The House

This house features enough rooms for me and my wife to have all features we might want.  There's a decently sized office (9.5x12) adjoining a 9.5x10 bedroom that will be storage space for the near future.  The room off the laundry room will further be a nice space to set up the laser cutter and further set up a paint booth next to that.  This means lots of good work space!

My first goal is to finish the carpet replacement job.  The carpet didn't even last the first day upon taking ownership, we ripped it right out and parked it out back before hauling it off to the dump.  It had 3 years of 3 dogs and two cats in it.  I have chosen to replace the carpet with vinyl roll sheet with a wood grain print.  At this point one room is done and there are three more rooms to go.

This is the first time since 2006 that I have had all of my things in the same place.  That means I have a lot of stuff to sort, organize, remove and restore.  It will be fun.

Modeling Projects on the Fore Burners

Aside from everything else, I have set might sights on this short list of projects.

First, I have to finish resolving and cleaning up the Omni-mixer design file.

Next, I have to get the coal loader completed.  It's close, but not quite there yet.

I wish to also finish the Quickway Crane, a Stutz Package Car, and maybe revise the M26A1 and the rock crusher.

I finally want to revisit my Sheepfoot and my Stabilizers and correct the issues that were discovered back in 2018.

Finally, I shall be firm in establishing a railroad, be it narrow or standard (or both), inside my office.

That should be quite enough planning for today!

Congrats on the new domicile Benny!

Always nice to have a place of one's own... To do with as you wish.

I'm sure laying vinyl flooring isn't as fun as building a RR. but knowing you now have room for one should make it more bearable. 

Good luck!

The Homestead

The fourth month of the new year is here, wherever has the time gone??

The house has been the central focus for just about a month and every spare moment around the other big rocks when they fall into place.  First, we installed the new flooring, I saved no less than $750 by doing the installation myself because that is what the floor guy my realtor recommended quoted for the square footage with the floors fully prepped and cleaned.  Aha, I'm not paying $750 for someone else to roll, trim and glue the vinyl down!  I further had two whole rooms done before he would have even been able to get into the job due to his people being booked solid.  On the downside, two rooms took a lot longer because of preparations and then materials and then project fatigue.

All was going well at this point, I even got my storage shelving set up in the bedroom designated "storage."

The last two rooms were a bear, the master floor needed some patchwork and leveling compound.  I naturally screwed up the first pour of leveling cement, whereas I poured it and then immediately left for the night and then came back to find out that you're supposed to knock down all the bumps while it is still settings. 

Out came the big guns to undo my work on an area roughly 4 feet by 15 feet,...masks and closing doors and maybe vacating everything out of the room BEFORE starting are HIGHLY advised!!!  I did not do a couple of these things and the wife was most expressive about my mess!

The repour was far more successful...this the third bag.

And then we roll the vinyl, so we can finally sleep in our master bedroom instead of the family room where the guest bed goes!  Yes, I did the floorboards not soon after this was finished.

And then the Big Orange Box ran out of my roll vinyl before I could finish and I had to drive 45 minutes to get it - and when I did, I know I picked out a slightly different color and shape that luckily is only in the kid's room.  Polly.  I may some day replace this...or not...sigh.

Keep in mind, the wife looks a bit larger at by the end of February, but that didn't stop her from cleaning...and in moving the fridge one night, when I bumped to see if I could make it quiet down (old crew chief trick), there was a huge flash from behind and the lights went out in her bathroom.  Well that's not good...what was that?

Here's the fridge, there's once from this time and once from...some time before this time.  Those are little holes burnt in my fridge from shorting an electrical circuit...

And there's the culprit!  That panel to the left is 1/8" veneer, with a switchbox mounted to the side with the switches for the kitchen.  This fridge was likely bigger than the old fridge, so they moved the lights, how smart of them...sigh...because when they did it, they too their wire, wrapped it in electrical tape, and said "Good Enough!  Aha!  This could have burnt down the house.

Yes, we missed this when we inspected the house, but with the way the housing market is right now, I likely wouldn't have been able to have had it fixed if I wanted to buy the house, and we really wanted to buy it - all the boxes checked except lot square footage, I wanted more.  My realtor did me a solid, though, we had money in the kiddie before closing and he suggested I get a warranty, since any unused money from the $5000 we put in for seller's closing costs would simply to the seller if we didn't use it.  Deal. 

Turns out, GREAT deal, because it covered the wiring repair plus some repairs to the fridge - which is on the fritz, but we got ourselves a lovely little gondola freezer as a backup, and the wife loves it. 

But back to that wall...I opened it up...and I had the electrician wire in a new set of switches on left so I could turn on the kitchen lights from either side of my kitchen.  Overall, it went well.  The wall is still open, but I'll get it done someday...this summer perhaps.  The problem is, all of my tools and the drywall that came with the house are buried in the work shed under all the lumber and layout parts filling up my work space.

