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Whats on your 2mm Work bench


nick_bastable
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I recently acquired this loco - an LMS 2P 0-4-4 T, 41903. I think its been built by John Greenwood as there are tell-tale signs such as the bogie (sprung to the chassis, sides isolated and connected to the frames electrically), the way the DG couplings are formed and attached through the chassis to the body, and the general high quality workmanship. Maybe Jerry can ask John if he remembers building the loco.

 

post-12813-0-61144100-1542712003_thumb.jpg

 

post-12813-0-61339800-1542712025_thumb.jpg

 

post-12813-0-60498500-1542712037_thumb.jpg

 

The model must have been built a long time ago as it has a very old (pre Ultrascale) gear set (36:1). As can be seen its built as an N gauge chassis, and I've now managed to remove the brake pull rods and wheels, and I hope to replace the latter with finescale sets, though I should be concentrating on my Fowler 2-6-4 T second test etches really.

 

Nig H

 

 

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I recently acquired this loco - an LMS 2P 0-4-4 T, 41903. I think its been built by John Greenwood as there are tell-tale signs such as the bogie (sprung to the chassis, sides isolated and connected to the frames electrically), the way the DG couplings are formed and attached through the chassis to the body, and the general high quality workmanship. Maybe Jerry can ask John if he remembers building the loco.

 

attachicon.gifLMS 0-4-4 T.jpg

 

attachicon.gifLMS 0-4-4 T #2.jpg

 

attachicon.gifLMS 0-4-4 T #3.jpg

 

The model must have been built a long time ago as it has a very old (pre Ultrascale) gear set (36:1). As can be seen its built as an N gauge chassis, and I've now managed to remove the brake pull rods and wheels, and I hope to replace the latter with finescale sets, though I should be concentrating on my Fowler 2-6-4 T second test etches really.

 

Nig H

Hi Nigel, it certainly looks like one of John's. The wheels are another tell tale, John made his own with 2mm centers and N gauge rims. Can you bring it along to Warley so I can have a closer look. I will bring the Johnson 0-4-4T which is also a JG N gauge build waiting to be converted.

I will ask him about it next time we speak but he never kept a formal record and his usual answer when I ask him if he built such and such a loco is - 'I cant remember, probably'!!

 

Jerry 

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I blame Justin for this......

post-1467-0-02677800-1542791464_thumb.jpeg

Having seen the prints he produced using Julia’s wheels, I did some research into the Anycubic Photon and decided that £345 was too good a price to pass on considering the quality of the prints it can produce for the cost. I’ve started having a dabble with Fusion360, which is free if you promise not to use it commercially, and the prints in the photo above were the first ones off the platform. To say I’m impressed would be an understatement, and it beats anything I’ve had from shapeways hands down.

There are a few lessons from this first run, mainly relating to supports, but this has the potential to be an excellent investment.

I never thought I’d have a need in life for a UV nail polish lamp though........

Tom.

Edited by TomE
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I blame Justin for this......

 

attachicon.gifDDEAB7D2-C988-4846-A62D-BC42EF3734AC.jpeg

 

 .... Anycubic Photon .... £345 ... quality of the prints ....

 

Hi Tom,

 

It looks very impressive, and tempting at that price.

 

I know very little about 3D printers, but I read a comment (here) that DLP printers are "messy and smelly to use - be prepared for odors which are worse that those from ABS in FDM printing". Is that correct in your view? Is it feasible to introduce one of these things into the average household without provoking outrage from the rest of the family, or is it strictly for the man-cave?

 

regards

Graham Roberts

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Hi Graham.

 

The resin does smell, there is no denying that, but perhaps not as bad as some people around the web make out. I left the printer running in the kitchen overnight with a window open and extractor fan on and could smell it in the morning but I wouldn't say it was overpowering. I have seen various extractor fan filter modifications which attach to the printer to further reduce the smell but if you do have a workshop or a garage it is probably better off in there. 

 

I didn't find the cleaning process that messy, but you need to be well prepared. The plate and resin vat are easily cleaned with IPA (You need more of this than anything else) and any excess resin poured back into the bottle using the filter funnels provided with the printer, so there is very little wastage. I'd say it's no more of a chore to clean than an airbrush. 

 

It's early days, but I can really see this becoming one of the best investments I've made for modelling in a long time, plus I'm learning a new skill via the use of 3D modelling software. 

