I recently joined a model railroad club and since I have some experience 3D printing, other members were interested in the idea of getting a 3D printer for the club. That generated a lot of questions in my mind and rather than recreate the wheel I thought I would ask if there are any clubs out there that would be willing to discuss with me how they handle sharing a club printer? This could be handled in an open forum, or I can email you my questions directly if you reach out to me. Thanks in advance for helping me out!
At my daughter's University, there are 3-D printers in the library. Anyone can use them and the cost to the user goes by weight. You pay a deposit and the weight of your project is deducted from the deposit. I would think the cost of the machine and other things are built into that fee.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
At our club, one member has one at home and does a lot of printing for us for free, including supports for handheld remotes and covers for the switch machines (in the form of trackside buildings) . It's probably a lot easier for him doing that than spending a lot of time at the club explaining to the others how to do it. Managing club tools can be a headache.
Simon
Now that I've been 3D printing model railroading stuff for 3 years now, it's best to do this stuff at home. I've had some prints take days. At least I can drop in the morning and evening to check on progress. It would be more difficult in a less frequented location to monitor it.
Doing it that way was my initial intent, but when the President of the club asked about a club printer I thought I would look into it, but yeah I can see all kinds of problems with it. Your point about managing club tools is a good one, as it seems like they have problems sharing the simplest of tools much less a finicky 3D printer that costs a lot of money. Thanks for your reply.
Print times was one of my biggest concerns. I suspect the other members don't know how long it can take. I don't believe they would want to leave the printer run unattended overnight. Another concern is ventilation for the printer as our club is in the basement of a commercial building, and there isn't a lot of extra room in the club room either.
I can take on the task of printing for the club, but even there I have some concerns. It's a club of 55 people and I think a lot of the members like the idea of getting locomotive bodies printed for them off of drawings they have bought or found online for free. This puts me in the position of essentially printing other peoples designs, which isn't a lot of fun for me. For me much of the fun comes from drafting things to print. I fear if I take on the role of printer for such a large club that I will just spend a lot of time babysitting the printer.
My other problem is that I have an FDM printer which won't print a high enough quality locomotive body, so I will likely buy a resin printer and learn how to use that. That could be fun, so it's not all bad I guess.
Lastly, if I get in the business of printing a lot of things for others, it potentially could result in a lot of post processing work, which I am not great at and don't particularly enjoy. Potentially part of the bargain could be that this will be their responsibility. Additionally, I imagine there will have to be an understanding that if I print something of someone elses design there is a chance that it won't seamlessly marry to some other items like a locomotive chassis for instance.
Don't get me wrong, I think I might enjoy printing things for the club, but I can see a host of potential problems I might have to overcome. Any advice you have would be appreciated. Thanks!
Do you know if the student has to watch over the print while it is printing, or does the library do that for them. Essentially submit a job and come back later to pick it up, like in the old days of computer programming where the jobs were run overnight and the student picked up the result the next day (oh what fun that was).
The cost apportionment thoughts are good ones. Thanks!
SimulatorDo you know if the student has to watch over the print while it is printing, or does the library do that for them.
No idea. I'll see if I can find out.
Well, a clubs definition is to share. However in this case, i think its best to have one person only in charge of the printing. And I think your right to presume that that person would be doing more printing than running trains.
Its not really the expense of it, more so the knowledge and experience with it. You may want to pass that on to other clubmembers. Its one heck of a learning curve! Some may not be interested.
I think though, like most seniors in tenor for whatever discipline, you wont want lesser experienced, yet well meaning, boneheads mucking up your settings with their buttery fingers.
And ya know, like in all clubs theres that one guy. In my club his name is Zeke. He cant lay track fer nuthin! He thinks a crossover is a bridge, not a change from one track to uh'nuthern, bless his heart.
But you give him the scenery task, man he will lay out (pun intended) the most wonderous mountain coves, hidden valleys, pompous - boisterous trees galore, with his masterpiece - a still - hidden somewheres amongst it all.
I wouldnt let him near the printer though. Do ya folluh the way imma driftin?
Happy Printing!
PMR
I follow, there certainly is a broad diversity of talents in the group, and I love your point about everyone messing with the settings, it probably would end up not working very well for any of us. Thanks!
PM Railfan, I follow, there certainly is a broad diversity of talents in the group, and I love your point about everyone messing with the settings, it probably would end up not working very well for any of us. Thanks!