And then I cleaned up the old baseboards after they sat in the yard for two months...the miter saw turned them into little 2 foot pieces and into the bin they went.  There was once a wonderful array of pastels in this house, each room a different pastel shade...I found pink, sky blue, and mint green.  I suppose the kitchen was yellow, but I found none of that color.

I then had this little fun project where a previous owned used a PVC valve to run the water to the timer box, and  it was broken off at the metal tee when I bought the house.  I decided to replace it to ensure a future PVC failure will not render my hose in operable.  No problem, new work, this time a metal valve.  Eventually I'll find out what the water lines go tom because I don't know what they water, but for now, it's fixed.  Upon inserting batteries...it leaks a little too much...eventual replacement or bypass due

Back to the yard and my workspace issue, I know I eventually want to build a large train room over my basketball court slab.  For right now, I decided the wife needs a shed for our garden tools to get them out of my work shed, and then I need a second shed to get the lumber and drywall out of my work shed, and it would be nice to move the layout parts that are just in the way...so I buy the lumber for her 5x8 shed and holy mackerel, it's over $500 for the initial outlay of lumber!

And then I happened upon a Facebook seller reselling metal sheds.  It hadn't occurred to me that I could get one, and then after his leads turn up nothing, I discovered the Large Orange Box Also Sells Metal Shed Kits - and my wife's 8x6 is less than $300!  Hot Dog.

What more, they have another kit for a 10x12, and again for less than the initial outlay for lumber for the small little 4x8 tool shed.  Perfect, I can finally put my lumber away in a place where it will be better protected than under the blue tarp since January that I very quickly procured because I wasn't about to let my wood get rained upon.  See the price of lumber above why I care so much about a pile of wood!  

So I set about building the floor with the lumber I had stockpiled, since I hadn't got to turning it into a shed yet, but now i know it's a 8x6 and not a 8x5.  Yes, I returned the rest of the plywood for a refund, but I kept the 2x4x96s because in the time that I bought the wood and decided to return some wood, the price of the wood had gone up form $6.15 to $6.75, after going up from $5.95 between the time I thought about buying the wood and the time I actually bought the wood.  Polly.

On this day, while I was working on my floor, a B1 flew overhead, which was a treat in and of itself, not only because they fly over so rarely, but because not long after this, there's now a B1 parked in the Boneyard...I am privileged to live just far away enough from the base that the traffic noise is minimal at best, but I still get to see it.

But also notice all the clouds?  There's a storm coming in, and we had a barbecue with the neighbors on this afternoon...on a day after the wife's doctor's appointment, when we knew that the baby would be here between a day to week, and then this happened that night...

Not the snow, but the hospital, and more chiefly in the opposite direction to this picture.  On the March night that it snowed in Tucson, with flakes in the air while I was driving, I took my wife to meet our son the next day, and there we stayed 4 days because things were rough in the beginning but turned out great by the time we left.

Eventually we got home and I could get that shed done...paternal leave is wonderful for work around the house!

I then discovered the easy bathtub fix to put back on the drain cover wasn't going to be so easy...luckily enough, the other side of the wall is my bathroom under the sink where the cold water does not work, so I already have good reason to add an access hatch...later this summer...because we still have other projects to finish, namely the sheds!

That 12x10 looked like a great idea, but I wanted the door on the side instead of the end so I could use my pallet jack and put my shorter lumber on pallets.  If you have the room, this is a wonderful way to manage your storage!  But to do this, it appeared I would need another shed kit to get the fourth panel to fill in the end wall...but I do have those layout parts filling up space, so a little 8x10 behind the 12x10 would be just the ticket!  A second shed kit joined the first, with the single 24x10 roof intending to span the whole thing...I also chose to anchor this with cinderblocks, which also gets me an additional 9" of head room where I am 72" and these sheds are only 68" tall on the walls.

And that's as far as I have got with my sheds, the wife wanted a hammock put up in the bedroom over our bed for the baby, so now we have a hammock in the bedroom...another finished unfinished project because one wall needs reinforcement so the wife can also use the hammock.  I also had five pieces of roof top plus trim pieces and the leading edge lip, and then affixing the top to the blocks, and that will be the sheds...and after a great Thursday, that is ONE piece of trim and about 50 screws to round out all the holes.  And then, we just have to resettle the foundation, install the anchor wire, screw down the shed, and we have our storage units complete!

 Tomorrow, there will be the progress on the models, for this night is nearly done and it is time to sleep...

Inside the Foundry

Not everything has been House and Homestead, thankfully!!

First, my club had their Christmas Auction this year but via Zoom, since we have so many people who are very adverse to meeting together (as they should be, they're in the highest at risk age and health group) and thanks to my efforts with pictures, we had a very successful event.  There was still about half of the items left over, so we had a second Auction in February where I once again inventoried and took the pictures.  It was again technologically successful, thought he wallets were not very open nd things went for some really great prices.  A good time for all.

