Continuing Saga …

Despite not being train parts, the detail you are showing on the ship parts really show what is possible.  So much more detail work that could be done. I bet a fully detailed roundhouse with tools and equipment would be awesome if done with the type of details you are showing

Miles,

I have not followed for a while. I am glad to read about your wifes' recovery. About your upcoming article for OGR and seeing the incredible things that you have been producing. I am very happy for you my friend.

Thanks guys! Al! Good to hear from you. BTW: The 3D CAD and printing I'm doing for the current project is essentially the same as I've perfected in doing model architecture for the RR. It's the capablility that's the theme, not the output.

Congratulations on the article, Myles!!  I’ll be looking forward to seeing it!!

I just read Part 1 of my first OGRR article, "From Kits to Custom Building…" I am getting via the digital edition, but it looks pretty good. Let me know if you've read it and please give me feedback.

Myles, The article is great!  The description of your trek from kit builder to advanced scratch builder using mostly traditional methods give hints along the way of how any of us could advance our skills and accuracy.  I wrote 'mostly traditional' methods was taking into account using CAD and the Internet for drawing and research.  I was glad to see the transformer and substation mentioned.  As you were building them and posting here, I realized how detailed scratchbuilding can be, especially in larger scales.  The list of tips at the end of the article really help give a great conclusion.  I'm ready to read Part 2 already!

Thanks Mark. I knew you'd be the first to give me a review. We're searching things for our vacation trip in September. We want to do Vancouver and Portland. I found this in Google Earth doing a Vancouver flyover. Life imitating art? Looks like it could be on someone's n-gauge train layout. Clearly it's some materials loading facility, and could be modeled in its entirety. looks like O-96 to me . It measures about 20 scale feet across, so it's more like O-200 not 96.

Wow, Myles!  I agree it looks like a layout with a lot of loading of some material.  Actually that could make for an interesting layout if someone was so inclined to have a layout with one major industry.

I hope you have a great vacation out there.  Maybe you will happen upon a new scratch building project. 😊

Right now I have five projects in the queue: three "commission" jobs (quotes signify no pay) a 1:35 Apache AH-64D for my friend in Philly, 1:72 scale Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune in which my wife's cousin was a flight captain during the Cold War (also in Philly), and another monster project for the Battleship New Jersey; the #3 Engine Room. And then there's a 1:32 F-35B STOL Lighting II for me. Finally, there's the "Early Sunday Morning" Hopper row of stores for railroad. Oh…and I'm writing the 3D Printting Book. All of this will take me well into 2025 or longer. That's okay. Just had my physical and everything's okay. My PSA problems are also nothing and the colon's doing well too, so I'm good for another 10,000 miles or 3 years, whichever comes first.

I was never so busy when I was actually working! My wish is that everyone should have so much fun being retired.

And my wife is cancer free so she's going great too!

I’m glad you have a good health report and especially glad your wife is cancer free!!

Thank you Mark! BTW: your layout is really lovely. Looks like a lot of fun on which to run trains. Speaking of which, I've got to run some. They're just sitting and the track's getting dirty.

Myles, I want to Congratulate you on your very interesting article on the recent OGR Magazine, on 3D printing and related material. You might remember the day that our little group visited your lovely home in Louisville. You were just beginning to check out 3D printing and now you are a Master Modeler. We need to plan another visit in the near future. You are now a Celebrity and I’ll bring my copy of this OGR Magazine for your autograph. It’s nice to know you and we are proud that your wife is cancer free and that your in good health. By the way, your layout is amazing. I’ll be in touch. Happy Railroading Everyone

@Trainman2001 posted:

Thank you Mark! BTW: your layout is really lovely. Looks like a lot of fun on which to run trains. Speaking of which, I've got to run some. They're just sitting and the track's getting dirty.

Thank you, Myles!  Yes, you need to polish the rails with some train running!

