regme Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 (edited) Hi I want to print these stairs in N scale, the first attempt was a failure mainly due to using a true scale version and scaling down. The thickness of the model was too thin, especially the handrails. I gather that modelling structural members at this scale will have to made bigger as the strength will not be there, it's just the appearance that I was after. I'm tempted to just to model the structural members as square sections to give it a bit more thickness. Is there a min thickness before it looks out of scale or in the end It just doesn't matter. Cheers Edited October 3, 2020 by regme typo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flubrush Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 (edited) I have found with the resin I use that 0.2mm thickness is the minimum I can go to to get good reproduction - Phrozen ABS Grey on my Shuffle. To be safe I go to 0.25mm. Where a scale thickness is going to be less than this, then I adjust the parts thickness to 0.2mm or above and see what it looks like. If it looks too thick and heavy, then I have to rethink how I do things - maybe using wire for handrails rather than trying to print it. Feathering a thick edge to make it look thin often doesn't work well since the edge can start to look quite ragged where the thickness of the feathering is down to the minimum thickness or just lower. You might want to try a test print of various thicknesses to see what you printer and resin will reproduce reliably. Jim. Edited October 4, 2020 by flubrush Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
animotion Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 I think you are asking a lot of the printer to print the hand rails and if you could they probably would not be straight. Print the stairs so that they have holes for wire to go into that will make up the handrails. I can print down to 0.01mm on my printer but wouldn't attempt printing what you are trying to print. Think how fragile those handrails would be if they were 3D printed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGO Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 As others have said best case for unsupported structures would be 0.25/0.3mm thick but you can cheat, firstly forget the handrails, either wire or photoetch is what you need to do those, the rest will be difficult but not impossible, I'd do the web of the C channel as 0.5mm thick, the flanges can be 0.25mm thick but make them shorter so that the overall size is correct, the box section column can be solid, the top platform should be at least 0.5mm thick, the stair treads 0.3mm thick and use fine supports on the underside of everything Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmthtrains - David Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 I would simply laser cut the railings out of card instead. David 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
regme Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 Thanks for those suggestions, I'll have another go at. However prior to reading these posts, I ended up doing the following making the handrails 0.2mm dia the stairs and landing 0.25mm thick made the C-sections just a solid member Here's the result on an Anycubic Photon, layers where 0.05mm, with default light supports. Removing the supports was the issue, cracked a few of the handrails at the supports (handling issues, too small for my fingers) but easily fixed using resin and a UV light. What I would do different, in my excitement I UV cured it before removing the supports and I should have dipped it in hot water first then removed the supports. Then maybe the supports would have come off cleaner on the handrails. Also I need a support beam where the stairs connect to the building to make it easier to glue, didn't see that until a test fitted the stairs. The photoetch looks interesting 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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