3-D printers

If you search 3D, there are several posts on this subject.

Don,

    Thank you for your input. I have seen some of the posts from the other sites. I was actually hoping to hear from some of my fellow 2 rail O Scale modelers. 

                                                               Merry Christmas, John

Forum member Lee Willis, post on 3r section, just bought a Makerbot for model train parts. I'd watch his posts for real world info.

I have followed 3D printing from the start. I have a laser cutting table and thought 3D printing would be the next step. But the learning curve for the software is too much for me right now. I have mastered 2D artwork for my laser....but that additional  'D' is more than I want to tackle right now. That and the 3D printer needed for ready to use parts is still more than my laser table was new....so I'll wait and see.

"......... but I know not everyone on this forum has that kind of time to wait."

So true, many here no longer buy green bananas.

Barrett Hill models is using an inexpensive 3-D printer for control widgets.  Products visable at the Timonium Great Scale Train Show on the first weekend in Feburary.

They now have a neat line of touch sensitive color code controls.

Here is another company to check out.

http://www.zcorp.com/en/home.aspx

I believe the also have 3D scanning.

Dave

A lot of model car guys are making parts using the Shapeways service.....many of them love it!

its price tag and what appears to be ease of operation makes it a useful tool for parts and even perhaps producing some of my favorite PRR freight cars-G38,G39,G39A ore jennies- in bulk. Imagine a string for 24-48 or these beauties behind 2 E44'S.

YES! I too would be interested in many of these cars... abeit pulled by ALCo Century series diesels over the curve!

Do keep in mind the cost of 3-d printing......the model car guys are printing lots of custom wheels for 1/25 scale cars. These end up being about the size of a quarter and 3/4 inch thick. A set of four of these run around $50......a single freight car would have to be over $100 from a vendor. If you own the machine it will be lower....but the media is still costly. But the Z scale guys have it made.....so tiny detail is hard to see!!

There is quite a lot of model RR stuff on Shapeways, but it seems somewhat limited to smaller scales for complete cars, e.g. complete trolley cars in N and now some HO cars as well.  For detail parts and all, it seems within reasonable cost.  A bit more evolution in this technology might be needed until complete O scale cars might be available in the home shop. 

Agreed!! The Z scale guys are printing complete freight cars, minus trucks, and because of their size they may be cheaper than commercial cars!!! The mass of O scale cars work against us!

Indeed.  But their use for producing masters needed for casting detail parts in resin or other materials is something that can be used now.

The model car resin casting guys are making a lot of their masters this way.....hand pouring resin is cheaper than 3-D printing today.....maybe not someday!

My employer uses a 3D printer, a fairly advanced and expensive one relative to ones being discussed here. We use a mind bending software program called Solid Works to create 3D drawing and we occasionally will print parts for prototype displays for customers who want the chance to physically handle an idea instead of just staring at a paper drawing. I see dimensional short comings on occasion...a part will sometimes lose several thousands once printed verses what was drawn, some of the detail (the stuff modelers love) is lost if it is very finely dimensioned, but for our purposes that issue is not a concern.. The layering process does leave the surface less than suitable for a model so some amount of sanding would be needed if one required a better finish. I know we spent 15K on the printer, and that was several years ago, also this software is licensed and yearly upgrades are required, it's a healthy expense...not sure what printing supplies run, but there is nothing inexpensive about it.

Having said all that, maybe the latest technology such as is being questioned here may very well have advanced the process to the point of making home use feasable, but I bet it's still not going to lend itself to multiple railcar creation of suitable quality and manageable cost...not yet anyway.

Bob

Some of the model RR guys are, too.  But, I've not seen very many in O scale yet, but I expect that will change.

stereolithography is where you are going to get your high resolution and detail from. it is same concept of 3d printing but instead of printing out the plastic layer by layer it uses a laser light to cure the plastic layer by layer. It can cure plastic in .001" layers, so i would imagine not much if any sanding to be done after that.

http://formlabs.com/products/our-printer  has a model for about $3,000. something to look into. i know the machine isn't very big but i imagine it could be very useful for detail parts to make molds from.

Not sure about any specific details, but the company I work for, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, USA, Inc. has announced that they will OEM the 3D Printers and Scanners from 3D Systems.

As more info is released, I will keep you posted....

Thank you all for the advise.In addition to the Makerbot Replicator 2x, I am looking to purchase a Makerbot Digitalizer which has a 8"x8" area for reproducing parts, scenery items,railroad specific lineside items and small freight cars, like the aforementioned G38,G39, G39a and perhaps PRR/P-RSL NC,ND Cabin cars. WOW. This would also be great to share with other O scale modelers like Dave F.,Marty B. and Tom T. and their projects. Model railroading is all about sharing.

I am also sticking with Makerbot, as this product is manufactured in Brooklyn,USA.

                                     Once again, Thanks. John P.Dunn Sr. Scale2Rail Promotions

I was watching a special about Jeff Dunham the ventriloquist and he was taking us thru the "birth" of one of his dummys. He was using a 3D printer to create a head roughly the size of a football and it took 42 hours to print.

Jerry

The key word in everything we're all saying about 3D printers is "yet." Every new technology that comes along seems to move faster than the one before, and I doubt this will be an exception. The basic home models cost half as much as they did a few months ago, the competition is warming up and metal printing isn't out of the realm of possibility. I'd say widespread home use is five years out, but that may be too conservative an estimate.

Common, relatively inexpensive 3D printing for non-critical items that don't need a perfect finish may cause some major changes. I wish I could find the recent British article estimating that a family can already break even on a basic Makerbot by making the ordinary plastic stuff most of us buy. I'd doubt that--unless they're figuring full list on plastic flatware and the like--but the day likely isn't far off.

Give one of these beasts multicolor capability, quicker printing and the ability to recycle the right types of plastic, and there will be fundamental changes in the way we make and buy many items. (On a purely selfish note, I'd never be caught without the right size of crochet hook again!)

--Becky

I'm finding it a challenge to find software the accurately changes cad files of model parts into G-Code files that 3D Printers and other CNC equipment can use.  There are various flavors of CAM software and the G-Code they produce works with some 3D printer manufacturers but not others.  Took me a bit to figure out the difference in code between positive and negative machining.

The Formlabs STL printer is the nicest and most accurate and fine detailed small printer and has it's own software for creating machine code but it is about $3500.

The materials costs are not bad for what you get - once you figure it out.  I'm only looking to produce prototypes with correct dimensionality before I consider a higher end printer.  The real high end 3D printers are over $100K.

Xerox has also formed an alliance with 3D Systems. 

The 3D printer that I've been looking to buy is the Rostock Max kit from seemecnc.com. I like it better than the makerbot printer. The biggest problem I've seen with people 3D printing things is that they try to go too fast. The parts are far less consistent and not as detailed that way. Slower is better but it may take a very long time to make something. These aren't quick like paper printers. The material itself isn't actually all that expensive. The extruder nozzles can add up and there is certainly a time value so that's where most of the expense comes in.