Charlie586

I've got in another pickle by having too much on the go at once. Recent things I've done little bits to are : A chassis for the Grantham tram and building a gearbox. I did have to move the axle hole a tad as I bent it up about half a mm out. I think it's better for me to build two ends flat and drill through both before spacing next time. Nearly ready, just need pickups and wiring sorted. Also done a chassis for hawthorn tender. The centre of gravity will be quite high for this as it's very open at the bottom in the photo below. I may need to scrap the chassis and use outside bearings, it would be nice to add extra pick ups though so would prefer inside bearing chassis. https://www.ssplprints.com/image/374746/gwr-2-4-0-hawthorn-class-locomotive-dewrance Run out of photo room again. Must be a new limit as I used to upload loads more at a time? I'll do the rest tomorrow.

And another coat plus the internarly bits Wherever I take the photo it looks a different colour, it's actually a bit darker in real life. I've watched a few videos but need to watch more. The flow needs reducing more and I need a lot of practice but it's a start.

Have to go a bit back to last year for the start of this one. I was running out of rattle grey primer and wanted the same brand so everything had the same base. But I couldn't find the cheap stuff I normally use, but did find a different brand of white filler primer, do I thought I'd try it then do some test painting. If you can remember back a few years, I've got some old, 15-20 years railmatch. It was kind of half solid half liquid and wouldn't mix well. I started painting but it looked too shiny. On the next coat I had an accident and spilt half the cream bottle down me and in a tray. I tried to use as much as I could, even on non primed prints but all I did was give myself a massive headache for a day that tablets wouldn't shift. Here's the result. As you can see, very shiny and it didn't go on the white primer very well. I decided to abandon oil based and go acrylic and use my airbrush that hadn't made it out of the box at that point. The old primer I was using eventually returned to the bargain shops and I had a go at the airbrush during the week. I converted my hi tech spray booth type thing to close off another side and started playing. The paint came out too quickly over the test carriage side, but I altered the flow a little and got the first coat on the hughes Can't upload more photos so I'll do another post...

I went around the printer checking the bolts, a few moved slightly but I don't think they were causing any problems. This part of the z axis screw didn't seem to have any grease on, it would be near the start of a print. So I greased it up (as the actress said to the Bishop etc). Tried the wagon again But the other side Although it's improving, I think it's a lost cause. I think I still need to print a few windows so I'll just sort them out and axleboxes while I look at a new printer. Other stuff wise, I had to travel up and down the country again last week, but I did do a drive by viewing of what remains of Wantage Road, which, isn't much. From Google maps. The volunteer Inn is pretty much the same as 1880, except the outbuildings are gone, so should be easy to model. This will be right at the back of possibly the last board to be built so there's no rush. Maybe I ought to get dimensions just in case. Sorry about the electric stuff in the distance. The only other real remain is the brick building, now tune rite, formally the Lockinge estate goods siding that became a goods shed. Top left of this map from 1898 gives a good idea of its position https://maps.nls.uk/view/104196040 Luckily, the wiltshire and Swindon history centre has a copy of the agreement for the siding (though not online) https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/cf9fd7ec-a593-430e-9c25-ceb83531f9b9 I'm not sure exactly when the shed was built, the 1875-77 map only shows a siding, but I'm hoping it will be fairly easy to find out. I may not need to build it for 1880. The Berkshire record office also has this from 1875 which may be related to the siding or the start of tramway. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/2b3e2b56-0514-443f-9933-7ea268cd638f So, I need to contact these places and find out how to get hold of the documents. I imagine it's a visit in person, but I've not done that kind of thing before so who knows.

Very nice build and a great paint job. The compartment detail is good on these coaches.

Maybe I should patent a self convertible wagon, or one that only goes from left to right. There's several boxes full of okay prints and another box of rejects. I haven't done a list of things 'on the go' but I think it would cover more than one page. I'm having a play with my airbrush over next few weeks so it gives me something to practise on. I've had the airbrush two and a half years and so far it's not even been out of the box. And thanks again for buying the bits. Hopefully the finish is okay, but it's not always to see until it's primed as it's translucent.

Just like buses, you get no videos for ages then 2 come along at once Hughes tram chassis on a short lurch. Because it's tiny, the pickups are a bit of a struggle but it's slowly improving. Don't know how all the lead is going to fit in though. I might be better off coupling to a wagon with extra pickups in the short term, it's going to be a few years before it needs to do solo things. Tried to print a broad gauge wagon and it half worked. The left hand supports just never stuck to the base. There are some vertical holes / marks around the other side snd one in the floor but you can't see it in photo. I'm saving up for a new printer, I don't really need to print anything as I've got a huge backlog so I'll try and hold out and hope the price comes down in a few months.

