45mm gauge 3D printed industrial loco

[Peter Michalak]

Several months ago, my brother and I purchased a cheap Cocoon 3D printer from Aldi for some HO scale projects we were working on.

While hunting through thingiverse, I came across a design for a small 0-4-0 diesel (here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2109286), which would be perfect for hauling my LGB Field Railway cars - The attachment shows where its at at the moment - ready for detailing

The design is based around the use of an IP Engineering Budget Chassis - does anyone have any experience with these chassis', and would you recommend them or something else?

IF you'd recommend them, whats the best way to control speed/add rechargeable batteries etc?

 

[dunnyrail]

I have used IP Chassis on a couple of Locomotives. Certainly worthwhile to add the Chain Drive he does to get 4 Wheel Drive. As for speed a couple of Batteries will guve quite slow running, you could switch in 2 more to get slightly faster once started or look atsome of tge varying speed control ststems about. Peret Spoerer does a range. No doubt others will on hear will have other systems to mention. Look at ge-rik posts and blog.
JonD

 

[a98087]

The cheapest way I've found to add manual speed control, is to buy a dc Pwm motor controller from eBay

You then just need some batteries and a dpdt switch to swap the polarity for direction control,

Just select the motor controller based on what voltage your going to use

Dan

 

[Rhinochugger]

Several months ago, my brother and I purchased a cheap Cocoon 3D printer from Aldi for some HO scale projects we were working on.

While hunting through thingiverse, I came across a design for a small 0-4-0 diesel (here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2109286), which would be perfect for hauling my LGB Field Railway cars - The attachment shows where its at at the moment - ready for detailing

The design is based around the use of an IP Engineering Budget Chassis - does anyone have any experience with these chassis', and would you recommend them or something else?

IF you'd recommend them, whats the best way to control speed/add rechargeable batteries etc?

Ivan (IP Engineering) does a very simple manual speed controller. Many people have used them, although I could never make it work.

Alternatively, if you're thinking of R/C, then look at the Micro Viper

 

[Northsider]

Thanks for the link. I've just downloaded the chassis V2 and set it printing on the highest settings to try out the new Up Box at work. It is due to finish in eight hours...

 

[PhilP]

Thanks for the link. I've just downloaded the chassis V2 and set it printing on the highest settings to try out the new Up Box at work. It is due to finish in eight hours...

I was wondering how long these 'prints' took..

The finish on the model in the photo looks very good. - Certainly better than many 3D prints I have seen.. Or is that down to your finishing techniques?


How small a receiver/controller are you looking for?



phil@rctrains.co.uk

For details..

 

[Paul M]

The 3D printing method is definitely the way forward these days. Is really as simple as it sounds? Making the drawings/plans must be the difficult bit though

 

[Moonraker]

Several months ago, my brother and I purchased a cheap Cocoon 3D printer from Aldi for some HO scale projects we were working on.

While hunting through thingiverse, I came across a design for a small 0-4-0 diesel (here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2109286), which would be perfect for hauling my LGB Field Railway cars - The attachment shows where its at at the moment - ready for detailing

The design is based around the use of an IP Engineering Budget Chassis - does anyone have any experience with these chassis', and would you recommend them or something else?

IF you'd recommend them, whats the best way to control speed/add rechargeable batteries etc?

Peter, nice loco. I must add it to my to-do list. However I think I might first do a model of the Ruston Hornsby loco which will be running soon on the Milang narrow gauge track (see photo). As far as control is concerned, I suggest that you have a chat with Tony Walsham of RCS, Casino, NSW. He has radio control gear which will fit and some will be demonstrated at the Milang Model Railway Show on 25/26th November.

 

[Peter Michalak]

I was wondering how long these 'prints' took..

The finish on the model in the photo looks very good. - Certainly better than many 3D prints I have seen.. Or is that down to your finishing techniques?


How small a receiver/controller are you looking for?

View attachment 229510

phil@rctrains.co.uk

For details..

Phil, all parts of this loco took 4 days to print (mind you, there was downtime, when the job finished while I was at work, or asleep).

The parts come out reasonably good from the printer, however I did spent a lot of time finishing the parts with various grades of wet and dry papers to smooth out the panels. The worst panel was by-far the cab roof - which took a fair bit of work with a drum sander on the Dremel and a bit of squadron putty to finish it off - its not 100% perfect, but close enough.

 

[Peter Michalak]

Peter, nice loco. I must add it to my to-do list. However I think I might first do a model of the Ruston Hornsby loco which will be running soon on the Milang narrow gauge track (see photo). As far as control is concerned, I suggest that you have a chat with Tony Walsham of RCS, Casino, NSW. He has radio control gear which will fit and some will be demonstrated at the Milang Model Railway Show on 25/26th November.View attachment 229515

Thanks Peter - will have a chat to Tony, and see where it takes me - biggest issue is the total lack of space inside the body for electrics..

 

[Peter Michalak]

Here's the finished loco - just waiting on a form of propulsion!

 

[PhilP]

Thanks for the additional information Peter..

So once the 'donkey' of the drawings has been done the build-time is on a par with traditional methods.. Though, of course, you can be doing other things whilst it prints.

Excellent model, I likes that I does!

 

[Henri]

What a beauty!!!!

 

[Paul M]

What a beauty!!!!

I'll second that

 

[seigezapf]

Thanks for the link and the info. Really cool loco. I have a budget 3D printer coming. Maybe since this is constructed from a lot of .stl files a smallish build platform may work. It does look like it isn't a beginner project, but I have copied the files for a later attempt. I don't know the size, but I'm wondering if the drive from something like a Hartland Mack might work. It may be even too small for that. Or maybe a hand car drive (Bachmann, LGB, Lionel)?

Maybe you could print only Part #1 of frame 1a/1b and perhaps modify it (enlarge center area) to accommodate a small motor block. Then print the remainder of parts as designed. If you wanted to use a motor block you wouldn't want the axles, wheels and axle block from the frame files. The creator of this loco did a really nice job of providing instructions even suggesting you might want to kitbash it.

 

[mike]

That's a little cracker

 

[Northsider]

A couple of points. The drawings appear to be good quality -the eight-hour print of the chassis sides came out really well -but the support material was so dense I could get it to snap away (the manufactured parts sit on a 'raft' of supposedly less dense material). So yes, producing the drawings is the hard part, but the 'easy' part isn't always that easy! A bit more trial and error is needed, when time allows.

Seigezapf, you should be able to amend the .stl files: if your software allows you to 'open as' whatever file type your CAD package uses, you can edit the parts and then convert them back to .stl files. Or so I'm told...I haven't tried it!

And finally Peter: Sarah looks a really sweet loco and provides the motivation to keep trying different print settings! A really nice build.

 

[Peter Michalak]

Northsider - I had to play around with the settings a little - some parts didn't have a raft on them at all, others did - so you just need to experiment - I'm by no means a 'pro' at this stuff - I usually print shipping containers in HO scale, so this was a first attempt in printing something for the larger scales.

 

[seigezapf]

Yes I was able to import the .stl files with Tinkercad. I haven't figured out how to ungroup the objects to eliminate ones I won't need (wheels, axles). It does look like I might be able to modify the basic frame for a motor block if I can find one to fit.

 

[Peter Michalak]

As an update - I relented, and purchased one of the IP engineering chassis' to go under the unit - now waiting for Australia Post to finish giving my chassis an enforced holiday on the other side of the country ;-)