There's NO way that's going to 3D print!

SLSF Freak Jul 5, 2021

Tags:
  1. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    I'm hoping this will be a fun thread for you printers out there, sharing your journey with the technology, pushing the envelope and being amazed at what you can get away with in 3D printing. Logically, 3D printing can't do everything, but you'd be surprised what you can do - here's my "no way that's going to print" story...

    N Scale Pantographs. This is actually a multi-staged adventure, beginning with Shapeways. When I designed a Little Joe for N Scale several years ago, it was designed to use Kato GG-1 pantographs. However knowing that inventory would be limited and may one day dry up, I wanted to have pantographs still be available for my kit. I didn't think Shapeways could print pantographs in metal, but I tried it anyway. From experience I knew their plastic was a no-go. Anyway I did up a design, it passed the tests, and a few weeks later I had brass pantographs:
    brassPans.jpg
    I couldn't believe they actually printed! And despite being a little chonky in photographs, they actually look delicate in person. So I decided to take it to the next level, added springs and other details to the model, and those printed, too! However, two problems I discovered with these prints - 1) results were inconsistent. To make brass items like this, you 3D print the object in wax, pack it in a fine molding sand (sorry if that's not the right terminology) then they melt out the wax leaving a void that they can pour molten brass into. Sometimes I'd receive pantographs that looked...melted. How they passed inspection is anyone's guess. 2nd issue: these are fixed position - so you can have an up pantograph or down but a single pantograph cannot do both.

    Enter the home resin 3D printers - Anycubic Photon. While learning what all the Photon could do, I decided to try my Shapeways pantographs. No way those will print, but heck, let's try it. To my astonishment it worked!!!
    resinPans.jpg
    This was the moment I realized I was being unfair to this technology - always assuming it couldn't do the impossible. In the image above you see at far left, my first resin printed pantograph. Like the Shapeways versions, it was fixed position. So I decided to do some tests, push the printer to see if it could continue doing the impossible, and I made some small joints. They worked. So I applied the joints to the pantograph model and now - I had pantographs that could go up and down. The black pantograph in the middle is an articulated printed pantograph, as is the grey on the right. You'd think these would be super delicate - but surprisingly they are not. You can break them if you want to, but with normal usage they're surprisingly strong. Each pantograph has eight pieces and takes about 15-20 minutes to assemble. Totally worth it though.

    Finally - there are single arm pantographs that I have use for - LRVs like the Siemens/Duewag U2 used by the San Diego Trolley from 1982-2015, and the Budd Metroliner
    SD_U2.jpg
    I had done brass versions of these fixed position pantographs with Shapeways as well. They looked nice (as pictured above) However, I knew there could be a home solution:
    pantoAnim.gif
    At left is the home printed articulated pan, at right is the fixed Shapeways brass print. This is a design I've been testing the last few weeks. I'm finally at a point where these are printing consistently, they're sturdy, and easier to assemble than my Milwaukee Road style pantographs. Here's a line-up of my test prints:
    resinSingleArmPans.jpg
    So - what are your success stories with 3D printing? What did you think wouldn't print but you tried it anyway and it worked?

    Cheers -Mike
     
    bremner, Kurt Moose, CNE1899 and 11 others like this.
  2. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

    2,626
    5,747
    69
    Thats amazing Mike.
     
    JMaurer1, SLSF Freak and Sumner like this.
  3. CSX Robert

    CSX Robert TrainBoard Member

    1,502
    638
    41
    Those are mazing!
    For me, it'd be pretty much anything useful in N-scale. When I got the printer, I wasn't really think about using it for my model trains. I've got an FDM printer and I thought to print anything useful in N-scale would really require a resin printer. While the detail from the FDM printer is not as good as a resin printer, and certainly nowhere near injection molding, I've found that, at least to my eyes, it's good enough for trains that are typically more than two feet away anyway. Here are some of the projects I've been working on:
    20210705_103901.jpg
    On the left is a coal car I've been working on. Althoug it doesn't show up well in the photo, the bottom two have better detail, but they are just sides and would have to be assembled into a car(I haven't printed the rest of it yet). The top one is definitely less detail, butit prints as one piece, so no assembly other than adding trucks and couplers. I'm currently leaning towards the top because I hope to print a long unit train and not having to assembly each car may be worth the decrease in detail. The top right is intermodal containers. One neat thing about printing them is you can print a stack of two as one piece. Then I have a flat car with printed trucks and coplers, and finally one of the trucks and the couplers I've been working on. To me the coupler is probably the most suprising one to be able to print. It's kind of a unimate clone. They started out like the one on the left, where you had to lift one over the other to couple them, but that got old fast, so I'm worknig on the one on the right that will couple when pushed together. I still have some fine tuning to do but it's working pretty well. You do have to push them together by hand, and lift them to uncouple them, but I plan on using them on unit trains and other special trains (see my Schnabel thread) that will pretty much stay together.
     
