.
See this thread.
Dan
Odie,
Those parts you made look great! A friend of mine made up some Sci-Fi parts about 6 years ago & they were really grainy or gritty. Your parts look much nicer, is that the way they came out, or did you coat them with a gloss? I'm hoping the technology have taken care of some of the challenges of the earlier samples I have seen. That is a neat project, please share more shots as you continue with the build!
Apperently, Sergent uses them for their couplers, too. See their homepage on how it's currently broken down...
-Morgan
http://www.dimensionprinting.com/3d-printers/3d-printing-uprint-video.aspx
Link I found, they are the cheaper machines in the $15,000.00 range.
I hate Rust
I started a thread on the subject about a year ago. You may want to read the L.A. Times article that I linked to in my OP.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/174753/1917797.aspx#1917797
Once the technology is developed enough to be less expensive, 3D printers could be very useful for detailed model railroad items! I know they can already do extremely detailed work, and they can make it very strong (I saw a video where a company made a wrench near as strong as a metal one!).
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One point that I didn't see mentioned (I am old and could have missed it!) is the fact that you need a 3D CAD program to model the parts in first and then export the file to a format that the 3D printer can read. Also, one method to remove some of the 'gritty' look is to immerse the parts in acetone for a few seconds and then rinse in water. I had experience with this process before I retired 4 years ago. At that tme the printers were coming down in price to under $5K.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
If you can find one for $5,000.00 it might make it worth it. Yesterday I was a little shocked to see the new Athearn RTR cars where being sold for $27.00. While I do not have a clue to what material cost or power use would run, but all you would have to make is 185 cars to pay for the 3 D printer.
Cuda Ken
It may be possible for a few large clubs to form a consortium that would buy the equipment, software, etc and make it available to members for a nominal fee.
Kevin
Another way to get that happening for clubs...
http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Odie It will be a few years before a $5k printer will give you the surface finish you want. Our machine was around $48k...and that is nowhere near injection mold quality.
It will be a few years before a $5k printer will give you the surface finish you want. Our machine was around $48k...and that is nowhere near injection mold quality.
I've asked around, to family and friends that work in the right industries. They've told me that if someone wanted to, say, produce model railcars, that you'd be looking at a few hundred thousand dollars. My brother (a process engineer at an auto parts maker) theorized that CNC milling may be cheaper but the skillset is more complicated. And not nearly as sexy to people.
To the average modeler, even basic CAD work is never going to happen. As fun as the idea of being able to just print, at will, models, its not as practical as you'd think. The time you'd spend pouring over plans of a boxcar means you'd have successfully drawn up your doors, you could have just dropped the $27 down at the hobby shop and saved money. I'll admit that if someone was licensing out plans for equipment, that's different. But if I was the guy that was licensing out the well cars I designed, they're going to be pretty pricey. That's a lot of work I had to do.
More than railcars, I see the 3D printing as a method for companies to produce a variety of detail parts and structures. The amount of time it would take to design a building is going to exceed that of railcars by orders of magnitude. But it would allow commercial producers to have a larger catalog and (potentially) never retire kits. There would also be little stock, as it would be feasible to produce as ordered. This would require several machines working in concert and it would still be wise to maintain a small stock of kits.
I've been fiddling with a 3D model of a small signal tower I'd like to have shapeways make up for me, to see how it would work. In the time I've spent looking laying out the thing in the CAD program, I think I'd have actually finished it already if I was just cutting stripwood.
Apparently there is another source for these things...
http://www.makerbot.com/
Odie!
That is some amazing modeling! The detail is incredible. You are definately at the leading edge of the hobby.
Dare I offer a suggestion? When I looked at the prototype guides the first thing I noticed was the very distinct wear patterns. It was obvious that something had been dragged through the guides under considerable force. There was a sharp contrast between where the paint had been scraped off and where it was still intact and there were some very dark greasy or rusty wear marks.
Perhaps the rubber cement trick could be used to create the same effect. It would be done by painting the insides of the guides a very dark greasy/rusty brown (Testors 'Rubber' comes to mind), then applying a few spots or streaks of cement to the areas where the rails would have contacted the guides. The next step is to paint the whole thing yellow or orange or whatever the 'as new' colour of the equipment was. Once the paint dries the rubber cement can be gently scraped off exposing the dark rusty surfaces where the wear occurred, thereby achieving the prototypically distinct contrast between paint and wear/rust.
By the way, I used one of the LifeLike generators as the engine in the critter in my avatar. They are great little models.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!