3 D Printing 16mm models

[Trevor Thompson]

Just catching up on this thread. So much inspiration here, having seen some of Trevor's models close up I was already eying a 3D printer as something to learn for a winter project (as if I need an additional one!) No doubt about it, I'm going to have to do it!

4415 looks fantastic Trevor, I love it.

The bridge is extraordinarily impressive - 1.3kg, how long did that take to print? It looks just the part, the modifications to take pedestrians up higher than the Tan-y-Bwlch prototype are very much of a piece!

Thanks Simon, How long to print? - about a week almost non stop. Each of the floor sections took just over 4 hours, and most of the side pieces 3 and a bit hours. The stair cases were quicker as the sides were printed as separate lengths and the treads as individual treads. The sides incorporate slots to locate the treads.

[Trevor Thompson]

I have just finished priming the water tower. This is it so far:

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Quite a bit of painting to go!

Trevor

[ge_rik]

Not as ambitious as other posts on the thread, but I'm feeling pleased with the outcome. I decided some of my through stations needed another running-in board as, at the moment they have only one in the middle of the platform rather than one at each end. So, a quick bit of fiddling with TinkerCAD and here's the result:

Two yet to be printed

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..... and one done so far....

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The stations with island platforms have double-sided nameboards.

Got plenty of other 3D projects in the pipeline

Rik

[Trevor Thompson]

Those name boards look vert crisp and clean. Very Nice.

Such an easy way to get the letter spacing correct - and the typeface constant! Well it is when you have worked out how to do it!

Trevor

[philipy]

Very nice Rik.
What are the dimensions of the BULKELEY board?

[Trevor Thompson]

An update on the bridge and the water tower. Both are now painted.

Firstly details on the water tower. The water supply pipe is fitted, a length of 3mm copper pipe with 0.8mm brass wire supports. In the same place and arranged in the same way as on the prototype:

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I have yet to make a water outlet pipe. Not quite sure how to do it yet, but its likely to be a working brass valve turned up on the lathe. It might as well actually function. The tank in place:

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And finally the bridge in place:

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Trevor

[ge_rik]

Very nice Rik.
What are the dimensions of the BULKELEY board?

Hi Philip
The Bulkeley nameboards are 116mm x 24mm x 3.5mm

The above is the third attempt as the first two started to bend upwards at the ends. I tried increasing the width of the brim to improve adhesion but in the end I discovered the bed needed re-levelling (yet again!!). This is an issue with my cheapo printer. The bed seems to require re-levelling at regular intervals. Sometimes it can be a couple of weeks before it needs re-adjustment but this week it's needed to be done after each print. Not sure why, might be the vibration from the stepper motors or the plywood frame flexing (or both). However, for £80 I expected it would be far from perfect.

I'm considering the Creality CR-6 for my next acquisition. I was going for the Ender 3 Pro, but the CR-6 has auto bed levelling as standard and a few other enhancements. Having served my apprenticeship on a cheapo printer, I think I deserve a bit of a treat for Christmas.

Rik

[philipy]

The bed seems to require re-levelling at regular intervals. Sometimes it can be a couple of weeks before it needs re-adjustment but this week it's needed to be done after each print.

I think thats pretty much par for the course across most, if not all, makes. Of course it's more obvious if you are printing something tall. I find that keeping an eye on the first layer and seeing how much it is either squashed onto the bed or sitting on top almost loose, is a pretty good indicator before wasting too much time and filamemt.
I think the leverage sometimes required to get the print off the bed can certainly affect the levelling.

[Trevor Thompson]

All that about levelling is very interesting.

I don't have to level the bed on my printer. Whether it does it automatically or not I have no idea.

The only issue I have ( and I have gone through probably 8kg of filament now ) is the adhesive cover on the print bed wearing out. Cleaning the bed with acetone certainly helps as does sanding it if it is that bad. I have also tried the self adhesive pads form eBay, but they cost almost as much as the correct replacement part.

I have just ordered the third flexible bed top plate, which comes with the adhesive cover already attached, for £15 direct from China. In fact I have ordered 2 so I have a spare.

[philipy]

My QidiTech One has a blue plastic sheet glued ( with 3M double side tape) to the heated aluminium bed. The bed is leveled by adjusting three spring loaded screws under the plate and manually moving the extruder around and tweaking the screws with a supplied plastic sheet between the headand bed. It can be a bit of a 'mare sometimes if I tweak the screws too much at a time and get things out of whack, but generally it isn't more than a few mins work. However most of the time I just switch on and set it printing, it's rarely far enough out to bother about levelling.

