My printing progress (WAS: My first print attempt)

[bbussey]

Actually my second attempt, as the first attempt resulted in a blob of resin because some of the settings weren’t correct for the printer in the slicer utility. But these Erie USRA radial-roof rebuilds came out pretty well. Some minor anomalies but nothing that can’t be corrected. These appear to be usable, we’ll see after the initial priming.

[Mark5]

Nice.  I might follow you down this path in a year or two - there is a signature N&W hopper that I would love to have some examples of. 

[Missaberoad]

Thats hawt! Excited to see what they look like primed... Its definitly an exciting time to be a model railroader...

[Chris333]

Are you going to try standing straight up?

I haven't tried mine yet.

[bbussey]

 I'm using Chitubox as my slicing utility because the AnyCubic utility won't run with my graphics card, and their automatic supports creation prompted me to print the bodies at the 22½-degree angle to minimize the stepping on the radial roof.  That worked great.  There are some minor modifications I want to make to the model to fix some minor issues, but I could use these two prints as is with some minor sanding. They came out well for my first attempt.  Still have to play with some angles and see what the results are.  I'll send you the new STL when I'm done.

[Chris333]

I only use ChiTuBox, but have never used auto supports. I always place them one at a time. Funny that it picked 22.5 degrees when I have been using (a complete guess) 23 degrees for a while now. Tilted prints work for model with curved parts to get rid of the stepping. So this boxcar printed flat would be great till it got to the roof. But it might be hard to keep the whole car from warping if printed flat. So standing up sounds like the best way, but also the longest time to print. Standing up makes each layer pretty small and I just don't think it would warp in that way.

I have piles of prints I didn't use...

[wazzou]

I can see an industry that could recycle culled prints into a usable resin form again being quite successful.

[Chris333]

I can see an industry that could recycle culled prints into a usable resin form again being quite successful.

I wish... where do I send my 55 gallon drum? 

[bbussey]

I only use ChiTuBox, but have never used auto supports. I always place them one at a time. Funny that it picked 22.5 degrees when I have been using (a complete guess) 23 degrees for a while now. Tilted prints work for model with curved parts to get rid of the stepping. So this boxcar printed flat would be great till it got to the roof. But it might be hard to keep the whole car from warping if printed flat. So standing up sounds like the best way, but also the longest time to print. Standing up makes each layer pretty small and I just don't think it would warp in that way.

I have piles of prints I didn't use...

I picked the 22½ degrees based on a thread here on finding the proper angle to avoid stepping on curved roofs.  It works great.  Otherwise I would have build it level.  The only problem I see now is that some of the layering is visible.  That can be primed and sanded out, but it would be nice to be able to print with little layer evidence.  I'm building at .02mm layers.  The default was .05mm, I changed it based on some googling and YouTube how-to videos.

The automatic supports have worked well for me so far.

[Chris333]

If I use less than 0.05mm layers I get sagging in open areas like a window opening. So I just leave it at 0.05. Not that there is anything to sag on a boxcar.

Auto supports seem to put the edge supports with the support hanging halfway off the model. And when I would rip them off later it might chip out. I put the supports under the model right up to, but not over the edge.

[John]

I think Gary uses .051 and 45 degrees for his new car ends ..

[Chris333]

I just loaded up this boxcar to try. See you in 5 hours.

[GaryHinshaw]

I think Gary uses .051 and 45 degrees for his new car ends ..

Correct, but that is for my Mono which has (Δx,Δy) = .051 mm pixels.  The main idea is that setting Δz = (Δx,Δy) and printing at 45 degrees gives stepping that will be one layer up for every layer over, on both the rising and filling side of a cubic object, so barely visible.  And you can pretty much set it and forget it.

Bryan's print looks really good though.

[bbussey]

I thought the boxcars came out well for the first attempt. I made some minor mods to the solid model, I’ll try it again in a few days. Next off the assembly line are the reduction gears, new payloads for the GSC well car. These rendered really well. Only the smallest rivet detail is not present, which you can’t see anyway without magnification. I have to be careful in removing the supports as there is piping throughout that looks similar.



Chris, I’m going to print the circus flats at the 90 degree vertical. The advantage is that I can print the needed eight bodies all at once. A 13-hour print that I will start shortly, so I’ll check it after breakfast.

[bbussey]

It was tedious removing the supports from the reduction gear, but the end result was worth it. I just need to add a handful of supports at the back of the I beams and the crate corners to keep them from curling up. Other than that, they look great.