I HAVE to have one of these!!

WOW!    That Thing is Freakin' Awesome!!!!

Chief Bob (Retired)

A pal of mine is a seed investor.   I will be trying his out.

Interesting to me that many will say, "too expensive," and then turn around and buy each of the VL Big Boy road numbers...without even thinking.

It's is pretty cool...but, I could not afford one VL Big Boy.

Interesting - hope that you might be willing to provide a report to a suitable publication,  

Now we're really getting somewhere! The possibilities there...my goodness.

Also, there's a low-end portable 3D scanner coming out from XYZWare.

Martin,

would be be happy too.    He gets his machine soon and I already discussed a few projects to test it out.

I see one of these in my future. I know its says it will only etch some metals. I would be interested to hear about attempts to cut metal. Maybe repeated passes would cut through .010" brass?

Pete

If you do any custom work this would be awesome

This is a nice item, I want one and I m sure you do too!

The one I want only cost $4,795.00 just have to save and sell some of my stuff. Maybe when I m ready the price will go down.

3D printing is a revolution. I can't wait for the day when we can choose a model from an online library and print it out in our homes. Gone will be the days of importers saying they can't get enough orders to produce the model you really want. The future looks bright!

No , Pete.

to cut metal the frequency have to be lot higher and will cost a looooot more.

aluminum is dented a little so you can engrave. brass after several pass remain the same. Trust me I did it.

AG.

I too see possibilities with 3D. Short term I see steam engine drivers and siderods, plus little fixtures like air pumps, and piping. Diesel truck sideframes. Maybe even track turnouts? 

Longer term, as others have suggested, would be complete bodies of steam or diesel power. How about passenger cars with correct window placements! The sky will be the limit for sure.

Dan Weinhold

Good to know Andre. They claim it will cut 1/4" deep, in plastic anyway. If it could come close to that in MDF this should be able to do brick corbeling. Definitely have to investgate this further.

Pete

I could make so many things with this!  

No doubt the technology being developed is fantastic.  We use 3d printing to make waxes or resin masters quite frequently.  In my opinion the biggest fallacy is there being no difference between the folks actually doing the printing.

My point is, many people use one of the larger suppliers available to all and profess the high quality of their results.  The fact is, just like anything else, you get what you pay for.  When making a print used in creating a master you want the highest resolution possible.  To get these results you need to use a machine costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To think a driver, wheel, or any part requiring the precision needed for top quality operation can be printed and used as created is just not true, at least at this point.

As an example, we'll be making 10 to 12 Harriman early Pacifics.  We had a true expert create the cad drawings along with using his professional contacts to do the printing.  After that he had a foundry that specializes in jewelry and extremely fine casting create the master.  Once the master was created we had one of the best lost wax foundries create a vulcanized mold and cast up 80, or so, driver centers.

The tires, axles, bearings, crank pins, and gears are either in stock or being created at this time.

I suppose my point is, yes, 3d printing is an exciting tool we can use to create numerous, really cool, parts but it isn't and probably never be the be all, end all solution.

Jay

Those are, of course, drop-dead gorgeous.  In quantities of 80, what do you guess is the unit charge for the raw casting - no machining?

Hey Bob,

I pay $7.00 for the raw castings.  If I were selling them I'd have to add the cost of creating the cad drawings, 3d printing, master casting, mold creation plus the $7.00.

As you know, lots of machining to do.  First thing I do is machine the stud on the rear of the casting down to 1/4" (.2500").  This is so it fits a like sized collet.  From there most of the remaining machining is done with the collet on a lathe.  The last part, prior to mounting them on their axles is boring the hole for the steel crank pins.  This is done with a vertical mill.

Obviously, none of this is new to you or Joe (along with a few other crazies) but if someone has never done it they need to be aware of the learning curve required.  I obtained my knowledge by making lots of mistakes and ruining many castings.

Jay

Jay, I have no doubt you are correct is saying you need an expensive machine to do quality 3D printing. Despite the fact that Glowforge might refer to their device as a 3D printer its really just a laser cutter, wouldn't you agree? 3D printers add material to make objects. Laser cutters remove material to make objects.

This machine looks to like it might be ideal for making buildings and other objects that don't require super precision, not a mechanical device like a locomotive that require close tolerances.

Pete

Pete,

Sure, it's not a 3d printer.  I only inserted my 2 cents regarding 3d because it was brought up by someone else.

Getting back to the original topic, no doubt there are almost infinite uses in our hobby along with the real world.

Jay

And drifting back away from the original topic (forum police needed) did I ever show you my early Harriman Pacific?

My guess on those drivers is about a grand of NRE to be added to the 80 castings.

Bob,

If someone wanted to purchase just the raw castings I suppose we could up with something mutually agreed to.

Jay

Bob,

If someone wanted to purchase just the raw castings I suppose we could up with something mutually agreed to.

By the way, I like the model.  Interesting color choice too.

Jay

A makerbot or a glowforge are really 2-D printers that print in layers or print layers

I think a true 3D printer is this:

http://formlabs.com/products/3d-printers/form-1-plus/

or for a few more dollars this:

http://formlabs.com/store/us/form-2/