Guy Rixon's Shapeways shop

[Guy Rixon]

Guy, once again, could these me re-scaled for 7mm? I did buy a set of the other GER 6 wheel ones you re-scaled and they were excellent. Thank you. But I also have etches for a 4 wheeled coach, and these would be perfect.

 

Yes, I'll do this, but it will depend on spare time. Possibly next week, possibly later.

 

EDIT: the set A -> set C conversion is actually trivial, so I went ahead and did it. Set C in 7mm scale is now in the shop. Right now, no test print has been taken, so the price has no mark-up; the first few orders get a discount. When it's been printed successfully I'll add my margin.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[HarryP]

Wasn't able to buy for some reason, but thank you Guy. Kept emptying my basket. I will persevere.

[Guy Rixon]

New product in the shop: vacuum-brake assemblies for LNWR coaches.

There are three variants, from left to right: chain handbrake-linkage; no handbrake; yoke handbrake-linkage.

 

These assemblies have the vertical vacuum cylinder (or "sac") that was used when the automatic vacuum-brake was first introduced on the LNWR. They are modelled from drawings of 30'1" 6-wheeled coaches and the same gear was used in the 28' Mansion-House stock. From c.1892, the vertical cylinder was replaced with a horizontal, dual-piston cylinder. Later still, LNWR stock used another form of vertical cylinder, and these models do not represent that arrangement of brake gear. I made these models as after-market parts for the London Road Models kits of 28' coaches as these come with the horizontal vacuum-sac.

 

The arrangement is a bit different to the norm on other railways. In place of a two-armed centre-crank, there is a cruciform crank. The third arm of this crank connects a return spring which is anchored to the coach underframe and the fourth arm has a clutch that connects to the vacuum piston-rod and the handbrake, via forked levers, allowing these two to operate independently. There is a also vacuum reservoir (the horizontal cylinder with dished ends). All the parts were bolted to the middle longitudinals of the frame, and a part of that framing is included in the print to tie everything together.

 

The print is arranged to mount directly under the chassis of a model coach. It should go on the lateral centreline.

 

The brake pull-rod nearest the floor of the coach was forked to pass round the vacuum piston-rod and I've included this section in the print as it would be hard to make from wire. The hanger at the end of the print, the part that looks rather like the bipod on a light machine gun, is an accurate model of the brake safety loop and not a sprue: do not cut it off. The other pull-rod is of simple, round section, so I have just modelled its connection to the crank. This latter rod slopes up towards the coach floor, just missing the far end of the vacuum reservoir.

 

Users of these prints could consider adding the brake pipework from wire. The pipes aren't part of the model as most of them are too fine to print. I'll post some pictures of piped-up brake-gear when I have them.

[Guy Rixon]

Three new products for your consideration.

 

Some brake assemblies for certain ancient wagons. These were drawn up from a photograph to help a fellow modeller in the S4 society; he needed brakes for 20+ wagons and scratch-building was looking a bit tedious. Probably nobody will want brakes to this exact spec, but it's now fairly easy for me to draw up brakes for similar styles at different wheelbases. If you like this idea, just ask for what you want and I'll see what can be done.

 

A jig for setting up sprung buffers to the correct length. if you like your buffers sprung, and are happy to set them up before fitting to the vehicle, this can help. It works with pretty much all 4mm-scale buffers, not just with my prints.

 

Baseplates to align Bill Bedford's etched axleguards and brakes. I like the Bedford parts, but getting them set up in the right alignment has always been stressful for me. You don't need these aids to use the Bedford parts, but you might find them helpful. I will do other wheelbases on request.

[Bucoops]

Very useful!

[Guy Rixon]

Two new products in development, to be released for sale when I've checked the test-prints.

First, an assembly of brake parts for wagons with 9' 6" wheelbase. Dimension are taken from RCH specifications. The hangers and push-rods are 0.67mm thick, so about twice the thickness of an etched part. I hope this will be a reasonable compromise between scale size and robustness. At any rate, it looks better than the solid hangers one gets in plastic kits. The brake assemblies will be available initially in sprues of 4 parts.

