3D printing design

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am interested in getting some specific detail parts 3D printed through Shapeways. These are parts that are not commercially available for an N scale locomotive project. The problem is that I have no CAD experience and no way to design such an item. Can anyone tell me where I can get some help designing parts? The parts are pretty simple–some very specific spard arrestors/deflectors for the roof of a GP35 rebuild (GP38-3) for FWWR. I have some good photos of the prototype if I can find someone with the skills willing to help me design it. Any and all help/suggestions are appreciated.

Ron

2

I’m in the same boat, I’d like to do a few things but no CAD experience. A friend told me about a site called Fiver https://www.fiverr.com/

There are people on there that will do the design for you if you supply the information. He used it for a graphic design project (and his project cost $20, not $5) but it turned out great and he was very happy.

There are a couple caveats though- I personally haven’t used it yet, so I’m not sure how it would work for 2D (laser cut) or 3D parts… I’m sure you’d have to supply pretty solid information, you probably wouldn’t be dealing with model railroaders unless you get lucky. And I’m not sure what kind of mess could develop if you don’t get what you want, if they’ll do a re-do or if you’re going to be paying a second time or finding a different designer. I probably will give it a shot once I narrow it down to just one or two projects as tests.

Good Luck!

3

There are some scanners that you can put the part on and will scan and produce the proper file for the printer.

You knead to look into this.

If there is a firm that can make the parts, they can probably scan them too.

ROAR

4

Contact Shapeways customer service. They may be able to put you in touch with one of the designers who lists their products on the site

5

I agree with Mr. Paine. Especially if you find a provider that already has a similar design he may want to add your variation to his offerings.

There’s a good chance that the part you need could be produced by that designer and they would continue to sell further copies to mitigate the cost.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/E7CJL922W/mp-and-mkt-spark-arrestor-ho-1-87-16x?optionId=57742986

There is contact information provided for each Shapeways designer.

I have made several purchases from Shapeways and found it to be an economical solution to some specific details.

Good Luck, Ed

6

BroadwayLion, the only problem with scanning is that I don’t have a part to scan. All I have are prototype photos. If I had a part to scan I wouldn’t have a problem in the first place.

Ron

7

areibel, I found a designer on fiverr.com that says he can design it for $5. I am going to try this method. I will keep you all aprised of how this turns out through design and printing.

Ron

8

Here are a couple of views of the part I am trying to get designed and printed just for everyone’s information. They are somewhat unique spark deflectors on FWWR rebuild GP35s (GP38-3).

9

If you want to try designing your own parts, a freeware CAD program called Sketchup might do the trick.

You can find it here:

http://www.sketchup.com

Eric

10

3D printing?

Those look like fairly simple deflectors that were fabricated in the shop out of 3/16 or 1/4" plate. Have you looked into fabricating them out of brass sheet or styrene?

After a coat of black, sooty paint I believe the end result would be pretty convincing.

Ed

11

Ed:

I would agree with you that the deflectors could be easily fabricated IF the model was HO. However, the fact that it is N scale means that it would be pretty fussy work. That’s not to say it couldn’t be done, but getting them all exactly the same size and angle would be a challenge. 3D printing would solve that problem, granted for a price.

Dave

12

Thanks! I have contacted designers on Shapeways to convert existing designs to TT scale, but the only problem there is they’re making it on Shapeways. I’ve had a real mixed bag of results from them, sometimes you get something that just takes a little primer and light sanding, sometimes it’s a real mess. And I’ve returned an item to have them remake it and gotten a worse part in return!

If I do get busy and find a designer I’ll probably try Ponoko or i-Materialize, I have a friend that designs his own stuff and he recommended either of them over Shapeways.

Al

13

Keep in mind that this part is going to be very small in N scale, and places like Shapeways have a minimum bounding-box size for parts. So you’ll need to have a few of these connected together with a sprue.

Steve S

14

I contacted a designed on Shapeways who has a number of N scale details available, including some similar spark arrestors. I gave him the photos and specs as best I knew them and he has designed what, from the pre-production image, looks like a pretty close match to what I want. The image is included below. I am ordering a set and will let you all know how they look and how they work when I get them. Thanks for all your input.

Ron

15

I received my part from Shapeways today. Man, they are tiny in N scale, but they look perfect. I placed them on the model and I don’t think I could have hoped for a better looking part. I am very pleased. I will post a picture here when the model is complete of the installed and painted part.

Ron

16

Ron:

The parts look pretty good to me. I’m glad that you are happy with them. I couldn’t imagine getting them all the same by scratch building them. Looking forward to the photos.

Dave

17

I’m been 3D printing for a little while using Sketchup and a Wanhao 3D printer. Sketchup is a free 3D drawing tool with a large warehouse of drawings you can download. All the printing I’ve been doing is for HO scale and the smaller you get, brake wheel for example, the harder it is to print.

One of the other club members, WPMRA (see facebook) and I bought the printer and a scanner. We haven’t been sucessful with the scanner, but hope it can be used once we get the kinks worked out.

I’ve bought from Shapeways before and the products they produce are good and I don’t think a home printer (i.e. inexpensive) can match the quality.

http://www.sketchup.com/download

http://wanhaousa.com/collections/3d-printers

18

Their printers are using a completely different process. They use a liquid resin that is sprayed down and immediately cured by UV light. Your printer uses a filament that gets extruded. One big advantage of the liquid resin machines is that when it comes to making a flat horizontal surface, it can lay down a smooth, continuous layer in one shot. The filament machines need to zig-zag back and forth hundreds of times to make a surface.

Steve Sf

19

I said I would upload a photo of the locomotive when I had the exahust stacks/spark deflectors installed. Here it is.

20

There are a couple of ways to locate a designer.

On the Shapeways forum, there is a section to help you locate a designer for specific models or parts. This way, you have a decent chance of finding somebody who knows their way around railway models:

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/f/3d-design-requests.92/

There is a section for designers to advertise in the SW forum. Some of these guys are very good, but most are not familiar with railways and you need to be quite careful:

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/f/3d-jobs-board.98/

You can also look through the various designers’ shops and if you like the work done by certain designers, you can certainly contact them directly to ask whether they would be interested in doing the job for you.

In N scale, you could post on the N3D Facebook group… a large group of designers who work in N is on there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/919885238064251/

Payment for design services will depend on several factors. Since many designers depend on their business for at least part of their income, have many years professional experience, and may have rather large investments in computer equipment, software, and research, they may well need partial payment up front. Occasionally, if a part fits a designer’s line and they see it as a viable prospect for sale, you might obtain a reduced rate or free design. This is something you will need to discuss with individual designers… be sure to determine how much experience they have, as this will greatly affect the success of the part.

I do custom design in addition to my Eastern Road Models line on Shapeways. Having taken medical retirement, I do quite a bit of contract work, following thirty years of design using high end CAD and 3D printing as it has grown and improved. However, I am booked up well into the summer and am not currently soliciting new work.