Roof access, 3D printed for HO scale Model Railroad structures

On most model railroad structures, the roofs are more prominent than the fronts of the buildings.  This makes the roof details important for the visual affect.   

I designed and drew three variations of ladder access roof hatches.  One closed, one open and one with a hatch than can be positioned as desired.



This is the stairs and hatch as it comes from the printer, with the raft and support material still attached, not only to the item, but to the plate items are printed on.  At this point, it really doesn't look like much.



After removal of the extra material, it begins to take shape. 



This close up view, give a better idea of what we are going to end up with.  I have printed a couple of these now, and the clean up quick and easy.

Here are several finished views.  I have yet to install this in an actual structure, but I make a make shift roof to display it. 

I still have several posts in planning stages, including some outside access stairs for structures, pictures of both the finished small engine repair shop and the Barnstead Lumber diorama. 

The learning curve. Using my 3D Printer for HO Model Railroad details

Some of my first prints ended up as melted blobs of plastic.  Details too close together, or entire items too close together.  Orientation of the items is not a particular problem when sending items to shapeways; partly because they are going to orient the item the way they want, and partly because their process is completely different than with the Afinia printer. 

The Afinia is basically extruding a .15mm diameter bead of ABS plastic heated to 250 degree Celsius.  So, first off, you can't get better detail than .15mm.  Second, at 250 degrees, it will melt together any details or surfaces that are close together.  Part of the learning curve was finding out how close together different parts of an item could be without melting everything in to a blob.  Also, what was the smallest cross section that could be printed.  Because there are a lot of variables, this can be a moving point based on the size of the items, how much time the heated head spends in a small area, etc. 

Here is a time lapse done by Christina Chun of an Afinia printer printing a gear key chain.  Although it looks like it prints fast, I would guess this is a couple hours of print time. 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIQaEYAq4Gs

One of the first of the larger items I printed was an HO scale elevator tower to sit on the roof of a building.  To print in on the Afina, I broke it up in to several pieces.  Here is an early drawing.  It has a vent on three sides, and they are see through vents, so if you wanted to put a light in the tower, the light would show through the vents.

I broke it up in to four major parts, the walls, the roof, the vents and the door.  Here is a picture of the walls and the roof as they were removed from the printer.  Notice not only the raft that must be removed from under the

print job, but notice all the support material to hold up the walls above the door and windows.

The vents were a great learning experience.  Testing how small the louvers could be, how close they could be to each other, and the thickness of the frames, how they would print, and how the vents would separate from the raft and support material.  Below is a set of windows I did for a scratch build structure addition.  I did not find a picture of the louvered vents as they came from the printer, but this will give you some idea of what it might look like.  The clean-up is similar to cleaning a metal casting, except it is ABS plastic.



Here are a couple shots of a the assemble structure.  It is HO scale, so the actual width measurement is about 1-3/8".  The louvers are a scale 4' square.

Here is the painted elevator tower ready to install on a structure on the model railroad.  The roofing is printed on photo paper from my drawings. 

I did not show all the mistake, prints and reprints.  I would guess the vents were drawn and printed at least four times, the door twice that I remember, and the walls and roof twice.  If I were doing the walls again, I would print them upside down, which would eliminate the support material that was need to support the material above the door.  Also note that the louver vents and door were printed laying down flat, like the windows in the picture above.  In any other orientation, there would be too much support material to remove.

Time to move to the Afinia H Series Printer

First off, I am part owner of a Afinia H Series 3D Printer.  I went in on it for multiple reasons, which I will list here.  I am not a writer, more of a list maker....

1.  We chose this model/manufacturer based mostly on the review in Make Magazine.  They review about all the 3D printers under in the personal printer price range.  The Afinia was the run away winner in most categories.  In particular, we did not want to buy a kit, and have to assemble it.  I had this unpacked, calibrated and printing in about an hour and a half.  We bought it direct from Afinia, at afinia.com. 
2.  Although as you can see from my previous posts, I could just send everything I design to a third party printer like shapeways, and have them print everything, but the cost of larger items was more than I would be willing to risk.  I say risk, cause so often, things do not print the way you think they are going to, and your money is wasted.  Yes, you always learn from it, but the part is not usable. 
3.  With the Afina printer, the detail/fineness of the printed items is about the same as shapeways detail material, and less than a tenth the cost.  Plus I don't wait weeks to see if the item printed correctly; I get near immediate feedback.
4.  I really like the design process, and having a way to print larger items at a reasonable cost, let me design more stuff.

