I changed the truck mounting holes on the car to all be partial thickness. Do you want any of them opened all the way through the car like I had earlier?
Nosir, I like what you did. And you are correct I can adjust the truck bolster as need to widen or narrow the spacing a bit. I think you have done an outstanding job on this, while trying to work with a guy that has zero experience with this kind of medium. Incredible talent and patience.
I am uploading this on Shapeways and it it too big to be printed in brass. I am looking around at other 3D printing services that may have brass capabilities.
Shapeways does have the ability to do these in steel or aluminum. I have found a few places that print in brass, but the print volume is too small. Some larger companies like Protolabs and 3D Systems look to have larger capabilities, but are more aimed at industry and not hobbyists. They don’t have an “instant quote” function like Shapeways where you can upload your item and see how much it costs, which I imagine means that they are expensive.
I’m not really seeing any places that have the size needed for brass. What about steel? The car alone would cost about $130 on Shapeways, as a heads-up. I could always modify the car to have a cutout under the loading deck for sheet weights and print it in plastic. Or print in plastic and install a load, but then you have to be loaded 100% of the time to be within NMRA spec. I could cut the car in two and have it printed in two halves and them soldered back together. If it is printed in steel, it would still meet NMRA weight standards, based on steel’s density. I’m not sure if 3D printed steel is lighter though.
Update: the Shapeways steel is 7.86 g/cubic cm based on their material data sheet. The body of the flatcar is 23.97 cubic cm, so the car weighs 188 grams, or about 6.6 ounces. The car is 60’10” over the pulling faces, or about 8 3/8 real inches. Based on NMRA standard, that car should weigh 5.1875 ounces. The car is over NMRA spec already without trucks and other details. So even if it is not in brass, it is still heavy enough in steel; plus it looks like steel is cheaper on the Shapeways website. It has 2 money signs next to it, while brass has 3.
I like steel! Any idea how much $$ is lol. How would the steel halves be joined? I did know steel was even a print option.
The body is $126 and change based on its size. The trucks could be printed in one of their plastic types which would obviously be cheaper. The steel print can be done in one section, so no soldering or welding needed. They also have aluminum, but that is almost $300.
126 bucks is good for me, plus the steps will be robust enough to stand up with use. The mount holes will be easy enough to tap, and they more robust as well. Drilling the grabs if needed, could be an issue, but maybe not. I agree the trucks need to be plastic. Which plastic is the most robust?
Of course steel trucks would work, at least they would stand up to a little stress too. With metal trucks if still under 200 bucks, it still a good deal IMHO.
You would need at least a plastic bolster to prevent short circuits. (If you use metal sideframes) Plastic sideframes would probably better for free rolling ability and would work better with the truck tuner. That device probably can’t mill the metal. They have some pretty good/detailed plastic options. The body would work well in plastic too if it wasn’t for the weight.
I will have to work out the scale factors for Shapeways since the upload changes it to some weird scale. Is there anything else on the car you would want to render? I made the center truck mounting hole and the one closer to the coupler pocket go all the way through the car. Do you want me to fill either of those in, or will your decking material cover them?
Decking material will cover the holes, no worries there. As for other details I don't know, can't think of any right at this moment. A question. Will the steel print finer details better? Just curious. How does printing metal even work?
As I thought, 3D printing in steel (and probably in other metals) is a powdered metal process requiring a sintering operation and the part will likely require a fair amount of hand finishing to obtain the needed surface quality. The steel printer shown in the linked video is going to retail for $5000- a bit pricey for now, but in the future, it looks like the process will be in reach for hobbyists. Imagine being able to print a nicely detailed plastic car and a steel frame insert, then assemble the whole thing in much the same way as building an old shake-the-box kit. Check it out at:
They also note shrinkage on Shapeways, that the print could grow or shrink up to 5% from original dimensions. In the video on Shapeways, I didn’t really see that happening, so I don’t know when that occurs.
