A 3D printed (double) diesel loco

ge_rik

British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
24 Oct 2009
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I see this freebie 3d kit loco has been covered previously, but mine is a slightly different take. Having recently acquired a 3d printer for £80 (new) ostensibly to print out 14 seats for my railcar and then printing out luggage for its roof rack, I thought I'd have a go at something a bit more ambitious.

Having printed out one, I found the parts were slightly wonky because the X and y axes of my printer weren't perpendicular. I then printed out a second, using additional parts provided by another modeller. I then decided the first one wasn't too bad so made them both up. I decided to couple them back to back, as per some Australian sugar cane locos. One is powered (via a 3v motor and gears from IP Engineering) and the other is unpowered - though it won't take much effort to motorise it if I change my mind.
IMG_0711.JPG

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The unpowered loco is based mainly on the original drawings. I've only changed the top of the bonnet as I felt the silencer and exhaust arrangement was more attractive than the original. The headlamp is also a better design on the updated drawings. Incidentally, I used one of the microscopic surface mount LEDs as a bulb as even a 3mm LED wouldn't fit. Make sure you get them with wires attached BTW unless you have a microscope, a soldering iron with a tiny bit and a rock steady hand.
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I decided to 'remove' the side doors from the engine compartment to have the engine visible - it seemed a shame to waste this part and hide it away. As this is the unpowered 'trailer', there's no motor under the bonnet.
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The powered loco has plenty of room under the bonnet for the motor and a fair amount of lead. I do like my locos to have plenty of weight. The two AA sized batteries and Deltang receiver/controller are in the control panel in the cab. The driver is removable so he can be swapped over when the loco changes direction.
IMG_0710.JPG

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I'm really pleased with the way the radiator grille has turned out. A bit fiddly to print and tidy-up but I think it was worth the effort. I have wired in sockets so I could run the locos nose to nose if the fancy takes me. I'll have to add my LGB style hook and loop couplings before she/they can enter service properly. Just need to figure out how to do this without butchering too much what I've made so far.
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Quite pleased with how they've turned out. Of course, there's a bit of "now I've done it I know how to do it better"! I don't think the wonky (unpowered) one looks noticeably wonky - though I know exactly where to look!!

I feel it was well worth the effort - and the beauty of 3D printing is I can always print off any bits that get broken!!

Rik
 
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PhilP

G Scale, 7/8th's, Electronics
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I await the build-thread.. :)
 

Fezwig

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Great pair of locos, the slightly off kilter adds to the look as most these types of industrial locos have been well used and have that lived in appearance
 

Moonraker

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25 Oct 2009
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Very impressive. Shows what can be achieved with an eighty pound printer. What brand is it?

I think the rivet heads are particularly good.

Regards
Peter Lucas
MylocoSound
 

ge_rik

British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
24 Oct 2009
10,702
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Cheshire
www.riksrailway.blogspot.com
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Very impressive. Shows what can be achieved with an eighty pound printer. What brand is it?

I think the rivet heads are particularly good.

Regards
Peter Lucas
MylocoSound
Hi Peter
The printer I bought was a CTC DIY (Anet A8 / Prusa i3 clone) - CTC 2019 New Desktop A8 DIY 3D Printer Kits, High Accuracy Self-assembly, ProB Mk8,Prusa I3 DIY Personal Portability 3D-Printers support SD Card included 1x1.75mm ABS/PLA Filament

Looks like they've modified it since my model. The link above says construction is from five components, mine was constructed from a box of at least 100 parts with instructions written in Chinglish for a different model of printer.

I replaced some of the printed rivets on the loco with nail art pearls making it easier to sand down the model. There's a fair bit of finishing required with a 3d printed model (initial sanding followed by two coats of filler primer rubbed down, filler, then two coats of ordinary primer rubbed down).

Rik
 

PhilP

G Scale, 7/8th's, Electronics
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I replaced some of the printed rivets on the loco with nail art pearls making it easier to sand down the model. There's a fair bit of finishing required with a 3d printed model (initial sanding followed by two coats of filler primer rubbed down, filler, then two coats of ordinary primer rubbed down).

So the printer isn't that good...

But you are!

:):rock::)
 
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dunnyrail

DOGS, Garden Railways, Steam Trains, Jive Dancing,
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Great little project Rik, interesting to know as well the source of the Drawings, what type and how you modified those drawings and what package you used. None of which will be of any use to me as I have a Mac, my Cad does not do 3d though I am very happy now with doing 2d on it. Sorry lots of questions, but I expect all will be answered in time within your blog. Also love the cool dude music on the Vid.
 

ge_rik

British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
24 Oct 2009
10,702
1,244
Cheshire
www.riksrailway.blogspot.com
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Country flag
Great little project Rik, interesting to know as well the source of the Drawings, what type and how you modified those drawings and what package you used. None of which will be of any use to me as I have a Mac, my Cad does not do 3d though I am very happy now with doing 2d on it. Sorry lots of questions, but I expect all will be answered in time within your blog. Also love the cool dude music on the Vid.
Hi Jon
The diesel parts were downloaded from Thingiverse. The original loco parts - Diesel Loco for 16mm Scale Garden Railway by arockStone
The later additional / modified parts - Modified 16mm scale Diesel Loco - 32mm gauge version by clarionut

In the main, I just printed out the parts exactly as they were downloaded and so didn't need any editing. However, some of the parts needed to be reprinted as I was having problems getting a few parts to stick reliably to the print bed. I used Meshmixer to delete the parts from the download which I didn't need. Meshmixer is a great freebie program for manipulating downloaded parts and - good news - it's also available for Mac

For the seats which I designed and printed for the County Donegal railcar, I used Sketchup which is now available as an online tool and so should also work with Mac - Download SketchUp | Free Trial of 3D Modeling Software

I've since used Sketchup to draw the sides and ends of a luggage van for the railcar. The sides have printed out with no problem but I ran into problems with the ends because Sketchup has a tendency to allow you to draw things with errors which make the result unprintable. However, I've discovered a really useful online tool which repairs drawings with invisible errors.

It's also possible to use MeshMixer to repair unprintable drawings but I've not yet got to grips with all its features

Rik
 

Northsider

Modelling the Northern half of the Isle of Man
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They are a good addition to the MPD -and would double-head, too; if the plugs allow it?