3D printing class 25 parts .... Also class 20,37, 2mm and 7mm wagons and 1/32 bogies

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

The components posted here are VERY impressive and have got me itching to have a try.

 

I have just downloaded Sketchworks, but I have zero experience of any CAD work (and almost a quarter of a century since I did tech drawing at A level).

 

Can anyone recommend a tutorial to get started with the CAD work, possibly specific to Sketchworks or if recommended some other (preferably free) package.

 

All the best

 

Keith

 

 

[simon br blue]

Hi

 

The components posted here are VERY impressive and have got me itching to have a try.

 

I have just downloaded Sketchworks, but I have zero experience of any CAD work (and almost a quarter of a century since I did tech drawing at A level).

 

Can anyone recommend a tutorial to get started with the CAD work, possibly specific to Sketchworks or if recommended some other (preferably free) package.

 

All the best

 

Keith

 

Try serching on youtube for tutorials. If you can't get on with sketchworks try Blender - it's free and there's lots of tutorials on youtube.

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

Cheers. Working through the Google tutorial videos for Sketchup, but might try Blender as well before I get too into it.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[The Fatadder]

Just been catching up on the thread, looking more and more useful a medium as the quality improves

Now starting to have thoughts about firing up solidworks and having a crack at a few parts.

Looks like it might be a good way to do a large number of class 73 chassis details....

[Katier]

Try serching on youtube for tutorials. If you can't get on with sketchworks try Blender - it's free and there's lots of tutorials on youtube.

 

Or if you want to be really extravigant and are a student, pop over to Autodesk.. to my amazement I found anyone with a valid .ac.uk email address can DL all their software.. for free ( for student use only of course )

[Ian G]

The trouble with the student download from Autodesk is that when you plot the drawing, on the boarders it states that it is from an educational version of CAD.

I would like to know if there is a way of changing this.

After a tinker with Solidworks the other day at Uni, autoCAD seams inferior

 

Ian G

[craigwelsh]

After a tinker with Solidworks the other day at Uni, autoCAD seams inferior

 

Ian G

AutoCAD is pretty useless for 3D work, you need the other products from Autodesk. Solidworks is far better as is NX and Catia, all are more expensive as well though I think!

[Neil]

The UPS delivery chap dropped off a print in frosted ultra detail yesterday. It's a rather charming (freelance) 009 passenger brake van, designed by Tebee. Here are a few snaps after I'd been at it with the primer

 

 

 

The surface finish is far better than the white strong that I've had parts printed in before. There has been some ridging along the lower body side that I've attacked with sanding sticks. It's a far more workable material than the white strong, and I believe that any blemishes will disappear once painted and weathered.

[simonhaynes72]

AutoCAD is just much more awkward, though is more powerful as a 3D modeller now than it ever has been.

 

I would look at Autodesk's Inventor, a direct competitor with Solidworks, or the beta Inventor Fusion. Inventor can export as STL or IGES or any other file type for RPing

It depends upon personal choice, and immediate context. Every package has an evangelist!

 

For full scale this is quite interesting to compare: http://www.machineconcepts.co.uk/baldwin242/baldwin.htm

 

Simon

[stadman]

Chris Ward ( http://www.chrisjward.co.uk/ ) was in attendance at Exeter today (Sat www.exemrs.co.uk ). Quitea selection of 3d printed parts on his OO9 display.

Good finish and nice to parts in the flesh, unfortunately don't think he's coming Sunday.

Kevin

[simon br blue]

I've taken a photo of the FUD 4mm class 25.1 cab with a coat of primer on it. This has shown up the couple of problems with the print (as seen on the shapeways forum with some of the other prints). The first area is the extra unwanted bump on the wings of the roof horns. The second problem shown in the pic is the layering of the front of the cab where the surface is nearly flat and the orientation when printing has ment there is some stepping on the area where the sealed up communication doors are. The angle of sunlight has cast some shaddows which make it look worse but thay are stil noticable and would need sanding if the cab was to be used. I have placed another order and included is a 4mm class 25.3 cab in FUD with some more detail added, I'll post some pics when the parts arrive- still taking longer than the expectd 10 days but never mind.

