A beginner starting in 3D printing with Blender - update May 18th - layers

[JCL]

Thank you. The price of the high end software makes your eyes water, doesn't it?

 

I can't try at the moment, but I've just found something called the shrink wrap modifier on Blender Guru. I'll check it out later to see if I can use this to wrap a circle around the boiler, and then extrude it to give it solidity.

 

In the meantime, thus web page does a good job of explaining what each modifier does. A lot of them centre around animation, but I can see some being useful.

 

http://www.blenderguru.com/articles/blender-101-modifier-encyclopedia/#.VDfvedq9KK0

[MikeOxon]

Hi Jason,

 

You seem to be following a logical path from 2D to 3D.  I assume that you intend to use a fabrication firm such as Shapeways.  It will be nice when there's a 3D 'equivalent' to the Silhouette cutter!  I see Dremel have launched a 3D Printer, so perhaps this is an indication that these things will soon be 'mainstream'.

 

The tutorial is looking good.  It may tempt me along similar lines before too long

 

Mike

[Revolution Mike]

For the type of shape you are trying to reach I would probably go back to the original idea you had and "trace" a cross-section using a bezier curve > convert to a mesh > spin/extrude.

 

You can have two objects overlap with each other so you don't need to worry too much about getting the unseen interface between chimney and cylinder correct as long as the shape is correct.

 

Cheers, Mike

[JCL]

Hi MikeOxon

 

Cheers. Yep, there's no way I'll be able to afford a printer, so I'll check out the commercial printers. That said, I'm moving to Vancouver Island and they seem to have some sort of technology club just north of Victoria that includes etching, laser cutting and 3D printing. I wonder if there are any of these in the UK?

 

Hi Mike (Red Death)

 

Thank you. I definitely want to try to use the cross section and spin in my final solution (and I'll check out the bezier curves in Blender), my only problem at the moment is the variable depth fillet at the bottom. I'm in two minds about how to construct the D3; my choices are to produce via the 3D printer the items I can't fabricate easily with the Silhouette (smokebox, done, chimney, etc) and use the Silhouette (and of course a good knife) for everything else to keep the costs down. In which case the underneath of the chimney would have to have that curve, or have a go at producing the whole loco, in which case, as you say, this wouldn't be necessary. I'm tempted to have a go at the whole thing to see how far I can get as I'm enjoying the learning process.

 

I'm thinking that I might buy a Beginners Guide as a reference after all. I'm looking up stuff on the internet and having to constantly get side tracked into looking up concepts. This'd be a lot easier with a book I think. As was mentioned further up, the problem is the software is undergoing a metamorphosis, so I'll need the newest one I can find.

 

cheers

 

Jason

[JCL]

I've had one more go on the chimney for now, and decided to try to manually stretch the object so that it hugs the boiler. Blender has two modes; Object and Edit. Object mode allows you to apply changes to objects as a whole, for example, if you want to move a cylinder, you would do this in object mode, while edit mode will let you edit parts of an object. An example here would be changing the edge shape of the object. If your selected object is in edit mode, you will see a mesh in black that shows the surface of the object. I'll show all of this in a minute.

 

In the meantime, it's about time I had a go at making sure that the chimney is the right size. If I make it too big, then build the chimney walls to be at the minimum for the material that I'm thinking of printing in, making the chimney smaller later will proportionally reduce the width of the walls, so making them smaller than the allowable minimum width of the material. Does that make sense? Anyway, I'd rather work to the right size up front.

 

Resizing your Background Image

 

I don't know if this is the right way  to do things, but it seems to work for me.

1. I wanted to make sure that my measuring system was set up correctly, so I clicked on one of the icons on the right it looks like a sphere, cylinder and sun (in blue in the image) and chose Metric, with a scale of .001 to show millimeters (1=1m). See image 1.
2. I imported the background image.
3. Using the tabs on the left, I clicked on the Grease Pencil tab, then Ruler/Protractor. See image 2.
4. Then I left clicked where I want to measure from and drag the cursor to the end point. This gives me my measurement.

Changing the measurement units

 

Checking the width of a part of the image that has a known value

 

I know that this measurement is 1'11" in the real world, this is 23", and in 4mm scale, this equates to 7.66mm. The ruler says 4.12642mm, so I need to increase the size of the background by 1.857 times (7.66 / 4.126). If I go back to the Add Image details to the right of the main window, I can see a size option. Mine is set to a size of 5.000 at the moment, so 5.000 * 1.857 gives 9.289. Typing this into the size box, the image increases in size. A check with the ruler again shows me that the checked value is now 7.6691 - good enough for me! I now know that my drawing will give me a correctly sized chimney in 4mm scale. I just have to make sure that the chimney I create is the same size!

