JCL

I started off a variant of the wagon I showed above. This time I’m having a go at .1mm layer height with a .4mm nozzle. It’s 4h27m in, and has 2h40m to go. Also thought I’d Try the Cura supports, rather than doing my own.

And here’s an interesting quote from Gerhard

Hi Simon, they look like great results. One thing I do have it time, and my prints take about 50% longer on my profiles than they do on stock. That pedigree cattle body prints overnight. I’ve been on that German site for hours now. The man is a machine - and the quality is amazing. There is a lot of information on there, and while he’s obviously at the top of his game, hopefully I’ll be able to use some of what he’s doing. The first step is that I’ve sent off for some .2mm and .3mm nozzles and the CR Touch bed auto leveller. @PaulaDoesTrains, when using the finer nozzle, did you have to make many tweaks to the settings? For anyone that’s interested, using this link will translate the 75 page thread into English. https://www-stummiforum-de.translate.goog/t171433f180-M-glichkeiten-mit-einem-D-FDM-Drucker-W-rstchenleger.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp cheers jason

@monkeysarefun, would you like me to test print a bit of one of your walls?

Hi there, haven’t got to bricks yet, but I can tell you I’ve been looking at wagons, and I’ve been able to print the planks individually without any change. Here’s a 4mm scale Great Northern pedigree bull van. If you look, you can see some layer lines, but not nearly as many as I thought, and for me, it passes the 3ft rule. It also bounces when you drop it . I was surprised the lamp hooks came out, and they are proud of the body. For ease of painting, I’m thinking of printing the clerestory at the top separately. it’s been undercoated, and given a brush of Vallejo Fire Red. The fruit can is an earlier one, I originally looked at @woko’s exceptional model, and then decided to do my own so I could change things to suit the printer. This time, after undercoating, it was given a coat of sandy brown before the fire red. I think the colour is a closer match to what I was looking for. I still have a few things to work out on this, but bear in mind nothing was sanded. I’m still working out printing the underframe. When I print this again, I won’t include the footboards and brake lever, and I’ll support the bottom better so it doesn’t warp slightly. In real life, at least for me, the warp isn’t too noticeable. Both models were printed with .12mm layer height. Thanks for the info Simon. I only have .4mm nozzles at the moment. What’s your experience working with .2mm rather than .4mm?

Thanks Paula, I'll have a look this evening. update - I couldn't help myself and had a search through the videos

Bit of a funny year, last year. I've hardly been on here at all, and when I have, it's been pretty much just a quick dip in and out from time to time. This is the first time I've looked at this thread for a long time, and had to do a search for it! On that, I've changed the name of this thread so I can start it up again. Now it'll be more of a .Jason's adventures in 3D printing' thread. Since I last wrote on here (or the blender for buildings thread, thanks for the message on there @monkeysarefun), I've bought an Ender 3 v2, and I've been getting to know it. To be honest, at the moment I'm enjoying printing without having to deal with resins and such. I've not done too much, but I'll start putting things on here as I try to get to the bottom of what it, and the Mono X, can and cannot do. And if anyone reads this and thinks there are better ways to do things, I'd be very happy to take on other people's thoughts and ideas.

You're not kidding! I'm in Canada, was buying two bedside lamps from the States, and they added $700 to the 'free shipping', but it wasn't obvious until we received the email receipt. Cancelled the order, and won't use them again.

Cheers Neil, and no worries about the photo! Once I've got a couple of things out the way, I might do some experimenting. I'm enjoying the Ender pretty much because I don't need to run a chemistry lab, which is how it feels when the Mono X is out!

Hi Neil, was off the site most of last year. Those retaining walls look great! You say you printed it using an FDM printer, can you give us an up-close photo of them and let me know how you oriented them on your printer - and any other tips you might have. I bought an Ender 3v2 last year, and I've been getting to know it's capabilities. I'm doing pretty well printing rolling stock on it, but haven't tried any buildings yet.

Hi Sean I don't know how complicated your chimneys are, or what scale you're using, but I know a lot of people use Tinkercad very successfully to make things like chimneys. Up from that is Blender, and somewhere in the 3D printing part of RMWeb I created some tutorials - I think one included bricks. I tend to create a 'wall' 1mm deep (I'm in 4mm scale), then create a brick that sits .2mm proud of that wall, and use the array option to create more of them. I create a second row and move it slightly along the row to get the staggering, and then pretty much go on from there. I know @Din is looking to start printing things in the not too distant future, so you'd have that covered if you don't have your own printer. J

Hi Din @woko told me about your site a couple of weeks ago, but it's only now I've had the time to have a good look. It looks like just the thing that people are looking for. I've just signed up as an Invisioneer. I hope it all works out for you!