 

 

I have also taken a couple of shots of the T gauge class 25 bodies next to each other to show the level of detail. Left is white, strong and flexible (WSF), middle is white detail and right is frosted ultra detail (FUD). The improvement with the crispness of FUD should be clear to see (even after being hand painted). I've also uploaded a pic of the other end still in sprayed in just primer to show the details. Detail wise I think I could probably add the roof mounted horns and they would print OK but the tail lights will need modifying to get them to show up better. The FUD body has the centre section removed to allow a mechanism to be fitted but I'm not sure if there's one short enough at present. The body side could be thin plasticard with the details painted on.

 

 

 

[Kris]

Amazing the difference in the print quality there. It really shows on the window sections.

[simon br blue]

I've not updateds anything recently but I've still been working on some things.

 

Firstly I've resized a N gauge class 25.3 cab and had it printed in FUD. The pic below shows the cab after a coat of primer and fixed to the cab with blu tack. When it's had a sand, another coat of primer and then the top coat it should look OK. I've also ordered a 25.1 cab and a set of fuel tanks in the next order from shapeways.

 

 

The next pic shows a more detialed version of the class 25 bogies in 4mm - done as a test to see what detail would come out in FUD. I've added the small pipe run along the side of the bogie and also the pushrods for the brakes.

 

 

I also tried a pair of N gauge class 24 bogie sideframes. For these I changed part of the drawings to make the parts thicker to ensure they printed in FUD.

 

 

I wanted to make a set of t gauge bogie sideframes but they would be too thin to print. In the end I printed them with a 1mm thick backing and sanded the back part off before I attached to the original sideframe.

 

 

 

 

As the above pic shows I've now got some T gauge track and an unpowered chassis to experiment on the only problem this has shown up is that the clear body is larger than the class 25 bodies I have printed previously and if I were to put mk1 overlays on it the 25 would look too small when next to them- so I have also ordered a class 25.3 body scaled to the same width as the clear body above. Below is a class 04 and fruit van sitting on the track.

 

 

Below is a pic of some 7mm and 4mm class 20 sideframes. The 7mm version is in WSF and the 4mm version is in FUD.

 

 

The 20 bogie leads me onto the most recent drawing I've been working on- a complete class 20 with only basic details at the moment. I've ordered a Z gauge test of this to see what it looks like in FUD. I've also uploaded a 1/32 scale version to the shapeways site.

 

 

The link below should take you to the page and allow you to view the model in 3D and navigate around it if you hover over the pic and then click 'view in 3D'.

 

http://www.shapeways..._20.html?gid=mg

 

The gauge 1 version works out a bit expensive but could be used as a basis for a resin casting with a little modification.

[backofanenvelope]

Lots of progress there Simon and the Cl 20 is very impressive. I am just starting to get to grips with my TurboCAD having switched from Sketckup.

Tom

[bcnPete]

Excellent work Simon...I am keeping an eye on those 2mm class 25 cab ends...

[AJ427]

The 4mm bogie in particular looks excellent - lots of detail. A question if I may - when you are working with thin parts in FUD do you design the model to Shapeways' minimum tollerences where possible or do you beef it up (i.e make it overscale) anywhere for strength? I'm aware of the minimum 0.3mm thickness allowed but this doesn't give any indication of how strong the material is at that thickness and if it would be brittle or too flexible for everyday modelling use.

[Neil]

I thought it might be useful to show the finished 009 brake van (that was in primer in my May posting) as no matter how rough or exquisite we judge a raw 3D print to be it's the finished item that really counts. I can't claim that applying the paint has been trouble free as my first attempt at applying colour remained tacky after three weeks. Stripping off with thinners and a much more robust coat of primer did the trick allowing Humbrol enamels to dry properly. Nuff words here's the van in gruesome close up.

 

[simon br blue]

The 4mm bogie in particular looks excellent - lots of detail. A question if I may - when you are working with thin parts in FUD do you design the model to Shapeways' minimum tollerences where possible or do you beef it up (i.e make it overscale) anywhere for strength? I'm aware of the minimum 0.3mm thickness allowed but this doesn't give any indication of how strong the material is at that thickness and if it would be brittle or too flexible for everyday modelling use.

 

Most of the parts printed are above the minimum thickness as even if they are printable they might break easily The only part I've broken was a class 25.3 cab in 4mm that broke when I was trying to see how flexible it was I also had the first 4mm class 25 bogie delivered with a partly broken step but this part was very thin anyway. Several of the parts were originally designed for O gauge and to be printed in WSF but when FUD came out I just resized the parts to 00 gauge. The only part that has shown any warping due to thinness is part of the 25 bogie at the top cross member- this was a mistake in the original drawing and was probably just under the 0.3mm limit after being resized.