When I first got the m/c it took me a while to get the bed temp and print temp worked out but since then I haven't needed to change them even when changing filament suppliers ( I go for the cheapest at the time on Amazon, using my wife's Prime account!).

At first I found I need to use a raft to get things to stick and sometimes even that was no good. Then I tried glue stick on the bed, as recommended by the manufacturers and various 'experts'. That worked but I ended up with a rough/cratered layer of dried glue that I couldn't get off. I also tried blue painters tape, with some limited success.

Eventually I decided to change the blue plastic cover sheet ( a spare was supplied with the machine) and after that I found that without adding anything, the prints stick to the bed every time with no glue or tape and no rafts, skirts or brims.

I guess in total I've used about 6 x 1Kg reels (that's 0.75Kg of actual filament each, of course).

[ge_rik]

I'm still at the Pritt Stick on glass bed stage. It certainly works well - to the extent that I often have to chisel the prints off the bed (when I get the levelling right). But. as you've said, it leaves the underside of the print slightly uneven and coated with solidified Pritt which needs to be scraped and then smoothed off.

Those plastic cover sheets sound interesting

Rik

[philipy]

Those plastic cover sheets sound interesting

This is the one for my m/c. Amazon also list what appear to be similar but different sizes, for other Qidi models but they aren't blue so not sure if they are actually the same.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Platform-Stick ... YFPRWA8VJP

[Andrew]

Wow, there's so much to catch up on here! That bridge is wonderful, just right - and the KS diesel too...

Things have been busy at work lately, but I'm hoping lunch hours might start becoming A Thing again, and with them the chance to play with some CAD - there's certainly plenty of inspiration here!

Thanks for sharing your experience chaps,

Andrew.

[Trevor Thompson]

I am currently finishing off those Ashbury 4 wheel coaches which featured on this thread a while ago. I think that the process could be better covered in a separate thread. So this is where we left off with the coaches:

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They have been painted with the basic colour that I use to represent the Victorian livery used on the Festiniog railway. They have received 3 coats of paint thinned with 35% thinners, so the paint will go through an airbrush. I actually find that I get a better covering and its easier to paint using a brush and unthined paint. In this case the paint is from Precision paints.

So as far as I am concerned they are ready for the lining. So lets call the new thread "Lining externally panelled Victorian coaches"

[ge_rik]

Just set up my new Eryone printer and am printing one of the test pieces.

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A couple of observations:

1. It's almost silent. In fact the noisiest thing is the fan on the power supply, and that's only a whisper.
2. Bed levelling is so much easier than my cheapo printer. Twiddling large gnurled wheels underneath the plate rather than using a a Phillips screwdriver to hold the screw and a fiddling with a half visible wing nut.

It has a glass plate bed, but the surface is textured so, for now, doesn't need any adhesive. The XYZ cube it's printing seems, so far, to be really smooth. Never did get rid of the striations on the vertical axis on my old printer. I'll post a picture of the cube when it's finished!

Rik

PS It's an early Christmas present. I may have to pack it away until Christmas day ........ But I needed to test it, didn't I?

[Peter Butler]

Boys and their toys!!!!! Good to know we don't have to grow up.

[ge_rik]

Boys and their toys!!!!! Good to know we don't have to grow up.

It's what keeps us all so youthful ....
Rik

[ge_rik]

The XYZ cube. There seems to have been a fractional Y shift about 2/3 of the way through the print, otherwise very pleased.

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Rik

[philipy]

Well done Rik ( and Mrs Rik!).
Must admit I'd never even heard of this manufacturer before. What size is the build plate, it looks quite big?

The Y shift part way up is something that I get occasionally and I've never found out why. It appears to be with the slicer output since it is repeatable, but of course it could be in the original CAD drawing and the slicer is simply faithfully reproducing what it is fed!

[Andrew]

Hi all,

Thought I'd join in the fun so have downloaded and am currently playing with Sketchup - I can see the potential, but I think I've got a lot more tutorials to watch!!!

Push/pull and offset tools are fun, but I'm currently struggling to combine the two in a way that ensures that shapes I create are solid... I'll let you know how I get on!

Cheers,

Andrew.