Looking to Print a Caboose...

[Chris333]

Also don't forget this all gets translated into pixels. You may design a prefect board side, but when it prints you will see a pattern every few gaps like a moire effect.

So I would skip all this thinking and make a few test prints. 

[Maletrain]

I don't expect any significant visual problem with the scaling if you adjust the print file to make the board widths a whole number of 3D print pixels, and making the grooves a whole number of pixels, too. The issue is just what whole number to use for the groove width in pixels. 

[Chris333]

What I mean is lets say you make the gaps a certain width. Then when you slice the 3D model it will snap those gaps to the nearest pixel. So a gap could be say 3 pixels wide, but maybe the way it works out is that every 6th gap ends up being 4 pixels wide. Then when it prints all that jumps out is every 6th board.

Now you have to go back and change your drawing.

If you were making artwork for etching or for cutting tooling it wouldn't matter.

I haven't printed much in N scale, but I have plans for an N scale NYC steam dummy. I drew the board gaps .008" wide and the boards .0139" wide. This should make the boards .0219" when printed, but so far this is all a guess.

[peteski]

All are .jpg.  The one that succeeded is 1,792 KB, and the ones that have not succeeded are 1, 653 KB and 1,927 KB.  All 3 files were taken with the same camera and downloaded from the same camera card to the same computer at the same time, even into the same folder on my computer.  Then they were each edited with the same program to crop them from jpg files that were over 5 MB to new jpg files that are the sizes stated above. 

I did have some problems with the first post that eventually succeeded with the MicroTrains caboose picture. but apparently because I initially tried to put all 3 photos in that post (among other "relearning experiences").  Once I got the post with the MicroTrains macro photo to work, I thought I had figured things out.  But, attempts to post both of the other pictures together failed, as did follow-on attempts to post them separately in their own posts. 

Forum will resize photos down to smaller size, but if you initially feed it large file (like you are doing), it might behave weird (as you witnessed), and puke on them without any warnings.  You should not have problem uploading JPG or PNG with the file size <1MB.

[Sokramiketes]

What I mean is lets say you make the gaps a certain width. Then when you slice the 3D model it will snap those gaps to the nearest pixel. So a gap could be say 3 pixels wide, but maybe the way it works out is that every 6th gap ends up being 4 pixels wide. Then when it prints all that jumps out is every 6th board.

Now you have to go back and change your drawing.

If you were making artwork for etching or for cutting tooling it wouldn't matter.

I haven't printed much in N scale, but I have plans for an N scale NYC steam dummy. I drew the board gaps .008" wide and the boards .0139" wide. This should make the boards .0219" when printed, but so far this is all a guess.

You're absolutely right.  I tried brick walls... not good.

[Maletrain]

FINALLY!!!!!!  Cropped everything down to less than 1 MB and it finally works - Thank you Peteski!

It is just a smidgeon of the original, but here is a picture of the boards on an I-5 located at the B&O Museum.
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Because the photo of the I-5 is not taken at 90 degrees from the plane of the car surface, here is one that is taken in that orientation, but it is of a bobber type caboose, perhaps a class K-1 of some sort.
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FYI, Lee and Chris, the mullions (or "muntins" & "stiles" for the purists) on those bobber windows scale out to 1.25" width, or 0.008" in N scale. 

[GimpLizard]

So I would skip all this thinking and make a few test prints. 

I think that might be the best approach. So I made this quick "test slab". It's 1.50" long x .625" high x .037" at its thickest. I can send an STL model of it to anyone who cares to do a test print.

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[Chris333]

I think that might be the best approach. So I made this quick "test slab". It's 1.50" long x .625" high x .037" at its thickest. I can send an STL model of it to anyone who cares to do a test print.

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Do you have a printer?

The caboose wall would be vertical so that is how you should do the test print. In fact if you try printing that flat you'll just get a blank print because it will all fill in.

If you don't have a printer I can give it a try.

[DKS]

You're absolutely right.  I tried brick walls... not good.

What happens if you print brick walls on a 45-degree angle? I'm guessing it might be a little rough, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for bricks...

[GimpLizard]

Do you have a printer?

The caboose wall would be vertical so that is how you should do the test print. In fact if you try printing that flat you'll just get a blank print because it will all fill in.

If you don't have a printer I can give it a try.

No, I don't have a printer. I've been looking, but have pulled the plug on one yet.

I'll modify the test slab into a block, and put the walls vertical.

[Maletrain]

Why not also try 0.020" spacing of narrower grooves, such as 0.003"?  Or some other groove width that somebody thinks is a whole number of pixels?  We can be pretty sure that we want the 0.020" spacing, or some whole number of pixels that is close to that, but it is how narrow the board gaps should be printed that is being questioned.

[GimpLizard]

I was thinking along the same lines. (No pun intended) Working on it now.

[Chris333]

Doesn't need to be a cube, just printed vertical. But I guess any way you make it should be fine.

[wm3798]

What happens if you print brick walls on a 45-degree angle? I'm guessing it might be a little rough, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for bricks...

So far I haven't come across any I5s that were made of bricks.  But those boys at MT. Clare were pretty resourceful, so I wouldn't rule anything out just yet!

Lee

[GimpLizard]

I had a van once that was made outta bricks. Or at least it ran like it.

Okay, here's a 4-sided cube (1"x1"x1"). Boards on all 4 sides are .020, with a different groove width. Who wants to play around with it?

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