I looked on line for a good video of an Afinia printer at work, but did not see anything I liked, so I am going to try and shoot my own.  Maybe this weekend.

I describe the printer as squeezing out tooth paste to make an item.  The tooth past must have support, and the software with the printer creates the support for the item that is uploaded in to their program.  In the case of the printer here, the tooth paste is ABS plastic, and it is being heated to over 250 degrees Celsius.  That also limits some of the things that can be done.

Here is a drag line bucket that I have printed in two different sizes.  You can see the support material, as in this case, it all came off in one piece.  Depending on the contact points, the support material my have to be cut off in many pieces.



The smaller bucket, after painting with primer, setting on the support material from the print.



The car is HO scale

  I liken it to cleaning up a metal casting, only since it is plastic, you can use a knife.  The smaller bucket took about an hour to print, and the large one, about an hour and forty minutes.  While  they are printing, I work on other things, like this blog.  I have a bunch of 5' x 5' HO scale louver wall vents printing as I write this.

I have been really impressed with what I have been able to print, particularly the small stuff. Does it have the fine detail of the FUD material from shapways? Well hell no, but it is less than a tenth the price. Here are some comparison pictures.


The blue machine was printed at shapeways, at a cost of a buck or two.  The red machine was printed on my Afinia at a cost of about 8 cents.  Does the blue one have better detail, you bet, but remember how small these are.



These measure less than 3/8" across the base, so sitting in a scene, I doubt anyone would notice the difference in detail.  My pocket book, however, will notice the difference.

Note the rounded corners on everything on the surface of the Afinia printed red machine.  Because the Afinia is essentially extruding hot plastic, it cannot make a sharp corner that small.  Think about trying to make a sharp corner squeezing tooth paste out of a tube.

The desks on each end are items printed a shapeways, and the two in the middle were printed on the Afinia.



Sure the detail is crisper on the shapeways items, these items are about 3/4" wide, and are going to inside an HO scale structure.  In many cases a block of wood would show as well. 

It would not be possible to print the roll top desk on the Afina, again because of the heat generated, it would all melt in to a blob.  Keep in mind those cubbies are probably less than .02". 

I really did not buy the printer to print these small items, so the fact that it will print acceptable items that small for my model railroad is a bonus. 

I will try an learn how to shot and edit video this weekend and get a video up showing the printer at work.  I will be posting many items I have designed and printed for my model railroad.  I will also, occasionally, be showing items that I print at shapeways, because, as you will see in the coming posts, there is a long way to go with this technology, and the $100,000 printer at shapeways can do a lot of things the Afinia will not do.  That said, I am having a blast learning what it will do.  More to come.

The rest of the details for my HO scale model Small Engine shop



There were a few items that I did not get printed in the first go around for the small engine repair shop. I added them to my last order.

I used an N scale tractor and some printed parts I designed to make an HO scale riding lawn mower.  Here we have a seat and steering wheel shown with the partially disassembled tractor.

In a previous post I showed the single blade model, so here is the double blade model with the belt drive.  I am missing the steering wheel on this one, so I guess it is in the shop for repairs.

Here is another riding mower I based on some online pictures of 1949 era Fairbanks Morse riding mower.

The bench grinder I ordered with my original group of designs was too small, I sized it wrong, so I resized it, and ordered it along with some more chain saws, a air compressor, a large engine to set out back as junk, and another rider. 



I will have several chain saw motors, both as junk out back, and setting on benches in the shop.  They are one of my favorite details.



The Winchell riding mower was manufactured in Fort Scott Kansas, so in the late 1940's, so I thought it would be a perfect fit for my model railroad.  Here is my model based on some pictures I found online. 

Two more post planed on 3D printed items from shapeways, then I will start on some items that I designed and printed on an Afinia H series printer to which I am a part owner.  There are a few pictures of items I have printed at http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/11204.

I need to write HO scale and Model Railroading more often in my blog

All the adds on my blog are for building, nothing model railroad or 3d printing related.  This time I am going to cover the details I designed a printed at shapeways.com for a small engine repair shop.  

Here is an overview of several of the items I designed and printed for detailing my Lipasek's Small Engine repair model in HO scale.

The green tractor is an N scale model manufactured by Athearn, but I added an HO printed seat, steering wheel and mower deck.  There are more pictures of that particular model in an earlier post.  

Small engines includes chain saw, so I ordered some from the local hobby shop.  They have now been on backorder for several month.  Good thing I did not wait, and went ahead and designed my own to be printed at shapeways.com.  

I could not find commercially available models of 1940's era riding lawn mowers, so I designed mine based on photos available online.  If you search 1949 lawn mowers, there are several to choose from.  The drill press is generic, and the bench grinder I printed to the wrong scale so I have reordered it.

Both benches were printed, including the details under and on the benches.  If I had to do it over, I would not bother printing the square bench, as I could have built it from styrene or wood, and the boxes underneath would have been much easier to paint as individual pieces.  I also have a air compressor that should arrive today on UPS, a day late due to the snow storms in NY.  That and the grinder should complete the details from shapeways.  

This is one of my all time favorite pieces.  I have shown it to several people, and it is so fine, people are scared to touch it, for fear of breaking it.  Products printed this small in shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail material or very brittle.  The bell for the church has been repaired three times, and it is still not installed in the bell tower yet.  I am going to redesign it before I make it available on shapeways, http://www.shapeways.com/shops/nvrr49.

More 3d printing and model railroading to be posted next week...after the grand baby's shower this weekend.

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Blairline Church

In this blog, I am only going to cover the 3d printed parts used in the construction of the Blairline church in HO scale.  If you would like to see more on the construction of the church, I am doing a build thread on kitforums.com.  Here is the direct link to it, http://kitforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7876. 

I have always wanted to build a church and super detail it.  I chose the Blairline church, as I had never built a laser cut wood kit.  I started designing the interior furnishings by looking a different church furniture supplier web sites. I also decided, after getting the kit, that I would add roof beams and a bell.   

Here is the drawing of all the parts.  I sent the drawings to shapeways for printing.  I printed the beams in FD, Frosted Detail, and all the other details in FUD, Frosted Ultra Detail.  I hollowed out as much material as I could of the beams to save material, i.e. money. 

This overview of the furnishings shows the bell was so weak after printing, that it broke in shipping.  I reinforced the bell frame with some styrene.  In this picture you can see the inside of the rear door in the center bottom of the photo. There is also an interior front door that I printed.

Here is the front roof support being glued in place, and also you can see the interior front door. 

 

 After I assembled the bell, since it arrived broken, I set it aside, in its place.  It looked so good, I took a picture.

I still have a couple more installments on shapeway, maybe three, as I have another shipment coming from them this week.  Then I will be blogging about then Afinia printer that I own part of. 

Details on the other side and the roof

This post will cover the 3d printed details on the roof and the other side of the building.

Here is a view of the other side of the building and a good view of the roof.  On many model railroads, the roof is the one side of the building that is the most visible, yet so many ignore the detail possibilities.  This particular building kit came with the chimneys, and detailed roof material.  I  added an access hatch and roof drains (note the corresponding drain tubes made from brass tube at the base of the building). 

These vents were printed a shapeways, and are 3/16" diameter at the base.

 This kit, due to it's design, had several seems that would look better if slightly hidden.  The pipe on this side, and the electrical service on the other were placed to distract the eye from those kit flaws.  The pipes I designed are hollow, real pipes, and can be assembled in just about any configuration.  These were printed

in the FUD (Frosted Ultra Detail) material, and are quite brittle.  Bending them or putting them under any stress will cause them to fracture, but with care, the go together rather easy.  Next time I will cover a few other details for HO scale structures walls and roofs.  In future posts I will be covering some lumberyard details and a small engine repair shop.  Both, detailed with items I designed and had printed at shapeways.  There will also be a few items in the upcoming posts that were printed on an Afinia H series printer.