Shapeways Castings

[cholmes]

What has been people's experience with castings from Shapeways made with white nylon plastic?  The tender casting I bought is excellent; however, I found the material very difficult to work with.  It neither sands well nor can it be filed easily.  It is very tough to cut with a modeling knife although a razor saw works well.  I also found that epox or cyanopoxy glues provide the best bond to the material.  I have read that acrylic paints must be used since enamels dissolve the nylon plastic.  I'd appreciate learning of anyone's experiences with these models.

[Chris333]

I bought this:
http://www.shapeways.com/model/1884295/hon30-interior-for-f-c-coach.html?materialId=6

And I thought it sanded very easy in fact it seamed like I could sand right through it with little effort. I was just trying to get the rough surface knocked down and well it never really got smooth. Some spots I just rubbed a blade against to knock down. It was just an interior so it didn't mater much, but I hated the stuff. Other items I bought from the same guy only after I messaged him to make it available in FUD

If the item can be made in nylon then it should also be able to be made in FUD. See if you can get your part in FUD.

[peteski]

Nylon is not well suited for model bodies.  It is difficult to work with and doesn't glue well.  But it is quite resistant to petroleum solvents so pretty much any paint will be safe on it. But paints do not adhere well to the Nylon surface.

If you are interested in more than you wanted to know about Nylon, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon

[jimmo]

The best result you are going to get from Shapeways (especially for N-scale) is FUD. White Strong and Flexible is good for chassis, frames and some low-detail structures because of it's strength but it's surface texture is like HO-scale stucco.

My experience has also been that it's difficult to sand smooth.

[robert3985]

Just to pick a gnit, be anal and uphold the TRW tradition, Shapeways' non-metal parts are not "castings"....they're called "prints". 

They do offer castings however, which are derived using the lost-wax investment casting technique, using a printed part done in a wax-like material, that gets invested, then burnt out and replaced by bronze or brass during the casting process.  I believe the material they use for the wax-like material allows excellent, fine details and is specifically formulated to replicate the properties of wax masters normally used in the lost-wax casting technique.

Just sayin'....

[chrismears]

Hello

I've been printing using only Shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail. I find it glues well and sands nicely too. I do find you need to be a little careful when drilling it though and work slowly. The surface finish on the parts I've received is really quite sharp. From my catalogue of Shapeways parts I thought I'd share two examples that show the print resolution (for surface finish).

The first is HO scale and is a model of the A1A sideframe MLW used under their RSC13, 14, and 24 lightweight roadswitchers:
http://shpws.me/vqNN
Thanks to my friend Steve Hunter for the macro lense photos of the HO scale sideframe. Under this magnification you can see the "grain" but it's really not that bad and is amplified, in my opinion, more by the semi-translucent nature of the material more than actual texture. I know it's in HO but check out those separate equalizer leafs and the bolt heads on the journal covers!

The second example is my beloved N scale CN transfer van. The print quality on this model, done in Frosted Ultra Detail, was so fine that it wasn't sanded or polished at all. Just a few light coats of paint over the model - I wanted to know how it would look if all you did was paint and decal one:
http://shpws.me/wi23

I hope this helps.


/chris