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.