Union Pacific's N Scale Canyon Division....

Pete love my M3. A great value at $200 (US) with the 6+ inch long build plate. I couldn't of printed the roof below in two prints with my smaller Photon. Glad it was broke down for a bit moving me to buy this one. I see they are on sale now for $199 (US price).

First print of the roof over the south part of the building partially failed while printing. The second one ….



… (above) came out fine. Next step is to print a new roof for the green chain shed that now goes in higher and intersects the roof shown above where the 'V' is.

Sumner

 

Those buildings are turning out great!

 

I can certainly see why you do and can't wait to get mine printing well! Hopefully my bits and pieces arrive later this week so I can get stuck in on the weekend.

I'm curious to see if you find the cause of your failed prints, whether it's just support placement or replacing FEP film etc.

The shed is looking great!

 

Not sure at this point. First picture was from yesterday or day before (already forgot). Had successful print after that and had added a few more supports but not sure that was the cure. I was very surprised that Chitubox only put the very bottom row of supports in under that bottom edge. I think because of the angle no other supports are maybe needed but then the whole build is hanging on that one row of supports. Would any of the rest of you gone with only that one row of supports? Guess I could give it a go but only need this one more roof. That roof is the second picture below and was printed (failed) today.



Any ideas guys??

Sumner

 

Thanks Mike, in Chitubox I didn't notice the print had the slight sideways lean. I'll look and see if it changed that on the successfull print. I considered straight up but then worried if only on one line of supports would be enough as it is a big print (tall) almost filled the build volume height wise.

I was thinking that....



.... the side gable on the one print maybe helped to keep it from warping?? The print for the roof over the green chain did warp as it setup over a day or so. I heated it with a heat gun and put it on the trusses with the trusses on a flat surface and put some weight on the two sides of the roof and let it sit 24 hours and the warp seems to stay un-warped. I do plan on gluing these to the trusses so hope that helps in the long run. I haven't noticed warping to be a problem on my filament prints but it can for sure on the resin ones.

Thanks for the input, appreciate it.

 

I've been spending some time last night and this morning watching some YouTube videos on supports. What I've discovered so far is that unlike my FDM world where I've tried to avoid supports where possible, resin printing has a need for more supports. The general advice is don't be shy about adding more supports, and the little bit extra resin you use for those supports will save you resin in the long run with failed prints and so forth.

It's been interesting learning that the purposes of supports in the FDM world is simply making sure you don't get sagging and that parts printed in otherwise mid air have a connection to the build plate, whereas in the resin world the supports need to do that, but they also need to be strong enough to overcome the force of the build plate removing the print from the FEP film.

I've also incidentally been won over to try Lychee slicer again when all my parts arrive to get printing again, as it seems to have better visualisations and ways of dealing with islands and so forth.

While this video is specifically about Lychee slicer, he also does give really good insights on supports in general, so definitely worth watching I think.



Sorry this is going off topic a tad, but hopefully we can all learn and get less failures, and I know I'm keen to get printing again real soon!

 

Yep, I've had some prints where the supports might have consumed as much or more resin than the print but that is fine with me if the print succeeds, especially if it is a large print and takes hours to print.

Resin isn't that expensive and I can print far more items with a bottle of it than I could of got for the same price ordering them. Usually far less than what the freight would of cost alone. You also have the option with a printer to design yourself if you want to get into that or load other people's designs (thousands of those). I'm not saying don't order anymore commercial products but a printer opens up another whole field of items you can print for your layout and not all are vehicles, shells or structures. Of the items I have up on thingiverse.com two very popular uploads are ....



.... wiring clamps above and ....



.... a layout compass that you can find ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

After adding more supports to the sides of the …..



…. green chain roof it also printed fine.



Designed and printed the siding to go on the end truss in each section. If this doesn't work well I'll join these prints in Fusion 360 to the end trusses and reprint them.

Working on about the last area of the sawmill complex that I want to finish now. I'm modeling Hull-Oakes on this also. They have a lift (added later) on the side of the mill pond. Logs are pushed over to it with a small boat. The lift takes the log up to a track. It rolls onto the track and the chain there moves the log to and through the de-barker building where the bark is removed and then onto the mill to be cut.



