Does anyone know of a company that would do a smal custom 3D print project? I have a design I want to do. The problem is it is too small to build with styrene. (.125" square by .05" tall.) I would need 25 of them. I can describe exactly what I want but I don't have the ability to draw it electronically. Any suggestions would be most welcomed.
Edit:
Robert) your right, i shoulda converted back. I reread that and it totally was NOT what I intended. Thanks for catching me!
I like your assessment better - doable - but the only detail youll get is a blob! Resin printers make prettier blobs than FDMs.
OP) if you have an original, have you thought about resin casting the part?
-PMR
Might want to check the conversion from mm to inches . . .
The thing OP describes is about 3mm by 1.2mm. Doable in either filament or resin. Gonna be not much more than a blob either way, but doable.
LINK to SNSR Blog
FRRYKidDoes anyone know of a company that would do a smal custom 3D print project? I have a design I want to do. The problem is it is too small to build with styrene. (.125" square by .05" tall.)
Hi FRRYKid,
May I ask exactly what the item is that you want to model?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I'm with Dave on this one...the dimensions of the "blob" don't tell us much. I could easily mail you 25 pieces of styrene matching those dimensions, without having any clue of what I just built.
Wayne
What I'm looking at is a base for a street light loosely based on the lights here in town. The dimensions of the light base based on measurements I took scale out to the bottom being .125" square x .010" thick (thickness is flexible as I can bury any extra base in my sidewalks as the prototype did that in spots as well.) The corners have equilateral triangles at .040" on each corner at .040" thick. They are connected on the diagonals with .040" beams. As stated, I'm looking at needed 25 of them. Given the small size and quantity, I don't think I could build them to any precision.
Hope that description helps.
Yeah, the description helps. It gives me some vague ideas, but I still cannot work out the details. A photograph would be a thousand times better . . . or so they say.
Robert
ROBERT PETRICKYeah, the description helps. It gives me some vague ideas, but I still cannot work out the details. A photograph would be a thousand times better . . . or so they say. Robert
I agree.
FRRYKidWhat I'm looking at is a base for a street light loosely based on the lights here in town.
You could easily clarify things by taking a photo (or several photos) of those real ones in your town, although you'd need to find somewhere that they could be hosted and then shared here.
This would be a resin print. FDM would not look good.
The OP did not provide photos . . . so, naturally, I went rogue and freelanced something. I used Google Earth Street View to noodle around downtown Miles City looking at lamp posts and came up with this:
Not a great photo, and not a great fabrication for that matter, but it shows kinda what I thought the OP described. Two bases with a stub of the lamp post and two bare naked bases that should fit the bottom of a very thin tube (in case OP wants to run wires up to a grain-of-rice LED light. With equilateral triangle corners and with vertically elongated triangle corners.
Printed on my Qidi X-Max filament printer. So kinda rough. Resin prints would be much smoother, but I don't have any resin printing projects currently on the docket and my AnyCubic resin printer tray is empty, cleaned out, and sitting idle. So, if the OP wants to see what some resin prints look like I'd have to fill it up and maybe bring some other projects to the forefront to make it worthwhile.
Anyhow . . . just something to look at.
That's some nicely accomplished sleuthing, Robert. The picture is worth at least a thousand words.
I think that a NWSL "Chopper", along with some strip and sheet styrene and some styrene rod and solvent-type cement could whack those out pretty easily.If lighting is to be included, styrene tubing might be a better option than the rod.
Start here: It's simple!
Learn how to use Tinkercad | TinkercadI taught classes of this at work. We can take our engineering data and build a 3D Model of our product and put it in the customers hands in any scale they want completely automated. It helps architects and engineers to build physical models for testing/presentation/visualization.
Then go here to print your creation: Resin 3D Stereo Lithography is the way to go if you demand a high resolution print.
www.shapeways.com
It's free and comes with a tutorial. Rapid prototyping is a high in demand skill.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
ROBERT PETRICK Not a great photo, and not a great fabrication for that matter, but it shows kinda what I thought the OP described. With equilateral triangle corners and with vertically elongated triangle corners.