 

 

I'll show the manual stretching in the next post.

Edited October 11, 2014 by JCL

[JCL]

Hi there

 

I'm afraid I have to go out as it's Canadian Thanksgiving, but I have made some progress as you can see from the image below. It's a bit rough and ready at the moment, so I'll do it again next week and write up from scratch my steps from importing the background image onwards. The chimney won't be absolutely smooth on the fillet, but it may be good enough given the size of the part. It depends how much work you want to put into placing the mesh. If you would like to get ahead of me, see pages 39 to 41 of Paul Hobb's tutorial. I'll be redoing it, including pointing out a couple of gotchas so it can be followed in the latest version of Blender. I'll also explain about meshes

 

Edited October 12, 2014 by JCL

[37114]

Hi Jason

 

Thanks for starting this thread, definitely inspiring me to have a go when I have some more time in the new year.

[JCL]

Thankyou Rob.

 

So, here we go, this is how I created this chimney.

 

 

Setting Up

1. Delete the cube that is there in a new workspace by default
2. Change the view to Orthographic by clicking on View -> View Persp/Ortho
3. Change the view to Front. You do step 2 and 3 so that you can see the Background image when you import it.
4. Change the units to mm as described in post 30.
5. Click on the tiny + to the left of the workspace in the top right of your screen to show the panel.
6. Put a tick in the box next to Background Images
7. Click on the triangle to the left of that box to open up the Background Images properties.
8. Click on Add Image, click on the Open button
9. Do your calculations, again see post 30, to make your image the right size. The result is in position 1 in the image below.

 

All of the above I've been through before. This bit is new. Personally I found that it was easier to line everything up correctly if the centre of the chimney was over the blue line of the Z axis (denoted with a 2 in the above image). That is where Z = 0. If I had cropped the background image to just the chimney, and the chimney was symmetrical, then the blue vertical line showing z = 0 would correspond to the vertical line on the chimney drawing. As it is, I'll have to move the drawing slightly.

 

To move the drawing, I simply had to change the value in X near the number 3 in the diagram until the centreline of the image lined up with the blue vertical line. In my case, the Y value was -1.960.

 

 

I also wanted the top of the smokebox to correspond to 0 on the y axis, so I did this by amending the number in the y axis box. You can see in the above image that Y was 0.750.

 

So, now my chimney is the right size for 4mm scale and in the right position for me to work with it.

 

 

Next I need to move the 3D cursor shown in the image above to the edge of the chimney (shown as 1). This is where the new object will be centred, and I choose Add -> Mesh -> Plane as per the above image.

Now, I change the mode from Object to Edit (3 in the above image), which will give me a Mesh menu option.

From the Mesh menu, I choose Mesh -> Vertices - Merge -> At Cursor to bring the Plane to a single point.

 

Creating the Profile

 

From post #12 you will see how I set up the profile. In the previous post to this one, you can see that I did the fillet in three steps as a test. If I want to make a smoother curve I'll add more steps.

Creating the profile goes something like this.

1. Make sure your first point is highlighted (that single point we created just above)
2. Press the E button, then the Z button, and finally move the mouse up to send a line vertically upwards. Click on the left mouse button to finish this line segment.
3. Press the E button then move the mouse over the line showing the edge of the chimney, Click on the left mouse button to finish this line segment.
4. Do the same again until you want the line to move horizontally, then press the E button then the X button and move the mouse cursor along the screen, Click on the left mouse button to finish this line segment.
5. Keep doing this until you are almost done.

When creating the inner wall, you will be moving the cursor horizontally by constraining it to the X axis (by pressing the Extrude, Xaxis buttons. As you move the cursor, the

Your last point should be somewhere near your first point. I selected with the right mouse click my first point. This was at X=0, Y=0, Z=0, so I right clicked my last point again, and made sure this was also 0,0,0 using the "Transform" number boxes in the top right. See the image below for the pre-adjustment info.