Next, we have my Pacific M26A1 cab project.

On the far right is my initial model, which I knew to be too narrow.  Based upon this and a resin kit for a reference measurement point (Finding Width data is HARD with this particular vehicle) I made it wider.  When the cab arrive, I put it in place and then howled with disappointment where I felt maybe I made it Too Wide.  And I thought perhaps I did, because the overall width is 130" but the cab is less than 130 and maybe I used 130"...

So I did what any reasonable guy might doo, I sent a message to the group that cares for one of four known working and restored models in the world and asked if they might take a measurement for me.  They replied back that it might take some time, but I have gobs of it for back burner projects.  When they got back with me with the measurement, I scurried back into my design file to find out NO!  I am 2 inches too NARROW, not too wide!!  By Jove!  This is the best news I could ever hope to receive!  The doors on the lower compartments are too wide, though, so I will need to push those in, but overall, Woooooo!  Huge sigh of relief!  The middle cab is Correct to about 98.5% accuracy!

I then got a rather disconcerting notice from Shapeways that my Thresher kit is no longer printable, after nearly three years of printing without issue.  Apparently they changed their algorithms or their printers, which means I was finally pressed to return to the thresher design file for the Mk.3 revision I alluded to back in 2018.  there were some issues in the kit, and I knew I would eventually want to do something about them - the time was finally nigh.

Here's the results.

The new Mk 3:

In addition to fixing the parts that were out of limits, I also corrected an issue in the front axle pivot point and added a new feature, the option to use a frame pedestal for the front axle support instead of the far less common enclosed pedestal - while still including the previous covered pedestal.  And I further excavated a large chunk of inner material that was simply making the design more expensive to print, such that all of these changes resulted in no change in the overall print cost.  I'll call it a win!

And then we get back to what is supposed to be front and center, the Cedarapids Omnimixer.  When I finished up the overhead work, i celebrated thinking I was done and then in the process fo resolving the file I discovered I was missing all of the bracing for the leg work.  Polly...enter two weeks to engineering because we want the framework to be removeable so the model can be wither set up stationary or on the road in transit.  Last night, that finally happened and NOW I can saw we just have cleanup work, replacing the oversimplified parts with more detailed pieces, and then getting this thing turned into a design file!  wooooo!

A couple more hours and it will be ready to print, and then my asphalt paver will have a source for asphalt!

Now I have to get back outside and finish my sheds, for once that is done, I can do some major cleaning and reorganization that will make everything work better!

...

Welcome Back after a little over 6 weeks!

I had hoped to have more done than what happened, but things got in the way...

First, I was rear-ended on the 13th of April, and while it wasn't enough to render the truck inoperable, there was enough frame damage for it to be totaled out.  Ultimate, I used my credit to buy another SUV in anticipation that I would be losing my truck either short term or forever, but then it turned out that the buyback with payout was very nice and then the process to restore a salvage title in Arizona is extremely easy - yes, I accomplished it without even doing a single bit of work on the truck.  I also found a guy who can do the work for not too much, so that too will be put back.  I perhaps did not need to buy the SUV, but it was much more conducive to my wife getting her American Drivers License, and she is very happy.

In the midst of this, I managed to hit my left index finger on the 10" miter saw - not perpendicular, but parallel.  I was attempting to cut a piece of 12"x12" forked mesquite into two separate pieces for my barbecue.  We all know there is always a knot in the heart of every fork, but I went for it anyway, and yes, that blade caught that knot and then pulled my finger right into it, where I felt my finger bottom out in a valley on the blade.  I was lucky only in that most of the energy of the blade was tied up in the knot and I had let go of the trigger, but there was no time to register that I needed to let go with my left.  I went to the ER and 4 stitches later my finger was sewn back up.  It's a lesson worth repeating, ALWAYS pay attention to the Blade Plane Law: EVERYTHING in the plane of the blade and a little of the parallels outside on each direction BELONGS TO THE BLADE!  This law applies to all circular saws, miter saws, radial arm saws, and especially table saws.  I got lucky, the finger is healing very well.

But either way, I got my sheds finished and the concrete pad cleared off and the back porch cleared off and all my precious lumber under cover.  Maybe I could get some work done?

Yes!  I finished the Hot Mix Elevator design file and sent it off to Shapeways.  and then while I was noticing issues with my Shapeways orders being filled, I found a pile of emails that I had presorted into a folder that showed all hell had broke loose...sigh...

...

Today I can rather confidently state I have purchased my last print from Shapeways.  I honestly didn't want it to come about this way, because I never really wanted to start fielding printers inside my workshop.  The rather unfortunate part for Shapeways is that I arrived at this better place because they pushed, and if they push enough of their smaller clients, Shapeways as a marketplace will be a ghost town within as little as six months.

