Thanks Michael:
The guy that did them works for the Hass motor racing company here in Australia (Formula something???) and apparently does a lot of 3D printing on parts for the race car.....gearbox components would you believe!!!
He has a pretty good 3D printer and uses some "special" plastic spools to get a really good finish on incredibly small parts.
And the best part....it only cost me about $75.00 AUS to get all of the side frames and the two pilots printed, which also included the set of original side frames he printed to start with, to make sure they fitted correctly.....bargain!!!
I also got him to 3D print some "frogs" for my Buco points (switches/turnouts) and I converted the old "fixed frogs" to movable frogs that switch from side to side at the same time as the switch blades move to turn the loco out, or keep it going straight ahead. This reduces the "gap" between the end of the fixed frog and the adjoining rail, and stops the loco and carriage wheels from "bouncing" or "thumping" over the gap as they go through the switch.....smooth and silent now!!!
3D printing is the way of the future for model railroading.
Peter.....Buco Australia
