3D printed Australian Cane Wagons

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MRC186
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3D printed Australian Cane Wagons

Post by MRC186 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:19 am

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to 16mm railways and with only a modified mamod loco thought I better make a few small wagons to run. Of course being Australian and with many old cane railways close-by, I opted to build cane wagons. With the recent purchase of a cheap 3D printer I wondered whether i could build the wagons with the 3D printer, thus making them fairly cheap. The first lot of wagons designed consisted of a main frame, 3 boards, 4 up-right posts, 4 wheels and 4 bearings all being 3D printed, with brass rod as axles being the only non-3D printed parts. A rake of 10 was printed up taking about a day or so and assembled. it was found however when testing them that due to being only light plastic they were too light and flew off the track in all directions (partially due to the extremely tight mamod track curves). Even with lead weights added to the wagons they were still fairly dodgey. After a while I gave up on the idea of completely 3D printing the wagons and decided to use balsa wood for the boards and uprights. This was found to improve the wagons somewhat, however when lead weights were added a rake of 15 wagons will go around the tight mamod track at relatively quick speeds. At the beginning i was skeptical about whether 3D printed o gauge wheels where feasible or not (since i coud not find anything on google about anyone making any) but in the end they seem to work pretty well considering they cost less than 1 cent to make. Anyway i just wrote way too many words so here's some pictures.
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3 wagons loaded with coconut fiber as cane and 3 unloaded wagons behind the mamod loco
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Side view of some wagons showing the 3D printed wheels and bearings/axle boxes (i didnt realise the wagon furthest to the right was broken until afer the photo was taken...)
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The loaded cane wagons
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The hooks are also 3D printed and the chain is jewelry chain of some sort
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Wagons behind a 3D printed Malcolm Moore diesel locomotive commonly used on cane-fields in Australia.

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philipy
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Re: 3D printed Australian Cane Wagons

Post by philipy » Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:10 am

Hi and Welcome.
It's good to see somebody else using a 3-D printer. I've found, as you have, that it isn't really worth trying to do everything on the printer and it pays to be selective. Having said that I do enjoy trying to push the limits a bit sometimes, just to see what I can do.

I did a printed van a while back, but only used the printer for underframe and strapping detail, added to a styrene sheet van body. https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 25&t=11710

I have printed wheels for a skip wagon that I've never actually finished ( a signal project got in the way ) so I don't know how well they roll or how long they last. The skip wagon drawings including wheels came from Thingiverse. If you haven't looked on there give it a try. There isn't much garden railway stuff and what there is is mostly American, but you might find something, and its free!

Anyway please do keep us up to date with new printing projects and anything else on your railway.
Philip

bazzer42
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Re: 3D printed Australian Cane Wagons

Post by bazzer42 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:19 pm

Don't think I will invest in a printer but do like seeing what is being produced. Those wagons look nice and have to admit after so many items the investment must repay itself.

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