When I started purchasing and printing parts with Shapeways, as designers we enjoyed tolerances of 0.3mm supported and 0.6mm unsupported, Or in HO scale, I could freely design and print real world stuff that measures 1.125” and 2.25” and be well above the threshold limits.  I understood their issues with my trees, they were a little thin, but then it got worse.  My frustration with this sub-contractor came to a head when they told me I had to beef up my 0.3mm x 0.6mm wires within the model itself to 0.8mmx1.0mm wires after those models had already successfully printed a number of times.    Regressing to 0.8mm and 1.0mm (2.75” to 3.42”) was a slap in the face and a gauntlet thrown down that could not be ignored, especially as more and more people display their fancy new models via places like the NMRAx Facebook page.

And so I started seriously looking at 3D printer with the specific objective to buy one and start printing my parts myself.  After a couple weeks of looking and retooling my kits and failing the quality checks again and being frustrated with Shapeways, I put down a little less than $500 on an Elegoo Mars 2, the Elegoo Mercury Wash and Cure station, three bottles of resin and a can of isopropyl alcohol for the cleaning bath.  I submitted the order on the 2nd, and by the 8th three packages had been delivered to my house.  And when I got home from Vegas, I unboxed my 3D LCD Printer.

3D Modeling

While I was in Vegas, I indulged myself with a couple new truck brochures and even found I already had a digital copy of one of the new physical copies.  I thought I might show a little what goes into a 3D modeling project.

The brochures themselves came from the manufactures years and years ago, and there were two general types.  There were the specification brochures that had specific data to sometimes included dimensional data, and there were sales brochures that have nice pictures of hard to see areas like the inner rear frames, the engines, the cabs, and various manners the trucks were outfitted with different beds.  From this information we hope to get at least two good sides of the truck; if we're on a good day we may get three.  On a bad day, we get one very rough, simple line drawing that had might as well be a cartoon.

Sometimes I can work with just one good side image, as I did with my M26A1 cab, if I have a physical model as I did in the form of the Roco Minitanks M26 truck to fill in the missing data, in that case the general width of the cab interior.  I still had to reach out to an actual M26A1 curator and get a real width measurement off the prototype, but I was only off by 1.5 inches when all was said an done.

While I was in Vegas watching my new printer travel across the country, I had a little time in the evening to play and play I did with a Mack BX file.  Here are the results of 2 hours of work:

No, I did not draw two fenders; I drew one side of the model and then mirrored the result.  I did the same thing with the frame, but then found my weakness whereas I have neglected picking up the Sales Brochures in favor of Specification brochures and thus I did not have a ready reference for the frame detail that would be appropriate for this truck.  And so the hunt for brochures will continue...

Here's a brief glimpse of my brochure library:

Each white binder is chock full of specification brochures specifically for drawing more 3D Models, and since taking this picture I have added 6 more binders.  This is what it takes to ensure I have the resources I need when I go to design a new project and have the reference available when internet lets me down, and when it comes to antique truck research, it has done so too many times to count.  And in drawing the Mack BX, I realize I have been maintaining a blind spot by only selecting specification brochures while eschewing the sales brochures, and now regret some of the misses.  It's not a big deal, though, I'll catch them another time around.

So if that 3D draftsman gets a bit grumpy when you ask for his work for "free" ("hey man could you just spot me your file?"), here's the backside of what goes behind a good 3D model.  The Mack BX is still far from finished, because once I got home from Vegas, I had a printer to set up.  I still put in six more hours, but we're a long way away from a useable, printable model!

This truck will be for another time...

The 3D printer

The arrival of the printer meant I had to finally clean up, rearrange, and then repack my workshop.  In doing so, I found my closet was mostly empty, and that is where my printer now lives where it is free of ambient UV light.  My Mercury Wash and Cure station fit right next to it with ample room on all sides because my laser cutter is still out in the tool shed awaiting move time to come inside.  This closet has access to an open window, but in time I will build ductwork to the hole in the wall currently filled with a superseded AC box.

The instructions further suggest I need to do this zeroize process with sheets of paper, but I found I could do the process with the resin tub itself filled with resin and finally after a pile of failed prints I managed to make something.  My wash station had a recessed pin in one of the internal connectors, and after I corrected that issue, it worked as advertised.  The test file printed half right, and one Rook (not two like the file suggested) washed and cured without issue.

My initial prints from my own work were disastrous because the build plate was not level in the tank. 

  I finally found a way to zeroize and level the table, but I had to straighten a guide at the laser sight itself in order to make it work - it was bent from the factory.  I then mowed through a pile of blanks (about ten tries for twenty blanks) before finally correcting the right settings - and then it worked!  My calipers sobered up any happy dance, though, because the printed result was too big.  I then found there were settings just about everywhere that had to be tweaked, to include the process between my 3D drafting program and my STL generator, but upon doing so, everything came out true.  Testing with the box on the left yields the three modes on the right...Polly...