Not a great photo, and not a great fabrication for that matter, but it shows kinda what I thought the OP described. With equilateral triangle corners and with vertically elongated triangle corners.
The bare base is the inspiration yes. I have some commercial street lights that have everything but t bases. I contacted Shapeways and the design costs were prohibitively expensive. I will be going back to my original idea of keeping it simple with styrene strip, square and triangle rod.
Thank you for all the assistance.
FRRYKid The bare base is the inspiration yes. I have some commercial street lights that have everything but t bases. I contacted Shapeways and the design costs were prohibitively expensive. I will be going back to my original idea of keeping it simple with styrene strip, square and triangle rod. Thank you for all the assistance.
Hey Kid-
Are you stuck on the design costs? Or the production costs?
The design is the easy part. I can send you a 3D CAD model and/or an .STL file gratis for free. Then just about anybody with a 3D printer (resin or filament) can produce 25 prints of the base. Even Shapeways.
All I need is a clear, concise image or description of exactly what you're looking for.
Let me know.
ROBERT PETRICK Hey Kid- Are you stuck on the design costs? Or the production costs? The design is the easy part. I can send you a 3D CAD model and/or an .STL file gratis for free. Then just about anybody with a 3D printer (resin or filament) can produce 25 prints of the base. Even Shapeways. All I need is a clear, concise image or description of exactly what you're looking for. Let me know. Robert
That''s awefully nice of you Robert. Why do I see you getting inunudated with request now? lol
That said your own PLA/ABS printer can be had for $300 or less these days. Resolution down to 0.1mm is common.I recently started a project to create full 3D interiors for the Milwaukee station and Merchants row kits using Cura. I have blueprints and pictures for the former.
Design costs. I was told by Shapeways that design costs were usually $100. The dimensions are as mentioned earlier in the post. The inspiration picture is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gfow27YcLsvfksNN6. As this is my first attempt at hosting photos this way, if it doesn't works, let me know.
If you're feeling ambious a center hole of .057 would also be handy to allow for the poles I have to insert directly.
FRRYKidIf you're feeling ambious a center hole of .057 would also be handy to allow for the poles I have to insert directly.
A #54 drill bit can get you pretty close (.055") to the needed size, and a round needle file could finish the job, if drilling the holes yourself would make the printing job more affordable....just a suggestion.
FRRYKid Design costs. I was told by Shapeways that design costs were usually $100. The dimensions are as mentioned earlier in the post. The inspiration picture is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gfow27YcLsvfksNN6. As this is my first attempt at hosting photos this way, if it doesn't works, let me know. If you're feeling ambious a center hole of .057 would also be handy to allow for the poles I have to insert directly.
Okay, this is good. Now we're getting somewhere.
Here's a sketch. 0.125" by 0.125" by 0.050" high with rounded corners and a center hole 0.057" diameter. Ignore the chartreuse colors; those are only for ease of viewing on the computer screen. Notice that the aspect ratios of the dimensions you gave are a little different from the real-life photo. Not a big deal because these things are so tiny that the difference will be hardly noticed by the naked eye from normal layout viewing distance (or even when viewing with a 2.5X Optivisor in good light 8 inches in front of your nose). Also ignore the apparent sharp edges of the sketches. See previous sentence.
The image on the left is the base and ribs. The anchor bolt fairing covers were added to the image on the right.
Good work Robert.
Following up to previous . . .
We cannot post .STL files here for viewing and we cannot attach files to PMs. Plus, I don't think we can PM at all since I haven't heard anything in over a year. No matter.
I have been pondering lately about signing up at Thingiverse, and today I have done so. I will upload the .STL for this project so that others can look at the design and (more importantly) run the design through their own slicing software for 3D printing.
There are several issues and concerns with my model (all relating to the small size of the lamp post base and the proper printer settings to fabricate this particular detailed design). It would be very easy for this discussion to get hijacked with minute and esoteric discussions about 3D printing and philosophical aspects of the nature of design itself. I absolutely do not want to overwhelm the OP with such discussions. Not that they're not worthwhile to discuss, but maybe another thread would be the place for that.
