Rob,

      Please contact me off list.  Have questions about your parts that do not belong on this list.


Thanks,

Bob McCarthy




________________________________
From: Rob Kirkham <rdkirkham@live.ca>
To: STMFC@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Another Shapeways report


 
I see the photos of my latest projects have been approved now. They are at:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/photos/album/219763914/pic/list?order=ordinal>

Rob Kirkham

Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 5:35 PM
To: <STMFC@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [STMFC] Another Shapeways report

I've posted a number of photos of my own recent experiments with 3d printing
(waiting for them to be approved). These were done by ADC (Advanced Design
Concepts) - but as far as I know they use the same machine and substance as
Shapeways. Overall I am quite happy with the parts I received.

The first photos show tank car underframes for CPR 389xxx series tank cars.
The cars looked a lot like the Athearn single dome tank (and also like an SP
prototype Tony Thompson has written about modelling). I've been muddling my
way through this project for a number of years, but this is the closest I've
come to an acceptable frame model. At this point the issues are in my
design errors - not the material or process used by ADC. that said, I can
see some grain in the part that may show through the paint. And the
particles that are fused to make the part do produce some "noise" when under
magnification. But for frame parts that will be largely hidden beneath
running boards and the tank itself, I think this is acceptable quality for
now.

The other part is an inverted Murphy end used on the CPR's 2975xx series
single sheathed automobile boxcars. The rest of the model is still in
process. Again one can see some waviness in the flat surfaces, and some
imperfections in the corrugations, but overall I think it is a satisfactory
starting point for the model. My photography isn't good enough to show the
rivets along the edges, but they are there too.

I've been using Bestine rubber cement thinner to clean the waxy stuff of the
parts with success so far. A few minutes in that stuff cleans them and
changes the parts from translucent to opaque white and cleans some of the
wax away.

One thing about ADC - they focus on your job so the parts are oriented as
you would like. The auto-box end was modelled laying on the interior side
of the model. Interesting that the view of the back shows more of the
printing texture. I assume that is the wax support - and "yes" it is far
more grainy than any other surface of the model.

By the way this ties into the other thread re the UP boxcars - as, for
example, I believe this process allows one to build the ends without hacking
up Tichy parts. Of course some of you are skilled enough that you don't
hack, but for those of us who do . . . .

Rob Kirkham





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