Garden Railway Forum

Those are most impressive... you should go into business.

I've been exploring fine detail, just to see what I can do.

Decided to have a go at a cast iron fireplace for the waiting room.
The black one is the finished item, but difficult to photograph. The white one shows the detail from a test print part way through, just to see if it was worth continuing with.

Top notch! Terrific example of how to push the boundaries with this technology...

SUPERB - and I've seen no-one else doing anything like that!

Astounding, you're on a roll Philip.
Grant.

Hi Philip.
One thing that stands out for me is how much like cast iron 3d printing looks. My wife has just bought a cast iron skillet and the surface looks identical.
David.

You've produced some amazing items in a relatively short time Philip. As others have said, it makes me want one!

Latest updates, but firstly, thanks for all the nice comments, folks.

I have to admit that I enjoy 'playing' and I get most of my pleasure in model railways in building things, not actually operating, so this 3D printer I saw from the outset as being a new thing to play with, as much as anything else.

Earlier, I showed the 3d printed cast iron fireplace, which I intended to have in the waiting room of my WIP station building. Then my 'playing' head got involved and the result was....

Ummm...


Did you know that it is possible to print a fire???

First, the fireplace from before but now in situ:

And then with the fire lit:



OK, the technical details: The 'fire' is a printed block of transparent PLA with a cavity in the bottom big enough to take 2 x3mm LED's. Unfortunately I forgot to take a piccy of the printed block before I installed it, but the drawing for it looks like this:
Now, the spikes are just random extruded triangles but that print is only about 20mm across the face and the printer isn't happy with all those spikes at that resolution, so it kind of mashes down into a sort of random uneveness, which is what I was after.
As I said, there is an aperture underneath for 2 LED's. I got orange and yellow random flickering ( NOT flashing) types and put one of each side by side in the space, switched it on and Hey Presto! Actually, to begin with it was little too bright but some random very small dabs of black paint both simulated coal and took the edge off the brightness. The grate bars at the front are just 3 small strips of Plasticard.

The still photos don't do justice to the flickering effect. This is a bit pale because my wife's iphone got a bit swamped by the light levels, but it shows the effect. The colours are really closer to the still photo above.

[video] https://youtu.be/x6ku9a5Zwg8 [/video]


I haven't only been playing with fire though... Obviously the passengers waiting by the roaring fire need to see what they are doing, so, Let there be Light...

Based on an official drawing of a Suggs "Littleton" design:
and then with the lamp lit:
The lamp body printed as one piece with a cavity in the bottom, big enough to take an 8mm LED with the base rim filed off.

Its true - you are a wizard!

I am in complete awe! Those are wonderful detail additions. I hope you have a plan in mind to ensure they are visible in the finished station building?

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:17 pm I hope you have a plan in mind to ensure they are visible in the finished station building?

Hopefully. The station is about 12" off the ground and the building faces out, so should be visible through two windows and a half glazed door.

Stunning effect Philip, the flickering is so realistic in your video clip...

That fire is so spot on.
David.

Absolutely amazing Philip. The machine is obviously very capable, but your thought processes appear to have no limits ("did you know you can print a fire")
Grant.

Your fire has blown my mind.

As Grant says, your thinking process respects no limit! What a superb result. It's something I would have thought difficult enough to model, but wouldn't having even imagined trying to print!

SimonWood wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2017 2:52 pm It's something I would have thought difficult enough to model, but wouldn't having even imagined trying to print!

