Hayfields 3D printed track workshop

[hayfield]

Well I had a very interesting evening being helped to fine tune the printer and the printer settings in Cura  The print is about 2/3rds through

 

  Close up or the part print

 

  Half a turnout base finished on the printer bed

 

  A better photo of the finished item waiting for me to clean up the strings

 

  T

 

Temptation got to me, I had some old prototype chairs and could not resist fitting them. Its missing the S1J and block chairs, but who cares.

Please note I was using 1+ years old chairs which are not to the latest specification and the fit may not be as good as the latest plug fit chairs.

 

 

 

 

Martin set up this 3 sleeper test print simply to test the print setup and leveling as it also printed

 

A line of filament was also printed around the edge of the bed, which was used to check depth in each corner for leveling the bed

 

Martins software is very clever as it sets the temperature of both the nozzle and bed

 

The other interesting fact is the cost, this print Martin worked out the cost of the (half turnout) test print at 16p, lets say a full turnout cost 40p to print

 

With C&L selling copperclad timber strips at £33 a pack its £11 just for a set of turnout timbers (Marcway are cheaper, £6 per turnout ?) Or a pack of C&L plastic timbers £12 for 1 and a half turnouts (£8 per turnout) this makes printing a very good financial proposition. That's before you factor in the superb detail and on top of that it can be curved to any radii (including "Y's").

 

Will asymmetrical Y's catch on as they should be ?

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by hayfield

[njee20]

15 hours ago, Vistisen said:

I'm the other way round. I have already bought a resin printer and begun to produce windows with it for scratch-built buildings. But trackbeds will not print well on a resin printer. As far as I can work out, the larger the base area is (and therefore larger track sections), the more difficult it is to get a flat level baseplate. I have an Elegoo Mars3pro resin pinter which I am very pleased with. and I also bought a Elegoo Mercury Plus wash and cure station.  Which makes the whole process og cleaning the resin prints much easier. I am thinking that an Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro might be tne next thing to get.  It has auto base leveling, which I hope will save alot of hassle

I've printed quite a lot of bases just flat on the plate. The problem is with size, where many resin printers are quite limiting, particularly in larger scales. Blind holes (where they're closed off by the build plate) can often fill with resin too - you need long light off delays to allow the resin to drain from the holes before the resin cures in them. I've done some N gauge bases on a Saturn, and they end up very flexible as they're thin, but I don't see that as a bad thing particularly.

 

On FDM I've got a Neptune 2, and honestly the bed levelling just isn't as much of a headache as people say IMO. Certainly nice to have, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think it's standard on all the Neptunes now.

[hayfield]

For most this is very basic stuff, however I have created my first print file

 

 

I guess unless you are into 3 D printing it meant little

 

What I have done is to take a 2D plan in Templot and using Templot's magic made a 3D plan. After running it through 2 programs one similar to 3D builder and the other was Cura and a file is waiting to be loaded on to a DXF card, the trouble is my card is in the printer 

 

 

My printer is working away in the background printing a 1 in 6 Vee filing jig.

 

Next purchase is a second file stick

 

As I said for some its very basic stuff, if it works its a big jump into track building

 

 

[martin_wynne]

10 minutes ago, hayfield said:

For most this is very basic stuff, however I have created my first print file

 

 

I guess unless you are into 3 D printing it meant little

 

What I have done is to take a 2D plan in Templot and using Templot's magic made a 3D plan. After running it through 2 programs one similar to 3D builder and the other was Cura and a file is waiting to be loaded on to a DXF card, the trouble is my card is in the printer 

 

 

My printer is working away in the background printing a 1 in 6 Vee filing jig.

 

Next purchase is a second file stick

 

As I said for some its very basic stuff, if it works its a big jump into track building

 

 

 

Hi John,

 

Whoah! You have made a mistake! You have sliced a timbering base with the profile settings intended for filing jigs. It will print much faster than the first A switch part, and the quality will be very poor.

 

Change to the bricks profile and slice again.

 

So much to think about!

 

martin.

[Penrhos1920]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

 

 

 

My printer is working away in the background printing a 1 in 6 Vee filing jig.

 

 

 

Where did you get the stl for the filing jig?

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Hi John,

 

Whoah! You have made a mistake! You have sliced a timbering base with the profile settings intended for filing jigs. It will print much faster than the first A switch part, and the quality will be very poor.

 

Change to the bricks profile and slice again.

 

So much to think about!

 

martin.

