What have you been printing.

Not much printing at the moment - too cold for the FDM in the man cave and I've done all the resin parts I need at the moment, but I've been trying my hand at designing. This is my first attempt at anything more complicated than a coupling or basic shape, designed in MS 3D Builder and a bit of tweaking in Mesh Mixer.

It is a Wisbech and Upwell coach, printed in 2 halves. The pic below shows the 2 parts joined together and the railings and axles added on, but there would also be some chassis detail and roof parts to add.

Slide3.JPG Mapping it over the drawing, it seems to be quite a good fit

Slide4.JPG
Aim is to do some test prints and see how they come out. It is printed without the roof, as I will make this out of brass or plasticard once the rest is completed.

Slide1.JPG
 
That looks fantastic, trying milk bottles, crates, which seem ok,lots of stringing though...and milk churns, which again seem ok...cranking out line side control boxes at the moment..theses are solid, very dense,as they will be out all year I wanted them like this..crossing gates are being painted .
 
Little bits this week finally modeled all the bends etc for adding gutter and down pipes so the resin printer keep busy, And roofing ridge tiles Resin printed thats one way to get 32 Ridge tiles that fit the roof angle perfect :)

roof1.jpg


Yep there is a hole right down all the down pipes and bends etc so it's a working system :rofl: :rofl:

downpipe.jpg
 
How robust are the small resin parts, like your rainwater goods?

I am looking at the idea of signal posts, arms, possibly colour light housings, and 'cabinets' to house the gubbins to make them work..

Not sure if printed resin is strong enough, or resilient enough to not warp or shrink.
PhilP.
 
PhilP said:
How robust are the small resin parts, like your rainwater goods?

I am looking at the idea of signal posts, arms, possibly colour light housings, and 'cabinets' to house the gubbins to make them work..

Not sure if printed resin is strong enough, or resilient enough to not warp or shrink.
PhilP.
Click to expand...

Don't know really it's guess work :) I have Printed all the signs and a couple of post boxes that are on my railway they have been outside in all weathers for just over two year now. The cheap green resin that came with the printer , thin signs made from that warped and the paint flaked. I now only use Elegoo ABS-Like 3D Resin costs a lot more, but things that were printed with that seem stable those signs have not warped and the paint is as good as new still. I have about ten People that spent about 9 months out in all weather printed in Elegoo and they still look OK, I don't leave the people out all year.
The down pipes and the gutters are styrene sections so I have only printed smallish parts, bends , hoppers etc. My signals that I have on my line were all printed in PETG filament and have been out now for 4 years with no noticble change in there condition. I would have printed some parts for them in Resin but I didn't have the printer at the time, but when I make some more they will get some resin parts :) as it's great for adding details :)

​

 
Thanks for the info..

One hears horror stories of parts warping, or delaminating..
 
PhilP said:
How robust are the small resin parts, like your rainwater goods?

I am looking at the idea of signal posts, arms, possibly colour light housings, and 'cabinets' to house the gubbins to make them work..

Not sure if printed resin is strong enough, or resilient enough to not warp or shrink.
PhilP.
Click to expand...
The main issue with resin printing is trying to print larger items - as you either need a larger build area or a taller platform lift! Detail items like a lamp bracket or fitting will be fine, but long thin pieces will be harder to print and may be quite fragile. I think I would use a combination of brass for pipework, moulded plastic for guttering and resin for the fiddly bitS

De-lamination is an issue with filament printers, particularly if the part is quite thin. Resin printers can suffer from deformation of the part if it partially separates from the build bed, weeping if uncured resin starts to leak out of a hollow print -hence the small holes you sometimes see, and limited flexibility of the final part.

I am mainly using the Elegoo ABS like resin and even some self sprung knuckle type couplings seem to be very robust, but some standard resin I used to print some figures was very brittle and when I dropped one of them, his head came off!!

For larger parts, ABS based filament prints will last outdoors very well, but some printers - mainly those without an enclosed build area struggle with warping when printing. Once completed however, the parts seem pretty stable. I've also had a lot of success with MDF infused PLA in terms of lasting well outdoors. If you want to print fence parts, crates, barrels etc. this might be the best material. It can be sanded and smoothed like any other print and also stained and varnished, so a good finish can be achieved.
 
Interesting.. Horses for courses, and the types of material are developing as well.
Thank you for posting.

PhilP
 
LGB-Sid said:
Yep there is a hole right down all the down pipes and bends etc so it's a working system :rofl: :rofl:
Click to expand...
Perfect....no other word....just plain old "perfect" that is it, prefect, btw did i mention perfect?
 
Designed in Tinkercad, mounting for Servo and Micro Switch....

Servo Switch Parts.png

Servo & Micro Switch in OFF position.
Servo Switch Off.png

Servo & Micro Switch in ON position.
Servo Switch On.png

Five completed, five more to do.....
Servo Switches Complete.png
 
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