 

The slots in the base of the brake assembly engage with pegs in the new, 9' 6" baseplate:

This fixes the position of the brake shoes relative to the wheels along the length of the wagon; it should remove the risk of the brakes binding due to misalignment. The brake assembly can be adjusted across the width of the wagon to suit P4, EM or OO standards.

 

If this works, I'll do equivalent parts for 9' and 10' wheelbases.

[Guy Rixon]

In other news, Shapeways are playing with their pricing structure again and this round of changes may be particularly disruptive. Full details have not been issued yet but so far we know the following.

1. Prices for existing products will not change until "after the [Christmas] holiday season".
2. Pricing rules for new products will begin on 22nd October this year.
3. There will be a minimum price per print. We don't know the exact minimum, but they've used $7.50 in trials so far.

To work round the minimum price, I will probably have to rework most of my products to sprue more parts per print: e.g. 50 buffer-guides instead of 20 per print. I intend that the price per part should not go up much even if the price per print increases sharply. Some products may disappear from the shop while the models are reworked.

 

I mention this now because if you want the existing products at the current prices, then you need to buy them this year.

[iak]

Very interesting concepts Guy.

I do like the baseplates.

[Penrhos1920]

Guy,

Which Bill Bedford w irons are your baseplates designed for? I think the hole spacing is different on different designs.

[Guy Rixon]

They are designed to match BBFW001-4 "1907 RCH Sprung W-irons 4mm". The test prints went into some Slaters' MR vans and worked very well. I have a few other types of BB axleguards in stock. Tomorrow, I'll measure up and see what might fit.

 

EDIT: I've measured what I have. The "RCH NPCS" axleguards have the 1mm holes at the same spacing as the "1907 RCH" ones, which is useful for fitted vehicles. Of the coach axleguards, I have only the "GWR 6-wheel" variety and they have the 1mm holes set slightly wider. Not that one would be putting the coach axleguards on a short-wheelbase chassis anyway, I guess.

 

What I don't have to measure is the "RCH 1923" type or any of the BR-wagon types. If anybody has those to measure and would like baseplates, please let me know. It's no trouble to compile CADs specially to suit those if I have the dimensions.

 

Further EDIT: the Bedford "RCH NPCS" axleguards have some design issues that prevent them from working properly as etched. Some cutting, filing and strengthening  is needed to get enough clearance for the wheels, and I'll be covering this process over on my workshop thread in due course. I suggest not buying these etches unless you're prepared to spend time mending them. 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[Guy Rixon]

Baseplates for 9' 6" wheelbase are now in the shop. These carry the pegs to locate the printed brake-gear. Baseplates for 9' wheelbase will be available when I get and check the test-print, probably next week.

 

The brake prints are not yet in the shop. The test print looks fine (IMHO), but I made a silly mistake in setting the floor-to-axle-line height and have had to re-do them. They should be available next week. Initially, they will be for 9' and 9'6" wheelbase; I can do others if asked. 

 

I finally got around to assembling the GWR self-contained buffers. The buffer guides are OK, but unfortunately there is a clearance problem between the guides and the collars. I've withdrawn them from sale while I fix this.

[Guy Rixon]

Shapeways have revealed their new, minimum prices. For fine-detail plastic, the minimum is $7.50 per part. This minimum applies to the base price before designer's mark-up. My mark-up on the small prints is typically $1, and every product in my range is arranged as a single part for charging purposes, so the minimum price to customers will be $8.50 per print.

 

Almost all my products in 4mm scale and below cost less than $8.50, so their prices will be automatically be increased by Shapeways to $8.50 sometime after Christmas. Between now and then I plan to increase the number of items per print so that the value is preserved. The 7mm-scale parts are above the minimum already and will stay as they are.

[Guy Rixon]

Two new products today.

 

9' baseplates for Bill-Bedford axleguards is now the mark-2 version with pegs to locate printed brakes (the brakes themselves should be available by next Wednesday). This product now provides three baseplates per print (previously two per print) to reduce the cost per part.