 

As I am waiting for the printer to stop using the TF card I had not saved it, now changed to track

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Penrhos1920 said:

 

Where did you get the stl for the filing jig?

 

Penrhos 1920

 

These jigs are part of the Templot Plug Track system. Once you have designed the turnout you start the process of building the 3D files, within the process you are asked Chairs/Timbers/Jig

 

The facility to print jigs comes with each Template you design, in this case its a simple 1-6 crossing, however if the turnout needs a crossing angle of 1-6.27 then the jig would allow you to print a bespoke jig. Switch rail jigs are in preparation and at some future period will also be available

[martin_wynne]

39 minutes ago, hayfield said:

The facility to print jigs comes with each Template you design, in this case its a simple 1-6 crossing, however if the turnout needs a crossing angle of 1-6.27 then the jig would allow you to print a bespoke jig. Switch rail jigs are in preparation and at some future period will also be available

@hayfield

 

hi john

 

they are available now:

 

 

 

see: https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/using-the-templot-rail-filing-jigs.728/

 

martin.

Edited November 14, 2023 by martin_wynne
link added

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, martin_wynne said:

@hayfield

 

hi john

 

they are available now:

 

 

 

see: https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/using-the-templot-rail-filing-jigs.728/

 

martin.

 

 

Martin

 

That was quick

[hayfield]

  The finished jig on the build plate

  Off the build plate

Rail fitted in one side

 Rail showing through the slot Finished rail, totally accurate in seconds

 

The real benefit is they can be made to match whatever angle the Vee is designed to eg 1-6.38. Are expensive to print and do last quite some time

Edited November 14, 2023 by hayfield

[Dave John]

A very interesting thread, good to see new techniques being developed. 

 

At some point I will have to think about track for the 1/50 scale project, this is all giving me food for thought. 

[KeithHC]

Well done John you are becoming a print master in a few hours. I like the way the jigs have identity imprinted on them so that as you say one could be used for several turnouts.

 

Keith

[hayfield]

7 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

Well done John you are becoming a print master in a few hours. I like the way the jigs have identity imprinted on them so that as you say one could be used for several turnouts.

 

Keith

 

Keith I have had a prototype 1-5 Vee filing gauge for well over a year and used it several times and its still fine. Given the Society metal filing jigs cost about £40 its quite a saving, but they come into their own when you want a non standard/not catered for crossing angle. As for time savers they take a few seconds to use, and far more accurate than the old fashioned mk 1 eyeball

 

The biggest win with jigs is the introduction of the switch rail filing jigs, the easiest and best to use switch rail jigs I have come across, a game changer and piece of genius from Martin

 

Print master no I had to have 3 goes at running the program through Cura (slicing program) but I now have an index card with each of the steps on it 

 

 

Todays print is the heal of the turnout, making the foot of the A6 turnout I am printing.

 

I think I need to get on with a couple more designs and start thinking about ordering the items I need to get starting on resin printing

 

It would be more informative reading the posts in Templot regarding this subject, Its a real eye opener on what can be done, rather than watch me fumble my way through this process. But it does prove even a numpty old codger can learn new tricks

 

 

[martin_wynne]

25 minutes ago, hayfield said:

Keith I have had a prototype 1-5 Vee filing gauge for well over a year and used it several times and its still fine

 

the jigs last well. they just need a bit more TLC than metal jigs, see:

 

     https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/using-the-templot-rail-filing-jigs.728/

 

martin.

Edited November 15, 2023 by martin_wynne

[KeithHC]

Thanks John and Martin it’s just great to see all this happening. I am reasonably happy to print out a timber block need to get into turnout printing so need to watch James video on how to use Templot. His Videos are fantastic.

 

Also John I will follow your set up and starting out in resin as I believe the Christmas fairy may have a big package coming my way plus a bottle or two of resin. Then I will need some rail so in the new year an order to Phil for some code 75 nickel silver.

 

Keith

[hayfield]

 

I have printed the heal half of the turnout base, this one was nearly done all by myself, but I made a couple of mistakes using the Cura design. Like all things the camera is showing up the stringing which will be cleaned up along with a quick polish with wet & dry

 

 

The completed EM gauge A6 turnout, I still need to print a new set of chairs, but I am far closer to doing this than I initially expected

 

 

This is a design for 25% of a 7mm scale 32mm gauge A6 turnout

 

The other thing with Templot plugged track is gauge is far less of an issue especially for the inexperienced builder. I now need to hopefully obtain a set of chairs to test it and the system as I think it will be at least a couple of weeks before I get a resin printer up and running. But I never expected to be up and running so quickly.

