The other night the missus and I were picking up some items for home repair (balky light switches and fixtures), when I noticed a 3D printer offered by Dremel on display. Sale price is a buck shy of $1000.00. Several different colors of plastic to use in your printing projects as well. Something to blow the income tax refund on.................. And no, I didn't get one- the Finance Officer refused to allocate funds.
I was set to fund my printer purchase by selling old stuff from the garage, old toys, old electronics/computer parts, selling 3D designs on Shapeways. I was nearly there and got one BIG sale from eBay that was going to fund it. Mailed my eBay items from a mom-and-pop mail store (no insurance available because they aren't USPS - shame on me!) they arrived broken so I had to refund. My CFO saw the despair in my eyes when my printer fund was ripped cleanly from my hands and said "It's okay. Buy the printer anyway." I put in the order the next day. That was over a year ago and I'm having a blast with it. Here's my grandmother's house in N-Scale I printed in December: I plan to do a write-up to show what can be done with these in our world (and what can't) HO guys and up will find plenty of use, N Scalers on down will have a little less and requires a lot planning and experimentation to execute. It's more fun when you don't limit yourself to models, but print out practical things for around the house, too! -Mike
That's beautiful, Mike. I'm sure that these gadgets are exactly what the modeling community has been waiting for (and the model manufacturers have been fearing). With a bit of planning and working the little gray cells, a 3D printer could print a reasonably accurate model of any prototype structure or other thing.
Mike, your result is fascinating, and excellent. I assume it prints in a single basic color, then you paint the details later.
Mike/Hytec- thanks. Yes it was printed in white and brush painted in acrylic. The security doors were printed in black. I have one house that I haven't put together yet (I printed five for various family at Christmas) so I plan on photo-documenting that process for TrainBoard. We haven't hit the holy grail yet for desktop model railroad 3d printing but I suspect within five years we'll be pretty close. -Mike
Nice start, but does the detail and resolution of this printer benefit us N-scalers? i'm quite sure it could print great models in O scale, and maybe HO. But us N scalers require a little more accuracy.
I have a pair of audio headphones that work fine, but were stepped on and a small plastic piece that holds in one of the earpieces was broken off, rendering the whole thing unwearable. If I can 3-D print the broken piece I would be able to use those headphones again!
Love your house Mike. Great job. Inspires me to have a go, but know nothing about the things needed to do so! Maybe I am a bit old to start, so should leave it to son Matthew (stickymonk)
Our library has a couple 3D printers avialable for use by the local residents. I'm guessing if you bring in your plan (and im supposing it has to be in a certain format in order for the printer to use it) they'll print out your project for a small fee. Might be worth looking into in your area.
