The New 3D Printing Thread

Hello everyone,
Just thought I'd share this in here. Recently I got two huge plarail deliveries from Japan and in one of them was a J13 Sound station where the lever broke off.



So with Blender, an hour of work and my 3D printer the story starts...





And here is the end result. It works without any issues just like the original lever.



Cheers Ron

[Super]

Fantastic Ron, great piece of engineering 👍

Agreed, nice one Ron

Hey guys, new user here.

I wanted to ask if anyone has made an STL model of siderods for Gordon/Henry? I've seen that the Thomas/Percy style siderods are readily available, but not the Gordon style. I've looked around the thread but haven't seen anything. I just want to see if anyone has made anything before I make a STL file of my own.

I'm also considering resin casting of side rods, I found resin casting materials at my local Walmart. Would that possibly be a better choice? I've also been looking to cast some other things (wagons, couplers, etc). I know that the side rods are made of a more flexible plastic, many of mine are bent and I'd much rather have straight siderods haha.

What do you all think? Let me know!

Thanks

[Super]

Hello Ricrabi0 and welcome to BluePlasticTracks. I am sure Member Nigels will be here shortly to give us his thoughts so hang in there.

Hey guys, new user here.

I wanted to ask if anyone has made an STL model of siderods for Gordon/Henry? I've seen that the Thomas/Percy style siderods are readily available, but not the Gordon style. I've looked around the thread but haven't seen anything. I just want to see if anyone has made anything before I make a STL file of my own.

I'm also considering resin casting of side rods, I found resin casting materials at my local Walmart. Would that possibly be a better choice? I've also been looking to cast some other things (wagons, couplers, etc). I know that the side rods are made of a more flexible plastic, many of mine are bent and I'd much rather have straight siderods haha.

What do you all think? Let me know!

Thanks

I've not seen any side-rods for those models (yet!), but they may be out there, google search is your friend here.

As for whether to print or cast, that is a very good question.  Bearing in mind the cost of the rubber/silicone used to make the moulds unless you intend to make many of the same model I would suggest in the long term they would work out pretty expensive.  Similarly the sort of resin you cast with does tend to be brittle - although it is strong if thick enough - so it does have its place at times.

I would think an SLA printer would be more useful though.  Sure to buy an entry level model you're looking at around £200/$250 I guess (not checked recently), but once you have the printer it is probably cheaper to run as you only need the liquid UV resin which is reasonably priced.  You can also get various types of resin, some are designed to be tougher, some to be a bit more flexible.  The other thing to bear in mind is cast resin can take 24 hours or more to fully cure, with an SLA printer you can print small parts in very high level detail very quickly, maybe 10-15 mins for a bunch of side-rods for example.  Once printed you do have a washing and curing process to go through, but you can probably manage that in 30 mins or so.  Meaning you would be able to produce them within an hour at a push, although I wouldn't advocate rushing as taking your time will probably result in better parts/models and less mistakes.

An added advantage to having an SLA printer is you could then also print other things such as gaming miniatures if you like that sort of thing.  There are plenty of beautiful models out there at very reasonable prices, one example is this set from a Patreon called 'Lord of the Print' - this month you get some 100+ models (both with supports defined already and unsupported if you want to do your own) the subject this month being a Lizardman Army these are gorgeous and good enough to justify getting a printer just for these IMHO.

[Super]

Thanks Nigel 👍

Ah I see, thank you for the information! I haven't found anything yet with those siderods, looks like I might have to open up Solidworks.

I have been looking into resin 3D printers, but unfortunately my wallet disagrees with me having to buy one I have a friend who uses them to print his Warhammer models and from what I've seen, the prints come out in very high quality with tons of the smaller details, I think something like that could be really useful for making Tomy parts.

Right now I currently only really need about 3-4 of those siderods, so for now I think I might go the casting route. In the future I will definitely go ahead with the resin printer. My endgoal in this learning process is to be able to make a complete engine without the use of finding a donor engine. Not exactly sure whether that's possible, but most of the parts seem to be readily available. I could be completely wrong.

But again, thank you for the information and thank you guys for the wonderful welcome! It's good to be here.

My endgoal in this learning process is to be able to make a complete engine without the use of finding a donor engine. Not exactly sure whether that's possible, but most of the parts seem to be readily available. I could be completely wrong.

Likewise. I have made several engines from scratch using 3D printing without using any donor parts. These can haul long trains on blue track, however the loco bodies are too high and too wide to match normal Plarail rolling stock. So my challenge is how to miniaturize my designs.

My printer is an UP mini 2 ES which was unreliable for a couple of years using the supplied ABS or ordinary PLA. Since discovering the more expensive eSun PLA+ last year I have had much better results and now happily make and give away small trains to my granddaugther and many cousins etc.

Hi, Im new to 3D printing. I don't have 3d printer yet but looking to get one. Not sure if i go for Filament 3D printer or Resin one. It mostly going be used for customs Plarail tracks and parts. I was leaning on getting this Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo but I see some discussion about resin. What is difference between them both at end of printing? What specs on printer i should look for as best or important thing? What type of filament type should i use for plarail tracks or resin? Just want more info before i pull pin and buy one.