murphaph
Member
- Location
- Brandenburg, Germany
Thanks for all your hard work Martin. It's unbelievable the progress you're making.
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TEMPLOT 3D PLUG TRACK - To get up to speed with this experimental project click here. To watch an introductory video click here. See the User Guide at Bexhill West.
Hmm…. Definitely some possibilities there although I suspect it was done that way to see if he could, rather than as a real solution. I was a little bemused by the fact that he appeared to start looking into track and wheel standards after making track and wheels! I didn’t watch it all though, so maybe I missed something.@Paul Boyd
Here's an 0 Gauge layout entirely 3D-printed, mostly FDM with some resin:
https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/guildex-show-online.318/post-3024
Martin.
Just wondering - when will Templot be able to do bent timbers?
.
That moves the dial significantly back towards FDM printing
Martin.
@murphaphI assume one of the "larger" bed resin printers (such as the planned Elegoo Jupiter) would be just as good or better than an FDM printer here?
@murphaphI was kind of thinking that resin printers might be better at representing most concrete sleepers with their obviously "uneven" profile, falling in to a valley in the middle. I wonder how well FDM printers can do that? Clearly a laser cutter can not help there as the wood will almost certainly always be flat.
B or C. Blades overhanging the chair screws look worse than the chair being a little too long! (Not that I model in either of the scales you mention )
Hi Martin.
Now that I'm looking at the switch and crossing chairs, I have had to make a decision about something I've been pondering for ages. Should the chairing be prototypical or programmatic? I've settled on programmatic.
What do I mean by that? Suppose you have created an irregular diamond-crossing which fits your track plan nicely, and one of the V-crossings is showing as 1:7.38 angle. Now obviously no such size of V-crossing exists on the prototype -- the nearest size, 1:7.5, would be used instead. And the big 'ammer would be brought into play to make it fit. That is also what you do if building with C&L or Exactoscale chairs, because they don't make 1:7.38 crossing chairs either.
To be strictly prototypical therefore, Templot should do the same, and I should implement a corresponding big 'ammer function.
Well I'm not going to -- it's just too much of a minefield of conflicting dimensions and prototype variations. I am hoping to finish this project within my lifetime!
Instead, Templot will programmatically create 1:7.38 crossing chairs for a perfect fit. Only you and I will ever know the difference, no-one else will notice. If that's not something you can live with, -- using Templot isn't compulsory.
Another example of programmatic chairing will be for the switch block chairs. Suppose you shove one of the switch timbers along a bit, like this:
View attachment 2675
You know and I know that you should never do that. The block chairs support angled rails, and will fit the rails in one position only. You can't shove switch timbers more than an inch or so under the chairs, and the chairs need to stay put while you do it.
But Templot doesn't know that, and will happily shorten or lengthen the block chair, and adjust the rail angle, as you shove the timber along. Whereas the prototype has only a few fixed sizes of block chair, not an infinite range of sizes.
But in a cramped model design, you may need to shove switch timbers more than a bit, so this unprototypical result might be useful.
Again, I'm creating these chairs programmatically in order to have some hope of chairing the whole range of switches in my lifetime.
But this decision does have consequences. It means the 3D chairs file and timbering brick file will be a matched pair and need to be created at the same time and kept together, and not interchanged with the files for other templates or bricks, even if the templates are nominally the same size.
I'm intending that it will be possible to bunch together all the chairs from a brick for resin-printing, and print a paper chart showing which chair goes where on the templates.
cheers,
Martin.
@Hayfieldbut are we talking about amounts that within normal build tolerance ?
Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying
Another thought does the gauge alter the slide rail lengths, if so would you have to increase them up to PL2 position ?
In the far off future, please can we have a template timber bunch facility for the 2D export for use when Laser Cutting but in this case with the timbers adjacent. ie sharing a cutting line. This makes the laser cutting more economical when outsourcing.I'm intending that it will be possible to bunch together all the chairs from a brick for resin-printing, and print a paper chart showing which chair goes where on the templates.
@Steve_CornfordIn the far off future, please can we have a template timber bunch facility for the 2D export for use when Laser Cutting but in this case with the timbers adjacent. ie sharing a cutting line. This makes the laser cutting more economical when outsourcing.
Obviously when 3D printing the timbers need to be discrete and the bunching is just to maximise the use of the print bed area.
Don't know.If you don't have any waste between the timbers, how do you hold it all together while cutting?