Thought I would post here knowing that many people have purchased model railroad items through Shapeways 3D printing services.
Has anyone expereienced extremly poor print quality problems with Frosted Detail plastic from Shapeways? I have designed a few things for HOn3 and most have printed okay. However, a customer bought one of my designs and it came out extremely poor, and the reprint after I complained on his behalf came out even worse - the item didn’t even completely print - part of one side was completely missing as if the printer had run out of plastic or it had somehow melted away.
I am asking if this is a problem others have experienced. This was the first complant I have received from a customer, but considering his re-print was even worse I am extremely disheartened. Obviously, if I am getting results like this I will have to consider other printing services.
I think your concern is very reasonable. But I also think it should be taken to a “Yahoo” group that is more specific. Isn’t there something like that? I know there are groups for NRC and Soundtraxx and Loksound and…
Yes, there are shapeways forums and groups, but they are mostly populated by other designers and not by average customers. I thought it would be useful to ask here to get responses from people who arent designers and have purchased model railroad items through shapeways.
FWIW, as a purchaser of other peoples’ designs, I have had good success with Shapeways. My only complaint is that sometimes the sizes aren’t quite right. For example, I purchased some supposedly HO scale oxy-acetlene welding sets and the ‘HO’ stuff was way too small for normal industrial sized setups. They were closer to something a plummer might use.
I have never received any defective or improperly molded stuff.
In defense of Shapeways, when I pointed out the problem they gave me a full credit. I think that if they were to show the actual size by putting a measurement scale beside the object they could eliminate a lot of confusion.
Were you printing something with four vertical walls by any chance? I’ve found that FUD doesn’t ‘like’ being printed vertically. This is what I got when I tried to print a loco cab standing up:
The cab wall is warped, and almost paper-thin. There’s no embossed detail. I found that I got better results by printing the four walls separately and lying flat, with mounting pegs to align them:
Since then, I’ve done a few other locomotive cabs using the ‘flat pack’ approach, and it’s worked for me. I did 3D print some one-piece side tanks, but those had 2.5-3mm thick walls - which won’t exactly work for a cab.
I ordered parts for a HOn30 loco and all was fine. I had to do a bit of filling, but nothing major. But there were no rivet details and I would hesitate to order a larger item without that level of detail. Overall, I must say that I am very pleased with this new source of detail parts.
Yep, 4 vertical walls, and it was the vertical walls that had issues. But, in my case the walls were designed thicker to prevent warping. Warping was not the issue. The issue was with the rivet derail on the walls and the lower portion of one of the walls not printing completely.
I don’t have a 3D printer and I haven’t tried any 3D design since I learned 3D CAD with CadKey some 30 years ago, but I’m not sure how well you could expect rivet detail to work on a vertical wall, with the rivets extending in the X or Y direction. I am sure better results would be had by building the wall flat and have the rivet detail in the Z axis.
Last year I ordered from Shapeways. An N Scale road rail barrier since no one makes them in my scale. I wrote to Rix about making one. He reply saying there was no need or thought. Like the HO version.
I received my rail barrier from shapeways and it looked nothing like the picture. I would need to do some modifications like cutting, shaving and add extra details. Making my own wooden posts. Since I didn’t get posts or beams. It looked European but I don’t know.
Your constraints are the same as mine, you have to learn CAD design. More than I want to bite off at my age. They also have a catalog of predesigned products.
I had browsed the Shapeways site and came across a PRR modeler that had produced various designs of catenary towers. I wanted to have a few to use as photo “props” and had looked at etched brass or scratchbuilt. There were several articles in the PRR Keystone Modeler. Both of those options were time consuming and expensive.
The Shapeways 3D towers were actually quite reasonable. The simplest one in my photo was about $14. The more complex lattice one about $70.
I order four HO vehicles through Jens Jahn, that get produced by shape ways. I was disappointed,too many lines in vehicles and no smooth surface, not worth $14 a piece. Too bad, he has lots of sixties vehicles.
It’s too bad he doesn’t seem to offer them in FUD, as the renderings of his models look very nicely detailed (I want a Chrysler Cordoba and that shop is the only place I’ve found one so far). But with WSF he has to make those designs with solid material where the windows are, which also limits the realism.
As with PLA prints from consumer-grade 3D printers, I believe you should be able to improve the texture with a coat of thinned epoxy and some sanding.
I stand corrected. The Madaboutcars shop does have some multi-piece kits with open windows and interiors in HO scale. For example, the Chrysler I want comes in FUD at $25 and FED at $30. Not at all cheap, but a good resource if you must have that certain vehicle. Searching by model name helped to locate it.
Mike Budde who is on What’s Neat, liked those cars. He is an extreme autorack modeler and every week he talks cars, not trains, unless they are autoracks. He sands those lines off, adds styrene trim, scotch tape windows they look nice. More work than I would care to do.
Yes, FUD is really the only material for HO scale model railroad items. The others don’t have quite the resolution for details. I suppose some of the other plastics may work for items that can be sanded, or possibly support strutures.
FUD does repordice details adequately. It’s rather brittle, though, and is more like a resin casting.
I ordered some HO scale arm chairs for my SP Heavy Weight Diner car from Shapeways two weeks ago and they arrived this afternoon. I thought a Picture would let the Forum members see the quality.
Click on the picture to enlarge.
I bought two packages of chairs. Both are perfect.
