The Irish Railways 3d printing thread

[AnUnknownConsciousness]

6 minutes ago, Colonel said:

I'm hugely impressed with the whole 3D printing thing, especially the visualisation of how to draw/design something that can be printed as a single unit. But (and I am very much typing in ignorance here), is there too much emphasis on having that single, one piece print?

 Seeing what the talented folk on this thread are doing is splendid, but the time scale is considerable. I appreciate that R&D is not quick, but would printing more parts separately (ie producing a kit), be easier/quicker? Am guessing that if it is, then there would already be 3D printed kits out there for us to play with, but I do wonder.

 After all, a 3D printed loco body still needs a chassis and the whole thing then needs painting. Not inconsiderable tasks the the space/time continuum, but (mostly) part of the fun of model making. With the ever growing dearth of parts for scratch building, is this gap something 3D printing might fill?

I've tended to make mine as single-piece bodies with add-on roofs, footboards, etc, to provide strength and stability. My experience has been that resin prints have a tendency to want to warp, and I've found having single piece body+chassis mitigates that, though I use separate pieces for detail parts where it may be more trouble than it's worth supporting them as part of the print, or parts where it's otherwise not practical to make them part of the print. These generally end up being roofs, buffers, and footboards.

Whilst assembly would provide the same stability, it relies on parts remaining straight for long enough to assemble them, which I've found to be a challenge. There are also cases where single-piece prints make supporting the print easier to reduce clean-up.

[Colonel]

Interesting, so many thanks for that insight. However, maybe begs the question of whether the printing materials used are not fully fit for purpose? I've seen that you can get fittings like domes and chimneys printed in metal. No idea how that works, but suspect cost (money and time) would be a factor here.

 Either way, these are pioneering times, so all power to all you creative folk out there!