I might be missing something, but for people who don't like to have their inboxes cluttered up by newsletters, why don't you just create a second free email address using Gmail or similar that can be used expressly for this purpose? Also useful for websites that require you to create an account to use their services. I've been doing this for almost the last 25 years (early adopter), and it works pretty well.

I've an Ender 3 v2 that I'm enjoying messing with (partly because I don't want to get the resins out for the Mono X). There's a couple of known faults on it, but they're not difficult to sort out. Also, there's a busy and friendly group on Facebook. As other people have said, the main thing is to replace the springs and level your bed as most issues can be traced back to this. I've used it for a few things around the house, and I've just printed a 4mm wagon on it - the print was a lot better than I expected.

That sounds great. You say it takes a few goes to generate the ideal look, but I bet it's a lot easier than doing it by hand!

If you're on Windows 10 or 11, another option is to open 3d Builder (you may have to download it from the MS Store). Open the STL in 3D Builder, click on the tick mark above "Import Model" in the toolbar, Click on the 'repair' panel, bottom right. Click on the "hamburger menu" in the top left (three horizontal lines) Choose Save As and choose the STL format. I tend to add an f to the end of the file name so that I know it's kosher. This is a part of my workflow now. cheers Jason

Certainly Mike, it's definitely down to personal preference and the type of information you have available.

Hi Phil, There aren't many photos around (although I've probably for a treasure trove compared to Mike), but I've certainly not seen that one.

I completely agree with everyone. I've been lucky with the GNR locos I've done that I have the Bird book on GNR locos, which contain profile drawings and some measurements, Groves, who also did a (much) more recent survey of GNR locos with no drawings, but a lot more measurements and detail changes, and on occasion, Isinglass drawings. The measurements are mostly consistent, so I tend to start by boxing in the big shapes using measurements only and superimposing those on the Bird or Isinglass drawing. Once the bigger blocks are filled in, I start on the details using measurements, if I have them for those parts, and then photos to fine tune/fill in gaps. As you say, it can be more of an art than a science. I'm currently looking at GNR L1 No. 125. I've only found 1 photo, and that doesn't indicate which of two possible smokebox fronts and doors it has, so I'll try to make informed guesses and using a photo of a different numbered loco as a guide for that area. Although the loco below is right per the drawings and initial measurements, it's wrong per the photo I have (for a start, the cab on this one was increased in height by 10"), so will have to be changed. cheers Jason

Morning @Clem, I didn't realise I still had anything up on Shapeways - it's their regular price rises that led me to buy my own machine. I'm just off the west coast of Canada, so I'm a bit out the way, but If it helps, I also uploaded the sides onto Thingiverse where anyone can download them for free and print them: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3062866 . The file includes buffers as they have a step on the top of them. Maybe give Gary @Knuckles a shout as he does commissions sometimes. I've some photos as well. If you're interested, send me your email address in a DM and I'll send them to you.

Completely agree with @GWR57xx, I've had to use them a couple of times over the years and their support has been first class.

You are a man of great resolve! The others have given great advice, so I hope it works well for you.

Hi there, there are definitely a number of trade-offs. Printing a model all in one go can be a bonus for some, as it saves time later. However, on the down-side, a lot of material can be wasted creating all the supports that are needed - especially in resin printers. In fact, you could use more material in the supports than in the actual model. Getting the best finish out of the printer means getting to know it really well. Mike's prints are a world away from the ones he made just after buying his printer, mine are too. Finishing depends on a lot of factors that are determined when creating the file for the printer. These include layer height and print speed, but can also include material temperature (and temperature consistency), material quality, and even vibrations from not having a stable base for the printer. I've found a video recently of someone who even swears that the concrete paver under his printer makes a huge difference to print quality. Definitely in this case, kit form is the way to go. Mike Trice also found creating a carriage in kit form with the sides printed separately was the way to go with Shapeways. I also think one of the possible dangers of 3D printing can be getting carried away and forgetting that the insides of some of these models need painting and such. In other words - I generally agree

You're not wrong. I've done a few locos and such in the past few years, and I have to agree that I find them a bit of a bind at times. I've one more I'm going to start soon, but nothing else planned. As you say, I'm finding the buildings to be more fun - partly as there's more leeway.