FeatureScript Changes the Game

Speaking of flat cars, what about their loads? Most of the time, these cars would have carried lumber or logs. Without a sawmill on the line, it is unlikely they carried logs in my town, but there is a photo of a flat car of lumber in Pembroke. I’d always imagined I would create lumber […]

Three at Once

If you’ve got a third machine that can make stuff, you really need to get all three machines working at once. So, on New Year’s Day, I revved up the two 3D printers, printing parts for the upcoming steam throttle project. While they were happily layering away, I fired up the laser cutter to make […]

A Second Printer Joins the Shop

Thanks to Santa, a second 3D printer has joined the heavy shop. Why would anyone need two 3D printers, you might ask? You might ask the same of hammers, and yet I own a regular claw hammer, a tack hammer, a rubber mallet and a maul. Like hammers, different 3D printers have different uses. Resin […]

Water Tower Tank

Now we get to the meat of the matter: the tank is usually considered the hardest part about building a water tower. In my case, the hard work was mostly done in OnShape. The prototype tank in Wakefield has two different types of band connectors, and they are in different orientations. I copied these differences […]

Water Tower Test Prints

Is anyone ever happy with the first sample they print? I’m calling these test prints, but in fact they’re semi-failed prints. In the case of the base, I forgot to change one dimension of the legs. So, when I tried fitting a piece of 10×10 sugar pine against them, there was no relief left for […]

Blending a Cow

A quick online search, and indeed a visit to the hobby shop, confirmed that populating my pasture with a herd of Ayrshire cattle is going to be a pricey proposition. Moreover, even if I were to spend $20 or more on a hand of cows, they will be in three different poses: grazing, mooing, and […]

Detail for GTR 1120

As 1120 has been getting closer and closer to staying on the track all the time, I’ve started to think about making her less like the Maryland &Pennsylvania engine she started as. The plan is to 3D-print some eye candy to help convert the post-1900 Baldwin product to a reasonable facsimile of the 1890 Brooks […]

Wall thickness experiments

I have optimistically put the 3D printer away so I could convert the heavy shop into a paint booth. It’s time to write up my findings as I’ve been exploring the boundaries of this new tool. In particular, I want to figure out how I can make thin-walled boxes like hopper cars. Starting with the […]

Mars Accuracy

I’ve noticed that the prints on my own 3D printer are snug compared to the same parts printed by Shapeways. Indeed, the sand dome and the ash pan wanted a little scraping where they connect with other parts. So, I made a 2 cm test cube to see what I could learn about the accuracy. […]

Sand dome for 622

It turns out that one of the benefits of having your own 3D printer is that you can afford to experiment a little bit. If a part doesn’t work out the way you thought it would, you can modify the drawing, export it, and try again. There is no 10-day wait, no shipping charges and […]