Desktop 3D printers

[nkp_174]

Run the numbers of Shapeways vs. printing at home. I have no idea how your material costs would compare, but being able to print it overnight is WAY better than having to wait a few weeks...only to get an error that it wouldn't print Speaking from experience...

Right now, you have a tool which does the scratch building for you ;-) The National NMRA Achievement Program head dude is local guy and someone I respect quite a bit. He said that since we are designing the parts and fixing any problems, everything we design and have printed is scratchbuilt for NMRA purposes.

Also, there is one other advantage your can get from Shapeways...their FUD is printed with a wax support material. This means that you can print stuff with moving parts which are pr-assembled. I'm testing this on my passenger car truck test prints...hopefully this weekend...as I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off with such small parts as I'm going to try (brake beams).

Here's an outdated screenshot of my passenger car trucks:


There are three different detail variations (stock Carter Bros plus two Oahu Railway shop versions) and there are also three different implementations of the truck I'll be test printing: Rigid sideframes, fully functioning equalizer, and sprung journal boxes with rigid equalizers.