 

Tom  

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. I'd say it's no more of a chore to clean than an airbrush. 

 

 

Agreed - and that's a really good analogy! 

 

I get the impression most of the people using the Photon for modelling are wargames/fantasy figure modellers and they're probably not used to the kinds of smells and mess that most of us as 2mm modellers are used to, from soldering, airbrushing etc.

 

J

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There are a few lessons from this first run, mainly relating to supports, but this has the potential to be an excellent investment.

 

Interesting to see your results Tom, particularly the boiler. I've done a lot of 3d printed tanks but support is always a challenge with cylindrical objects like this.

 

So far I've stuck to Shapeways FUD/FXD (or whatever they call it now). With this the support issues appear as a rough finish where the was is in contact. Not too bad on a welded tank but a nightmare on a riveted one.

 

I've considered using SLA/DLP several times but have been put off by the prospect of lots of sprue type supports being attached to the lower surface.

 

So did your boiler work without having the middle supported or is that one of the lessons?

 

Don't suppose you are at Warley?

 

Regards, Andy

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Hi Andy.

 

So did your boiler work without having the middle supported or is that one of the lessons?

Yes, and no! It worked in so much as it printed ok, but the center part of the boiler is solid which looks like it has caused it to warp due to the smoke & fireboxes being hollow. The extra suction in the solid areas as it leaves the plate probably caused this and it’s the same on both boilers. I’m redrawing the boiler as a hollow model which will hopefully resolve that problem.

 

I should be at Warley on Sunday.

 

Tom.

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attachicon.gifimage.jpegattachicon.gifimage.jpeg

 

I'm putting together a rake of Midland coaches I have four of these but no brake ends these appear to be Bill Bedford etches so maybe I'll give him a call or I have noticed that Worsley Works do some Midland etches so maybe they might do

 

John

 

Worsley do have some Bain arc roof stock that include some brake ends. Bill Bedford doesn't do his etches any more.

 

Chris

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Hi Andy.

 

 

Yes, and no! It worked in so much as it printed ok, but the center part of the boiler is solid which looks like it has caused it to warp due to the smoke & fireboxes being hollow. The extra suction in the solid areas as it leaves the plate probably caused this and it’s the same on both boilers. I’m redrawing the boiler as a hollow model which will hopefully resolve that problem.

 

I should be at Warley on Sunday.

 

Tom.

 

I'm interested in the speed of production. Results look most encouraging but I suspect the whole process would be too slow for any sort of volume.

 

Chris

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Yes, it's not a quick job, either creating the original file or printing! That said, printing time isn't determined by the volume of the print, rather the exposure time per 'slice', so if your model has 500 slices and you expose for 10 seconds per slice it will take 1 hour 38 minutes to print plus extra time for the base which is usually exposed for longer. The prints in the photo above took 5 hours 25 minutes.

 

I've started from scratch on the boiler and added some more details as I've learnt a few new tools in Fusion.

 

post-1467-0-50905600-1542935721_thumb.jpg

 

Hoping to print this tomorrow night.

 

Tom.

Edited by TomE
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Yes, it's not a quick job, either creating the original file or printing! That said, printing time isn't determined by the volume of the print, rather the exposure time per 'slice', so if your model has 500 slices and you expose for 10 seconds per slice it will take 1 hour 38 minutes to print plus extra time for the base which is usually exposed for longer. The prints in the photo above took 5 hours 25 minutes.

 

I've started from scratch on the boiler and added some more details as I've learnt a few new tools in Fusion.

 

attachicon.gifboiler.jpg

 

Hoping to print this tomorrow night.

 

Tom.

 

Hi Tom, nice boilers! Have you thought about adding the rivets?

 

I'm interested in what exposure times you are using on the Photon, I've been doing some experimenting and got to this reasonably happy state of affairs at an 11 second exposure using a 0.02mm layer thickness.

 

post-943-0-65778500-1542998914.jpg

 

Many thanks

Edited by Atso
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Hi Tom, nice boilers! Have you thought about adding the rivets?

 

I'm interested in what exposure times you are using on the Photon, I've been doing some experimenting and got to this reasonably happy state of affairs at an 11 second exposure using a 0.02mm layer thickness.

 

Many thanks

 

Thanks Steve. 