Above is my attempt at the log lift and track. There are two sections above but there will be probably 5 sections in total. The vertical chain tracks move a log from the mill pond up to the track that then takes the log to the de-barker and then on to the mill. I printed this to see how the design will look printed. Sometimes what looks good in Fusion 360 doesn't print that well I need to make a few changes but overall I'm satisfied. Chain parts are about as small as possible and still printable.

To be continued............

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

those are some pretty detailed prints ya got thar......

 

Amazing stuff Sumner! I got new FEP film and resin yesterday so hopefully this weekend I can get into it again.

 

Sawmill Design/Build – Part 7

Been spending a lot of the past month working on the HandCab, a WiFi throttle that looks like and works like the 'Barrel' control stand in a GP7/9 ( HERE ).

Just got back to the sawmill complex I want for the layout. I'd started on the mill pond log lift and track/chain to the de-barker building and then onto the mill and finally got back to it. This is designed from inspiration from the one at Hull Oakes mill in California. I've been able to find a lot of pictures of that mill from back in time up until now. It was the last mill to be partially (at the end of that period) steam operated. As I write this it is still in business and specializes in cutting very large timber for special needs.

I'll start with a couple pictures from the mill but please remember the design isn't suppose to be an exact replication of the lift and track at the mill. As usual I take liberties to account for lack of real measurements, my and the printers capabilities when doing the design work. Also another plug for Fusion 360 (free if you are non-commercial) and thanks to Autodesk for letting us use this great program. I wouldn't try something like this on any other free software that I know of.



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For now I think I'm happy with this. Some little things I could consider changing but nothing big. Need to move onto the de-barker building and the continuation of the track/chain to the mill's log deck. That will be about it for the sawmill presently but might design a couple other outbuildings later such as the office, burner, steam plant and a shed over the track loading area. Need to get back to the layout scenery and track laying.

To be continued............

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

 

Sawmill Design/Build – Part 8

I could of skipped or just had a de-barker building but got carried away and started designing the interior of the building. This proved difficult with a lot of guess work. I worked off of some photos looking into the building from a distance and also used some videos that were taken with the de-barker in action.

Never did find pictures of some of this, just the edges of equipment so guess work was required as well as guesstimates of dimensions.



Main component and easiest to design was the actual part that strips the bark off.



The chains/tracks above turned out to be a nightmare. Not so much how hard it was to design them but they slowed my computer, which normally isn't slow at all, way down. I'd make a change and have to wait 2-4 or 5 minutes at times for it to take effect. With the chain there are lots of faces and angles that I guess have to be kept track of and redrawn each time you do anything. Haven't had this big wait time for some time since getting a more powerful computer and graphics card. Last time was on really large brick walls and it wasn't as bad as this for some reason.



The gantries and the center stripping part didn't slow the computer down at all. All the parts above were designed separately pretty much and then combined. The print below was a single large print and was to check things. I'll separate them out and print them separately on the printers build plate after making a few changes.



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There will be a building that goes over the de-barker section but it will be removable. Still need to put a pulley on the left end of the section to the right that lifts the logs out of the mill pond and starts them on their way to the mill.



The rollers on the gantries press down on the log to hold it still while the center section strips the bark off as the log moves forward towards the mill. Once the log is clear of the roller on the right it raised so that the next log can enter. The same happens with the roller to the left. Once the log clears it will also lift clearing the way for the next log.

You can see videos of the de-barker in action and the mill operating ( HERE ).







I figured out a way to 'kind of make' bark and have most of it taken down on the side exiting the de-barker and more on the side yet to be de-barked. Might mess with these a little more The log here is 3 foot in diameter (.225” / 5.7mm). I have logs that have all the bark on, most of the bark on and with the bark hardly showing. I'll work on these a little more and then make 2-3 other diameter logs in all three states.



The chain after the log lift is similar but without the small spikes that are on this chain. The dig into the log to also help hold it in place as it is being stripped. The little spikes are hard to see unless you are very close. They are .007”/ .177mm wide at the top and .015”/.381mm high.



The log above is about all stripped of its bark.



I've spent way too much time on this part of the mill.

To be continued............

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner