Gondola Steel Coil Hoods

[sirenwerks]

After trying to modify a couple MTL hoods to fit the TX cars without much happiness, I started designing one for shapeways.  There are a couple issues to contend with.  First are any walkways and hands rails.  They really need to be etched (or hand fabricated).  And if your going to do that, you may as well etch the little pedestals for stacking the hoods.  The bigger issue however is the thickness of the 3D print and how if effects fitting the hood onto the car.  There's no real way to mimic sheet metal thickness with 3D printing.  Ideally the hood would just slip over the top of the gon, but that would result in a huge overhang.  One solution could be to print to print it with the expectation of sanding it down.  Another solution would be to sand the top of the car down so the hood could fit low enough.  And yet another solution could be to just use the top of the gon as the part of the hood that supposed to fit over.  This would generally require repainting the top of the gon a silver of white to match the hood.

I'm open to more ideas if people have them.

Jason

I mulled this for a while and I came up with two ideas along the same lines...  Create the Shapeways product as a frame (either open of solid - the two options) that could be used to wrap a thinner material better suited to mimic sheet steel (styrene, roofing tin, paper...?) over.  If you did so, you'd have to design it such that there was support for the top-side details.  I know it's a weak solution but my mind's not firing on all 5 yet.

[Atlas Paul]

Truck mounted couplers.  This car has been around since 2008.

[Erik aka Ngineer]

What material do you want to print the hoods in? If you use FUD they will be a bit expensive but I think you can get away with making almost everything in one model. You don't have many areas which show the sheet metal look. The rims of the hood seem a bit thicker than sheet metal. If you make them 0.5mm thick I think it will look fine (I know, that's still 3" in real life, but it will probably look fine). The pedestals can be printed in 0.5 as well, with the main pipe 0.8 or something in that direction. They don't have to bear any weight. The shell itself can be 0.7 because of the rim, if you put some braces in.
They only thing that will be difficult is the hook for hoisting them up. Make sure to think that over very carefully or find a prototype with a bulkier hook.
If you need help, just let me know.
Erik