 

Yes, I've thought about adding rivets..................................  :crazy:

 

 

 

Nice work on the coach! The first set of prints were 0.05mm layer thickness with a curing time of 8 seconds. I'm just about to try a second print with the new boiler at 0.02mm layer thickness, although I'm experimenting with printing 4 boilers at angles from vertical to 75 degrees, so it's going to be long print!

 

Hopefully they come out looking something like this:

 

post-1467-0-50338400-1543005749_thumb.jpg

 

It'll be a nail-biting first hour or so until the first glimpse of the print is visible above the resin vat!

 

Tom.  

Edited by TomE
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Great to see what Tom has been doing with this 3D print malarkey. I am almost tempted!!

 

Now for those who prefer a bit of old school tech, some soldering and basic woodwork!

 

Here is the start of my new layout Drws y Nant. Main boards are built and this fiendnish bit of track would either work or kill the project. Happily it all seems OK up to here, so a bit of cleaning up and sorting the point tiebars will finish off this section.

 

post-25417-0-87541800-1543054702_thumb.jpg

 

The trackbed rises from the lower ground at the front of the layout, then there is a river immediately behind, then a road then lots of trees. And I mean LOTS and LOTS of trees! The square area drawn on the boards will be the level crossing.

 

post-25417-0-11936300-1543054845_thumb.jpg

 

This crossover is unlike any other formation I have seen with the imbalance in length meaning that the through line closest to the front passes through the diamond. Figuring the isolation cuts as it was built was fun :O and I could only use elements of templot to create it.

 

Having got that done using the etch chairplates that Laurie Adams designed, laying the rest of the plain track with Easitrac should seem straightforward. I did find that I used a lot more slide chairs than expected, cut in half for the tricky bit in the middle.

 

This is all hopefully going to add up to a faithful rendition of the prototype. The real place is between Bala and Dolgellau so all my existing rolling stock from Llangerisech will be at home.

 

cheers all

Nigel

 

 

 

 

 

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After fitting the remaining signal wire posts to Kirkallanmuir I decided to make a small inroad into the pile of my etched wagon kits I have lying.

 

 post-25077-0-34686600-1543082964_thumb.jpg

 

The left hand 'bogie' was assembled at the Perth Show back in June and was painted a couple of weeks ago to use at our last group meeting to demonstrate fitting the AJ couplings.   The underframe of the one beside it was also part assembled at the show and it was completed and the body added this week, as was the Dia 24 8T open.  These last two are in the paint shop (AKA garage) and have received a couple of coats of red oxide from a rattle can.

 

Jim

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Agreed - and that's a really good analogy! 

 

I get the impression most of the people using the Photon for modelling are wargames/fantasy figure modellers and they're probably not used to the kinds of smells and mess that most of us as 2mm modellers are used to, from soldering, airbrushing etc.

 

J

It’s interesting to see this printer here. There has been a lot of discussion of it on an N Scale centric forum I frequent: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?board=45.0

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The first run of the revised boiler were a bit of a fail. I made the walls thinner than I thought and there was some warping with the Monocure grey resin. I beefed up the walls and gave the Anycubic green resin supplied with the printer a try and this is the result:

 

post-1467-0-60604300-1543174611_thumb.jpeg

 

Lessons learnt so far:

 

  • Supports are a form of dark art! The software supplied with the printer can automatically add them to areas it thinks needs them, but it tends to have them running through the model in some places. On one print they are moulded as part of the firebox so some more experiments are needed in this respect. Also the underneath of the boiler is a bit rough as a result of the supports, so again more testing needed there to minimise this.
  • There are some horizontal lines along the boiler, which may originate with the model as they are parallel to the boiler and not the print angle, so some more learning to do in Fusion to try and eliminate these. 
  • Walls that look thick in Fusion are actually much thinner in real life!

 

I am massively impressed with this printer, considering it allows models to be printed at home within a few hours. With more learning and experience I hope I'll be able to improve on these first attempts. 

 

Tom. 

Edited by TomE
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Any ideas how the speed of production compare to filament extrusion?

 

I'm afraid I don't have any direct experience using a filament extrusion printer. However, the speed of production on an DLP is dependent on the slicing thickness, exposure settings and the orientation of the part. The coach I posted above took around 13 hours to print but was angled up at 30 degrees, sliced to 20um and had an exposure of 11 seconds to ensure warping was eliminated. This may (or may not) be longer than an extrusion machine but I think the quality of the surface finish is far superior to any prints from an extrusion machine that I've seen to date.

 

Hope this helps. 

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