Large Scale Central

GP-30 3d printed

Modeling Motive Power
#41

I’ll cast a very broad net here and say that for the most part, copyright law is intended to protect the owner from financial damage by another profiting from the copied material. To the best of my knowledge, I can use Model Railroader plans to generate my own production of a widget, but so long as I do not sell copies of the Model Railroader drawings I am not violating any copyright law.

Ralph, there is a real gray area in the 3D printing in that the copyright, I believe, belongs to the owner of the original model file. The gray area being in how the model file was generated. For defensible considerations, I would take the time to ‘field measure’ and generate my own model rather than a 3D scan. By having the intelligent features in the model rather than a ‘dumb’ model from a scan you have put forth the effort to convert the part to a digital medium. I the Aristo parts arena my grand dad said it best. “They don’t lock you up for stealing, they lock you up for getting caught.”

FWIW Bob C.

#42

Vic Smith said:

I posted this on another forum but it seams appropriate for this discussion as well. The issue was availability (or lack thereof) of spare parts, namely Aristo spare parts:

One potential remedy in the near future, maybe now actually, would to use 3D printers and a 3D scanner to scan individual parts off a complete model, then print out replacement parts on the printer. This wouldn’t work so much for motor blocks (yet) but it would for body and chassis parts.

The legal issues could get sticky only you started offering parts for resale outside of an active company but if the company has gone bust, what are the legal thorns then? Anyone going to try to sue if you started printing stuff based on Great Trains cars or engines?

there is a blue block with wheels in the picture above in this thread, it is a replacement part for an aristocraft motor block… doesn’t quite look or function like aristo’s however, that doesn’t matter either :wink:

#43

Mark-

WoW! I have only heard of printers creating plastic models – never seen the results especially in our hobby.

When you make another part, if possible would you take a few photos of the process of how the product is made?

Many thanks.
Wendell

#44

Wendell check out these 2 threads, they might answer your question

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/20988/my-attempt-at-new-technology

and

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/21285/rs-36

#45

This thread has been very informative and love to see where this is going. Hopefully this technology will allow folks to start their own companies and start creating and building engines and rolling stock that the major producers are unwilling to create. Else maybe a new market where folks can sell the designs and allow people to print and build their own engines and rolling stock.

#46

Joseph Lupinski said:

This thread has been very informative and love to see where this is going. Hopefully this technology will allow folks to start their own companies and start creating and building engines and rolling stock that the major producers are unwilling to create. Else maybe a new market where folks can sell the designs and allow people to print and build their own engines and rolling stock.

That has been discussed - Shapeways has a large inventory of RR shapes that you can order. It is quite possible the supplier will offer a product as a 3D plan, and you ‘print your own’.

#47

Pete while they have a lot of shapes no one has done a full car or engine yet. Also by the sound of it Shapeway is not very reasonable with pricing so be nice if those in hobby started doing it as their own business.

#48

I do “get” that shapeways charges more than what the plastic costs. That is like saying that Ford charges more for a car than the plastic and metal used to make it. Of course they do.

Not knowing how profitable Shapeways is, I can’t say they don’t have a high profit margin BUT they certainly are not multimillionaires, because if the profits were so outrageous, everyone would be doing it. It takes very little space and investment.

They are running a business for profit, not a non-profit hobby, or worse, someone that is forgetting the wear and tear on their equipment, power costs, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m OK with buying 3D parts from someone who is basically doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. By the way, thanks!

But’ I’m also OK dealing with a business and them making a profit. Long term, the people who are making a profit are the ones who will last.

Greg

#49

I am not saying someone shouldn’t make a profit but it seems a few people have said their pricing isn’t that great and if that is case it can hopefully open door for more people to start their own business in making these things. That and they aren’t into making full models or seeking to make models for the railroad community.

#50

I agree Greg. Lots of things get overlooked in production like utilities, payroll, employee costs general overhead etc etc etc. Not just product cost. That being said, there is also charging for a product and price gouging. I do battery and RC installs and some repair work i can usually do them at a fairly low cost because my overhead is low to nothing.

The 3D printing is amazing. A few years ago Jay Leno did a story on it and said it would change the face of production. I think it is happening. When Mark can make a loco at his library for pennies of the cost of a premade one it’s mind blowing. I wish I had the smarts to do it! I got the chance to watch how legos are designed. Aside from the computer database that watches the design and won’t let odd non fitting parts be used, they just print out pieces on a 3D printer and viola! new lego design!! From conception to finished test product was under an hour.

Terry

#51

Joseph Lupinski said:

Pete while they have a lot of shapes no one has done a full car or engine yet. Also by the sound of it Shapeway is not very reasonable with pricing so be nice if those in hobby started doing it as their own business.

Joe,

If you poke around with their search engine you will find a complete ‘g-scale’ boxcar - for $680.

http://www.shapeways.com/model/1376333/g-scale-boxcar.html?modelId=1376333&materialId=6

Shapeways cseems to charge by the pound, so a large scale model is going to be expensive. I’d be interested to hear how much plastic that GP30 took, and how long the parts took to print ?

#52

I’m currently printing a second one and will be able to give a better idea of amount of materials and time to print now that the files are “good”

For the spine cars I did, the cost of the materials (PLA Plastic) was about $30, can’t recall this engines numbers but I doubt it was more than the 3 car spine set. Now time is the other factor however some of the bigger parts like the cab, can be printed overnight while i’m no where near the printer