Here's a closeup of the details...And a lesson in Just because I can, does not mean should in terms of cramped layouts. This model will be a bear to paint the gas can and the fire extinguishers and the ammo cans without removing them from the raft...and so I let go of design habits picked up from the "cram it into as small a space to reduce the subcontractor's price as much as possible" process.

I recomposed the detail parts in a more logical manner...

And here the build plate is fresh out of the Wash and Cure Station bath...

And after curing.  Now some may start expressing concern about the price of resin used throughout my testing, so let us concern ourselves with just this lower picture.  If I had printed this for myself from Shapeways, each stick would be $7.50.  The Chitubox software has a feature where it calculates the value of the resin used in the print, and for this file, the resin cost is $0.27, not per stick, but for EVERYTHING ON THIS PLATE!!!

And that is why I say I have likely bought my very last Shapeways print.  Between the fact that they no longer effectively have the capability to print HO scale items, and the fact that their items are so grossly overpriced in terms of what it now costs myself to print what I want (even if those rates are fair when you consider the labor and set up involved), there is no reasonable excuse to do it.

On a final note, the NMRA makes a big deal about owning the printer and printing the 3D parts versus having the parts printed by Shapeways or by a friend.  There are some wiser hats in the ring who say that the balance is on drafting the 3D model and lesser so on printing it, and I will back that position every day of the week.  Using a 3D printer really comes down to putting down the capital to get it; the rest of the printing process is extremely easy to learn once you have the machine.  For under $500 (a DCC/Sound Locomotive or so) you too can get started.

At the close of this week, I can confidently print my M26A1 cab and I now have a full complement of little parts like jacks, ammo cans, med kits, canteens, extinguishers, and jacks that I didn't have before.  This is too much fun...time to rearrange my thresher file and print it!  AND THEN?  HOT MIX ELEVATOR!!!

Congratulations...

Congratulations, no more 2-3 week wait, no high cost for test prints that don't work, no more emails from Shapeways saying the print won't work as designed (and the nice acronym for "print it anyway" being PITA), no more emails saying it won't print correctly even though it has multiple times in the past, and more consistency in the quality of the print.

It's unfortunate for them that they made the process somewhat painful for me, because I was very comfortable paying their prices as long as I was able to get something close to what I imagined.  I modified a design yesterday on a part and 3 hours later it was out of the printer, washed and I was able to examine the part. Nothing like instant feedback.

Glad to see you got the Mercury also, it makes the workflow so much easier.

Can't wait to see more results.

Mike

....

That's the part that I just don't get. 

After all the abuse, we were still merrily accepting it and rationalizing our experience as an acceptable cost of getting our models.  And when that was not enough, they went and found more, until we finally looked around and discovered the world has moved so far forward we are backwards!

This came off the build plate this morning and just finished baking in the cure station. 

The total cost of the resin was $0.19, it was printed in 1 hour and 18 minutes, and you can see the new frame pedestal printed as well, a part Shapeways likely would have declined.

I always wanted to put two threshers on a 50 foot flat for the 1925ish era, but the Shapeways cost was holding back the order.  Now?  Game on..

Early Progress

I used clear resin for my early projects, which means much of the detail is essentially hidden until the parts are hit with a little paint.

Don't get too excited now, Benny...

I used rafts and supports for these parts, and they have their use have their use - Some of the time.

Rafts are especially useful for keeping track of these little tiny parts...

Here's the beginning of my troubles - see the undersurfaces of the inner cab.  Pillowy formation is also present in the outer cab shell, though only minor.

And finally, a great companion for a little 3D drafting - Chicken kabobs fresh off the Mesquite fired Weber!

A little homefront

The instant gratification of seeing projects so much sooner after they are designed has given me a second wind around the house - and that mismatched floor?  yep, it's GONE!!

I figured IF I ever sell this house, a different color in one room out of four would negatively affect the aesthetic value, and I didn't have enough material to finish the closet right without buying another 104"x144", and I had more than enough material to finish the closet with the scorched walnut, so I bit the bullet and got it done.  I've moved on to the baseboards, they're done, and the closet is now done as well.  Next time do it right the first time, aye?!

The Trials and Tribulations with the Elegoo Mars 2

I have now had my printer up and running for about a month, and I can say the water's great, as evident by the crowds of people rushing to get in the pool!  Open Model Railroader, look at a convention clinic schedule, open Running Extra, you're now liable to find an article on getting started in 3D printing  The transition from modeler to printer has not been without challenges, through. 

I have learned I do not like supports - not that they aren't helpful, but I find the less processing there is after a print is complete, the better life is all considering both the finer surface finish and the amount of resin used for the supports.

