Looks great

This building shows the power if 3d printer.   You only have to made one section and print it 20 times.  

John

Thanks

John, Thanks for the comments.  You are absolutely correct about designing once and printing many. The windows & doors were designed during the Union Station project and just added into this building and resized to fit their openings.

Since buying the printer in January of this year, it has logged upwards of 430 hours without any issues.  I just have to clean it every 25-30 hours of operation and re-calibrate about every 100 hours. It has also dropped below $200 where I bought it, so it has become even more affordable as a ready to use out-of-the-box tool to do projects such as I have done for my railroad.

JohnT

very nice

John, I cruised thru all your videos and love the stuff you have made.  I'm computer CAD illiterate soo I was wondering what printer and software you are using,  Is there a steep learning curve???   For under 200 I might give it a try.  Nothing quiet like you, but I have a few things that I would like to print.

thanks

Miguel

Well done.

This shows the potential of combining CAD skills with a great 3D printer. You have done well, I will have to practice my computer skills and watch your videos. 

Thanks

Miguel,  The 3-D printer that I have is an XYZ daVinci Mini that has a 5.9" cube area for printing. I bought it from B&H Photo (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/) which is in the NYC area (free shipping & no sales tax).  It uses PLA for printing and does not have a heated bed so it prints on masking tape (covering the aluminum bed).  I use some Elmer's glue stick on top of the masking tape to hold items in place. The printer comes with its own slicing or printing software (called XYZware) and you can download their design software (XYZmaker) from their website.  Their design software is very easy to use.  Both of their software program will run on Mac OS and Windows OS and my printer can be hooked up to my Mac using either USB or Wifi.  Another place to look for free stuff for download & printing is https://www.thingiverse.com/.  I have found a few items there for model railroads in N thru O scale.

Hope that helps,

JohnT

Thanks for Your Comments

Thanks Tom.  I have found that most of the free 3-D design tools use simple objects such as squares, triangles, semi-circles, hexagons, etc.  All you have to do is to combine them into something that looks like the picture or drawing and test print until you get it the way you want it.  I have a library of items from all of my projects that I now re-use in subsequent projects....John

Quick Question

Interesting thread - newbie question about 3D printer you are using. When you say the printer has a 5.9" cube printing area does that mean you can print a section of wall that is up to 5.9" square and say 1/8" thick?

Thanks again,

Artie

Printer Capabilities

Artie, The printer can print a volume of 5.9" x 5.9" x 5.9" using the PLA material.  The thickness of any given item is up to the designer.  Since N-scale items are small, I tend to use millimeters when I measure & print.  I tend to use 3.5 - 4 mm as the minimum base thickness for walls but they tend to come out thick in some places due to moldings, cornices, etc.  Your question about 1/8" thickness is just a little smaller than my 3.5 - 4 mm so the answer is yes.  If you print a large item that is solid, you will use up a lot of PLA (even inexpensive as it is) & your print will take a lot longer.  For example, the water/oil tanks that I have done are hollowed out. The picture below shows one of these tanks.  It is about 30 mm in diameter, 60 mm high, and the walls are about 3.5 mm thick.  The other part to the right is the top. 

Thanks for the additional Info

Thanks for the additional info/answer to my question - appreciate it.

Artie

Great building

John I'm sure the roofline and backdrop will be an interesting challenge. Will you be adding the 'skylights' profile along there as well?

Also I'd assume the truck roading entrance will fold into the gap between your yard tracks at right, with a visible 'entry/ exit' to public domain nearby? After all you aren't going to get many truck models in that confined space.

I don't have a layout as such as ideas for passenger facilities, but I'd happily pay you for the 3D end section to use as you show it as an annex to a station.

Well done (including the video) regards

Dave

Thanks

Dave,

There just isn't enough room to do the skylight structures for the flat section so I will have to approach it by putting them on a background picture which I have to do anyway.  The background will come along later.  The truck entrance is supposed to be on the back side but I don't have the room behind the building so imagination will have to be used except for the two doors on the far right end.  Also, what section of the building were you interested in??

I am currently working on the milk dock that will be just to the left of the main station.  It is built on foam board with the roof supports in the process of being glued in place.  The small office structure will go about where the square is sitting. There is a thin 1 mm piece of PLA around the outside of the foam board to conceal the edge. The picture below shows its' current status.

I forgot to add that if you have your own 3D printer that I could send the .STL file to you and you could print whatever you wanted.......John

Very cool building

this is the first article I've seen that makes me actually want to explore getting a 3D printer :> ) .....DaveB

Thanks for Your Comments

DaveB,

I had been considering one for a few years.  Most were either too expensive or kits but the prices have come down and the machines are of decent quality.  I settled on the one that I have only after I actually spoke to someone that had one and learned about it.  This one is not a kit and just came out of the box onto my desk and was ready to go with minimal effort (simple calibration & loading of PLA). For what I am designing & building in N-scale, it is good enough.  I won't be designed & printing steam engine shells as it does not have the capability to do those sort of things.

Typically what I have been doing is find a picture of what I want to model on the web or use some of the scale drawings that I bought a few years ago, and then use the design tool to make something that looks like the picture or drawing.  You are basically using geometric shapes to make your design look like the picture or drawing in the scale that you model.

JohnT