 

Door-vent covers for GER coaches are a new product to enhance the recently-released Eveleigh kits as discussed elsewhere on this forum.

[Guy Rixon]

Brake assemblies are now in the shop. These are for modellers who want to see daylight between the hangers and pushrods for each brake block, but don't feel like soldering up the assemblies from etches.

 

The photo shows my test-print which was washed and primed but not otherwise fettled. There's some printing cruft along the top of the push rods and this can be sanded or scraped flat before painting and fitting.

 

There's a choice of 9' or 9'6" wheelbase so far (other sizes to follow, if requested). Non-reversible shoes are shown and I will do the 9' w/b ones with reversible shoes later. 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[Guy Rixon]

Brakes and baseplates for 10ft wheelbase are now available. Both reversible and non-reversible shoes are available in this size, but each print of assemblies has only one kind of shoe.

[Bucoops]

Three new products for your consideration.

 

Some brake assemblies for certain ancient wagons. These were drawn up from a photograph to help a fellow modeller in the S4 society; he needed brakes for 20+ wagons and scratch-building was looking a bit tedious. Probably nobody will want brakes to this exact spec, but it's now fairly easy for me to draw up brakes for similar styles at different wheelbases. If you like this idea, just ask for what you want and I'll see what can be done.

 

A jig for setting up sprung buffers to the correct length. if you like your buffers sprung, and are happy to set them up before fitting to the vehicle, this can help. It works with pretty much all 4mm-scale buffers, not just with my prints.

 

Baseplates to align Bill Bedford's etched axleguards and brakes. I like the Bedford parts, but getting them set up in the right alignment has always been stressful for me. You don't need these aids to use the Bedford parts, but you might find them helpful. I will do other wheelbases on request.

 

Just received my buffer jig, some GER buffers and window vents. Excellent designs as usual

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by Bucoops

[Guy Rixon]

I have added to the shop brakes and baseplates for 11ft and 12ft wheelbases.

[PenrithBeacon]

Been looking at this thread for a while and I decided to order a single item of the 10’ brakes for trial but as the total cost was c£18 I cancelled, sorry.

[Guy Rixon]

I'll check the prices, unit price shouldn't be as high as £18 and postage should be under £5 to the UK. SW have been messing around with the prices a lot recently, but I didn't think they'd pushed them that high. Apologies for disappointment, it's not me taking the extra money.

 

EDIT: making a mock purchase of one unit of 10ft brakes, reversible shoes in FUD just now, I find the breakdown below. Some things to note:

 

- I think that the prices already include VAT and the VAT listing at the bottom is indicative, not something extra to be added to the £16.64. Otherwise, I can't reconcile the amount in pounds with the actual charge in euros.

 

- The three items don't add up to the given total. SW can't add up.

 

- I can't find any combination of the print, processing and shipping costs for which 20% VAT is £2.78. SW can't multiply either.

 

- The price of this item in the shop is £9.64. The item-price in invoice appears to be that price plus the handling charge, so the total in pounds ought to be £16.63, not £16.64. It's possible that every line in the invoice is individually converted from euros to pounds and this introduced rounding error. 

 

- The shipping is about 40% higher than my last order.

 

- The "handling" charge is new and extremely questionable, since they already have a handling charge and "price floor to cover handling" built into the item price. 

 

So, I think it's not done quite right (and I will ask them about the discrepancies), but if the web site were doing the maths correctly the total wouldn't be much different. Yes, it's too high. Sorry, not in my control. If I set my commission to zero, it would still be too high for a product of this kind.

 

 

ORDER SUMMARY

Items (1) 

 

£10.07

Processing

 

 

 

£0.43

Shipping

 

£6.56

 

Total:

 

£16.64

VAT 20%

 

£2.78

Your order will be charged in EUR. Your total is €18.70 EUR i

Edited December 18, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[autocoach]

 

I'll check the prices, unit price shouldn't be as high as £18 and postage should be under £5 to the UK. SW have been messing around with the prices a lot recently, but I didn't think they'd pushed them that high. Apologies for disappointment, it's not me taking the extra money.

