Couple of 3D questions

[KeithHC]

Over the past two years I have begun to get to grip with 3D design and printing. I have a couple of questions which I know you are all able to answer for me. 
A bit of background I have an Ender 3 pro filament printer bought for me as a present by my Wife. After several false starts I now use Designspark Mechanical. I needed software that was stand alone as I was having lots of WiFi issues. I have been drawing various versions of BR(S) DEMUs. So far I have managed sides for Hasting short, too also cover the 3R Tadpole. For the Hampshire units including the Berkshire variation and as most sides are to standard sizes also the Oxted units. Now I know that a filament printer has limitations and as such as I finish a design I do a print just as a prototype to see if I am on the right line. All of these are being done to 4mm scale.

 

Now to the questions at long last……..

 

What resin printers can print out a whole BR mk1 coach body. My Wife wants to buy me a resin printer in addition to the Ender. But I will not rush to the first one available I want to make sure I get it right from the beginning.

 

I am aware that filament has its limitations and therefore at the moment other than windows and door edges there is no fine detail on each design. Do you design at much larger size and scale down or at 4mm. So far I have managed to get down to a rectangle of .25mm width yet I would need to be able to do roof conduits hand rails etc. This would be for printing out on the resin printer.

 

Many thanks for staying with me so far.

 

Keith

[ikcdab]

With a resin printer the limiting factor is the bed size. If you Google any of them, you will see what that size is and whether your print will fit.

Bear in mind though that you can incline the print to get a greater length in.

No doubt you will get a much better result from a resin printer. My experience is that a resin printer is not plug and play.  It takes a lot of fiddling to get it working correctly.

I have had a lot of issues with thinnish resin prints (such as coach sides) warping and I do find them brittle. But it is worth persevering as when it does work, it's great.

Ian

 

 

 

 

[billbedford]

25 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

Do you design at much larger size and scale down or at 4mm.

 

Try 12mm:1foot. It makes juggling real and model dimensions in your head a lot easier.

 

28 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

So far I have managed to get down to a rectangle of .25mm width yet I would need to be able to do roof conduits hand rails etc

 

 You should be able to print surface features done to 0.1 or 0.15mm. Free-standing items of that size are a whole different kettle of fish. 

[LMSfan72]

An Elegoo Jupiter will do it. I print one piece OO gauge bodies on one - examples of the size can be seen in some of these:

 

 

[Durley]

The new Creality Halot Mage would fit a 4mm coach at an appropriate angle. They look like a bit of a bargain compared with other similar size machines.

 

https://store.creality.com/uk/products/halot-mage-8k-resin-3d-printer?utm_source=Creality&utm_campaign=7d1fc81503-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_06_08_26_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-24b15189fe-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=7d1fc81503&mc_eid=5f07354477

[Durley]

2 hours ago, billbedford said:

You should be able to print surface features done to 0.1 or 0.15mm. Free-standing items of that size are a whole different kettle of fish. 

Agreed, this 7mm axle box has the LSWR lettering at 0.35mm tall and the writing is perfectly legible. The individual parts of the letters are around 0.1mm wide.