I then rediscovered the pillow effect that affects every surface facing the build plate.  This issue essentially affects all resin SLA and perhaps DLP printers and occurs when light from the new layer hardens more than the fresh layer facing the build plate, but because there is nothing there to stop the light, resin above the layer cures unevenly upon the new layer.  It looks as it is so named, a pillowy layer that simply is not flat or flush with anything

I have so far solved this issue by putting the model surface right on the build plate and then avoid top facing surfaces as much as humanly possible, with the layers being inside unseeable areas where it is indeed unavoidable. 

I have also learned to re-embrace trees, after printing a plate of thresher parts that instantly turned into a pile of mixed up parts.  But only a little bit - we still build right on the plate.

These solutions have worked well...until I measured my model thickness and found that where it should be 30.5mm thick, it was only about 25.4 mm thick...and it wasn't a scaling issue, either...I went back and measured my thresher frames and they too were about 3mm too thin. 

This won't do...

I then discovered the internet documented Z-axis error issue that plagues the Elegoo line of 3D printers that is in in all reality a design flaw in the stepper motor screw itself.   The culprits are twofold, first a silencer block that is a rubber gasket wedged between two metal plates that are the motor mounts and second a spring washer inside the motor itself. Fixing the issue likely voids all warranties on the machine, so you can either live with it or start taking the screws out until you have discovered for yourself just how simply this machine is.

These pictures are taken of the machine upside down.

Getting to the motor mount was easy, all I had to do was remove the screws holding the tower in place, unswivel the build arm, and then slide the motor and screw out through the bottom at an angle.  The mount is attached with the same screw locations as the floor mount, with two screws.  This much is easy.

I took upon myself the great challenge and disassembled my printer all the way down to the spring washers, where I found I indeed had 2 spring washers and not one, replaced them with the recommended washer and found out the local M8 washers here are 1.6mm thick. 

I then tried a UBA washer, which was 1.2 mm thick and it works but the motor screws are just barely torqued down.  To be honest, a 10mm thick washer would likely be ideal, but for now, the 1.2mm washer does the trick.  No problems down below.

In reassembly, however, I encountered a new problem up above.  While sliding the build tower onto the build arm, it ran off center into the ball bearings in the build arm and 4 ball bearings popped out.

The build arm on the Elegoo Mars 2 features a ball bearing slide, which is very smooth, but it can quickly become a pain in the rear.  This slide features a ring of ball bearings that tunnel through the build arm on either side, and are held in place by plastic chases that are as unstable as one could imagine.  I should have just plopped the four bearings back in place, but no, I tore it down until I had all 63 bearings on the paper towel because yes, I lost one.  So far, operation is not affected, but word to the wise, careful removing the build tower from the build arm and sliding it back on again.

And so I shot the next test print and got three frames that were all right around 30.5mm thick, plus or minus perhaps 0.2; this I can live with!  And the thresher framework came out noticeably thicker, and while I haven't measured it yet, I'm already happy with what has emerged from the resin.

Tonight we're printing 1400x24R tires for my M26A1 Dragon Wagon trucks, because I hate painting Roco wheels and now that I have the printer, there's no reason to wait any longer.  It takes half the time to go from 3D model to 3D printing file versus what it took preparing a file for Shapeways (I don't HAVE to sprue things up on trees anymore - that process doubled modeling time!), about 0.0004th of the time to receive the part after I submit it for printing (I included the time to do the slicing just to be fair; BUT it's small potatoes because slicing as a printing issue has been completely automated as far as I'm concerned and all I'm ding is arranging items on the build plate to maximize the run) and the cost...this tire file I just shot would have been $10.00 or $15.00 via Shapeways, it contains $0.16 of relatively expensive Elegoo resin.  So maybe I don't have sprue trees in this tire file, but if I added them, it might increase the cost to somewhere around, oh...$0.30?  We'll be fair and call it 3 hundredths the cost.

The machine is beeping; in the time that I typed this out and got a cold drink and washed some dishes, the tire file finished printing a second time...and the detail?  We'll have to shoot some paint on the flipside...

Tomorrow I shall model a monument to my past cooperation with Shapeways in the ways of a fun project brought to us by Elegoo!

The Elegoo Mercury Wash and Cure

I would be remiss to ignore the Wash and Cure station.  As far as I'm concerned, it was worth every penny.  But guess what?  I'm also pretty sure all of the various wash and cure stations are very similar in both design and function.  Get the one you like.

One part I really like about the Mercury is the fact that one absolutely cannot run the unit unless the cover is in place or they try really hard to defeat the sensor at the base of the tower on the backside of the machine. I still close the closet door each time I run it, but I have not noticed any ill effects for the resin bath in the printer three feet away housed on the same closet shelf..

If you get a printer, get the wash and cure station.

A little more paint...

Tonight I threw a little paint on the tire file from last night.

