I say go for it! There will always be another LGB porter on evil-Bay for the day when the drawings come available!
Eric
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I tend to agree with you Eric. And if I don’t get around to the “real” model, I can always blame Ebay for not coming through, haha!
Really enjoying your project thus far, Cliff! I look forward to the finished product.
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Thanks much, Joe!
Yesterday I did a test print of the boiler “wrapper,” and it came out looking like a bloated pig:
So I put internal cross-pieces into the model, and that took care of things. Here’s where I’ve gotten.
The cab is almost done, and then comes the tender.
These are all test prints; I fully expect lots of issues requiring a final run, but that’s fine. I’m finding it easier to do it like this, vs. trying to imperfectly predict and counteract every foreseen area of sag, bulge, shrink, etc.
One little thing that worked nicely was the stack screw. LGB has a heat-embedded knurly nut in the (removable) stack, with the male threads on the boiler (which I’m leaving be). So while pressing on the stack’s nut with a tool on the underside, and heating the nut from the other end (with a soldering iron), the plastic melted and I was able to push it free.
After cleaning the nut of remaining LGB plastic, I pressed it in with the same tool (a nut driver) while again heating it from the other end. The replacement stack screwed on fine, and the fit seems nice.
This test stack seems too small, so I’m reprinting that with the upcoming tender.
Cliff
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Looks good. How long does it take to print these pieces?
Thanks Bruce, glad you like it so far. The boiler was 5 hours, and about 3" tall. The cab was about 11 hours, and around 5" tall.
FWIW, the main factor is height of the print, because it takes a certain amount of time to print each layer per millimeter of height.
Well, it sure looks good. Is this resin, or PLA? Looks like resin, as the pieces seem really smooth.
Thanks again Bruce, and you got it, all resin.
The cab just came out of the cleaning process, and here it is with the little boiler.
The lettering came out fine, but I’ll probably need to make it more raised so I can paint it. Or get rid of it and ask Stan C. for some decals.
This thing was screaming to shrink and pull together side-to-side, so I put in a beefy center support structure. Now that I can hold it in my hands, it’s way overkill, but nothing seems warped.
Here’s the new and old cabs.
Jerry B. was asking about the scale, and I can only guess that it’s near 7/8". Need to run some numbers, but basically all I did was scale the photos to match the LGB wheelbase, and try to trace the pics from there. At this point, it’s “happy wife scale,” but I’ll get a number eventually.
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Happy wife scale? (You DO know why women can’t judge distances, right?)
The resin is VERY tempting. A LOT finer resolution than PLA printers!
How much of a hassle is it to work with?
You are correct, HW Scale will VERY much bring into play distance judgment. But note this: it can work in reverse of the 10-foot rule. Or so I’ve learned. Main thing I heard in my mind at the onset of this project: “Abandon all hope (of 1:24) now.” And I’ve had peace. 
Re the resin, the cleanup takes the most time; everything else in the printing is pretty easy, like pouring in the stuff and pressing a button. It smells some, and if I did it a lot I’d put in an exhaust fan. But overall I think it’s less finicky than FDM.
FDM parts are FAR stronger though. But after being left out in the UV a couple years, PLA will disintegrate. Not sure about the resins, but I’m sure some formulations will last longer than others.
Of course, the time-consuming part for either is the CAD work. And that can be the funnest part!
Fun is what is fun to YOU! Me, CAD not so much, but I can certainly understand the fascination. (Yeah, I can work wonders with a knife and straight edge, but getting my computer to actually acknowledge that is troublesome at best.)
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Roger that Bruce, but look at what Devon’s done with only a year of part time CAD learning, and on free software.
All I’m sayin, it’s fun once you get into it. And after being on 2D and later 3D CAD since '86, I can still say that a day doing CAD work is way more fun than a day spent in meetings, typing reports, doing yardwork, lots of things.
But it’s not necessarily more fun than being retired… So there you’d have me on the mat. Still, the 3D work is fun. And, as new-to-CAD Devon has pointed out, mildly addictive.
Sure, but doesn’t Devon have a hole in his head???
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All I can say is WOW to both the resin print results and the great CAD work behind them.
Stay dimensional on the letters if you can, even if you need to decal them for color, rather than paint. Just cut the decals inside the raised shoulders of the letters.
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Cool project! Looks like you’re an old hand at this CAD stuff.
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Cliff, what 3D printer are you using?
Thanks
Thanks Jon, good advice. And I might be able to paint with a printed or “cricuted” mask.
Thanks Ray, much obliged!
Bob, I’m using an Anycubic Mono X. It’s cheap and effective, and has a big build volume.
FWIW, Anycubic continues to improve their products. Their current “Mono X 6K” version can print up to 3" per hour, which is nuts. But they have a newer version in the works. This will get rid of the UV LCD screen entirely (which is considered a consumable; maybe lasts a year or two), in favor of stronger projected UV in an even faster process.
Here’s the tender, which printed last evening.
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Here’s the chassis, ready for butchery. The brown plate is a drilling & cutting template.
And here’s the patient recovering in post-op.
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Nice. Sure makes me want to think about resin printers.
