the future?

[trainforfun]

Thanks Dave , that wil postpone my project for a couple of years , maybe ...

[John]

have you tried sanding it yet?

[wazzou]

have you tried sanding it yet?

How are you going to sand that piece with all of the closely space detail on there?

[Dave Schneider]

Thanks Dave , that wil postpone my project for a couple of years , maybe ...

They are not the only company that will print in 3D, just the one that many people use. I am trying to find a company that prints in similar (or higher resolution) and will orient a design to produce the best result.

have you tried sanding it yet?

Nope

How are you going to sand that piece with all of the closely space detail on there?

For this reason. The parts of the car side that are not overhung by other detail (ie. not in what I call the shadow zone) have a much, much smoother texture. Still not clear whether printing this car side horizontally would have produced the desired (by me) result, but it would have been nice to evaluate.

For those who have not read the other threads, this "shadow zone" problem seems to occur where wax is used to support the subsequent print layers. You can see this along the bottom sill which is clear and smooth (in places) but has rough shadows of the rivets that stick out above it.

Best wishes, Dave

[jimmo]

I recently commissioned a talented 3D designer to produce a car side for a Milwaukee Road beer car. Rather than doing a complete car, the idea was to do just the side to reduce printing artifacts (mainly the shadow zone) that are hard to smooth. Here is what  I received, a print that was done in a vertical aspect which maximized the shadow problem, instead of horizontal which would have provided a much smoother (but not perfect) surface. I asked Shapeways whether they could reprint in an orientation that would improve the results or refund my money. They refunded my money.

This is not a Shapeways rant. They will not allow you to chose orientation. What I had hoped was that THEY would chose an orientation that would result in the best possible product. They chose to not do that, which is their right.



I have been willing to spend money to come up with a unique car that  I need. Any recommendations for vendors that are willing to orient a design to produce a good result?

Best wishes, Dave

Dave, have you tried the abrasive toothpaste/toothbrush scrub method? It takes off a lot of the shadow zone surface roughness, especially since you don't have any delicate protrusions on a flat car side.

[Dave Schneider]

Dave, have you tried the abrasive toothpaste/toothbrush scrub method? It takes off a lot of the shadow zone surface roughness, especially since you don't have any delicate protrusions on a flat car side.

I haven't done anything to them as of yet. Any brand of toothpaste that you recommend? I didn't know that they had abrasive versions since I just use what my wife puts in the bathroom.

Best wishes, Dave

[Iain]

This was 3D printed.  Note the brass bits.  I also used siding for the radiator shutters to avoid print artifacts due to the overhang. 

[jimmo]

I haven't done anything to them as of yet. Any brand of toothpaste that you recommend? I didn't know that they had abrasive versions since I just use what my wife puts in the bathroom.

Best wishes, Dave

I found this chart showing the abrasiveness of most common toothpastes: http://www.levysmiles.com/docs/Abrasiveness_of_Common_Toothpase.pdf

You can even check the one your wife buys to see if you need to spend any more money. We are currently using Colgate Total which has an RDA rating of 70, which is considered mild. I used this on one of my recent Shapeways purchases and it seemed to work fairly well. I think I'll try a higher RDA toothpaste next time.

[PiperguyUMD]

This was 3D printed.  Note the brass bits.  I also used siding for the radiator shutters to avoid print artifacts due to the overhang.

This has been my approach as of late.  Yes it's awesome that I could print ALL of the piping and railings on my WM 2-8-0, but they had a negative effect on other surfaces around them.  When you take stock of the surprisingly large number of etched brass parts that are out there, the best thing to do is to draft up the mounting holes for those parts instead of trying to print them.  The baby faced baldwin that I am working on is absolutely minimal in regards to small details.  No grills, hand rails, or sunshades.  All will have their mounting locations marked, but these items will be added by the modeler at will

[ljudice]

There are so many things made of concrete, wood, bricks, etc.  just waiting to be modeled and we are always banging our heads against the wall trying to replicated sheet metal!! 

 

[DKS]

There are so many things made of concrete, wood, bricks, etc.  just waiting to be modeled and we are always banging our heads against the wall trying to replicated sheet metal!!

+1

[cnw mike]

There are so many things made of concrete, wood, bricks, etc.  just waiting to be modeled and we are always banging our heads against the wall trying to replicated sheet metal!! 

 

The problem with that is most of those things are rather large. I made this print of Rio Grande's Gunnison coal tower in Shapeway's most inexpensive WSF material. While I was happy with the print, and the material approximated rough wood in an appealing way, it was more than $120 to print a rather moderate sized structure.

[cnw mike]

I should add that the tower is in HO scale, but a similar N scale structure would have to be printed in a more expensive material in order to have the same detail. I designed this tower with WSF in mind. It was a first time go.

[Chris333]

I tried toothpaste (Colgate) before. Didn't seem to do much at all except make the parts smell minty fresh.

[up1950s]

Maybe the machine cab be fooled , send in a CAD whose flat surfaces are the mirror image of what it spits out as flat . Maybe then in its effort to copy that clapboarded flat it will finally give us a flat that is flat .