Let me be quick to say that I have serious issues with staying focused and with returning to a project after the major energy for that project has passed.  When I made my projects through Shapeways, when I was doing the modeling I was fired up to pursue the end model.  Once I finally ordered the models and they arrived int eh mail, a whole ten days later (at minimum), there was no guarantee that I would be excited enough to return to the projects for as long a time as one might imagine.  And it didn't help when I found errors that needed correction in my Shapeway projects, errors that would take another 2 weeks or months before I would finally see the end result in my hands.

This instant gratification really helps,

Have I mention how much I hate painting Roco Minitank wheelsets?

Both colors were spray cans, the rims painted separate from the wheels and then assembled.  There are some minor issues here, and I can be selective of which inner rims are used, but overall, these are things I can work with.  The tires show a clear bias towards the build plate, whereas that side came out more flat than tire-shaped, but I can use them as is for inner duals or as inner sides up front.  I will probably experiment with another design, though, to see if I can minimize the effect.  This side will be subject to the pillow effect, of course, as it faces the build plate.

Tonight I took a break form printing and turned my focus to first the outer rim assembly with nuts on either side (for front or inner rear singles and rear mounted dual wheels) and then the rear hub.  In the old days, I would now be wasting a whole session placing these parts on sprues, multiplying them out, uploading them, and then waiting two weeks.....nahhhhh!!!! 

Tomorrow we print some hubs!!!!!

...

2020 has come and went, and while prices on Lasercutters curiously bottomed out around $2,000-$3,000 (Micromark has one on the back page of their catalog starting at $2099) and stopped falling, 3D printers have completely wrecked the projected timeline.

The reality right now is that I can get a decent 3D printer for only $230.

And it's doing pretty much everything I would want to do with a printer.  Outstanding.

I've been a strong proponent of the technology for a long time now.  I perhaps thought back then my timeline was a little bright, but I perhaps didn't think it was this bright.  2020 was the year resin SLA printers hit the world in force, bringing a cheap affordable printer to the level of the hobbyist.

And what about the resin?  There were concerns that the resin might be like printer ink.  well, first, this 3D printer I have is cheaper than many a laserjet or inkjet printer.  Second, the resin is running right around $30 for a liter. 

Expectations Exceeded.

Can it get better?  Oh yes, and it Will!

Bachmann Kader <==== IHC/ Rivarossi

Besides the price, this item on the shelf at the LHS is an important benchmark to me.

For me, this car is the confirmation that Kader purchased the remnants of IHC/Rivarossi.

I first suspected the purchase back now a far 15-20 years when I disassembled a Bachmann heavyweight and a IHC streamliner in the same year.

The internal design of the cars was identical.  Maybe the outer appearance was different, but the internals were splitting mages of each other.  And this wasn't just a fluke or an independent "Aha!!" moment. 

Internally, the roof is cast out of clear plastic as one piece and then the roof is painted with the sides masked. there are 6 clips on the bottom of the roof/window shell that lock into the bottom floor in six corresponding and equally placed slots in the floor.  There's only one way you get two manfucturers so closely sharing such a design...they took it, or they bought it, or they took it through contract.  It was deliberate, but to be that deliberate without going to jail or paying fines for infringement, I suspected then that Bachmann owns part of IHC/Rivarossi, and perhaps as early as  when they first announced the Spectrum Heavyweights.  That takes us clear back to the late 1990s.

Of course, Kader never announced acquiring any part of the Slovenia heritage, and so most other model railroaders called me crazy and stated the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

And now, this shows up.

This car was in the IHC Old Timer Line right around $8 for a kit with a really nice one piece floor with metal truss rods already assembled, the part that made those kits worth the $8.00.

And here it has returned...as RTR under the Bachmann flag, and for a princely sum of $59.99!!

Aha!!!

I bet you can even find the IHC car in Pennsy livery under the same road number.  I wouldn't know because I haven't looked...but my cars multiple roads all have a similar three digit number in the same font...

If Kader does NOT own a piece of IHC/Rivarossi, welcome to "Shanzhai" Goods.

3D Printer Notes

I'll be tucking my notes from the 3D printing topic here to save them beyond the discussion topic.  It's been fun these last few months having this luxury!

3D Printer Simplicity

A quick pictorial breakdown of the Elegoo 2, a look inside both the Mars 2 and the Mercury 1, for posterity.

3D Printer Aha moment: Print a new Scraper!

My By Jove moment, quite literally discovered on the build plate while trying to remove a couple wedges.  It's too simple!

Old Projects

Over the course of the last few months I have been working briskly to restore the little trickle of what used to be my Shapeways benefits.  It was never much, but it was enough to buy a brochure or a tank of gas or what not every other month.  As a matter of politeness, I do my best to not post links to my models or such because quite frankly said mentions would be advertising out and out and that Has to be compensated on the back end and I'm just not there yet.  It would be nice to get there, but it will be one can of gas at a time until the trip is done!