    DeaconKC, HemiAdda2d, CNE1899 and 2 others like this.
  4. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    @CSX Robert Those look great! Couplers from an FDM is a really good example of pushing the boundaries of the technology. (y)

    Mike
     
  5. Stephane Savard

    Stephane Savard TrainBoard Member

    638
    1,744
    30
    I'm really liking what you printed, and really impressed by the fact that they are articulating!

    I'm curious as to which resin you're using? One thing I've noticed is that in terms of durability, not all resins are created equal. The Green clear anycubic base resin has been by far the most detailed resin I've ever tried. But look at it wrong and it breaks! Siraya Tech Fast Grey on the other hand withstands bending of delicate parts to a nice degree, but no where near the ability to print fine details.
     
    Sumner likes this.
  6. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    Up until two weeks ago I was using Anycubic Grey. However the single arm pans you see here were printed with Siraya Tech Fast Grey- I had never used that resin before so this is my evaluation period of it. So far I'm noticing issues with 'overhang' areas that I experienced in early days with the OG Photon where the underside of prints were pillowy and lacking detail. I've adjusted some of the printer settings to mitigate and it helped, but did not eliminate it. Still working on that. Aside from that, details top side are good and flexibility is pretty good, so I think it's a good resin for handrails and pantographs until something better comes along.

    Mike
     
    Sumner likes this.
  7. Stephane Savard

    Stephane Savard TrainBoard Member

    638
    1,744
    30
    Yup! that's exactly what I'm talking about!
     
    SLSF Freak likes this.
  8. Doorgunnerjgs

    Doorgunnerjgs TrainBoard Member

    637
    989
    22
    This stuff is incredible! I've been doing some FDM printing on my Ender 3V2 but nothing like any of this!
     
    SLSF Freak likes this.
  9. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    Adding to an old thread, as this week I decided to try something I didn't think would print (why do I keep thinking things won't print? At this stage of my 3D printing adventure? I dunno!) So I'm wrapping up a caboose project, a FEC "home built" bay-window caboose that is made from old PS1 boxcars. FEC had several of these and they had these grate screens over the windows. This is what I attempted to replicate:
    FEC_Caboose_WindowScreens.jpg
    These windows are about 5mm (~.20 in) tall, to give you an idea of scale- N Scale, btw. I knew the screens pieces would print, but I thought the holes for sure would have residual resin gunk inside them, clogging them up. But no! Completely see thru. These pics don't do it justice but I tried to demonstrate how they work. No way that would print?! I was wrong - again...:D

    Cheers -Mike
     
    CNE1899, DeaconKC, gmorider and 8 others like this.
  10. Sumner

    Sumner TrainBoard Member

    2,798
    5,837
    63
    Looks great, I need to get with my resin printer I haven't used this winter for sure. What resin did you use?

    Sumner
     
  11. cjhilinski

    cjhilinski TrainBoard Member

    37
    97
    3
    I bought a Mars 3 to resin-print everything I need/want for a new T gauge (1:450) layout. I, too, have been pleasantly shocked and surprised by the detail it can produce. Yesterday, I downloaded an N gauge sized stl for a bulldozer. I scaled it down to T and printed it and I could still see a lot of the details such as the seat inside the cab. I've printed about 20 freight cars and five engines and I'm now working on printing buildings. Resin isn't cheap, though. I use the Elegoo water-washable gray if anyone is interested.
     
  12. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    You really do need to fire up your resin printer and see what kind of trouble you can get into. (y) If you run into any problems or have questions feel free to reach out. I'm using Anycubic "basic" grey on these and other detail parts, printer is a Photon Mono SE - so not even the higher resolution version (although the SE has an awesome light cannon that lets me print 1.6s layers = fast!)

    -Mike
     
    Sumner likes this.
  13. ajkochev

    ajkochev TrainBoard Member

    193
    484
    20
    While I try and stick with FDM printers, Recently I've tried designing for resin. A lot more detail can be done for sure. The masts for my N Scale European Semaphore were printed in resin. Though depending on the detail some might not survive handling post print.

    Here is a sneak peek at my next project. I'm working with an artist who has given me the okay to release his designs of these in N scale on thingiverse. N Scale Native Americans and Cowboys!

    NA03.jpg NA04.jpg NA05.jpg
     
    CNE1899, gmorider, HemiAdda2d and 7 others like this.
  14. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    1,509
    1,433
    52
    Was dinking around yesterday and today on this idea - not worth its own thread so I figured this is a good thread to tack it on to. N Scale Bricks:
    nscale_bricks.jpg
    One piece, painted plain red, colored over it with chalk then finger wiped the surface to leave the mortar. Works for me! (y) The little one in the background is 75% scale of the n scale one. These will be for a chimney on a model of my aunt's house I'm making. I didn't print the full chimney as I'm just experimenting on how this would work.

    Mike
     
    CNE1899, gmorider, HemiAdda2d and 5 others like this.
  15. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

    2,626
    5,747
    69
    That worked out really good Mike.
     
    SLSF Freak likes this.
  16. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    Unreal detail painting on such a small figure!

    How do you keep from going cross-eyed trying to paint them?? o_O

    This would be me:

    https://tenor.com/bgJLX.gif

     
    BNSF FAN and gmorider like this.

Share This Page