One website I visited 5 minutes ago had an advertisement for a desktop 3D printer for $2,199.00. And I would hope that like most other technologies the cost comes down over time. Can a person do a 3D scan of an item, enlarge or decrease its size and have it made in a 3D printer? I would love to have 1/48 scale models of my 1st car a 79 Mustang Indy Pace car. Maybe a 1/24 Mustang model could be scanned and recreated in 1/48. I dislike 1/43 stuff because it is too large for Lionel especially the undersized 027 stuff. Imagine a specific car, truck or train engine you would love to have in your scale but its not available. With a 3D printer I think the possibilities could be nearly endless.
Stuff like what you want to do may be possible in the future. Right now, though,THe software to drive the printers has to be developed so a picture can be turned into a 3D item.
The first applications, will be commercial and manufacturing, I am sure…
MOH is fascinated by the 3D printers and can;t wait for our STAPLES to have one and have something “printed”. But alas, our store doesn’t have one yet, and may not for awhile.
The REAL question is “how much will the printer media cost”…{plastic, metal etc} …that is the same a our “toner” now. Toner is NOT cheap, really.
The makers of the “media” will make a killing off 3D if it gets to a home use point!
It WOULD be nice for home use, but I don’t see that for at least 10 years.
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They’ve been using the technology in manufacturing prototypes for industry for years now. The media is usually ABS (plastic) and it comes wound in spools - e.g. similar to the spools of string used in your weed whacker.
Tom
The TV show “How It’s Made” had a segment yesterday on 3D printers that made items out of stainless steel.
There are a couple things to consider.
What is the resolution of the printer, how fine a bead does it put down? What is the smallest surface variation it can print?
How does a person develop the “plans” to tell the printer what to print? Who does the drafting to create the file it uses?
We have one at work. The resolution is .010". This means that the bead that is extruded is that thick. Whwn we got it a buddy in drafting had a printed a hood for a g scale 132 ton GE centercab. The hood was about 6" long. Took over 8 hours for it to print and about $30.00 worth of material. He was going to do a SW1 model for me but never got the drawing done for it. A model that size in HO would have taken almost 10 hours to print and the resolution would not have been that great either.
Those inexpensive home machines don’t have the resolution to do high-quality work needed for models. You will be able to see the banding quite clearly. High-end results require a high-end machine. The company below uses a machine that costs $250,000, but the results look terrific.
http://www.moddler.com/portfolio
As for Staples, the machines they’ll be getting will use paper, not plastic or resin. They might be good for tunnel portals or bridge abutments, but don’t expect to make an engine shell.
Steve S
You need to use a 3D drawing program to create the file (we use solidworks here). All of the detail needs to be included in the file. Undercuts and hollow areas are not a problem as the machines (at least the one we have) use a waste filler material to support these sections. Ours uses a small ultrasonic cleaner to remove this material after it is printed
Another recently discussed topic (March). See here http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/216454.aspx?sort=ASC&pi314=1 for additional discussion.
They have developed a machine to complement the printer that takes your household recyclable plastics and processes them into usable printing material.It is still a way off from being marketed though.
Also the list of materials that can be used for printing is growing almost by the day it seems. There are some websites that demonstrate the incredible abilities of these things.
I was introduced to an upstart MRR manufacturing company recently that is running off structures to be modeled in the future. They were using their 3D printing equipment to make all the parts that will be in the kit. My understanding (I could be wrong here) is those parts would then be used to make the molds.
I was very excited about this one project they were doing as I have been wanting this structure for a very long time. They said they would print me all the parts off in PVC for $900.00. [:O] I hopefully will live long enough to buy the kit at a much reduced price when it is done.
I see an exciting time on the horizon for our hobby. Something I am not sure about though, is giving up the glue and exacto knives for a CAD program and a 3D printer. I am to old to become a Geek![(-D]
Hopefully, sooner than later, it will progress to where you can buy a “magazine” of “blueprints” to upload and select from your tablet to “print” any scale structure in the package…say of houses, or of background buildings, or of RR stations, etc.
With cheaper 3 D printers, software to drive them, items to select from, and media to “print with”, maybe we all can have user friendly easy to use 3D printers at home next to the printed page/photo printer, WITHOUT becoming “a geek”!
Again, sooner, not later!
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The home printers can do somethings, but here is a chair I recently got from Shapeways:
It is part of a set that included three desks and three chairs. The design pushes right to the edge of what they will print. The printer will do better with this material, Frosted Ultra Detail (aka “FUD”) but there is too much breakage in cleaning.
This chair was soaked 15 minutes in acetone to clean it and then painted with acrylic craft paints. I was going to try airbrushing, but I knew I’d never find it if it blew away.
Home printers have a ways to go before they get to this resolution.
I am working on a web page that recounts my experience with 3d printing model railraod details. When it is done I’ll post a link. And I am far from the only person doing 3d printing- there are a few I am in awe of.
So do we print off all the pieces of the structure and still assemble them, or do we print them off ready to roll, or in this case, ready to place on the layout? We may have the choice. We will be able to download a structure from Walthers (for a price of course) and have the printer do as much or as little of the work as we see fit. That puts the Mailman out of a job.
As with all new technology I
I understand how you develop the files and there is software. The point was that it takes some skill and learning to be able to draw the object in the software, especially complicated objects with complex curves and a lot of surface details. A person can’t just sit down and fifteen minutes later have the design for a F unit. A rather plain boxcar could take hundreds of hours of work to get it to the point where a printer could reproduce it, if the person already knew how to use the software.
I saw an article recently that mentioned 3D printing software being available for as little as $500. It did not mention how detailed said software was or which machines it was designed to work with. Of course you will also need a 3D CAD design program and the knowledge to use it because basically all the 3D printer software is doing is filling in the gaps between the lines of the CAD design.
If you don’t have any previous knowledge of CAD or 3D printing, then certainly the first box car could take some time to build!
Dave
Dave,
That’s exactly right. Expertise in creating the files is really the key to using this technology. One doesn’t need the printer and as comments indicate, it’s still not quite in the needed form factor for modeling purposes in the smaller scales yet for home use.
The mention of Shapeways is important. They’re your printer if you have the file. They will also make it available to others and I believe you earn income on that in some form IIRC. Plus a big company can keep up with the latest hardware, leaving you to worry about the creative side. Shapeways just announced an expansion of its operations, so they must be doing something right.
For our purposes, the shortest, cheapest way to putting 3-D printed items on your layout is to master the software to create files that can then be forwarded to Shapeways or another contractor. So best to ignore the falling printer prices and started learning 3-D design. You, too, could be a micro-manufacturer.
actually here’s a fellow whom is an N scaler and has 3D models out and printed for him. http://www.youtube.com/user/NscaleAddict
Exactly. Programs on the high end such as Solidworks and Unigraphics can do some cool stuff when the properly trained tech is using it. We have solidworks here at work and my guy who is out lead draftsman can make it sing operas. However, it still takes a lot of time to get each element right when designing things. We did a hood for a GE 132 ton centercab and I don’t even know the number of hours we had into it to just do a simple model like that. There are other programs out there that will work for 3D models. I believe Google has one called Sketchup. I have never worked with it as I don’t have the time to put into it.
I’m pretty sure not many people realize the future of 3D (printing) this system is, and will revolutionize manufacturing worldwide in the very near future, talk about a great invention, right up there with the computer thingy.
3D printers, the next frontier? Not in my future, not interested in the technology and still like building kits; or, from scratch.