Large Scale Central

3D printed doors and windows

Modeling
#1

While I was off taking care of Kristi after her last surgery (we hope this was the very last one) this summer I learned how to use sketchup to draw in 3D. Now I’m able to draw stuff up and print them on my printers. The first parts that I drew and printed was for the printers. Now I’m getting to work on stuff for the RR. Here is how I made a 24"X60" double hung window in 20.3 scale.

Here are the parts for 1 window

Now painted

I use E6000 glue and glue to a sheet glazing (I use the window from Bachmann rolling stock boxes)

Operating window assembled by inserting the panes in the track and glue track to the frames using E6000.

Front side

Back side

Next I will do some doors

Rodney

#2

Nice work Rodney

#3

Hey Rodney,

Good to see that you’re still around and posting again. I hope your wife is doing better now.

Great looking window parts. Who’s 3D printer did you end up getting? My CNC router is getting closer to being finished and the company in Canada finally has their 3D printer head kit finished and ready for purchase at $290.00. The printer head mounts to the bottom of my Z axis off to one side so I don’t have to remove my rounter head.

I look forward to seeing your doors.
Chuck

#4

Did you send your drawings out to shapeway (or a similar site for 3D printing) or did you build and then print your on 3D parts?

Sketchup is a great tool that I’ve been using a lot for different modeling projects.

#5

Kristi is doing very well and we hope that she will be back to 100% in six months or so. Between taking care of her and work, I haven’t worked in the shop much with trains. I watched a lot of TV and worked on learning how to draw in 3D with sketchup while keeping a eye on Kristi.

My printers are built from plans off the net and are made out of aluminum. They are more of a industrial design and I think are better that most you find in the market. There is a couple of places that sells the basic frame with motors like the ones we have built for around $700. Then you still need to add the electronics and extruder for another $300 or so. Back when I started building the printers, I machined enough parts to build 15 printers. With my youngest son’s help, we have built 7 with a build area of 8"x8"x8" and 3 with a build area of 12"x12’X12". I also machine all the parts and build my extruders. I’m working on a design of a 12"x36"x12" printer now. It’ll be a lot different than the ones we have built so far.

Chuck, I’ve read that a extruder mounted on a router is WAY too slow. Most printers run about 300mm a second or faster. My original idea of using the same platform for a laser, router and printer ran into these problems. I have about all the material to build a 3’x6’ router table and a 80 watt laser with a bed of 2’x4’. I hope to have them done in a year or so. Just not enough home time to do everything I want to do. I like to see some pic’s of your router build. Are you going to use a water cooled spindle or just a regular router. I’m getting the 6000 to 24000 RPM water cooled for around $275.

Rodney

#6

hmmm, Nice work, Rodney… Glad to hear you both are doing well…

#7

Looks great! Rodney can you comment on the cost of producing with the 3D printer versus other methods.

#8

Here is the first style of door. The door frame for a screen door is a little tricky. The printer doesn’t print in mid air and the slicing program (it is a CAM program that produces the g-code) has support built into them for this but I don’t like any of them and it is hard sometimes to get it broke away from the print. So what I do is design the support into it when I draw it.

(http://imageshack.us/a/img42/6928/1r5w.jpg)

Door into the frame

(http://imageshack.us/a/img109/9872/u0za.jpg)

With screen door

(http://imageshack.us/a/img13/3712/nler.jpg)

A door frame printing

(http://imageshack.us/a/img7/4016/mbhr.jpg)

Rodney

#9

Stuart Moxley said:

Looks great! Rodney can you comment on the cost of producing with the 3D printer versus other methods.

Stuart,

The cost of the actual print like a window I would guess about a dime. A 2 pound roll of PLA that I use cost around $30 to $35 depending on where you buy it. Some of the quality of the plastic isn’t very good so I buy form a source I know is good. Where a lot of people don’t know how to draw in 3d and have to have it drawn is where it cost you. Most CAD people I know charge over $50 @ hour with like a 3 hour minimum.

3d printer are great for hobbyist that need to produce parts in small quantities. I do have 3 of the 8" cubed and 1 of the 12" cube printer set up now and can have them all printing the same parts or different parts. It is somewhat slow to print parts. It takes about a hour and a half to print the parts for 2 windows to give you a idea.

Google Sketchup is a free cad program and very easy to learn. There is a lot of how to videos out there that makes it easy to learn. Another thing is that when you draw something up for a printer, you need to keep the X, Y and Z planes in mind when you do it. I draw everything in mm cause that is what the slicing program takes.

Rodney

#10

Hey Rodney, great to see you posting. Fantastic!!!

#11

Rodney,

Can you give a little more detail on your printer? Specifically where you found the plans online, where you found parts, etc.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

#12

Bob

Here is the wiki page. I built the Hadron and the 12" cube is a scaled up Hadron.

Instead of allthread on my Z, I used 10mm acme thread and made the Delrin nuts

http://www.buildlog.net/wiki/doku.php?id=ord_bot:the_ord_bot

It has a BOM (bill of materials) but I used other vendors for some stuff.

All the fasteners and limit switches from Mccaster Carr

A forum for the ORD-bot

http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=33&sid=9abbab7f9a4e687e39cf8e3c8a1fdcbe

Send me a e-mail at [email protected] and I’ll send you a list of all the vendors I used and how I built them.

I’ve made a few upgrades to make them better. I also made some fixtures to get everything square.

Rodney

#13

Holy crap Rodney …that window need sash weights,pulleys and chain in brass…NICE!

#14

Rodney,

Can you take an STL file directly into your software?

Bob C.

#15

Bob
Yes STL files is used

#16

Rodney,

As I have offered before. I have done a lot of design work in 3D, mostly AutoCAD, and am more than willing to do a few designs for ya.

#17

I work in AutoDesk Inventor, Solid Works and Solid Edge. All three have STL export, and all three are the recent versions. Our military customers tend to be somewhat slow at the upgrading process

I am also available for advanced modeling needs.

Bob C.

#18

Rodney,

Looking great!

#19

this topic brings up some interesting thoughts about reviews for 3d printers and an open source library for parts to print.

#20

Thanks guy’s

When I get back home Sunday or Monday, I’ll start a new thread on my opinion of using my printer for parts for large scale hobby.

Rooster, I might have to do one and have it in a junk pile.

Jake and Bob, I might take you both up on the offer.

I have about 20 hours worth of work on the 10 C-2 I and C-25 chassis and then I’ll start on a T-19 and will need some parts drawn up for them.