Right now, I just want to get some input from the more knowledgeable and experienced 3D printers who are participants in this forum. Plus, I'm not entirely sure if the forum regulators even allow links to Thingiverse. And also plus, I'd like to hear advice and info from members of this forum who participate in the Thingiverse thing.
Thanks.
ROBERT PETRICK Here's a sketch. 0.125" by 0.125" by 0.050" high with rounded corners and a center hole 0.057" diameter. Ignore the chartreuse colors; those are only for ease of viewing on the computer screen. Notice that the aspect ratios of the dimensions you gave are a little different from the real-life photo. Not a big deal because these things are so tiny that the difference will be hardly noticed by the naked eye from normal layout viewing distance (or even when viewing with a 2.5X Optivisor in good light 8 inches in front of your nose). Also ignore the apparent sharp edges of the sketches. See previous sentence. The image on the left is the base and ribs. The anchor bolt fairing covers were added to the image on the right. Robert
The actual height of the fairing would scale out to .030" rather than the .040" I spec'd out. I had the .040 onhand when I figured out the needed pieces. I will have to look up how to log on to the afore site to get the file in question. Thank you very much.
Robert) With a little more specificity...... what kind of input are you looking for?
-Douglas
PM Railfan Robert) With a little more specificity...... what kind of input are you looking for? -Douglas
I guess I have only one question, "Will this work?" These things are really small. They are literally about the size of a BB that has been sliced in half like a bagel; a half-BB with four little bitty sharp-faceted pimples and a hole in the center.
I designed them using AutoCAD. Acad is vector-driven and does not have a lower limit regarding units of resolution, so that was easy enough. But the slicing software has limits. And the 3D printers also have finite limitations.
I have a Qidi X-Max filament printer using Qidi-Print slicing software and an Anycubic Photon S resin printer using Chitubox64. Recently I've been printing some things on the Qidi, but the Photon S has been sitting idle for about a month. I printed the lamp post bases using the filament Qidi at 100%, 200%, and 300% and the results were a little less than so-so. Not bad, but just about as expected. The plan now is to fire up the Photon S and see how that goes. It will take a few trials and some fiddling with the settings and parameters, but I expect the results to be somewhat better than the Qidi. Exactly how much better, I dunno. I'm kinda hoping other 3D printer guys will take the design and set the settings on their machines to what their experience indicates and chime in with the results. That would be a big help.
Like I said, I don't want to bog down the OP's discussion with a lot of technical stuff, but this seems like a sensible way to proceed. I am an expert in CAD (and modest), but barely more than a rookie with 3D printers. If I was further along the learning curve I might have been more help. Sorry. But making progress.
ROBERT PETRICK I have been pondering lately about signing up at Thingiverse, and today I have done so. I will upload the .STL for this project so that others can look at the design and (more importantly) run the design through their own slicing software for 3D printing.
I was looking at the thingiverse site and I couldn't find the item in question. What do you have it named so that I can find it? Thank you for all your assistance.
If you're still in need of these printed, I can do them as detailed as 0.05mm. Just let me know.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
FRRYKid ROBERT PETRICK I have been pondering lately about signing up at Thingiverse, and today I have done so. I will upload the .STL for this project so that others can look at the design and (more importantly) run the design through their own slicing software for 3D printing. I was looking at the thingiverse site and I couldn't find the item in question. What do you have it named so that I can find it? Thank you for all your assistance.
Harrison If you're still in need of these printed, I can do them as detailed as 0.05mm. Just let me know.
I signed up at Thingiverse yesterday. When I uploaded my first thing, there was a popup message that said something along the lines of . . . "the first thing uploaded by new users will be held up for 24 hours". I have a pretty good idea what 24 hours means, but some websites seem to have different ideas what 24 hours means. Hopefully, something will be there sometime today.
I named the thing "Lamp Post Base" and put it in the category "Buildings and Structures". I didn't seen any other category that fit. The only tag I added was "Model Railroading". A lot of Thingiversers seem to add dozens of tags to their things so that they (the things) will be visible and findable to more users, and as such, there's no telling what you might find mixed in with a search for Model Railroading Things.
