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.

According to that website somebody is doing pigeons…. in N Scale (set 121) !!!!!!! and cactus in z scale…..

I saw that ...but you still have to paint them!

One of a few threads in YMR re 3D printing
 
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

A well known tram modeller, Mark Casson - better known via his "Grime Street" tram layout - is doing some great stuff with 3D printing.

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:

I'm looking at a machine that uses ABS filament, which results in a printed plastic similar to Lego plastic. I believe the resin printers are better at achieving good levels of detail, but are much more expensive.

Mark has his stuff done by Shapeways Peter - the detail is just unbelievable.  I doubt injection moulding could ever achieve it.

I don't know much about it but maybe you're right in that resin is more malleable than plastic.

Maplins are also selling them,

http://www.maplin.co.uk/velleman

Kit costs £699

Dont think the finacial controller will miss that one if I order it.

Paul

There's a new 3D printer coming out in April from a british company which can use many different plastics filment. Its £799 if you pre order it and £849 once it it is on sale.
http://robox.cel-uk.com/

I'll be keeping an eye on that one.

Well I have taken the plunge and purchased a Makerbot Replicator 2X. It's a dual extruder model and I'm currently on a very steep learning curve. 

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. 



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.

Very impressive creation Peter.
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.

Well I have been quite busy designing and test printing bits and pieces on my Makerbot at home and the first commercial test prints are now in production at Shapeways. The first thing I've focused on is platform canopies (because I have miles of the stuff to make for my own layout). My intention is not to be making kitsets as such; but to make bits and pieces that would be either too tedious to make yourself, or just damn near impossible without 3D printing.

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".

Now they do look very good Peter - just the ideal thing for 3D printing.

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:

I'm having some bespoke servo brackets made by a young local guy.  He charges A$15.00 to do the CAD model and then A$5.50 each to make them.  It works out the same price as buying the not-as-good ones available from the servo supplier.

I'm hoping to pick up the prototype this morning.

Max, I think that's one of the best things about 3D printing. We all now get the chance to have a "manufactured" item and are no longer limited to what someone else has made and made available for sale. For example, my digitrax throttle is always either perched precariously on the edge of the layout or dangling on to the floor (most of the time I am using the PC to drive). Yesterday I knocked up a throttle holder on the Makerbot that I can screw onto the side of the table.






10 minutes to draw, 45 minutes to print and it feels like a shop bought one.

Absolutely, Peter.  I picked up the prototype and it's impossible to break it with my bare hands.  :thumbs

I've ordered twenty.  They will be available tomorrow.

Some furniture I created with the Makerbot. 

I think the seated lady is HO scale (and looks a bit scruffy when brought close to the camera's  merciless eye). Bachmann maybe?

At Keighley Model Rail Show on Saturday a guy had two running. One was about the size of a wine box and was working fine. Makerbot I think. The other had cost £250 as a kit and was also working. Quality was much the same from both.

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

Hi guys

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 :-

1. Good results depend on good filament to feed it on.
2. I need to think hard about how to orient things for best results in printing.
3. I am bloody useless at AutoCAD 3D so no requests until I get a LOT better.
4. 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