- Location
- West of the Severn UK
- Info
@Steve_CornfordHi Martin,
I am hoping that you will retain the option to print chairs and timbers separately, as my preference is to be able to paint the chairs and timbers with different colours and it makes life easier if that is done before assembly.
As far as bed fltness is concerned is that really an issue? Do we worry about the flatness of the trackbed to those tolerances?
How flat are the components of out trackbed, plywood, layer of glue, cork, then another layer of glue for the timbers?
Just being a devils advocate here!
What you have produced so far has been very practical, and relatively easy to assemble, even the separate jaws. I am really looking forward to being able to print some check chairs the design of which you have appeared to crack.
As for the crossing chairs for a simple turnout, are there any particular designs problems that you are facing?
Appart from the reams of coding required that is!
Resin printing
I have been wondering about the possibility of speeding up the after print draining process.
After rpinting \i might try replacing the build plate knob with a suitable piece of studding, then inserting the end of the studding into an electric drill and then slowly spinning the build plate in a round plastic bowl as a home made centrifuge and let centripetal force do the rest. All this talk of marbles and cheese cutters have made my mid race.
All this written because my eggs were scrambled this morning!
Steve
Hi Steve,
No option will be abandoned, apart from the ones which don't work!
I still see FDM-printed or laser-cut bases as the standard approach, because those are the only options where the build area is large enough to be practical in affordable machines. Whether you choose to print whole timbers or individual chairs is all down to the tick-boxes. The whole-timbers approach is only feasible with loose jaws, and I can see some users will prefer the original bash-fit slide-on solid chairs option. Also you are not going to get very many whole timbers on the build plate of the little Mars printers, compared with doing a couple of hundred chairs in one go.
The delay to the crossing chairs is just down to me not getting on with it, there is no specific problem that I'm aware of (yet). I had to back-track a bit to do the fictional SC chairs to create the parts needed, but I just need to eliminate distractions now and get on with it. I used up a day of computer time editing the Zoom recording for last week, for example.
The question of how flat does track need to be depends on the wheel standards. In RTR 00 you can even lay track on the carpet! But in P4 a flat baseboard is essential. The overall height of finished track does depend on various factors, glue thickness, etc., but it needs to be consistent and repeatable. I still remember Tony Miles measuring the thickness of Sundeala sheets at all 4 corners with a micrometer, to the surprise of the shop assistant.
I used the power drill in a bucket centrifuge method when degreasing injection-moulded parts to remove the release agent from the moulding process. It works quite well, but does need to be fast. I can see you retrieving resin chairs from the far corners of the workshop! For drying after IPA washing I use my air blaster through an open window:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dusters-EG-1000-UK-Electric-Air-Duster/dp/B073F9NY1X/
A hair-dryer should work too.
cheers,
Martin.
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