Paul_in_Ricky

Looks good, but it is a kit that needs a lot of work and expertise to finish, not a vice ready to use.

Seeing as this thread has been resurrected, I've looked back and there's one major omission; The Eclipse 180 instrument vice. These are fantastic tools. Small and will fit on a table edge, but will hold small parts very securely in just about any orientation. The only problem is that they're no longer made and rather collectable, so it's keeping a close watch on eBay and being prepared to pay some decent money, but you won't regret it, they're brilliant.

No, they're not. From the description on Thingiverse; "This is a Simplex 20hp Tractor in 16mm to the foot scale (1/19)" They've been on Thingiverse for three years now. Excellent files that print well and Dave Watkins is to be applauded for making them available freely.

Changing nozzles is a mechanical change of components. Plus you may also need to adjust slicer software settings if the Bambu labs slicer software hasn't got an OEM profile for it. Nozzle changing probably isn't for a novice in FDM printing. There's enough to work through to get the best from the standard 0.4mm nozzle first.

That could be a perfect example of a torture test for FDM printing. Smooth curves will always be the hardest thing to print. Out of interest what layer settings and nozzle did you use ? I've seen some remarkably good results from FDM when printed carefully with 0.2 nozzles rather than the normal default 0.4.

It's pretty easy to understand, even if it might seem complicated. Very simply put; You can use it free for non-commercial purposes. Some of the industrial functions like CAM etc aren't available on the non-commercial licence. You're limited to ten active files for editing, but you can easily swap around files between editable and read only to stay within limits.

Looking at the price of the D2, you'd have to be doing a LOT of printing before it made economic sense.

Did this model ever get finished Alan ? I'm just starting on one and it's such a loss that so many of your photos have disappeared from the thread. It was a great resource. Looks to be an 'interesting' build given the omissions in the instructions.

Missed point. You can buy a FDM printer for £200 they're just not as good as one that costs £2k.

True, but that printer cost over TWO THOUSAND pounds in the UK.

I'd suggest that it will be the people with some experience that will benefit most from these. There's some excellent tips and techniques there. It can be easy for knowledgeable people to fail to appreciate quite how little absolute beginners to techy subjects know. As an example, if you open Fusion 360 for the first time the screen will be different to your tutorials, there'll be a grid displayed and the data panel will be on the left, that will confuse some. As someone who has written guides for specialist subjects and then had to support absolute novices, I'd say it's a continual process of amazement that some people dabble with technologies they have absolutely no understanding of and need 'click by click' help.

An interesting series of tutorials. It's a bit curious to know who this is pitched at. There's a degree of assumed knowledge that might make them difficult for complete novices to get into, eg people coming from Tinkercad may not appreciate your chosen workflow of working with extruded sketches, rather than manipulating primitive shapes. On a technical note, the sound quality could be a bit better and changes on some videos when you've done second takes. Not bad, just room for improvement.

As they only offer blades for wood at the moment, it's not likely to be much use for cutting track.

Still trying to get this muck off and it's a soul destroying job. Phoenix paints PQ19 pre paint cleaner does soften it up a bit without damaging the enamel paint underneath, but it's still a horrible job.

Tinkercad is designed for children to use as an introduction to 3D design, so seems the obvious choice.

No, the bottle was only bought a month ago. I just don't think this particular brand works well for our purposes, maybe the Vallejo is better, maybe worth a punt next time.

I'm masking enamels that need two coats and a 24hrs to dry, it's going to be a minimum of two days at the very least. Thick coats of this masking liquid take at least 6 hours to start getting solid enough to take off too. It's a "just say no" product for me now.

Thanks Colin, Yes I did try that, but it wasn't much help. I think it's one of those products that works fine in a very limited set of circumstances. It was fine on absolutely flat polished metal surfaces, but on detail like rivets, in corners or possibly just the matt primer it just sticks like glue.

I've now spent hours trying to clean this masking product off and it's been a complete disaster. Small bits stuck in corners, marks on paintwork trying to get it off. IPA softens it a lot, but takes off the underlying paint/primer. Just terrible. Not sure if I can rescue anything or will have strip everything off and start from scratch again. Days of lost work....never again :-(

Thanks, I've just tried that. I think my main problem is not having put it on thickly enough, so it doesn't pull off as a thick skin, it just breaks up, especially where the over spray has thickened it. A stiff dry stencil brush is helping, but this is looking like a very long tedious job now :-(

I've used masking liquid to mask areas of a model before spraying. Now I'm having great difficulty in getting it off, especially the areas sprayed over with enamel, any good tips for getting it off ? I'd prefer not to just rub with my finger, even though it seems the best way of getting it off, as some primed masked areas are still to be painted. I used an artists masking liquid that specifically says it's good for airbrush work; Schmincke Rubbelkrepp

I don't see the problem, save = export, you can overwrite if you need the same file name or just use a new file name for versioning. It's only mildly more keystrokes than ctrl+S As you've got to be connected to the internet to use the program it seems bizarre not to just take advantage of the cloud option anyway. Finished projects can be archived via export if you really don't trust Autodesk.

Easy enough. You just export the file to your local storage. Similarly you can load files from your own computer too.

The UV printers are technology I haven't dealt with before. The cheapest I could find easily is £1.8k https://www.amazon.co.uk/Automatic-Flatbed-Printer-emboss-leather/dp/B07Q35PQ7J/ref=pd_sbs_147_4/260-0175471-8074302?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07Q35PQ7J&pd_rd_r=2cdd9570-f1c9-412b-bb1a-8694591e6202&pd_rd_w=TTH3d&pd_rd_wg=fQK0B&pf_rd_p=b9bf232d-9a8a-4c7d-aa9d-641c0995d3a2&pf_rd_r=QECDPS1V9HN1TZWDNENN&psc=1&refRID=QECDPS1V9HN1TZWDNENN The interesting detail in this advert is that it implies it uses an Epson R330 printhead. If that's the case the ink used ought to be usable in most normal inkjet printers. I'd guess that if a normal inkjet printer could be used* you could cure the ink with a UV light, I'd assume that the need for a UV light in the print head is only important if printing uneven surfaces which seems to be the USP of this class of printer. How the printer's normal driver would handle a white ink would be an interesting challenge to overcome, but maybe not insurmountable. *Refilling inkjet carts is a pretty well used way of cutting normal printing costs, but can be problematic if the inks aren't of very high quality or aren't installed carefully.

No one else has jumped in here, so I'll add my thoughts. " I dry it by blasting straight air at it" this isn't a good practice and is probably why a finished surface will be poor. I either allow paint to FULLY dry before second coating, or follow the manufacturer's instructions for multiple coats. Usually that means putting on a second coat before the previous coat has started to dry to allow it to effectively become a part of the previous layer of paint. That allows it to dry as one solid layer of paint. The crucial part is not overloading the layer and getting runs.