We had kind of kicked around this thought for our club too. I had asked a couple of 3d model railroad printing groups and the consensus was that it was a bad idea if no one was at least monitoring it. An fdm printer can jam, it's not common but does happen and if left a while could be a potential hazard. The resin printers had a different set of issues with resin left too long. (Not to mention smell would have been as issue in our location.)
Simulatorother members were interested in the idea of getting a 3D printer for the club.
As a past President of a model railroad club, I can just see the issues and complications that would arise in this situation.
A previous poster mentioned 'butter fingers'. Half the members of my old club couldn't lay track properly, let alone run a 3D printer. Someone will have to control access to the printer, and more importantly, do most of the work. I joined a club to run trains, not to pull my hair out trying to solve design problems with printed items, for free no less. Getting a detailed 3D item like a locomotive shell designed and printed properly on the open market costs a lot of money because it takes some time and effort. I can just see the printer operator being inundated with requests from people who want something for nothing.
Bad idea all round IMHO!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave, I do enjoy 3D printing, but I agree it could get out of hand quickly. So far, the consensus seems to be a club printer is a bad idea. I really appreciate the great feedback!
IMO, you need to charge a modest fee to cover your costs for simple projects. For more intensive projects, the fee needs to cover your costs plus something for your time, skill, and future replacement cost of the 3d printer.
IDRickIMO, you need to charge a modest fee to cover your costs for simple projects. For more intensive projects, the fee needs to cover your costs plus something for your time, skill, and future replacement cost of the 3d printer.
Ditto!
While alot has been said that would sway you to the discouraged side on this subject, there can be some benefits. Aside from the obvious, other advantages depending on the size of your club - could offshoot a minor segment of the club where the interested clubmembers could attend seperate get togethers.
This allowing your regular nights for 'everyone' to run trains, or work night, etc. And maybe another couple nights a month set aside to have a 3D night for the interested members.
You could chose either to use this time to instruct others on 3d printing so they may do this on their own (thus freeing you and yours for your own stuff). OR, you could print projects for others or the 'club' itself.
If that seems to bogdownable, you could always limit the prints. Say, no shell printing - yet only parts. Allowing you to get a few printed in the time of your evening get together.
Its still a one man show, and i stand by this methodology. And thats not our fault, yet the intricate design features inherant to 3d printers. However, this is an always expanding hobby. The ONLY ONE of its kind. 3d printing is pretty much still in its infancy, but its here to stay.
And its certainly a viable asset to have in Model Railroading. So i can imagine sharing it on a club level. I would presume to say, in time, having 4 or 5 members who can print and have printers themselves, in the same club..... well that would be pretty spectacular to follow what they do. But just 1? eh, not so much a good idea. Not a bad one, just not really shining like gold.
One element that has not been mentioned is the limited life of resin printer parts. I just recent got a printer for myself, so I am still very much a noob. The best I have seen is that FEP film last in the ballpark of 10 prints and the LCD screen around 100 prints. The LCD screen is about 1/3 of the total cost of the printer These times can be much less if someone doesn't think about what they are doing. I haven't found the learning curve too bad, but I can see how easy it would be to mess things up if someone wasn't to take their time.
The idea of identifying a single person would help with this, but only partially. This ongoing cost is the major downside to resin printers. You can also reduce the long term cost by investing in a DLP resin printer. These are initially more expensive, but you don't have a screen to be replacing. However, there aren't a lot of options and the specialized chips are very hard to get right now.
I belong to a club that purchased an Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K. We have a member that is a high school instructor in 3D printing. Also, we have some CAD guys as members. We also have a member that keeps track of tools and maintains them. We are trying to promote the 3D printer to attract younger members to learn and use it. We are fortunate to have several younger members and they were the driving force behind the purchase and are interested in the medium. The older members have little interest. We are running classes on Tuesday nights and the response has been good. We have 4 members that started classes from the beginning and 2 more interested in showing up. We have turned out several items in HO & N scale mostly accessories as everyone is trying to pick this up. As we have become more involved here's my take. The software learning curve is not bad (software to set up the printer to print, slicer, etc. not referring to CAD). The printer itself is about as hard to run as a car radio. (Don't forget we have a guy that could set everything up initially). We are not setting a price on using the resin and printer until training is complete. The software tells you how much resin you use and the cost. I believe we will base the cost on this through an honor system. I will try to let everyone on this thread know how our experiment goes and what we run into. You can check our web page as pictures and info are updated weekly on the printer.
Jim Ford
Elkhart Model Railroad Club
www.emrrc.com