Large Scale Central

Water Tank at Rowson

Modeling Technical Modeling
#1

To go along with my MIK build I am simultaneously going to build a water tank. This will be a mostly 3D printed job. You have seen the progress on this so far in my thread on octagonal roof construction. Well I decided to move it to the technical thread as it is coming closer to being ready to print than it is theory. The roof will be one 3D printed piece, the tank another, and the spout a third piece. I will also print the pier blocks but not until after I build the legs which will be made from real wood, not printed.

tank
tank817Ă—636 59.7 KB

I should be able to start printing this this week. My goal is to finish this right along side the sand house. If I do complete it then I will have a pretty decent start on the buildings I will need to make the yard at Rowson a reality.

I am thinking a split cedar shingle roof. It will match the siding on the building.

#2

Nice! Not to be nitpicky, but shouldn’t the bands around the tank get closer together near the bottom? Seems that I see that fairly often on water tanks…

#3

Yes they should, good call. I even knew this. But unfortunately I did not make them as individual bands so I can’t move them without a major redesign. They will just have to stay. But that was a good eye Jim.

#4

You can always add some homemade bands to augment the printed bands on the lower 1/3 of the tank.

#5

You should be able to group the bands and move and/or copy. Easily done in Sketchup. Not sure how it’s done in Fusion. I’ll bet Dan knows. :grinning:

#6

Devon, in general, how did you create the bands?

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#7

just create various copies of a part of your tank. each with the same X and Y measurments, but with different Z heights. then put them one above the other, fusion them to being one object and then you got something with individual band spacing.

#8

The problem with how I created them was I did it in a single sketch where I laid each circle for each band on the tank and then revolved them all at once around the tank using “join” instead of “new body”. In hindsight I should have made 1 as a new body then copied it and moved it.

But I may be redoing the entire cylinder portion anyways. I printed the cylinder and not only did it warp the bottom (this was an angle and supporting issue, not a design issue) but I really don’t like the look of it. I can do better. For one my staves are too narrow. They are also rounded on the face and not flat. and the major glaring problem is that I made the gaps between the boards (to delineate them) way to big. Had it printed okay the first time I would have left it. But since I have to rework it to print better I might as well take the cylinder all the way back to scratch and make it better. To include better band placement.

#9

That’s exactly what I should have done, but didn’t do. Why i don’t know because I know better for just this reason.

#10

Devon, you can co back on the timeline to the revolve feature for the bands and edit it and change from join to new body. That is the value of the timeline, you can go back in time and fix any mistakes you discover.

#11

Yes, I had considered doing that. I am learning the value of the timeline for just that. But there were other changes I wanted to make and I knew I could reproduce what I actually wanted fairly quickly. The roof I saved as an entirely different file as I did the spout. I do that so I can export them as separate pieces for printing. So all I needed to do was redo the cylinder. Since I wanted flat faced staves and wanted the “gaps” to no longer be gaped, add in the band issues, and it was easier to just start over with a 60 faced polygon instead of a circle.

Here is the new one.

tank

#12

Yep, 3D printing is EASY to do (just press the print button!) yet very difficult to get right.

That DOES look better.

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#13

I have been properly chastised for considering CAD and 3D printing to be cheating. Now that I am fully invested in both the hardware and the investment in time to learn CAD, there is as much effort into modeling in a virtual world as there is with bits and pieces and sand paper.

Yes it is a completely different modeling but I have done an about face (obviously) in my opinion of it and it is a hugely valuable and rewarding way to produce the models I want.

#14

Good. 3D printing IS good, but it’s not nearly as easy as many of us would like!

#15

That’s no lie. 3D printing is easy. Getting the design to to have something to print is entirely different animal. It is a steep learning curve. But once you understand the basics (which I am very much still learning) then it becomes considerably easier. But there is no question it is a considerable investment in both time and equipment to be able to do it.

#16

what is the diameter of the tank, would it work as a load for a flatcar? One mans trash etc etc!! :grin: :grinning:

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#17

i considered this but the way in which the print failed I am not sure it could ever look right. But I had one thought of cutting it in half vertically so I have half a cylinder and then I could maybe use it as a flat up against the wall in another location with half a roof and such. I haven’t tossed it.

#18

A little progress on the water tank I am building as a companion to my MIK build. Not at all happy with the tank print jobs. This was the 4th attempt to print it and it still looks like crap. But I am going to use it. I can hide the glaring poor print job with angles and other well placed details.

Water tank
Water tank800Ă—933 15.7 KB

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#19

I don’t think it looks too bad, Devon. Remember, most folks won’t see it up close and personal like you have. It will be fine.

#20

Paint, lots of paint will hide flaws , unless you paint it gloss black!