 

EDIT: making a mock purchase of one unit of 10ft brakes, reversible shoes in FUD just now, I find the breakdown below. Some things to note:

 

- I think that the prices already include VAT and the VAT listing at the bottom is indicative, not something extra to be added to the £16.64. Otherwise, I can't reconcile the amount in pounds with the actual charge in euros.

 

- The three items don't add up to the given total. SW can't add up.

 

- I can't find any combination of the print, processing and shipping costs for which 20% VAT is £2.78. SW can't multiply either.

 

- The price of this item in the shop is £9.64. The item-price in invoice appears to be that price plus the handling charge, so the total in pounds ought to be £16.63, not £16.64. It's possible that every line in the invoice is individually converted from euros to pounds and this introduced rounding error. 

 

- The shipping is about 40% higher than my last order.

 

- The "handling" charge is new and extremely questionable, since they already have a handling charge and "price floor to cover handling" built into the item price. 

 

So, I think it's not done quite right (and I will ask them about the discrepancies), but if the web site were doing the maths correctly the total wouldn't be much different. Yes, it's too high. Sorry, not in my control. If I set my commission to zero, it would still be too high for a product of this kind.

 

 

ORDER SUMMARY

Items (1) 

 

£10.07

Processing

 

 

 

£0.43

Shipping

 

£6.56

 

Total:

 

£16.64

VAT 20%

 

£2.78

Your order will be charged in EUR. Your total is €18.70 EUR i

 

Shapeways has recently revised pricing strategy.  In the US a number of maker/designers who used to have Shapeways shops have discontinued selling through Shapeways as the changes made pricing for small parts ridiculous. In some cases designers were able to redesign to increase the number of identical objects on a print sprue to make enough value for the customers to continue to buy through a Shapeways shop. This made sense if you could use 40 widgets instead of 4 but if you only needed the 4 it again became uneconomic for customers. The excess inventory became the customers problem.

 

Problem is you now you have to either own your own printers or find a fast high volume printer service who can rapidly produce a lot of items for you to inventory and sell from inventory. Sort of defeats the 3D printing promise of the future for maker/designers.  This is not good for the maker/designer world.  If you print your own you will have to assume all the functions of a manufacturer.

Edited December 18, 2018 by autocoach

[Guy Rixon]

Stone's ventilators for MR and LMS coaches are now in the shop.

[Stanley Melrose]

I ordered a set of Stones ventilators at the weekend.  Shapeways indicated standard delivery after Easter.  They were delivered this morning and are very nice indeed (even if a tad pricey).

 

What is amazing, however, is that Shapeways and UPS (their chosen delivery firm) made and delivered the order in such a short time, given the current crisis.

 

A pity they can't 3D print toilet paper and get it to the shops at similar speed!

 

Stan

[Guy Rixon]

On 25/03/2020 at 14:59, Stanley Melrose said:

I ordered a set of Stones ventilators at the weekend.  Shapeways indicated standard delivery after Easter.  They were delivered this morning and are very nice indeed (even if a tad pricey).

 

What is amazing, however, is that Shapeways and UPS (their chosen delivery firm) made and delivered the order in such a short time, given the current crisis.

 

A pity they can't 3D print toilet paper and get it to the shops at similar speed!

 

Stan

I've just worked out what happened. SW are offering priority service for any medical prints needed for the virus crisis. I think that any print that has "ventilator" in the title is assumed to be medical. We've accidentally gamed their system.

 

Oh well, I'll have to go and buy them all beers next time I'm in Eindhoven.

[Guy Rixon]

New wagon-baseplates are now in the shop. 9'3" suits most LCDR wagons; their buffer guides are there already and axleboxes will be along when SW sends my test-print. 9'4" suits some SER wagons, like the round-ended opens; buffer guides and axleboxes for those have been available for a while.

[Guy Rixon]

New in the shop: axleboxes and springs for LCDR wagons.

Now I've found a robust way to model springs, similar fittings for other railways may follow.