Print Bethgons or well cars????

All of you experienced printers, how hard would making your own consist of coal cars, say 5-7 or TTX well cars be?

I'm one that doesn't need SUPER detail, but I would like it to look like the real thing....from a couple or more feet away....mostly.

 

Depends on the scale. The design work is the difficult part. Can you find blueprints or measurements for the kinds of cars you want to build? Getting an articulation joint to work on a well car, especially in smaller scales like N could be difficult. Most resin is brittle, so you need to take into consideration the material properties when designing parts that are loaded.

My opinion on 3D printing is that it should not replace injection molding. There is a time and place for all manufacturing processes, and 3D printing is not some magic pill.

There are plenty of coal hoppers in HO and N scale (Kato bethgon, Athearn Bethgon and Ortner, Tangent triple and quad, LBF, Intermountain, Exactrail, etc). Unless you are looking to make a specific or rare car that can't be bought, there is no sense in trying to duplicate a model already offered by a commercial manufacturer. Once you factor in paint, decals, trucks, and detail parts like crossover platforms and grab irons, there really isn't much cost benefit. If you're trying to use 3D printing as a way to save money, there are plenty of cheap models on eBay ready to go. It won't take months designing and testing prototypes until they work right.

There is still a lot of work involved with preparing a 3D printed model for paint, like removing support structures and sanding down support and print line artifacts. It's difficult to reach the surface finish and detail level of a professional injection-molded model.

 

Been banned on ebay...for what, they wouldn't say.

thanks for the info. question was for n scale.

 

if you can find what you want on Thingiverse, it wouldn't be that hard at all (there are other sights you can use also but thingiverse is my go to). There are some well cars and coal cars. You don't say what scale, but if you find one in the wrong scale you can usually scale it up or down. You also don't mention whether you're looking at FDM or resin. You can definitely get better detail in resin but depending on your goals FDM may be good enough.

I'm wanting a unit train of coal cars (at least 50, maybe as long as 100 cars), which would get quite expensive buying commercial offerings, so I'm going to 3d print them. I just want them to look decent from a couple of feet away, so I'm satisfied with what I can do with an FDM printer. Here's a couple of pics of the cars I'm working on (these are N-scale, by the way):



(next to a commercial offering)

 

CSX Robert..was inquiring about N scale and I think my line of reasoning on 'detail" coincides with yours.

Was also thinking fdm.

Also thinking about more than 4 or 8 cars, but not 50 or a 100!...but who knows????

thanks.

 

slsf freak, I did some design work on a powder trickler and hopper for my reloading, but a friend of mine did the actual printing.
Actually, I kinda like the design work...although it is time consuming.

 

I found an HO scale RD4 Hopper car on Thingiverse that scales down to N scale beautifully on my fdm printer. I use .3mm nozzle and set my layers to .1 mm, no more than .12 mm. In case you're interested in buildings, one contributor makes a great selection of buildings in HO that I have scaled down to Z scale successfully .

 

thanks for the info.

 

if you find a good stl file of what ever you want, you can scale them down then cut them apart and print each side separately . They print in much better detail that way and can get some pretty good prints even the ladders ect.

 

what's the difference in good and bad?

 

I've done some 'flat kits' before, and it really depends on the geometry of the car. House cars like boxcars and reefers are easy to do. Hoppers are somewhere in the 'intermediate' level. It really depends on the complexity and detail of the model. Most of the free models you find on sites like Thingiverse will be simplified or downright inaccurate, but that usually means you can break them up without sacrificing much detail.

The main benefit to flat kits is eliminating undercuts or free-floating edges that would otherwise need support. Printing the sides flat, and the floor and slope sheets laid on their side would minimize the amount of supports required. It also changes the orientation of the print extrusion lines. I would test a few different versions to see which you like best. Large horizontal surfaces on an FDM printer will have a spiral-like pattern as the print head traces out the surface. Vertical surfaces will have a corrugated-like texture, which in my opinion is easier to hide and less noticeable.

 

thanks for the info. I figured with the corner posts being "independent" would make things more difficult.
was really asking difference in stl file, good or bad?