Haven't posted in a while about my coal mine project. Been designing and printing. Thought I'd bring things a little more up to date but there is quite a bit more done than shown below. This is the main building in the coal mine complex. It is a total of 5 floors/levels. It also has another part of the building to the east along with buildings off of it that are above the two tracks where the coal trains are loaded. Finally another building that is attached further to the east that hides the hidden tracks that the train with the empty hoppers disappears into. Above are two end walls that attach ….. … ... to the building above that is above the two tracks for the coal trains. The tracks run below the buildings shown above and these are the last buildings above the tracks on the south side of the mine. They attach to more buildings that run north above the tracks. Above we see the main part of the mine complex which is 5 levels high. The larger opening up on the fourth level is where the conveyor attaches. The conveyor and the structure it is in slopes down to the right and enters the mountain there that contains the coal mine. I'll paint the building parts before gluing them together. The mountain that will be to the right butts up against the retaining wall that is bottom right. Vehicles can pass through between the retaining wall and the offices that are on the first level. This is a big complex and the time to print the parts that are only shown above was about 35-40 hours. In the image above and next two images you can see some (not all) of the additional parts that make up the mining complex. They are not at their final heights or locations. The main building to the right will be setting up on the edge of the mountain above the tracks and the center buildings will be above the track and the buildings to the left will be down at track level. When assembled they will all be connected to form one large building complex. At this point I probably have over 80% of the complex printed. I have a few roofs to print and some smaller detailed parts like outside walkways, railings and steps along with the supports that will hold the center buildings above the two tracks. A link to the build and this info on my site ( HERE ). Sumner
=========================== The Final Two Larger Sections of the Coal Mine Complex ============================== It has taken some months to get to this point but finally finished printing the larger sections of the coal mine complex. As I mentioned above still have smaller parts that need to be designed and printed but feel like I'm getting somewhere. Still have a ton of painting, detailing and gluing to go. So on to the final two larger parts of the complex. I had to take the picture above with the sections on their side since I don't want to glue them together until they are painted. The section that was just painted is the upper chute area that attaches to the front chute area and the building to the left. The coal moves from the mine to the main building that is not shown here but would be behind what is shown. Then it moves into the building to the left where it travels down the two chutes and into the section that attaches to the right (shown next) and down into the coal cars. The opening in the left building is where a chute also attaches that moves coal to a tower that trucks can back under for loading. Most of the larger sections of the mine complex were 10 to 12 hour prints with the Ender 3 Pro using Cura as a slicer. I printed most of the larger sections on 'Dynamic Quality' – 0.16 mm layer height vs. 'Super Quality' – 0.12 mm layer height. I'm satisfied with the print quality and going to Super Quality would of probably added 2-4 hours to the print time. I don't run the printer at night so normally don't like to go over 14 hour prints so I can have them finished during the day. I'll usually print non-detailed parts like most of the roofs on 'Standard quality' – 0.2 mm layer height. This is the final section that will sit above the two tracks and is where the coal would come out the bottom of these into the coal cars. More on the entire coal mine complex and how it will hopefully portray an empty coal train being loaded here.... http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Coal Mine/Coal Mine-Index.html Sumner
Very cool! Is this intended to run tipple loads or flood loads (unit trains or short cuts?)? I like how you printed this on your Ender. Nice work!
From what I understand about coal mines and loading it would be tipple loads. Of course there won't be any actual loading, just substituting a loaded train for an empty one. The train will be limited to about20 cars as I'll need to have it fit on an elevator that will raise/lower it between two levels. 2 or 3 GP7's on each train. Probably not truly prototypical but will work for me if I even can pull it all off . The mine does also have .... .... a coal tower for loading trucks (shown partially completed above). I'm sure you know this but I think that some aren't aware of the fact that when designing something you also have to design it so that you can print it. For instance I had to put the inverted "V" into the area that will be under the roof as I wanted the building sides to be tied together like they are down at the table. I could of had Cura put in supports but went this way instead. The printer is printing over 'space' in the windows but the distance is short enough that it can handle that pretty well. If one is interested in designing I highly recommend downloading Fusion 360 under the option to download free if you aren't using it commercially and start designing and printing and seeing what you have to do in order to work within the limits of your printer. Sumner
For anyone at this point in time that hasn't seen a 3D filament printer working I put up a video of the last print I did for the coal mine complex project... This was a 10 hour print ... the video is a minute. Sumner