 

 

I now have a profile that I can use to make the chimney. To make life easier for myself, I'm only going to create 1/4 of the chimney, and then mirror this so that any changes I make in that quarter will be echoed around in the mirror images. Paul Hobbs does it this way, but it took me a little while to work out why I couldn't get this working. Here goes:

 

Spinning

1. First of all I changed the View to Top. Note, only the profile changes direction, the Background Image stays the same.
2. Move the 3D Cursor back to 0,0,0
3. Pressing the A key twice selected the whole profile.
4. Change the pivot point to the 3D cursor by pressing the spacebar, type origin, choose Set Origin from the list, Click on Origin to 3D cursor.
5. Click on the Tools tab at the top left of the screen.
6. Click on the Spin button with a setting of 90 degrees, and 12 steps (the more steps you have the smoother it will be, but the more work you will have and the larger the file will be). See the image below for more details

Spin Properties

 

Mind the Gap

 

There is one problem with this, which is that, although the first and last point on the profile shared the same space, they were still two separate points, and therefore, if I tried to edit the points a gap will open up. See the Mind the Gap Image. To stitch this edge together;

1. I selected all (A button, then A again until your object glows orange).
2. Then clicked on the Remove Doubles button underneath the Spin button.

Now I create my smokebox using a cylinder. Because everything is centered at 0,0,0, it's easy to make sure that the X value of the new boiler is the same as that as the chimney. I also move the boiler up until the top just touches the 3D cursor at 0,0,0. My boiler is 22mm in diameter, so it needs to be 1.1mm below the central point, so X = 0, Y = 0, Z = -1.1cm

 

Mirror

 

1. To create a full chimney:
2. Change the view to Top
3. Your chimney should already be selected from before, so click on the spanner (1)
4. Add Modifier (2)
5. Choose Mirror (4)
6. Click on X and Y, but don't click on Apply. Not just yet.

 

Deformation

 

So, you have a whole chimney, but the bottom edge needs to touch the smokebox. As I mentioned earlier, you only need to do this for one quarter of the chimney as the other three quarters will take care of themselves. To do this;

1. I changed from Object Mode to Edit Mode.
2. Then I clicked on a point to select it and dragged it down below the surface of the smokebox, as I dragged, I pressed the Z key to make sure that I was dragging vertically.
3. I continued around the bottom layer so that there weren't any gaps.
4. Then I started on the next row. This time, each point needed to be the same height above the smokebox.
5. Finally, I moved the other rows downwards. Each time making sure the Z key had been pressed after starting each downward drag.

You are aiming for each row of points to produce a smooth curve.

 

One tip that works for me is to click on each point, drag it down, press Z and then slowly drag it up into place.

 

 

I finished with the chimney fillet shown below. It'd be good to check photos to make sure you get this shape correct. I did notice on the chimney I'm modelling that the top row of the fillet was the same height all the way around.

 

When you have spun your chimney around, and you are happy with the shape of the fillet, just change from Edit mode to Object mode, and then click on the Apply button under the mirror modifier on the right of the screen.

 

 

------

 

As you can see, there are a fair few steps, and although I wrote the post as I recreated the chimney, I may have missed some bits. Please let me know if any of this doesn't make sense of if I've missed anything. Also, if there is a better way of doing this, please let me know.

 

cheers

 

Jason

Edited October 13, 2014 by JCL

[JCL]

Hi Mike, I'm sorry, I should have written this first, I think the Bezier curves sound great, but I've no idea how to use them. Do you think you could give me an idea how I would set one up?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[Revolution Mike]

Hi Jason

 

The bezier curves work in a very similar way to mesh vertices, but you have more options in terms of modifying them using the handles and control points.

 

IIRC, each curve has a minimum of two control points which you can place like a vertex and then deform the line between them into a suitable curve using the handles (the long (or short) coloured line attached to each control point).

 

You can use subdivide (and possibly extrude) to add more points as necessary. You can keep doing this to draw complete shapes.

 

Once you are happy with the shape then convert to a mesh (and you can fill/extrude as necessary).

 

I'm afraid my use of them is more trial and error rather than method!

 

Cheers, Mike

[JCL]

Thanks Mike, I've had a quick look on YouTube and found this. It's a step-by-step which goes into detail.

 

 

I'll have a go with it and see if the curves remain editable after creating the mesh using the spin button.

[JCL]

Now that I've got my chimney, I'll get some basics out of the way. These were covered in the videos I linked to in post #3, but I'll provide a brief description here as well.

