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Guy Rixon's Shapeways shop


Guy Rixon
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Finally, for today, there is now in the shop a combined set of buffers and axleboxes for GNSR wagons. These can be  bought now, but are currently completely untested. A cautious person might prefer to wait a month or so for the product initiator to obtain and approve test-prints.

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  • 6 months later...

A warning: if you're receiving a package via UPS --- and if you buy from my Shapeways shop for UK delivery you will be, because that's who Shapeways use --- be very cautious about redirecting the delivery to a different address.

 

I've been away from home for a while and I redirected a delivery to save time. If I'd stayed at home, it would have come on the 21st. If I'd let them deliver to the original address I would have got it on the 26th when I was briefly home. As it was, UPS told me on the 24th that the package would come to the alternate address on the 26th ... three days after I left that address. UPS support arranged a second redirect back to the original address, for delivery on the 26th. They then delivered to the alternate, empty address on the 26th --- allegedly --- but a quick search by a neighbour revealed no trace of the package. UPS support are now arranging a search by the original delivery agent to recover the package from wherever they hid it and I should get it on 1st November. The time-saving redirection has cost 6 days and several hours on the phone chasing it. On-line tracking has never given good information about where the package was or when it might move next.

 

The underlying problem seems to be that UPS sub-contract their deliveries, at least for some parts of the UK, and the sub-contractors can't handle redirection efficiently. UPS' tracking system can't see what the sub-contractors are doing. UPS customer support, who are very helpful, can't sort it out quickly because the sub-contractors don't listen.

 

TL;DR: UPS redirection of deliveries is so broken that it's worse than worthless. Don't use it unless you want your goods lost or delayed. Simple delivery to one address specified at purchase should be OK.

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  • 2 months later...

Some new products are now in the shop.

Things in prospect:

  • LNWR no. 4 axleboxes, as used on most of the fitted wagons in the first 10 years of the 20th century. This will become available as a sprue of 20 boxes with springs and spring shoes when I have checked that I have the axlebox in the correct vertical position to allow springing of the model. 
  • Brake assemblies for LNWR vacuum-fitted wagons, similar to those noted above for the SER coaches.
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  • 1 month later...

Recently added are buffers for certain SR express EMUs and coaches.

452972070_IMG_81232.JPG.e974d1d1b7e01978ff00a2c0c02fb1a2.JPG

IMG_8157.JPG.5cca5c6e6529ff0d058112153f677f90.JPG

These are slightly novel (for my stuff) in that they include buffer-head overlays and a mechanism for keeping the heads from rotating. All is written up in the shop.

 

The anti-rotation thingy, which comes down to fitting a sloped, plastic plate that bears on the wedge-shaped buffer-retainer, is experimental. It seems to work on my test pieces. It's the sort of thing that one could make from scrap material, but the printed retainers save some work.

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  • 4 months later...

With regret, I have to announce the withdrawal of the Rixon Finescale Models range from Shapeways.

 

Recently, Shapeways have started to reject items from orders as unprintable, even when the same models have been printed successfully before. They apply rigorously some rules on minimum part-thickness that are not enforced in the automatic tests, so that alleged problems can only be found by ordering a test-print. They apply thse rules retrospectively, so models that have already be test-printed are also likely to fail, and they don't respect the fact that a model has 100% success in printing. Finally, I'm told that any model can be rejected if a Shapeways engineer thinks it might break during processing, so nothing is safe, even if brought into line with the rules.

 

Many of the products in this range are likely to be deemed unprintable under these rules. All the axlebox-spring combinations have to go, and all the brake assemblies. None of those are worth printing if they are made thick enough to meet the rules. Other products may be at risk too, but without doing test-prints of everything I can't be sure which will pass and which will fail. I can't afford to test-print everything again at once!

 

Therefore, I will be taking the whole range off-sale for the foreseeable future. The shop will remain as a record, and I might put some products back on sale if I validate them with test prints; but that would only happen where I need the prints for my own work.

 

I apologise to anybody who's been inconvenienced by this, but Shapeways have put me in an untenable position.

 

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Guy,

 

This really is very disappointing. I have no interest in in full 3D bodies but have found the smaller items produced by yourself and Bill Bedford to be excellent. I am particularly pleased with your GWR self contained buffers.

 

I hope that an alternative facility is possible as Shapeways seem determined to shoot themselves in the feet .

 

regards,

 

Craig W

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Shapeways appear to be a wee stroppy at the moment. 

As someone who has used your items a lot Guy, this is unfortunate. 

However, I understand totally your actions.

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I am not a fan of Shapeways, though I ‘get’ why designers use them.  Impenetrable website, use of the most expensive, slowest, and least reliable delivery service on the planet, and now increased prices post Brexit, though that’s down to the Brexit as much as Shapeways.   We badly need a 3D printing company based in the UK.  

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23 hours ago, The Johnster said:

...  We badly need a 3D printing company based in the UK.  

Yes. It's interesting to consider the desirable characteristics of such a company.

  1. Runs materials that allow very fine details.
  2. Allows customers to print down to near the true limits of those materials at customers' risk. I.e., the "print it anyway option" is more widely available.
  3. Runs materials that allow surfaces to be properly flat without finishing processes that grind off details.
  4. Offers shipping options at a range of prices, including domestic, national mail service.
  5. Supports 3rd-party sales, so the designer doesn't have to be in the supply loop.
  6. Has at least a basic web-site for ordering, with perhaps hooks to connect from a Shopify site.
  7. Doesn't set too high a margin on the print prices.

(That's desired features from the point of view of railway-gear suppliers. Investors would have other demands, of course.)

 

It's the combination that's difficult. Shapeways have managed more of those features than any other company I know of; it's just a pity they now fail on the most important. I know that some modelling societies are investigating domestic printers that do nos. 1 to 4 and no 7, and leaving aside the feature for 3rd-party sales. Perhaps that's the way forward?

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The North American 3 D print shops of Shapeways are no different in their declining quality of service and astronomical pricing. At least we don't have to deal with EU/UK tariff issues (although Canada and Mexico might have issues I do not know about.)

 

The trend I am seeing here (in NA) is that everyone seems to want to own their own printer and buy the print files if they can't create them. There are several interesting RR/Rwy groups on Facebook (which won't steal your firstborn if you just look). https://www.facebook.com/groups/3DModelTrains

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21 hours ago, Asterix2012 said:

Hi Guy

 

I saw this uk based company mentioned on another thread, Hexa Cubed.

 

https://www.hexa-cubed.co.uk/

 

Is this of any use to you?

Thanks for the link. Their material guide for high-detail resin doesn't list minimum wire and wall sizes, so it's hard to be sure, and the firm is shut down for holidays at present. I'll ask them later.

 

AFAICS, they don't offer 3rd-party print-on-demand, so not very attractive to me. I don't want to be in the supply loop. However, if I chose to license my designs to societies, a firm that does good, batch printing with SLA might be very useful.

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