Hayfields 3D printed track workshop

[martin_wynne]

15 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Which resin are you going for?

 

AnyCubic ABS-Like V2 Water Washable: https://uk.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-abs-like-resin-v2-package?variant=45845570945309

 

Martin.

[njee20]

I confess to having no experience of that specific resin (I have tried dozens though!), but I would personally counsel against water washable every time. It’s markedly less stable, no less toxic, and more awkward to deal with the output from cleaning (if you use water). If course YMMV. 

[martin_wynne]

16 minutes ago, njee20 said:

but I would personally counsel against water washable

 

Utterly disagree. The results from that resin have been brilliant. And much easier to ensure adequate washing of the loose-jaw slots.

 

Strongly recommended. https://uk.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-abs-like-resin-v2-package?variant=45845570945309

 

Martin.

[njee20]

My final say on the matter, and my experience based purely on having used well over 100 litres of resin, but the primary issue with water washable is a tendency for failure months later. This is admittedly much more prevalent on hollow models like stock bodies where it is absolutely imperative it’s cured internally as well as externally. It isn’t any easier to clean; the water is toxic to aquatic life, so running pieces under the tap is akin to pouring engine oil down the drain. Yes you can do it, but you shouldn’t. Acetone and a fine brush works better IMO, and it’ll evaporate, unlike contaminated water. 

 

Purely my £0.02, no doubt to be ignored 👍🏼

 

I congratulate you on what you’ve accomplished, I shall continue to watch from afar. 

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, njee20 said:

Which resin are you going for? I’d recommend either Sunlu ABS-Like (cheap) or Siraya Fast (less cheap!), both appear to be widely in stock. Adding some Siraya Tenacious gives significant flex, but can soften detail, it’s almost rubbery. 

 

 

Njee20

 

Thank you for the suggestion, this is the resin I have chosen

 

ANYCUBIC ABS-Like Resin Pro 2, 3D Printer Resin with Enhanced Strength and Toughness, High Precision and Minimal Shrinkage 3D Resin, Widely Compatible with All Resin 3D Printers

 

The reason is I want water washable

[hayfield]

10 minutes ago, njee20 said:

My final say on the matter, and my experience based purely on having used well over 100 litres of resin, but the primary issue with water washable is a tendency for failure months later. This is admittedly much more prevalent on hollow models like stock bodies where it is absolutely imperative it’s cured internally as well as externally. It isn’t any easier to clean; the water is toxic to aquatic life, so running pieces under the tap is akin to pouring engine oil down the drain. Yes you can do it, but you shouldn’t. Acetone and a fine brush works better IMO, and it’ll evaporate, unlike contaminated water. 

 

Purely my £0.02, no doubt to be ignored 👍🏼

 

I congratulate you on what you’ve accomplished, I shall continue to watch from afar. 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, and I will park it at the moment as water washable is important to me

 

Whilst I am open to all suggestions, for the moment I will go with the advice from existing Templot Plug Track as I have no plans to print anything else. However please feel free to continue to contribute to the thread as we all soak up advice from others especially in this area which seems to be coming of age in railway modelling.

[hayfield]

32 minutes ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Utterly disagree. The results from that resin have been brilliant. And much easier to ensure adequate washing of the loose-jaw slots.

 

Strongly recommended. https://uk.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-abs-like-resin-v2-package?variant=45845570945309

 

Martin.

 

 

Martin

 

Thank you very much for all your work and I think its important for those of us who are learning this new medium for trackwork to use tried and testing methods and materials

 

Given the range of resins available, for those in the know there may well be other makes that work equally well. But for us novices in printing its important to use well tried processes and products

 

Its good we have an open discussion, but for me  its important to use tried and tested methods as I need help if something goes wrong

[martin_wynne]

24 minutes ago, njee20 said:

It isn’t any easier to clean; the water is toxic to aquatic life, so running pieces under the tap is akin to pouring engine oil down the drain

 

Nowhere have I suggested running prints under the tap. Or pouring contaminated water down the drain.

 

The first wash should be in a small bowl or tub of water, with a gentle brush (pastry brush). This will remove 95% of the resin. The water will become significantly contaminated. It needs to be left out of doors in a transparent container for several days until the resin content has cured in daylight UV and precipitated to the bottom of the container. The clear water can then be decanted off and used to water the garden. The cured resin residue can disposed of in the domestic waste for landfill.

