PhilH

As you don't print from the STL file how will the watermark transfer from the STL file to the gcode or whatever file format your printer works on? Surely once you slice the file and it's converted to another format you can then save the file in that format and use it as many times as you want?

Wouldn't it be fair to say that between the first two sentences of your post and the last sentence of your post a designer is bandjaxxed. What I mean by that is if they don't want to put their STL files out in the market for others to adapt etc., and the ready-made price of their designs are too expensive via such as Shapeways then it would appear that there aren't many avenues left to bring their designs to the marketplace. Indeed with the proliferation of ever increasing in quality home printing I do wonder about the future of companies such as Shapeways. As you say Patreon is one route but from a consumers point of view it would appear to get the design you want you have to pay for a lot you don't want.

Disclaimer: this is news from my model club which I suppose is akin to ‘I heard it down the pub so it must be true…’ Anyway according to a, um, usually reliable source Hobbycraft are to start selling Airfix kits again. Now whether this is a chink in their closely guarded tier nonsense system (I think that’s still going) or not remains to be seen. …..or even if it’s reliable gen or not. We shall see.

Locomotives with trailing trucks can be prone to slipping when starting away or accelerating as they tend to 'sit back' so relieving the driving wheels of some adhesive weight, more weight going onto the trailing truck. The same effect can be observed to a certain degree when driving a car, the front end will lift slightly under acceleration. The extreme example of this effect would be a motorcycle wheelie.

Good news. This is from my modelling club Facebook page

It was very much up and running during my two visits in the last two weeks, the latest being last Thursday…also they seemed to be alive and well when I rang them yesterday. If they are closing the model shop I’ve had no indication or conversations about that during my visits. If indeed it is about to close then it would be a great loss to local modellers.

https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/save-your-railway?fbclid=IwAR3Umg9GBKsBpbzT15GcU1-JZLoxFDTrP8kWwOI4U203layPoSc37YWPr6I_aem_AeEqgRYLjCorLYaTAeQ43rhRRPpdm25t5lDmkLwYNRS39N_HHtqRgCtyTDfQocMacw0

They had two shops, one next-door specialising in wargaming and the like. This one has closed down and undoubtedly is the one listed for sale. The very well stocked, friendly staffed model shop is very much thriving and dare I say one of the best ones in the south of England, very fortunate to have it as my local.

It's been my experience that once you get a cordless mini drill you will find 1001 uses for it, drilling, grinding, sharpening chainsaws, paint stirring, the list goes on and on. It's not an exaggeration to say that I use mine at least once every day....and not having to wrestle with a flex that doesn't want to go where you want it to is a definite plus. With that in mind I think it would be an advantage to go for the best one that you can afford. I pushed the boat out and bought a Dremel which I've had now for four years and it's never let me down. I can honestly say it it's one of the best tools I've ever purchased.

On scrums, it irks me that most times the ball appears to be put in straight to the back rows making the hooker redundant. I always thought that the ball had to be put in straight making for a fairer contest between the two front rows. Or have I got that wrong?

That would actually be quite an interesting exercise in my opinion, to demonstrate to the op that the same stl file can be user converted and utilised on different printers without the need for standardised software.

For me the problem with making the slicer stage redundant is that you will be in the hands of the designer re support placing/ density, orientation and placement of object etc. which may or may not suit your particular machine. Personally I quite enjoy the slicing stage knowing that the gcode I put into the printer will hopefully be the optimum for that machine.

Is it not fair to say that that’s the point when the discussion veers away from fact and descends into the minefield of (sometimes forceful, sometimes very biased) opinion and perhaps becomes not as worthy a discussion?

I might be missing the point here but isn’t that what slicing software does, ie convert .stl files into specific printer language.? I have 3 printers, one fdm and 2 resin, all requiring different format files, and once I tell my slicer program which machine I’m using it converts the .stl files into the required format for that machine to print. edit There are also numerous free online file converters to convert myriad types into formats which my printers understand. I can also put .obj files directly into my (free) slicing program.

When I was part of Hoskings organisation I remember going out with a rake of blood and custard coaches, freshly painted, looking fabulous, on their first railtour. At the end of the day you should've seen the state of them, scratched from here to the end of next week,such a shame.

The real problem is that these rules are not set in stone, open to interpretation and open to challenge. It would appear that museums etc sometimes claim copyright on things they have no right to.... depending on which learned tome you read.

To add to that I believe it's 50 years for technical/ engineering drawings

Try printing at 20 deg to horizontal, also Lychee gives you plenty of options re supports, light, medium, heavy, tip shape and diameter etc., so try playing with them.(Having said that I choose tip dia depending on job then choose auto placement, either light, medium or heavy depending on size of job) I always move my objects 5mm off build plate too. I have to say I find the basic Lychee to be about the best slicer I've tried.

Which leads to the thorny question of how long does copyright last for? People make huge assumptions about this, but, as with everything nothing last forever. Part of this also is who actually owns the copyright. Just because you buy something does not necessarily give you the copyright as far as I can make out copyright belongs to originators not custodians.

I’m not sure that the majority of the UK public give two hoots whether Euston is available, or indeed if HS2 will exist at all. Obviously those directly affected do, but others, not so much I feel.

They seem to manage alright in other countries.

Something I always wondered about for HS2 is what is the ‘catchment area’ for a line such as this. If, as has been said in some posts, the purpose would be A to B with not a lot in between, does this presuppose that to make full use of this one has to live in relatively close proximity to either end of the line? Is it possible that the further away one is from this the perceived benefits diminish as one has to journey to the line? Where I live the train service to London, Bournemouth, Weymouth and, um, that other place that begins with P just up the coast is adequate. To get to anywhere else is a ball ache. If I wanted to use HS2 I would have to get to London, cross London and then pay the expected premium fare. I get that HS2 is going to be for the well heeled and the tax deductible business person, I seriously doubt if Mr and Mrs Average and 2.4 would be able to afford to use it, so unless these people live within reasonable distance of HS2 termini does the HS bit become less of an advantage? I know this is abstract reasoning, but for me a journey is door to door, not just the good bit in the middle, so perhaps the effort of getting to/ from this line will make it less attractive.

Good job it’s not a WCR driver, there would have been 40 replies to this already….

Thank you for the replies. I shall investigate further

That’s on us…we eagerly buy everything they can produce.