 In the process of getting the new simple quick and easy projects rolling, I have had to back burner more serious projects of notable nature, with front and center being the Omni Mixer with the Hot Mix Elevator.  I really want this thing to be done this year, but it seems like if there's not one thing there is another.  It does not help that the projects is exceedingly complex, speaking modestly, and all of that complexity translates differently between the Multi Jet Fusion (FUD/FXD) printer that Shapeways uses versus the SLA/LCD printer that I have to work with.  In either case, the models have to be completely redesigned and recomposed, be it from their finished CAD form or their printed kit form.  I am lucky in that I had only just started mounting up the Hot Mix Elevator parts, but there's still a mile of work to do to make the Mixer itself ready for printing.

I printed the running gear set and I have a couple minor issues that have to be corrected.  In my zeal for lots of separate pieces, I have gone overboard and I have found places where I can parse back the insanity.  Part of this is driven by the fact that I will have to drill the holes out, or make the holes bigger until they're large enough for 0.5mm axles/pins, and the hubs are too small to do this with any decent amount of enjoyment.

Over the last night I finally printed the hot mix elevator body itself.  For system comparison's sake, to print this file cost me 3 hours and 2 minutes of run time and $0.67 in resin to print.  The plate has not one but three elevators on it, one each in 1:87, 1:76 and 1:72 scale.  Shapeways would have charged a wholesale price of about $25 for each iteration.  The cost performance of my printer never ceases to amaze me - and I'm using the expensive Elegoo specific resin!

I printed axles and rods to see how they would come out, and they all came out as solid rods.  I may have to revisit what evergreen and K&S have available in tubes, because at this rate it's not going to be effective to print them.

The detail is right where I want it - It came out every bit what I drew in virtual space. But in clear, it's not always easy to see everything - both good and bad.

I threw some Tamiya gray on the model, but it was aircraft gray so it has a bluer tint to it than what I would like; eh, testing!!. This brought out some of the more onerous details on the top ridge.  The downside of putting the supports along the top is that the upward face now has all the blemishes from both the supports and from facing the build plate.  I'll have to spend a little more time removing this roughage before and between applying paint coats.

I don't have the running gear as of yet, and while the hood printed perfectly, the tongue was a much ill fated design and it basically self destructed on the build plate.  I violated the triangle principle of strength by having not one but four self supported legs in the air, and that naturally turned out terrible.

Nonetheless, here is what the elevator looks like first propped up against a soon to be stack of 12.5' containers and then mocked up behind a truck with a trailer axles installed in place.

Soon I will have an accurate 1940s-1950s asphalt plant!!!\

 Now, back to the drawing board for the parts that need re-engineering, and hopefully I'll have the Omni Mixer before too much longer!

New Projects

Aye yes, new Projects.  We don't need them, but here's the simple issue: opportunity does not wait for convenience.  Sometimes we have to evoke a grand pause to rush out and grab a sandwich, it's the only way life goes on, and if you think you can come back later for the sandwich, it will inevitably be gone.

Case in point?  Try on this Heavy Air Conditioning Trailer.

 The A/C failed in one of our buildings and they pulled this behemoth in place.  I wanted it.  And so I measured it.  I would have enjoyed one or two more days of measuring, plus I kind of wanted the generator trailer next to it, but now both are gone and inaccessible to normal people.  Thus is life.

At the very least, I foresee a desire for a heavy trailer for my 12.5 foot container project, so that I can have a truck carrying one container and pulling two more.  This will be just the ticket, I'll stretch the 20 foot trailer to 25 foot and make do.

My next new project stuck out to me as I was taking a detour around A-10 and driving through the desert communities of Arizona.  On this trip I happened upon this:

This is a Farmall cotton picker that was made right around the 1950s.  If you model agricultural Arizona between the 1950s and 1970s, this machine is a vital component to one of Arizona's 5 Economic Cs, Cotton.  And it is not offered in HO scale whatsoever, a situation that shall have to be corrected.  Luckily enough it is only an hour away.  Unluckily enough, it is a very complex piece of machinery, far more so than the Well Driller (Almost finished, but I'm not going to be working on it for a while) and after two missions I have a lot of data but it's still just a framework of a model.

And so there is the new forays, even while other irons are hot.  My plans this weekend are to finish up the Omni-Mixer, but first, the wife says we have to go to the Zoo.

...

Last night I had a break through moment of sorts.

Up until now I have had difficulty printing holes and I though perhaps I would have to rely on drilling the holes post production.  I eschew post production work as much as possible, it's time spent afterwards that could be eliminated by better engineering upfront...

In this case it was a part for my thresher and where I though I would have to drill the hole out for sure, the 0.5mm rod slipped right through for an almost perfect fit.  Bullseye!

From here things get fun.  It means more practice is ahead, but it's paying off.

I have now used up one whole 1000ml bottle of 3D translucent resin.  Let's see if we can't keep more of it form ending up in the scrap bin, aye??!