 

 

 

 

I have given the N gauge 25.3 a coat of yellow and will try to get some blue on when it stops raining.

 

 

I've also got a pic of a 4mm class 58 bogie spring printed in FUD and it looks as good as the smoothed casting I made in resin previously. I also uploaded a complete set after shapeways had put the FUD start up cost onto parts. The only problem was that the files are large when several copies are in the same file. The springs were about 18 meg in size.

 

 

Finally I have painted the first building that I've had printed by shapeways. It's a z gauge depot office from the Wisbech and Upwell tramway to go with the class 04 I have. The building only has basic details on it but one area that came out well was the window frames with must be close to the minimum level of detail possible. Trying to give the impression of bricks wasn't easy but it looks OK from a distance.

 

 

As always comments and advice welcome.

[Tricky-CRS]

How well is the paint setting? I could that the paint came of on some. Have you washed them in anything other than washing up liquid?

 

[AJ427]

 

Most of the parts printed are above the minimum thickness as even if they are printable they might break easily The only part I've broken was a class 25.3 cab in 4mm that broke when I was trying to see how flexible it was I also had the first 4mm class 25 bogie delivered with a partly broken step but this part was very thin anyway. Several of the parts were originally designed for O gauge and to be printed in WSF but when FUD came out I just resized the parts to 00 gauge. The only part that has shown any warping due to thinness is part of the 25 bogie at the top cross member- this was a mistake in the original drawing and was probably just under the 0.3mm limit after being resized.

 

 

Thanks Simon.

[Phil Parker]

Interesting to read the mentions of paint not drying on FUD items. I bought a telephone box, assembled and painted it over a week ago and the paint STILL hasn't dried properly. I used a primer and tin of paint that had worked fine on previous projects so I assume that the material itself has caused the problem.

 

Photos on my blog: http://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/08/3d-printed-4mm-scale-k6-telephone-box.html

 

Phil

[billbedford]

The problem seems to be the wax that is used for support during the build. The parts have to be thoroughly degreased before painting with enamels. I have not had the same problem using acrylics.

[simon br blue]

Another little update but first regarding painting some of the models are easier to paint than others and I'm sure it's to do with the support material left on the surface. On a couple of model I tried coating them with thinners, giving them a scrub with an old tooth brush and then washing them in fairy liquid but I'm not sure it made much difference except turning the surface white. I've painted a couple of Z gauge lorries that I had printed and the paint didn't stick to them as well as other models- They were primed in white and then painted and some paint has chipped off one of them- I've not had any that the paint didn't dry on. On the lorries I actually chipped and scraped the paint off the windows when the models were finished. Also paint doesn't seem to stick as well to models that have more of a yellowish tint to them.

 

 

The most recent print from shapeways seems to be of better quality than the previous orders. There isn't any of the yellowing and most of the parts are free from any leftover support material. The picture below shows some more Wisbech and Upwell parts in Z gauge and they look crisper, clearer and smoother than before. I'm also pleased with the bufferstop as it's quite delicate and it survived the printing and cleaning process.

 

 

This order also has some more N gauge class 25 parts. First were a set of fuel tanks and batteryboxes. only basic detail to test the size but they are about correct.

 

 

I also pritned a couple of cabs - 25/1 and 25/3 and these also match upto the original class 25 body. The 25/1 cab has a bit more detail on it as it's been scaled down from 4mm and all this is visible. I'll have to give them a coat of grey primer at some point so that they show up better in the photos.

 

 

Another model that had printed was a Z gauge class 20 body and bogies, this was mainly to see if the shape looked correct before trying a larger model. The picture below doesn't show the detail very well (another in need of a coat of primer) but the grills and doors are visible in the flesh and the bogies look good- these were a scaled down and thickened version of the 4mm version. The lights and window surrounds are also visible which is suprising considering the size. I think I'll try a N gauge class 20 next to see what the detail looks like and I'll also open out the windows and make the sidewalls thinner to see whats possible.

 

[lyneux]

Latest prints look very tasty. I wonder how/why they are so much cleaner than the earlier ones? Please keep posting pictures... especially keen to see the latest prints with primer on.

[bcnPete]

still loving those 2mm class 25 cabs...look forward to see them primed!