Thanks, I suppose it hasn't done bad lasting 3 years. I don't think it's worth buying another screen, I can still use the printer for small things or hidden parts. I think a new printer is the best option, especially as it looks like you can print a full 40ft carriage on the new ones.

That looks great, Chris. Really impressive.

So I've badly neglected this thread, didn't realise it was anything like 4 years since last post. I got a photon printer (the original version) about 3 years go and started posting the results on my layout thread. As the photos are still lagging a bit I thought I might as well resurrect the thread. Some bits done over the years include: various carriages Rovers Apart from the usual misprints and base not adhering and that, other things started going wrong a wile back. The Queen class below has dents / holes / vertical lines in it more recently it's been happening more often I changed some settings, installed latest chitubox, replaced the fep, slowed down the peel lift speed after advice from chuffinghell (of this parish) and gave the glass screen a good clean as I'd had a leaky fep film at one point and there was still some residue on the plate glass above the light. This is two prints of the same thing, the later one the lower one. The holes are better but I'm still getting them. I've also switched back to standard anycubic resin, I was using the eco resin for a while (from the queen class on) as I thought it might be that. But I'm kind of running out of things to check now. I have just noticed that anti aliasing is turned on, I can't remember turning it on but I must have at some point. I'm unsure if the original photon can even use this, or maybe it affects the slicing - I don't really know. I'll turn it off and try another print but I doubt it will fix the problem. I'm wondering if the actual screen under the plate glass has marks or resin on it. Other things might be screws coming loose or the screen is on its way out, it is 3 years old now. So I guess I take it apart and look for problems. There's plenty of youtube videos on repairing / servicing it. I am looking, and saving up, for a new printer as they're much faster and print larger areas now. Either the mono X or the m3, the mono would be better for carriages and it's tempting to whack one on the credit card, but I'll try and do it properly and save up.

Been a while since last video https://youtube.com/shorts/-5Xs8KZ-nXM Video won't embed for some reason? Just a little trundle along. Excuse the mess and touch from above. I'm slowly testing the track, amongst all the other things going on. The hawthorn needs pickups on the leading wheels as it keeps stopping at different points. There's a ridiculously large, near 6 inch scale gap in the track just before the frog, that needs sorting. Wheels still go over it, which is surprising. Above that is the 2 stretcher bars getting ready for the 2nd point on the board. I changed the printer's vat fep screen, you can see the marks on the old one. No disasters with bolts this time. Did a few little tests Axlebox and bits for the brake van and brick arch for signal box. Didn't have time for a long print though. Parts of the spring hangers broke off when I removed it from the plate, partly me but it is fragile. I think brass w irons might be a better way to go with 3d boxes and springs as it has to hold the axle too. I made some carriage irons, in pic, a while back but they'll need to be smaller. You can probably buy them but, as you probably know by now, I'm tight and I prefer making that kind of thing.

Thanks Chris. Sometimes chitubox puts too many supports on and other times it leaves large pieces without any. I will try a skate on next print, I used them by default years ago but after I upgraded chitubox about a year or so ago I just used individual supports which sometimes form a raft, sometimes not. I use 0.04mm as I read once, maybe on reddit or even here, that 0.04 equated to a specific fraction of the screw thread turn on the z axis for the original photon so was the best height to use for that model. Could have just been a myth though.

Re printed the brake van over the weekend. It takes nearly 7 hours to print and I don't like to leave it and go too far away in case something disastrous happens. As you can it's peeled a little from the base during the print, but it's not ruined the print. However, still got a few vertical lines, which is a bit annoying. Next to the original you can see the improvement. I do think the proper, normal resin works better. That and the settings changes have definitely helped. The only thing I haven't done that may improve printing is change the film at the bottom of the vat. It's worth trying as I've got a few spares. Last time, you might remember, I had problems with the hex bolts disintegrating but shouldn't be a problem now as I replaced them. I have to admit, the thought of a new printer with a much larger build plate and can print in 2 hours instead of 7 is very tempting. I'll have to get saving my pennies or give up smoking or something. There's a community Makerspace opening near me soon, it's part of a school though it now seems to be called an academy and not a school. I'm not sure exactly what will be in it yet, but I'm hoping for 3d printers and lathes. I'll hold off anything drastic until I know exactly what's there and what the deal is. In the meantime I've got more than enough to be getting on with.

Very nicely built, Mikkel. I never realised how detailed these kits were.