Thank you Larry! I most definitely remember the visit and have the pictures to prove it. There are three more articles coming following the first. I think they get better as they go along, but I'm a bit prejudiced. It started out as one long 8,000 word article, but OGRR likes them about 2,000 words. They were nice enough to keep it intact and break it up into four parts. Not every magazine does that. Hopefully, all who read it come away feeling as you do.

You can visit any time. Roundhouse Trains is still going strong (as is Scale Reproductions, Inc… my hobby shop).

I had to go back and do some research to see what's been added since your visit. You came with the guys on August 23, 2019. And there are a few.

They are: (Finished or built)

1. Finished the Engine House
2. P&PRR HQ Building (Kit) and the road leading to it.
3. John E. Goode Tie Hacker's Cabin (Kit)
4. Rick House Under Construction
5. Edward Hopper "House by the Railroad" House
6. Woodbourne Hardware House
7. Designed (but not yet built) Hopper's "Early Sunday Morning" row of stores.

I also sold the Idaho Hotel to Mark Boyce where it has a very nice and prominent new home.

The 5"38 was delivered to the Battleship New Jersey last Thursday. I got from Louisville to the Officers Ward Room Lounge without a single part going amiss. For that I am eternally grateful, since much of it was in an unfixable position if it broke. My nephew and I then spent two hours in the engine rooms, which if I can get the right documentation, will be my next super-project. I found an original set of engineering drawings for the New Jersey at the National Archives. They are not microfilm or digital. They are originals. Therefore, I have to go in person to see them, get a researcher's card and pass an online course on handling precious documents. The hunt is as much fun as the capture. If you have the opportunity to visit Philadelphia, seeing the New Jersey is a terrifc way to spend some time.

Coming tomorrow is this:

It's the new Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 3D printer. It's fourth generation. This is the state of the art. Besides having 60% greater capacity than my very good Mars 3, it has other tech innovations that reduce failures and increase print speed. More specific is the tilting vat. Instead of the print plate pulling the forming part directly up dealing with the suction created, the vat tilts as the lift takes place creating a shearing action. It's the same as peeling masking tape from the end rather than trying to pull it straight off (which is almost impossible). It has an AI camera that watches the print as it's forming and can send you images if it starts to fail, thereby letting you stop it before you waste more resin. It's the first printer I have that can load files online and not have to bring thumb drives down to the shop all the time.

I'm hoping that the capacity is big enough to print O'scale wall sections eliminating my need to get things laser cut. I'd love to have a laser cutter, and the solid-state varieties are coming down in price, but you need 40w or more to cut well and those are still over $1,000. I don't have enough work to justify that. I was able to print those n-Gauge sections for the little layout and maybe, I can do it again for our scale.

I also outgrew the 3D work bench that I built several years ago. I did a small two-day project to enlarge it to accomodate both my Mars 3 and the Saturn as well as room for a bigger Ultrasonic cleaner. Right now it will let me get my UV cure chamber onto this bench. Speaking of which, that needs to have more volume also. I regularly post-cure parts that are just about the largest it can handle now. With the new printer it will be exceeded.

The original bench has an acoustic tile top left over from when I built a large RC B-17. The tile accepts push-pins to build over the plans. When I added the extension on the right side I had to adapt the framing to bring the new ply top up to the original level. I didn't worry about this on the left side since printers won't be on that side.

Angle bracing also required some creativity since they didn't always line up with the legs or clear the existing bracing. In one case I had to pack it out so it would align. I use ONLY SPAX star-drive screws. They are fantastic and my entire railroad is held together with them. I do drill clearance holes and pilot holes, although they are self-threading and don't need this. I do it more to prevent spliting on thinner pieces.

I leveled the new addition to help in leveling the printer. The printers also need to be cross-leveled.

Building the second side was much easier than the first as is usual with learning curves. To do this I had to remove all the paraphernalia on the bench. Resin printing is a mess. It creates vapors or something that coats everything in the printer vicinity. Even the terminal strip was sticky all over with resin, which I removed with IPA.

I removed all the old protective film and replaced it. I use thin mil drop cloth poly for this. It works and keeps all the slop from soaking into the top and lets me renew it occasionally (like once every 4 years).