 

For the chairs, the second wash needs to be done vigorously in a bucket of water. See this post for details:

 

 https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/problem-with-printed-loose-jaw-chairs.811/post-9418

 

The contamination will be at a low level in a full bucket of water, and it can be disposed of immediately by spreading thinly over the garden. Over time the slight resin content will cure naturally in daylight and become relatively harmless. Some garden plants may even thrive on it! Keep it well away from fishponds, pets, etc.

 

Martin.

[David Bigcheeseplant]

Those people like me who have a resin printer but not a FDM one it might be looking at local companies who can print your files, there is a company less than a mile from me who will do it so I am going to get a quote rather than investing in a machine,

[bradfordbuffer]

On 25/11/2023 at 14:11, bradfordbuffer said:

missed some photos off

For the sake of temp testing...switched heater pad on at 0800 not the printer tonight at 1900 -1 outside temp 5.6 temp in garage 14° in enclosure that would rise to about 18 to 19° with printer running....I'll wait for current freeze to pass before attempting print...normal temp in enclosure around 21° I may fir second small pad to help out...

[KeithHC]

I do appreciate that there is a cost to having two printers. However I am finding more and more use for my FDM printer ailed to my proposed layout. I am a bit ham fisted when it comes to using metal and plastic and still in awe to those of you out there that can produce such great models. But having now grasped 3D design I can now produce DEMUs building cores and track bases. I have several other ideas floating about that over time will be tried out. The good news today is that Santas little helper is enroute to me with my first resin printer. So Martin and James you need to ask Geeteck for your commission from yet another sale!

 

Keith

[martin_wynne]

45 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

I do appreciate that there is a cost to having two printers.

 

An FDM printer and a resin printer are two completely different machines, for two different tasks.

 

It is unfortunate that they get lumped together as "3D printers", so that having one of each seems an unjustifiable expense.

 

No-one would lump together say a soldering station with a Dremel grinder, so that having both seems extravagant.

 

Martin.

[Vistisen]

15 hours ago, David Bigcheeseplant said:

Those people like me who have a resin printer but not a FDM one it might be looking at local companies who can print your files, there is a company less than a mile from me who will do it so I am going to get a quote rather than investing in a machine,

I suspect that you may soon change your mind. I am still new to this 3D reason printing. I started off using my son’s printer, but soon found that even though it was free for me. The turnaround time from trying a print, waiting for the post ( or a 200 mile drive), discovering that I need to tweak the result meant that I soon bought a 3D resin printer. I have absolutely no experience of FDM printing. But I imagine that it is somewhat easier, With resin prints I often find that I need to tweak the supports, and change printer burn settings to match the items I am trying to print. I also find that printing 6 identical items, sometimes result I 5 that are fine and one that for some reason fails. It is no problem to just try again.

I imagine that if you use a commercial supplier then you are at their mercy as far as what setttings, resin and so on they use. Who pays for failed prints?

[Penrhos1920]

Here's the start of my foray into 3D printed track.  My son has printed these sleepers on his reasonably new Anycubic Kobra.  He’s used the default slicer settings which I think need improving.  The question is how to translate Martin’s recommended settings for his machine to a Kobra?  What's odd is that it has filled in one of the chair slots, bottom left.

 

[hayfield]

I can try and answer the question about the blanked slot. It is where two templates overlap each other and two timbers are in the same space, one above the other. 

 

 

It was covered in Both Templot club some time ago and in a recent zoom meeting. You have to hide the outline of one timber, but also you must select what chairs to keep on both timbers

 

You have to go into Real - Shove Timbers- Hide one of the two timbers

 

Then press the Heave button and start sorting out which chairs you want to loose on both timbers (lengthen the timber that is being kept)

 

Its one of the processes that's harder to explain than do. But it is only required when two or more templates overlap each other

[hayfield]

   

 

I decided to experiment further with a track base for an 0-16.5 turnout

 

   

 

Code 100 flatbottom rail is not supported in Templot so a turnout base will not have plug track fixings. But for 40p I have a 1-6 turnout base

 

The idea being is I can glue and pin the rails to the base, as you can see the two parts have been joined and painted

[GWR57xx]

I’ve just stumbled upon this thread and read through from the beginning. Great stuff - now following.