[KeithHC]

John the 7mm section are using the right profile for timbers as it looks like you are using the other profile.

 

Keith

[hayfield]

45 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

John the 7mm section are using the right profile for timbers as it looks like you are using the other profile.

 

Keith

 

Keith

 

Do you mean I am using square on to the straight main road rather than equalized 

[KeithHC]

Sorry John I meant the printer profile.

 

Keith

ps if I am wrong please ignore and sorry

[martin_wynne]

hi keith

 

john is using the bricks profile for timbering, as intended.

 

however the dimensions are optimised for 4mm/ft and i think we could have a separate profile for 7mm/ft which would print faster.

 

this whole thing is still right at the beginning, it's about 2 years since i last did any 7mm stuff myself.

 

martin.

[hayfield]

Yesterday  was a step forward, firstly I fitted a glass bed

 

  Excuse the mess

 

I now have a flat and shiny surface, which was so much easier to level, and is far easier to clean

 

I have joined up the two halves (not used the function which allows clips to be added as this is being updated) and is probably one of the best bases I have come across. Whilst printing takes a bit of time, it all goes on independently. so is much quicker (and stronger) than cutting timbers and fitting them to a build plate. I have not even talked about the cost which is under 50p

 

 

I went to B&Q and got some new bolts, washers and butterfly nuts. I now have a choice of 1-6 jigs, the good thing for plugged track is the Vee does not need soldering together, just solder a dropper wire to each rail.

 

As you will see once I have the resin printer working no fancy common crossing sub assemblies, just 2 vee rails cut to length after filing in the jig. The wing rails are bent to shape and cut to length. Rather than buying a pre built common crossing (£22) or soldering a common crossing sub assembly together (burnt fingers) all the rails are just laid in place and clipped in if you are thrifty 250mm of rail used  £0.625p

 

More importantly using very basic build methods. A bit of filing, the odd cut and bend with rail cutters & plyers and soldering dropper wires. Gauges are used to check not build

[roythebus1]

Amazing stuff there. I'm tempted but my knowledge of computers and my patience with them runs very thin at times! I've got to build a new double double junction on my layout as it doesn't work properly and needs to be moved round the bend a bit more.

[KeithHC]

All looking good John well done. I just need to learn how to create a timbering brick so that I can do a trail turnout print just to use up my terrible orange filament.

 

Keith

[hayfield]

12 hours ago, roythebus1 said:

Amazing stuff there. I'm tempted but my knowledge of computers and my patience with them runs very thin at times! I've got to build a new double double junction on my layout as it doesn't work properly and needs to be moved round the bend a bit more.

 

 

Roy

 

Good morning and thank you

 

Firstly you need very little computer knowledge to 3D build in Templot. I am a computer numpty and managed easily to produce a print. The first thing is to learn how to print a single turnout.

 

This is easy in Templot, the 2D turnout can be accurately made with a few clicks of a mouse, to transfer it into a 3D file another 2 clicks of the mouse.

You then send it into a program called 3D builder (mostly automated) then do the same with a slicing program called Cura, again mostly automated which downloads it on to a micro SD card.

 

The card is placed into your printer and you print

 

Initially you have to level the plate, watching YouTube videos make it easier to do and Martin made it even easier. That is the timbers, I have a resin printer but its still in the box

 

This all sounds very difficult, but taking it a step at a time is very easy and there is a great spirit with a small group on Templot trialing this system.. Either phone or Facetime me happy to chat it through

 

As for a double junction, Templot makes it easy to design, its automated. The big but is at the moment the Chairs for obtuse crossings are not designed yet. This was the next step in development and will have to wait until Martins arm gets better. But I have an idea (not indorsed by the Pugged Track program its me going off piste 

 

My theory of a work around is to use the Exactoscale 4CH 503 (1 in 5/6/7/8 only) Obtuse crossing chairs, printing blank timbers for the areas these chairs are used. I know that these chairs will stick to PLA+ filament, I know how to print blank timbers. I have not tried it yet. So its watch this space

 

Join Templot club and do join the Zoom meetings, with Martins arm being out of action he is making himself available twice a day on zoom

[hayfield]

32 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

All looking good John well done. I just need to learn how to create a timbering brick so that I can do a trail turnout print just to use up my terrible orange filament.

 

Keith

 

 

Keith 

 

Creating the timber brick is very easy, but to get the best out of it you need to maximize your printer settings in Cura to get the best quality print

 

Happy to chat it through via message/email/phone of Facetime