 

Modes

Throughout the building of the chimneys I've been talking about changing from Object Mode to Edit Mode and back again (other modes are available). The two modes I've been using can be described as follows:

• Object Mode allows you to perform actions on the object as a whole. This can include moving, resizing (scaling), and rotating the object. If an action can't be performed when you are in Object Mode, a warning will be displayed above the main 3D window.
• Edit Mode allows you to change the shape of the object (also known as deforming the object). In the chimney example above, I was in edit mode to change the shape of the fillet so that it will touch the surface of the boiler all the way around the chimney. When in edit mode your object will show a mesh that will provide you with the points that you can push, pull or otherwise amend to change the shape. Again, you can see this in the chimney example in post #33.

For further information on modes see here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Interface/Modes

 

Objects

In Blender, objects include cameras, lamps, curves, meshes and surfaces. Basic objects, that I've been using are described as Mesh Primitives. These include cubes, spheres, rings, planes, circles, cylinders and cones. The idea is that these primitives will give you a starting point from which you can create your custom object. Other primitive objects such as gears and pipe joints are available as add-ins.

 

Meshes

The best description of a mesh I've found is in Wikipedia. The illustration below shows the component parts of the mesh. The points I have mentioned are vertices, the lines connecting the vertices are edges, and edges that are a closed unit are called faces.

"Mesh overview" by Mesh_overview.jpg: Original uploader was Rchoetzlein at en.wikipediaderivative work: Lobsterbake (talk) - Mesh_overview.jpg. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesh_overview.svg#mediaviewer/File:Mesh_overview.svg

 

In the example below, I have selected two vertices, which in turns means that the edge between them is also selected.

 

Here, four vertices and four edges have been selected, as has the face.

 

I selected the face by making sure I was in Edit Mode, then right click on the first vertex, then pressing down the shift key while I right clicked on the other three. Shift and right click will select individual vertices. Pressing Ctrl and right clicking on two vertices will select those vertices and all of the other vertices between them as shown below.

Edited October 15, 2014 by JCL

[JCL]

I've just created a dome using exactly the same method as the chimney in the post above. I think making use of the 3D Cursor at 0,0,0 has definitely helped. The only thing I had to make sure was that the top of the profile, in the very top-centre of the dome was at x=0. If I didn't do that I would mistakenly create a hole at the top of the dome. I've created a few chimneys and a couple of domes now while practicing for this thread, and it does get easier to create smooth transition lines around them. I'm nowhere near expert, but things are looking up.

 

 

Until now I've been creating parts using only one object. Next I'll be creating a smokebox door from a number of different objects, so I'll see how I get on.

Edited October 13, 2014 by JCL

[uax6]

Both the chimney and the dome are looking amazing. Given that the images on here are something like ten times the real thing, I can only hope that the printed things will be even better....

 

Andy G

[JCL]

Thanks Andy, once I get the smokebox done, I'm going to give them a go.

[MikeTrice]

So a simple question. How long has it taken you to watch the videos, read manuals and get as far as you have so far? It looks as if you are getting into your stride with this now.

[JCL]

Hi Mike

 

This is what happens when my physical stuff is packed away for a while. I downloaded Blender just before my first post, so I started on the 6th October. I guess that, on average, I've done a couple of hours per day most days since then, although there was one day when I went on a bender, so probably about 12-15 hours so far. Most of that has been trying stuff out and hitting dead ends. About two hours have been writing up my step-by-step posts. I've also been having a go at different ways to do the same thing, just in case there is a better method. For example, I'm having a go now at producing a dome using a sphere, cutting off the bottom half and then extruding that downwards, and eventually outwards. I've probably also done a couple of hours of reading and tutorial watching. I tend to dip into manuals to the bit that I need rather than read from front to back - a product of my IT contractor career I think. Blender appears to be in transition, so I think tutorials are better than buying a manual. That said, I did get one, but I'm not sure it was such a good buy.

 

Does that help?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[JCL]

Got it! (I think).

 

I've been playing around with the dome again as I got the flare at the bottom completely wrong. Checking my Locomotives Illustrated edn 126, the chimney the flare is stretched, but on the dome the flare has the same radius all the way around. If you look, you will see that it just starts lower and lower down the dome as you go away from the centre of the boiler. After a lot of playing around, I came up with the following.

