The one pictured is .6mm
Do you think it’s possible to go thinner without losing the details?
Should be able to go to about .4mm (1/2" weld).
Nice Stack o’ dimes!
this welding line looks too perfect for my eyes.
i have seen many welding in my life. from ships to agricultural mashines.
they were all better, than my own, but never geometric perfect.
rereading the whole thread, i had to think about:
who has but a hammer sees nails everywhere.
who has a printer…
to simulate a welding line, i would use a siringe with a not so liquid glue in it. the glue will settle by itself, and it will look slightly irregular.
and for rivets, well oldfashioned pins:
Funny, I had thought of applying them to my Cylindrical hoppers but they are not perfect enough! Modern railcars have the weld lines ground smooth. I think I’ll be going with half round Evergreen strip instead. Or maybe I could mount a syringe on the 3d printer. 
Wonder if the smoother ones are machine weld vs humans weld?
That is a very smooth weld.
Possibly but evidence suggests
not. Just ground smooth.
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I’m just trying to think why a rail car manufacturer would waste time and money grinding down welds.
Maybe the MFCL would have an answer…
More aerodynamic for better fuel efficiency!
I can’t imagine it takes much time or money.
Good to see you, Burl.
My .02c worth, the welds are not being ground , he is moving way to fast to do any grinding , and the grinder is angled too steeply, he is just removing the slag from the weld or the little beads leftover from the welding process.
OK Pete but what I was pointing out by linking that video is:
- The welding is most likely NOT being done by a robot.
- The welds are ground smooth.
This shot from the vid shows both.
I honestly didn’t notice the fella with the grinder until I rewatched just now.
Maybe not much $ for the grinder dude. But when the weld inspector shows up, get out the big wallet, haha!
Those look more like what the video shows to me. A 4 pass word makes more sense to me than a ground weld in terms of manufacturing. But both would have similar appearances from the 3’ view point.
FWIW, This is a vertical seam weld on a cylindrical hopper from a few inches away (my phone was touching the side of the car)
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For that weld line a half round strip is exactly what you should and could use!
I’ve never seen a weld like that up close before. They always look stacked dime style.