The actual filename is Lamp_Post_Base.STL There is no flashy glamor shot photo to make it stand out in a crowd or anything like that. I am not yet familiar with the user interface to set up those kind of bells and whistles.
My user name is SNSR-2022. I know . . . not great, but it was what came to mind when I filled in the blanks to set up my profile. As things move along, I might try to come up with a more clever high-tech-sounding name.
I apologize to everyone for the clumsiness that comes from rolling out this adventure in real time, and I appreciate everyone's patience and understanding. In the meanwhile, I will be dusting off my Photon S and filling the tray with resin. Hopefully, the open bottle of resin has a shelf life longer than a month or so. Otherwise, I might have to log on to that Amazing Prime Online Superstore and order a new bottle with free 2-day shipping (5 or 6 calendar days!).
ROBERT PETRICK PM Railfan Robert) With a little more specificity...... what kind of input are you looking for? -Douglas I guess I have only one question, "Will this work?" These things are really small. They are literally about the size of a BB that has been sliced in half like a bagel; a half-BB with four little bitty sharp-faceted pimples and a hole in the center.
But final quality is largely dependent upon the printer, if the plate is level, filement material used and if the nozzle/print bed is hot enough, the print profile used, and what the quality to speed setting is. It can also be dependent on if you properly set up "support legs" to support sub slice structures which have no z slice beneath them. (Imagine trying to print a roof and dropping some hot PLA with nothing beneath it)In other words, it's largely dependent on many variables.
Indeed, so many variables. Everything from room temperature, filament age / conditions, nozzle age / condition, plate leveling and even a bit of modeling finesse can impact the print quality. I tend to think any object scaled down (HO) that's smaller than 6' X 6' X' 6' is best for resin. I mean, I do 3D print people FDM and they do come out OK with a bunch of setting manipulation, but a resin printer would produce a clean model more easily. Downfall with resin is you're working with liquids, there's spent materials. It's nothing like popping a finished object off the baseplate with zero waste.
It's interesting all the pro's and con's of digital fabrication techniques. Laser cutting is great for large flat expanses that can be engraved, cut and then assembled together. FDM can make complex structures with required details like buildings and bridges. Resin will allow you to populate a scene with entourage like street furniture, cars, signage and people.
What all have in common is after you get past the purchase cost of equipment, everything is really cheap to build. A fraction of the cost of kits and customized to fit your layout.
NorthsideChi Indeed, so many variables. Everything from room temperature, filament age / conditions, nozzle age / condition, plate leveling and even a bit of modeling finesse can impact the print quality. I tend to think any object scaled down (HO) that's smaller than 6' X 6' X' 6' is best for resin. I mean, I do 3D print people FDM and they do come out OK with a bunch of setting manipulation, but a resin printer would produce a clean model more easily. Downfall with resin is you're working with liquids, there's spent materials. It's nothing like popping a finished object off the baseplate with zero waste.
Moving on to Plan B . . .
I was hoping to get some settings and whatnot to have someplace to start, but I went with what I had. Anyhow, I took the Photon S out of deep storage and made a resin print of the two lamp post bases, using exposure settings as best I remembered. Some fudging of the numbers went on. Here are the basic settings:
0.05mm layer height, 4 bottom layers, 40 second bottom layer exposure, 6 second upper layer exposure. I don't recall off hand what the retract times and distances were.
The bottle of Elegoo Water-washable Resin was opened about 3 months ago, used at that time for a few prints, and it has been sitting tightly capped in a dark closet for over a month. It appears to work, but getting a brand new unopened bottle might be a good idea.
Here're a couple of photos, partially cured in my uv light chamber and still on the build plate . . .
The model is printed at 100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, and 200%. The details show up in all versions to various degrees of sharpness, although a little fat and mushy in all. A particular problem is the significant elephant footing of the layers adhering to the base plate. That can be solved by fiddling with the numbers. The fattiness of the upper layers can also be minimized by adjusting the exposure numbers. Not sure what the end game is, but things can be tightened up a little. I'm still hoping someone else picks up the .STL file and has a go at it.
Not great, but someplace to start. Progress.