As a user of LASER cutting for the majority of my modelling over the years I've been something of a 3D printing skeptic (it always seemed to me to be a good way of producing a lot of landfill!)
I welcomed LASER cutting when it was first used for kits and the improvement in surface detail it brought with it.
The etched bolt and rivit heads and strap work are better than nothing but I like to see these details in proper releif where possible.
Cambrian plastic rivit and bolt heads are grand for those details but hinges has always given me some bother.
As an undergraduate I started building a pair of 16 mills fishvans about 8 or 9 years ago one Christmas. I've made several other aestetic improvements to them (not for this thread) including one of my favorite pointless details - working doors. Brass strip was cut up and lots of tiny sections of copper tube cut for a load of working hinges. My plan was to solder up the hinges in a slightly more sophisticated way than my earlier models which had brass strip bent around to make the hinges. After 8 or 9 years I managed to make one of the 24 required...
The new workshop at the department has an SLS nylon printer and I thought I'd see what all the 3D printing hype was about.
I designed the straps in inventor and printed them out. My first set were a little too delicate and I hadn't worked out how to do the hasp and staple part across the middle of the doors but the second set seem quite workable.
They are designed to work with a 00 scale track pin as the hinge pin.
The only trouble was the only colour available is grey but, as it turns out, dylon exists... So I died the hinges black and I think they turned out rather well (not the best photo I'm afraid)
Once the van is painted I'll show you the finished result. There is even an inviting hasp and staple which is just crying out for a tiny padlock...
A 3D printing convert perhaps? Certainly the models that have been shown on these pages have made me change my mind!
- 3D printed straps.jpg (828.6 KiB) Viewed 3772 times