The printer comes tomorrow and I'm ready for it. Can't wait to see what creations will come from it.

That new printer sounds great!  Nice work on expanding the work bench!  We will look forward to seeing what you can make with the printer.

I visited the New Jersey a few weeks ago and had a chance to see your previous project.  I was looking for this but didn't realize it hadn't been delivered yet.  I'll have to catch it next time.  Fantastic work!

Chris, Ryan just posted a video about it. It describes it as good as I would. Check it out.

Preview YouTube video A New Way to See the Battleship's 5in GunsA New Way to See the Battleship's 5in Guns

He also spills the beans about the next project, which really puts me on the spot. If the Archive drawings aren't what I need, I won't be able to build it. (I think).

The new Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra arrived today and I got it set up on the new extension. I had to slide the upper shelf over just a tad so the lid—which swings up on hinges—would clear easily. I put the new printer on the extension. The solid ply gives better footing for it's mass than the ceiling tiles. I use a piece of MDF under the Mars 3 to give it some surface. I have to download the new ChiTuBox slicer software which has this printer in its library and I have to run some calibration pieces to double check the exposures. This printer uses an entirely different UV lighting system so I can't rely on my Mars 3 settings. Furthermore, it's able to vary exposure times in different areas of the build surface. Like I said, this printer is light-years ahead of my previous units. It is amaziing how much they have evolved from June of 2019.

The black plastic thing hanging on the pegboard is a drip catcher. It nestles into the vat and catches drips that occur when you pull the build plate off the machine. I still have to purchase the Flex Plate so I don't have to remove the entire build plate and more resin. This beast will take a lot more of it.

It is much bigger and heavier than my previous printers. To avoid killing my back, I slid it down the cellar steps and unboxed it on the work table. I did very little lifting and my back thanked me for it. It also did an automatic system update when I turned it on (after getting it on WiFi).

I did some checking. My "Early Sunday Morning" walls are a little over 6" tall and this machine's build height is 8" so, as I suspected, I may be able to print the walls with bricks and window framing included. Wish me luck!

First, I’ve been trying to get my wife to slide heavy objects down the stairs, but she never remembers.  🤔 Our stairs are even covered with carpet making for an easy slide!

Next, I am wishing you luck on printing the bricks and window frames on the walls.  Also I hope your learning curves are short for getting everything going well!

The new printer is kind of remarkable. The AI camera built in lets me check on print progress via my laptop. It also revealed something I didn't expect. I thought the tilting vat would work in synchronicity with the lifting of the build plate for the next layer. That's not quite how it works. The built plate does not lift 5mm to break the forming part loose from the Vat FEP. Only the tilt vat moves. The plate looks essentially stationary. It is not! It's actually rising just one layer. In this case 50 microns. You can't see this motion with the naked eye. Because the plate doesn't have to rise with the lead screw turning and then go back to the original spot plus one layer, the whole process is sped up. I timed it at less than 6 seconds from layer start to layer start. It's fast! It's a pleasure looking in on the printing without having to run down the basement. Also, if you notice a failure starting, you can stop the process before wasting more time and resin.

I just did a comparison of running the exactly the same job in my Mars 3 and the Saturn 4. The time in the Mars was 7 hours and 20 minutes. In the Saturn it was 4 hours and 16 minutes; 42% FASTER! That is singnificant. It's even better than that. On my original Mars, the job would take 14 hours. Lots of technical progress in a little over five years. Oh… and the price I paid for the Saturn was $50 more than I paid for my Mars Classic in 2019.

Here's a movie I made of the action inside the printer.

I'm printing the stand for cousin Larry's P2V-5 Nepturn model. With the printer's larger capacity I'm able to print the base plus two different support legs. I'm giving him a choice of attitude to pose the model. This would have been a two day job with the Mars 3. I now have both printers on the bench as the same time, but I'm really not sure when I'll use the Mars 3 due to its much slower speed.

The printer also comes with a clever drip tray that catches resin when you're removing the build plate. It's placed there only during this operation and remvoved all other times.

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