CDR Railcar No. 10

[SeamusOD]

Its looking great Rik what 3d printer did you go for

[ge_rik]

Its looking great Rik what 3d printer did you go for

The cheapest on eBay. It says it's a Prusa i3, but it ain't. It's a CTC DIY i3. I've finished putting it together and wired it up. Struggling to get the computer to communicate with the printer at the moment. It knows it's there but doesn't want to talk to it. The printer does, however, have an SD card reader so I'll try that next, just to see if it works.

Rik

[philipy]

The printer does, however, have an SD card reader so I'll try that next, just to see if it works.

My Qidi doesn't have any communication skills of it's own, so I have always had to do things via an SD card. It seems a bit of a pain at times but in reality it only takes a few seconds longer to save a drawing and walk over to the printer and put it in.

[SeamusOD]

Its looking great Rik what 3d printer did you go for

The cheapest on eBay. It says it's a Prusa i3, but it ain't. It's a CTC DIY i3. I've finished putting it together and wired it up. Struggling to get the computer to communicate with the printer at the moment. It knows it's there but doesn't want to talk to it. The printer does, however, have an SD card reader so I'll try that next, just to see if it works.

Rik

Forget about connecting it to PC much easier just to transfer the gcode files to the printer on a SD card, I do my drawing/slicing on my main PC in the house then just take the card out and plug it into the printer in the workshop.
Snag with using the PC to do the communications is its normally a pain to get working, plus depending on firmware you sometimes have to keep it connected when printing, None of my printers have ever been connected to a PC apart from my old Davinci and it used to just send file to built in card as it had no external SD card port.

[ge_rik]

Forget about connecting it to PC much easier just to transfer the gcode files to the printer on a SD card, I do my drawing/slicing on my main PC in the house then just take the card out and plug it into the printer in the workshop.
Snag with using the PC to do the communications is its normally a pain to get working, plus depending on firmware you sometimes have to keep it connected when printing, None of my printers have ever been connected to a PC apart from my old Davinci and it used to just send file to built in card as it had no external SD card port.

I'm coming round to that way of thinking. It also means I can put the printer anywhere in the workshop rather than worrying whether I can hook it up to the computer. It's dead easy to print from the card, which is one aspect of the design I do admire.

Rik

[ge_rik]

PS - Mk 1 of the seats look reasonably ok. A bit more tweaking required but hopefully by the time my new supply of filament turns up, I'll be ready to go into mass production.

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Rik

[Nojahoda]

The texture of that looks really like it's actually upholstered. Very nice.

[ge_rik]

It's been a while since I posted an update - but a lot has been happening. As you will have seen, I've been running trains in the garden during the fine weather - and also, I've been tinkering with the 3D printer. It is a bit like a needy child, but I'm beginning to get to grips with it.

So, a lot of time has been spent in making the roof for the passenger trailer car.
Two laminations of basswood which had been rasped, filed and sanded - then filled and sanded a few more times. It's reached the stage where I can apply a couple of coats of primer, which reveal more blemishes which will need filling and sanding.

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The rear end has also required a lot of work as all the edges are curved. Again, more basswood and filler and loads of filing, filling and sanding.

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The seats are slowly being printed. I've been drawing, downloading and printing other things in between. The seats take about 25 minutes and the backs about 35 minutes to print - but the cost (not including electricity) is minimal - around 15p per seat.

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Looking forward to applying some paint!

Rik

[Peter Butler]

Looking great Rik, the curves may be hard work but well worth the effort. It's a very nice model and will look lovely when running.

[ge_rik]

Thanks Peter
I must admit, that I have wondered if I could have drawn a 3D model of the roof to print off - but maybe that's a bridge (or a roof) too far at this stage in my learning process. I will be glad to clear the air in the workshop of dust from the sanding, though!

Rik

[SeamusOD]

compound curves are always a pain, we would use a lot of blue foam in the RC scale aircraft world as easy to carve and sand but not as "Ding" prof unless glassed afterwards

[ge_rik]

compound curves are always a pain, we would use a lot of blue foam in the RC scale aircraft world as easy to carve and sand but not as "Ding" prof unless glassed afterwards

Hopefully, the railcar won't be getting too far off the ground and so prangs (as I think the good old handle-bar moustache chaps used to call them) are going to be fewer and farther between than in the RC aircraft world.

Rik

[philipy]

Rik,
Looking at the picture of the white seats, you seem to have a pincushion/pillowing effect on some of them. Not sure if its just the internal structure showing through or if it's an actual physical effect? However, the way to get rid of it is to increase the number of top layers in the slicer. I used to use 3 or 4 top layers and had a big problem, particularly with low infill %, but a professional 3d printing guy told me that he tends to go up to as much as 10 layers - the more layers the less flexible and less prone to deforming.

[SeamusOD]

easy route always is the best

[ge_rik]

Rik,
Looking at the picture of the white seats, you seem to have a pincushion/pillowing effect on some of them. Not sure if its just the internal structure showing through or if it's an actual physical effect? However, the way to get rid of it is to increase the number of top layers in the slicer. I used to use 3 or 4 top layers and had a big problem, particularly with low infill %, but a professional 3d printing guy told me that he tends to go up to as much as 10 layers - the more layers the less flexible and less prone to deforming.

Thanks for that tip, Philip. Another setting to investigate.

Rik

[Andrew]

This is looking great!

Sorry to be a cliched trainspotter, but what livery are you going to go for?

Cheers,

Andrew.

[ge_rik]

Sorry to be a cliched trainspotter, but what livery are you going to go for?
Cheers,
Andrew.

I thought I'd go for the line's passenger stock livery, maroon. I was tempted to keep her in CDR livery of crimson and cream, though.....

Rik

[Andrew]

Sorry to be a cliched trainspotter, but what livery are you going to go for?
Cheers,
Andrew.

I thought I'd go for the line's passenger stock livery, maroon. I was tempted to keep her in CDR livery of crimson and cream, though.....

Rik

I was wondering whether you'd resist that temptation!

Looking forward to seeing it...

[Jimmyb]

Looking forward to seeing it...

I can only agree

[ge_rik]

All the seats are now printed, the passenger trailer is more or less finished and so today received a couple of coats of primer.

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Still a fair bit of filling and sanding to go and also a few more fittings needing to be made and attached - but she's beginning to look the part.

Rik