3D printing
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Is anyone doing it?
A company demonstrated a 3D printer to me the other day. They were trying to sell one to my company. I couldn't justify it for the company but I thought it had fantastic potential for railway modelling. The machines are still a bit pricey (about 1800 pounds), but there are bureau services that will print for you.Has anyone here had a go?
3D printing model rail
The link above shows you some of the things that people have done.
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http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=9463&forum_id=62
found by typing shapeways into the search box on the Home or Recent pages
Ron
NCE DCC ; 00 scale UK outline.
NCE DCC ; 00 scale UK outline.
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It's in it's early days but I'm sure it will come - and probably much cheaper than injection moulding. There seem to be a few queries about the long term stability of the resins. :roll::roll::roll:
'Petermac
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I don't know much about it but maybe you're right in that resin is more malleable than plastic.
'Petermac
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http://www.maplin.co.uk/velleman
Kit costs £699
Dont think the finacial controller will miss that one if I order it.
Paul
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http://robox.cel-uk.com/
Last edit: by hastran
Brian Taylor
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www.smartmodels.co.uk
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www.smartmodels.co.uk
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I'm hoping to use it earn a few dollars with the intention of using it primarily for prototyping and then selling final product through a on-line 3D print store such as Shapeways. One thing these home 3D printers currently aren't is fast. One of my platform column trusses takes about an hour to print.
![](https://yourmodelrailway.net/gallery/1043/1043_090302_590000000.jpg)
Apart from the machine cost though, it is very cheap to run. A kilo of plastic costs around 35 pounds. A column like that weighs about 3 grammes , so that is about 15p each. Shapeways will print better quality than a home machine. Something like that will probably end up around 2 pounds 50p ex Shapeways.
I can see a 3D printer being something in 10 years time that is as common in the home as a normal printer. Still some way to go before they are as user friendly or as cheap.
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Those machines seem to have a huge potential.
One could probably knock out wagons as well as all sorts of building designs.
Thanks for showing and the best of luck with your future development.
Derek.
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The online shop is now ready to go live as soon as I am happy that all the pieces fit together as intended and that the quality of the product is OK.
You can have a look at the initial offering at https://www.shapeways.com/shops/modelrail I'm afraid the site won't show any pricing until I make them available for sale. This will hopefully be mid March
I have plenty of ideas for products to add to the range, and have had lots of suggestions from family and friends; mostly completely impractical. I'd be very interested though in any suggestions for things to create.
As this is now a commercial enterprise, I'll post any new product information in the sales wants and swaps section,and leave the general discussion forums "commercial free".
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Once you go "live", I can see quite a few of those making their way to France - depending on prices of course ………….:roll::roll::roll:
'Petermac
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I'm hoping to pick up the prototype this morning.
Max
Port Elderley
Port Elderley
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![](https://yourmodelrailway.net/gallery/1043/1043_230919_150000000.jpg)
![](https://yourmodelrailway.net/gallery/1043/1043_230919_530000000.jpg)
10 minutes to draw, 45 minutes to print and it feels like a shop bought one.
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I've ordered twenty. They will be available tomorrow.
Max
Port Elderley
Port Elderley
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I think the seated lady is HO scale (and looks a bit scruffy when brought close to the camera's merciless eye). Bachmann maybe?
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Electric signal lights and open top wagon were very good.
Smaller one had a maximum volume of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm.
He was only using the free Sketchup CAD.
I was impressed. I reckon they are going to become major players in all forms of modelling.
David
freelance model railways and tramways
index02
index02
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Got mine (Anet A8) as a kit direct from China for £135:00 including postage. Anyone posting on this board could assemble it in a day. The more accomplished modelers will take about 3 - 4 hours.
Main snag is that the build instructional video is superb but the operating instructions and the packaged software are garbage.
I built it then passed it to my next door computer nerd who sourced software and instructions so it is now fully operational.
Still at the experimental stage but I have learned that :-
- Good results depend on good filament to feed it on.
- I need to think hard about how to orient things for best results in printing.
- I am bloody useless at AutoCAD 3D so no requests until I get a LOT better.
- You can get conductive plastic filament no idea what to use that on yet :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:.
Will put details on the trams thread when I have something to report.
Regards
Jim
Because, except in some unfortunate circumstances, trains did not run on town centre streets
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