0.1 mm), but cannot be ignored. In some places (3), the areas defined by my drawings were too small, and the laser ended up burning almost the entire beam.

This is especially evident in the ornaments surrounding the large arch: they were almost completely burned.
View attachment 227455
so I deeply modified all the drawing thickening the thinner parts to compensate the material burnt by the laser
View attachment 227456
This is a sample of the modifications done.

The result is absolutely satisfying

View attachment 227457

To get rid of the "flying triangles" I put several "bridges" to keep the parts in place after cutting (see the photo brlow). This resolve the problem but forces to remove all the triangles manually after the laser has finished his work. So there is still some manual cutting work to do. This explains the presence of all those triangles in the photo of my previous post...)

View attachment 227458

Now I've corrected the file and I'm going to cut the actual parts that will form the external sides of the first floor.

WOW!! this is really something. Didn't know that you could do this on card stock without it totally turning to ash! Will be watching closely. Great job so far!

 

[zathros]

As ever, your way ahead of me. The Crazy Glue covered with paint, and the strength of cutting out the black panels (which forces the stress to travel in the right direction, and actually stiffens the model), will make this model rigid, with just the right amount of elastomeric flexibility. This is going to be the pinnacle build of this model, painted in the proper color, a world class model. I'm looking forward to see your progression. This thread is a "STICKY" now.

 

[Tonino]

While the laser is cutting thousands of triangles for the main structure let's turn to some old-style papercrafting...

Many of the model parts will be taken directly from the Schreiber model, after downscaling them (as I said I'm going to build a reduced version of the original 1:300 scale shrinking the tower to about 80 cm of height).

The first step of the actual build is the realization of the four "foot".


One of the most useful feature of the laser cutter is the ability of cutting very thick layer of cardboard with extreme precision. I traced the outline of the four basements on the scan and, after sending the svg file obtained this way to the laser, i have four exact copies of the parts ready to be laminated. This can be a great resource while building ships or airplanes when you have to realize the skeleton with 1 or 2 mm cardboard.


For the pylon base I prefer, as usual, to realize custom tabs instead of using the original ones to obtain perfectly flush surfaces.

As always I hate to build infinite copies of the same piece, but those 16 supports were not too hard to build, only a little boring task...


I also realized a custom version of the Eiffel bust starting from a photo of the real one


...and placed it in front of the first Pylon


This is the starting base for my tower... the laser work for the first stage is almost completed. Next task: painting (and finding the right Eiffel colour )

 

[zathros]

Always such clean and precise cuts. Some must think your a Doctor or something!!

 

[Revell-Fan]

Awesome project!

 

[Tonino]

Always such clean and precise cuts. Some must think your a Doctor or something!!

Really I am master in collecting blood from little veins....model building skills help a lot...