 

1. Create the boiler.
2. Create the dome using the Paul Hobbs' profile, spin and mirror method shown in post #33. The bottom vertical section of the dome should be long enough so that, no matter how you rotate it it doesn't come higher than the boiler side. You can see this to the side of the editing in the above image.Make sure the dome is exactly over the centre of the boiler, again as shown in post #33.
3. The dome in the above image has four surfaces at the bottom. Select them all either using Shift-RightClick on each, or click the first, and Ctrl-RightClick on the last one. This will highlight the selected vertices in orange.
4. Next, click on the Transform button top right, or press G (for grab) and then Z (to constrain the move to the Z axis) to drag the selected vertices downwards. Press LeftClick to ok the move. I keep going until each set of faces are the same height above the boiler as the ones at the top 90 degrees around the dome.
5. I carry on around the dome, selecting each set of vertices and dragging them down until I get to the 90 degree mark. Then I go back and make sure that the curve I've created is smooth by moving certain vertices up and down in relation to their neighbours to the left and right. I end up with the dome shown below.

It's really important that you keep moving the dome as you work, not just from left to right, but up and down, and zoom in and out. Because of the nature of the bottom curve, a smooth looking like in one view might look kinked if you look at the dome in a different direction.

 

This method with the curve the same radius all the way around is a lot easier and faster than the way I had to do the chimney one which needed a good eye, an a lot more checking.

 

[JCL]

 

I keep going until each set of faces are the same height above the boiler as the ones at the top 90 degrees around the dome.

 

This can still be hit and miss, so move the boiler upwards by the amount that you would be guessing in the above step. Then move each set of faces down so that the outer one rests on the boiler. You're practically guaranteed a smooth edge to this type of flange. Then move the boiler down again to its proper position.

 

[KeithHC]

Wow Jason another thread to follow. I am also slowly ​dabbling with 3D. Anyone out there using Solid Works! On the subject of 3D printers I was at the Bristol Model Engineering show a couple of months ago. The stand that had lots of people looking at was a local company to Thornbury Reprappro https://reprappro.com/ My son-in-law is considering getting one hence my dabbling. All the best.

 

Keith 

[JCL]

I'm going to tackle the smokebox next. This should be much easier than the dome and chimney because it's a shallow dome on top of a flat surface. I've had a go at producing the profile using a Bezier curve, but unfortunately the spin command only works with meshes, and a Bezier curve isn't a mesh. So for me, it's basically the same method as last time; produce a profile, then spin it.

 

My drawing has the smokebox shown in front and profile view, so I'll use the profile view to create, well, the profile, then use the plan to sort out the extras such as hinges. I'm going to put a hole in the middle so that third party handles can be used.

 

Since I first started doing this I've go to know some of the keyboard shortcuts. It was pointed out earlier that I should get to know them, and you soon start to realise that they really speed up your work. Especially when the alternative is to hunt through the menus.

 

So, with that I mind:

1. I aligned the profile of the smokebox door so that the middle point was at 0,0,0.
2. I then made sure the 3D cursor was also at 0,0,0.
3. I added a circle with 100 or so segments, then sized and moved it until an arc of the circle matched the arc of the smokebox door profile. This will be my guide for creating the profile.
4. This time, I changed to edit mode by pressing the Tab key.
5. The plane was still selected, so I pressed Alt+M to merge the vertices to one point, it doesn't really matter which option you use. This is much faster than hunting through the menus!
6. Then I added a plane as before, making sure that on the curved section of my profile aligns to the circular guide. I zoomed in so that I could add more points to the profile, so making it very smooth. I also included the front 1mm of the smokebox so that it would be thick enough to be printed. If I'm to create the whole smokebox later, I'll use the transform function to extend the smokebox out to make it full length.
7. I hid the guide, later I'll delete it after I'm happy with the door.
8. I then clicked on the spin function in Edit Mode that I used before on the chimney (don't forget to move the 3D cursor and the the spacebar menu -> set origin to set the origin to the 3D cursor), and used a 360 degree spin. This time the dome is the same shape all the way around, so I didn't need to do a 90 degree spin and mirror.
9. I've assumed that the dart will have it's own flange at the back, so I didn't include this on the door. I don't have a dart to hand, so I've made the hole 1mm in diameter for now.

So this is where I am now. Hinges and everything else to come.

 

Creating the circle as a guide.

 

Creating the profile to include the hole in the middle for the dart

 

As you can see, I've left the profile open - I've not included the left hand (bottom on the actual profile, I rotated the photo) vertical as this will be solid.

 

The basic dome showing the number of steps I took to create the surface. Each click became a concentric circle.

 

The dome without the mesh showing - the guide made a huge difference.

 

Here's the actual profile that I've redrawn in a graphics program to make it clearer.