I agree, very difficult to model, I've tried before without any real success. However, this time the thought process went something like this:

Fireplace----> Needs a fire---> Ebay, LED candles---> Not really the effect I want, Ok, why not get just the components rather than trying to mangle a 'tea light'---> Ooh,they have flickering orange or yellow or red ---> Hmm, by chance I have discount voucher for this sellers own website ---> Orange & Yellow or Orange & Red? Fires don't actually have much red in them, so yellow and orange should do. ---> LED's arrive, tried wrapping in black weed fabric ( black with holes in), Nah, no good. --->Thinks, what I need is a plastic coal wagon load type thing and drill holes, No that won't work. ---> Could cut a piece of perspex and 'distress' it to get a rough surface so the light reflects at different angles - that might work. ---> At this point, bitter experience came into play and I remembered a couple of failed 3D prints with really random rough surfaces, and from there it didn't take a huge leap to imagine how to force it to deliberately print a rough surface. Then it was only half an hour or so with Sketchup to produce the drawing above, and then another half an hour on the printer.
TBH, I wasn't entirely sure how well it would work, but as they say, The proof of the pudding...

philipy wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:16 pm

SimonWood wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2017 2:52 pm It's something I would have thought difficult enough to model, but wouldn't having even imagined trying to print!

I agree, very difficult to model, I've tried before without any real success. However, this time the thought process went something like this:

Fireplace----> Needs a fire---> Ebay, LED candles---> Not really the effect I want, Ok, why not get just the components rather than trying to mangle a 'tea light'---> Ooh,they have flickering orange or yellow or red ---> Hmm, by chance I have discount voucher for this sellers own website ---> Orange & Yellow or Orange & Red? Fires don't actually have much red in them, so yellow and orange should do. ---> LED's arrive, tried wrapping in black weed fabric ( black with holes in), Nah, no good. --->Thinks, what I need is a plastic coal wagon load type thing and drill holes, No that won't work. ---> Could cut a piece of perspex and 'distress' it to get a rough surface so the light reflects at different angles - that might work. ---> At this point, bitter experience came into play and I remembered a couple of failed 3D prints with really random rough surfaces, and from there it didn't take a huge leap to imagine how to force it to deliberately print a rough surface. Then it was only half an hour or so with Sketchup to produce the drawing above, and then another half an hour on the printer.
TBH, I wasn't entirely sure how well it would work, but as they say, The proof of the pudding...

The creative process

Something a bit different this time...
Last weekend, having got the fire and gas light sorted, I realised that the waiting room really needed somebody actually waiting in it. I have a few figures in stock but none of them are seated, which is what I wanted. I went to the 'DSP 3D' website with the intention of buying a couple of suitable characters. However they were displaying a notice saying they were working on the site, "please come back later". This went on for 3 days and in the end I got fed up and went off trawling the 'net. I hadn't realised before but there are loads of companies producing 3d figures for various computer game, CG film, architects and other designers. I think they are intended as the starting point for customisation in the various industries, so needless to say they are pretty pricey. However, a lot of them offer a few freebies to entice the potential customers in. Most of the freebies are standing, arms akimbo, but I did find one rather tasty young lady, sitting down. So this is the result, alongside a fella I got at the same time. It isn't exactly high resolution, but she has been rather viciously scaled down and the printer has given the poor girl a fairly ropey looking face, but it will be Ok indoors where she is difficult to see!
Actually, I had a bit of a problem printing her, because if you imagine the machine working up from the floor, it has to print quite a lot of supports because she is sitting on nothing, with her legs crossed and off the ground, so the first bit of 'her' that it comes to, is the point of a stilletto heel. It was then trying to print the rest of the leg, balanced on that point and it just ain't feasible! In the end I solved the problem by drawing a solid box under that foot, so that the shoe was resting on something solid, and then cutting it off when the print was finished.
BTW, she is sitting on a lump of BluTak which is why she appears so high.

I have been playing with a few others bits and pieces as well, one of which may be Ok with some more development ( or may be a complete disaster) so I'll expand on that later, and one project which has turned out far better than I thought possible, but isn't ready for public consumption just yet.

Very interesting and I like the waiting room bench as well!

Phillip where did you get your figures from? One thing I have been looking for are generic sitting figure stl's.
At the end of this week I hope to post pictures of a customers bridge sides that take 88 hours each to print!