3D printed n scale turbine blades

[carlso]

Do any of you 3D print guys make turbine blades for railcar loads ? Not interested in files as I do not have a printer. The ones that I have were printed by Shapeways for CGN Scale by Mark Watson. Not available anymore and MT has no stock of theirs.

[samusi01]

@carlso

I usually don't do any commercial(ish) printing but if you are interested I can run a batch of 40m blades tomorrow at the fab lab's printer and, barring any issues, have them en route to you before end of week. What you'd get is a six pack of the blades seen here:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=56423.msg777359#msg777359

Please note that when assembled they are 40-meter blades - 10" long - and designed to span 89' flatcars so they may not be appropriate for your intended use. They would arrive disassembled, as seen below, and feature the base section, tip section, and a plate with hatch for accessing the interior. They have protective tip caps as well. They are based on a Thingiverse design as well as proto photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtlwestrailfan/52490971813/

I generally assemble them with UV-curing glue like JB Weld's Superweld or Bondic.

[carlso]

Sorry for not responding sooner but life you know .....

There is no rush. You have some nice looking blades but I really need tower pieces. Much appreciate the offer.

[samusi01]

@carlso

You may want to take a look at the El Paso Fab Lab and see if they would have some sort of cost effective machine rental or other program you could use to access a 3d printer and print your own parts. I have my own printer but do offload projects to the printers located at the Tulsa fab lab.

[John]

Sam.  Please elaborate on this fab lab ?

[samusi01]

@John

Here in Tulsa, we have the Tulsa Fab Lab. It's an organization that one purchases a membership from to gain access to a variety of machines. The below image shows the main area of the lab, with five lasers, the largest of which is the 36" x 48" CO2/Fiber in the foreground, as well as four different 3d printers in the left background. To the left, not in image, is the water jet cutter I use for developing weights for my flatcars. Out of image to the right is the sparsely used electronics section, a UV printer, and a sewing area. Behind me are the wood lab - three different CNC routers, including a pair of 4'x8', and the still in development metals lab that has amongst other equipment a plasma cutter and vacuum forming hardware.

For me, it's a nominal fee of around $60 a month to access all of it. There are lower levels of membership that have various restrictions. You may want to check your domicile for a corresponding organization - having just looked at the El Paso area, I know it has one, and there is an organization down in Houston.

[John]

Thanks.. I looked and we have one here in Baltimore .. I just signed up for their Fusion 360 course

[dem34]

My only issue with a lot of makerspaces is that their memberships are often in the price range where I'd have the money to just outright buy a lot of the equipment myself. Atleast thats how it is in Jersey where it seems mostly aimed at JC/NYC residents who live in apartments/condos.

[John]

The Baltimore one seems to be reasonable

https://www.fablabbaltimore.org/policies--fees.html

[carlso]

Thanks for the info samsui01 !  Yes, there is a fablab here in El Paso as well as at the Community College, UTEP, and Texas Tech Health Sciences lab. I shall do some "checking out" !

[samusi01]

If you choose to go the local printing route, my wind turbine pack includes a trio of different sized towers. Be aware that some of the sections are fairly large, almost 7.25" long, and designed to be printed vertically. I'm sure they could be printed at an angle but I've not attempted that on my personal printer. They are designed to accommodate magnets of various sizes to secure them to the cars.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-160-n-scale-wind-turbine-service-100-ton-flatcars

Separately available are hub loads, but those don't seem to show up as often in the unit trains of blades or tower sections. Most of the stuff I've seen images of appear to be either unit blade or tower, and then accessory trains (the hubs, nacelles, etc.).

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1-160-n-scale-wind-turbine-hub-loads

[mramsey]

Separately available are hub loads, but those don't seem to show up as often in the unit trains of blades or tower sections. Most of the stuff I've seen images of appear to be either unit blade or tower, and then accessory trains (the hubs, nacelles, etc.).

10 or 15 years ago I was walking towards Jack London Square in Oakland, CA when I saw a long train with a very odd mix of cars passing on the street-running section of the tracks.  Repeated sets of three cars, a regular flat car with a large oddly shaped box and a smaller object that looked like an inverted teacup, both wrapped in white plastic, followed by a pair of flat cars with side panels carrying long thin plastic wrapped objects visible suspended in the gap between those cars.  I don't remember what search terms I used, but eventually I found a picture someone had posted of what was likely the same train, taken in Texas a few days earlier with an explanation.  Mystery solved