Edited October 16, 2014 by JCL

[JCL]

I've decided to bite the bullet and, following Corbs, I'm going to produce the whole loco.

 

D3, 4356 at Skegness F.R. Hebron*

 

I'll give you a potted history. I'm slowly modelling Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. No particular year (things didn't change much), just a month; September. In the 1920's, Wainfleet usually had one of three D3s at its shed - 1356, 1358 and 1360 (later 4356, 4358 and 4360). I've two photos in Locomotives Illustrated of 4356 and 4360 actually at Skegness, the end of the line in LNER guise in 1925 and 1n26, and 1358 in June 1928. Before being converted to D3, they were all D4s. 4356 was condemed in 1946, 4358 in 1937, and 4360 in 1935. To confuse matters, the GNR D2 was the LNER D3, the GNR D3 was the LNER D4, and some LNER D4s were converted to LNER D3s.

 

There were a few differences between members of the class. The main ones being:

• Three different chimneys
• Two different domes
• Ramsbottom and Pop safety valves
• Different length boilers
• Different diameter boilers
• Two running plate styles
• Two splashers styles
• Four different cabs

I'm going to use Corb's and Paul Hobb's idea of creating half of a loco and then mirroring the other side. Although I'll put the boiler in, it's exactly 20mm in diameter 4mm scale, so I'm also going to see if there's a big difference in price with the printers if I leave the boiler out and use some 2cm pipe.

 

* I think I'm ok with a small photo for educational purposes, but please delete if not.

Edited October 17, 2014 by JCL

[JCL]

Smokebox Door Hinges

 

My problem here is that I need to get the hinges to a similar profile to that of the door. It took a little while, but I think I've managed it ok now.

1. First of all I saved my smokebox door with a new name so that I can go back to the old one if necessary. I also deleted the circular guide in my new file.
2. Next, I made sure that my view was set to front, and I was looking at the wireframe. This is a little button to the right of the Object Mode/Edit Mode button at the bottom of the workspace.
3. I left clicked the middle of the top hinge, to move the 3D cursor to it's centre.
4. Finally, I added a cube, and changed its size amending the values in the Location and Dimensions properties. You can see in the top right of image 1 that I have also started naming my objects so that I don't have to hunt around for them.
5. In Object Mode, I selected the bottom hinge.
6. Then I clicked on the spanner
7. Clicked on Add Modifier and Boolean,
8. Chose "Difference" and then chose the Smokebox
9. Finally I hit Apply

As you can see in figure two, I'm left with what looks like an etch where the proto-bottom hinge was.

1. I clicked on Front View
2. Clicking the Tab key, I made sure I was in Edit Mode and that the bottom hinge was selected.
3. I clicked on A to select all of the top face of the mesh.
4. I moved the view so that I could see the smokebox at an angle
5. I clicked on E to start extruding
6. I then pulled upwards using the mouse until the top face of the new hinge was about .35mm higher than its original position (the distance moved is shown in the red box in image 3)
7. I then clicked to accept the new height.
8. Finally I did the same with the top hinge.

Adding, editing and naming cubes

 

Flattening them against the top of the smokebox

 

Extruding them so they stand proud

 

The finished product.

 

Next, finishing off the hinges and adding handrail holes.

[JCL]

Not quite the finished product. I've changed the shape of the door slightly to remove some of the volume from the back. I have also made the 1.2mmhole in the middle for the dart the entire thickness of the smokebox, hence the fact that the leftmost vertical edge of the profile doesn't correspond with the pivot point (the orange dot inside the white circle). The thinnest point is 1.2mm, and the flat part at the back, which will form the smokebox wall is currently 1.5mm across.

 

Can anyone tell me a recommended thickness for the smokebox and boiler so that they aren't too fragile?

 

 

cheers

 

Jason

[AJ427]

Not quite the finished product. I've changed the shape of the door slightly to remove some of the volume from the back. I have also made the 1.2mmhole in the middle for the dart the entire thickness of the smokebox, hence the fact that the leftmost vertical edge of the profile doesn't correspond with the pivot point (the orange dot inside the white circle). The thinnest point is 1.2mm, and the flat part at the back, which will form the smokebox wall is currently 1.5mm across.

 

Can anyone tell me a recommended thickness for the smokebox and boiler so that they aren't too fragile?

 

smokebox-6.png

 

cheers

 

Jason

 

Depends what material you will print in. I use Shapeways FUD and find 1mm wall thickness for these parts is quite adequate and allows easy handling for sanding down to smoothness.