 

A couple of questions, if I may?

I’m interested in the options for 7mm O gauge track.

Are the chairs designed for one particular make of rail profile, or are there options for (say) C&L, Peco, PermWay etc?

 

I have a laser cutter (original A3 Emblaser 1). Is there a topic somewhere discussing the option of laser cut track bases?

[martin_wynne]

26 minutes ago, GWR57xx said:

Are the chairs designed for one particular make of rail profile, or are there options for (say) C&L, Peco, PermWay etc?

 

I have a laser cutter (original A3 Emblaser 1). Is there a topic somewhere discussing the option of laser cut track bases?

 

You can enter any rail section dimensions you wish. But only bullhead.

 

Laser-cut timbering bases are fully supported.

 

All the information is on the Templot web site  - https://85a.uk/templot/club

 

Martin.

[GWR57xx]

@martin_wynne, thanks. I’ve just finished watching James’ videos and see that he intends to cover laser cut bases in a future episode. Marvellous! 🙂

[hayfield]

15 hours ago, GWR57xx said:

I’ve just stumbled upon this thread and read through from the beginning. Great stuff - now following.

 

A couple of questions, if I may?

I’m interested in the options for 7mm O gauge track.

Are the chairs designed for one particular make of rail profile, or are there options for (say) C&L, Peco, PermWay etc?

 

I have a laser cutter (original A3 Emblaser 1). Is there a topic somewhere discussing the option of laser cut track bases?

 

 

I think I am correct in remembering that the settings for printing 7mm timbers would be better/quicker with different settings. Also I need to download the settings for the filing jigs

[makeitminiature]

@GWR57xx, that's right.  I will be covering laser cut bases very soon.  My next video will be a review of the Creality Falcon 2, which I have been testing out over the past few days, then I'll show how easy it is to cut the files from Templot.  

All the best,

James

[hayfield]

I have an issue like many others in that the distributers who supply the resin we use is out of stock of it and new supplies will not be available till after Christmas.

 

 

Today I have been able to download settings into Cura (a slicing program) for printing the jigs, whilst I printed a filing jig a few weeks ago I had a hiccup with my computer and lost the settings. That issue solved I am printing the first of three filing jigs for switch rails. Martin is a genius as he has designed a simple to use switch rail filing system

 

I will keep you posted as to its progression

[KeithHC]

Well done John, my geetech arrived a couple of days ago but it will be in the new year before it is put into operation. It will live in the garage which is below our lounge and has an insulated door. I will be making a cabinet so that it can be heated before use. The FDM printer will be put to good use by producing the fixing brackets for the cabinet. I will however take the time to get better at Templot. On my list of too do list is find the filing jigs, be able to creat the timbering blank and the clips.

 

Keith

[hayfield]

15 minutes ago, KeithHC said:

Well done John, my geetech arrived a couple of days ago but it will be in the new year before it is put into operation. It will live in the garage which is below our lounge and has an insulated door. I will be making a cabinet so that it can be heated before use. The FDM printer will be put to good use by producing the fixing brackets for the cabinet. I will however take the time to get better at Templot. On my list of too do list is find the filing jigs, be able to creat the timbering blank and the clips.

 

Keith

 

Keith

 

As we used to say in our childhood, easy peasy

 

Firstly I would be very happy to share the files needed to set up the printer settings in Cura one to print the timbers the second to print the jigs

 

Printing the jigs is very easy, simply make a turnout template then if you go into 3D without adding chairs or timbers it defaults to jigs, the choice is either Vees or switch rails, the latter has a choice of 3 separate jigs. Again printing the timbers is an easy process, I think James covers it in the video. I have written a card with the steps on, but it toom me 4 or 5 goes before memory automation kicked in

 

I am happy to assist you, but far more qualified users in Templot club

 

 

The filing jig is working away in the background, now 25% through printing

[KeithHC]

Thanks John much appreciated. I am away in Sussex for a few days so will have a go for the jigs at the weekend. I like the idea of memory cards that is now on my list of things to do.

 

Keith