WEST ORTON

[Walkingthedog]

I know, one of the guys Rob Pulham, scratch builds bits for loco kits that are works of art then you realise they’re only 4mm long.

[Steve M]

Using some free software and an 3D open source file, I have at least learnt how to resize, duplicate and add texture to a model.
This is as far as I have got so far - I think each chair is 5mm long but who knows what it will turn out to be.
Meanwhile Amazon and DPD at going to be busy this week.

2023-02-06_12-26-58 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[bulleidboy]

That looks good, can't wait to see the finished product. I can see Kent getting a new model shop "Mumford's Models".

[Walkingthedog]

This is the start of a slippery slope Steve. Make the right things and by this time next year you could be a millionaire.

[Steve M]

This is the start of a slippery slope Steve. Make the right things and by this time next year you could be a millionaire.

Well, I may have a million rail chairs.

[Steve M]

The memsahib is starting to ask questions - I have just had my sixth parcel of the day delivered.

Tomorrow I intend to make a small part of the garage a dedicated area for this exercise - I understand that the resin is toxic and smelly so probably not best to set it up in the kitchen.

[Mr Bones]

I understand that the resin is toxic and smelly so probably not best to set it up in the kitchen.

With my wife's cooking I probably wouldn't notice

Quick change page she's coming

[Steve M]

Mr B clearly likes living dangerously.

[Steve M]

Amazon only lost one of my parcels yesterday so I plunged further down the 3D rabbit hole today.
3D printing can be messy but also everything needs to be kept scrupulously clean - even more than DCC track! I started by builders no a ‘clean box’ - not absolutely necessary but as this sits in a corner of the garage I thought it may be a good idea. I have built a temporary lid and front (I ran out of plywood ) which serves two purposes, first to keep the dust away but importantly to stop sunlight (UV) curing the photosensitive resin in the print hopper.

20230208_184728 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

The printer is on the left and the wash and cure station is on the right.
The printer comes with a few test files - this is the first test print - a hollow ball with very fine perforations in the wall.

20230208_191730 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Buoyed by this I made a test run of the rail chair file - and made a complete horlicks of the thing. In the design software you set the scale and size of the model - I mistakenly set it to print a block of twenty but made it the size of a single chair. That was never going to work!
So I reset the scale and tried again. A better result but not perfect. The height of the chairs is a bit shallow and in the phot you can see a couple of missing chairs at one end of the print. I think there may be a smudge of dirt on the screen and that point stopping the resin from being activated by the UV light from the unit.

20230208_220533 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

The learning curve gets steeper.

[Walkingthedog]

From what I have seen lots of things are printed at 45 degrees.