Thanks again for the video links, @chuffinghell , they were very useful. Had a little bit of time the past few days to watch the videos, tweak settings and do some tests etc. this was the original settings. The lift speed was 65mm per min for the peel part, not 150 as I'd thought. I took it down to 50 and increased both the lifting distances to 6mm then tried a test. Springs and axleboxes, printed fine. did another test. I found this by chance a week or do ago, it converts a photo to a 3d lithograph thing that you can print. Basically it converts to grey scale then assigns a height to create the 3d bit. It's much better explained on the site. It is something you can spend many hours fiddling with. https://www.instructables.com/How-to-3D-Print-a-Photo-Lithophanes-101/?amp_page=true Anyway, it printed fine. The eyes were very dark in the picture which is why they haven't come out well in the calculation for 3d. This is quite a thick solid print, so if it was ever going to fail it should have on this. The back of the print is fine, this is the first layer printed as it hangs upside down while printing. There's no holes either, if the lights were failing or part of the matrix not working then it would be flawed. Maybe the holes are linked to the lift speed being too quick? One thing I have noticed is some of the vertical lines match up with the supports, but not all of them. I don't know if that's linked or not. I think I need to try the metro and brake van again with the new settings over the weekend. I've also ordered a small bottle of the original resin, I've been using eco resin as it was on offer. And I've downloaded the latest version of the slicing software, chitubox, just covering all the bases really.

The second range would make a fantastic model. I imagine Bara brith would feature heavily on the menu, though I'm no expert.

Thanks Lez, I forget they do frames and castings and other bits. I'll take a look.

I think the default lift is 150, not sure if the first few layers has a different speed. Thanks for links to videos.

Thanks Chuffing, you're not interfering, totally the opposite. The lifting speed is probably the only thing I haven't adjusted, it makes complete sense to try it slower. Mine will still be set to the default. Assuming it survives me fiddling with it to see if the vertical holes can be fixed I'll try slowing it down.

Thanks Chris. I've taken some photos Airfix on the left and a white metal kit and chassis on the right (no idea who made this?) The unknown chassis isn't a bad fit apart from the front. The cabless floor might need hacking a bit though. The airfix one The milliput is on standby for the bodyshell There is a fair bit to saw off, but it's definitely the start of motorising it. It doesn't run very well, but I think the springs in the plunger pick ups might be clogged up. For making it p4 to work on the broad gauge rails I'm probably better using the other chassis as a start point, need p4 wheels though. But for the grandad oo layout, that I've not really done much at all on yet, this will be the one. If I can get the same body to fit both chassis that would be perfect.

Cheers Lez. I'm going to dig out my airfix 14xx chassis later today to see if it fits backwards or not.

Bit of real life stuff going on that's involving a lot of travelling, so not had much soldering time. However I have printed a cabless metro Didn't peel, but as you can see there's vertical marks / holes again. I can use filler and file back but got to be careful because of rivets etc. I'm trying to investigate why it's making the holes. I gave the tray and glass sheet over the light a good clean and put the light on as have a horrible feeling it's the light (it prints upside down if you didn't know - the light sets / cures the resin that's in the vat a layer at a time - any blemish between the light and vat stops it from curing so would look like a vertical hole) With the vat both on and off there's a couple of little dark areas, and a few not really visible in photo, but not enough to cause that many holes. There's nothing on the screen, so I think part of the light matrix is failing. As I watched it for a while, the light flickered occasionally so, yeah, it's going to fail soon. I printed a wheel carrier for the brake van (I'll put inside bearings in etc). This is fine, the odd blemish is fine if it's hidden, but I'll leave printing anything else until I've had the thing apart. New screens are about 30 quid by the look of it, but it's old now so something else will no doubt go wrong soon. A new model, which is quicker and has much larger build plate, is 2 or 300 upwards. I'll have a think about future ones, but I've got enough prints of carriages, loco bodies etc to keep me busy for years.

Had the printer out over the holiday weekend First print for months. The base peeled away during printing and there's a few holes in the side, which isn't ideal. I think it's salvageable, a bit of filing to get the bottom level then some filler in the holes. We'll see. It might still be too cold to use the printer, I'm pretty sure whenever it peeled before it was too cold. We've turned the heating off in the spare room due to the price rises and it probably needs a few more weeks of warming up. Next things to print are some springs, w irons axleboxes etc and the metro, I did a few slight variants to that but don't think I mentioned it before. I'll do the smaller bits first until I get it printing correctly.

The Holyhead breakwater was broad gauge so possibly the furthest North, but not Great Western though.

Sorry I was awol for a few days (or absent without Internet anyway) That's a very nice model. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a thing for them. The Dutch scale seven group have attempted one too, I think from the same donor model, small view in 3rd photo https://dutchscalesevengroup.blogspot.com/2013/01/dutch-scale-seven-group-report-nr-14.html?m=0 As there's no photos or even drawings, I don't think we'll ever know the handrail position, so it could be right. The datasheet worked backwards from other records, and I'm pretty certain has handrails in usual position, but I've not got the sheet to hand at moment.