My First 3-D Printed Steeple Cab Electric

Very nicely done Don 

Alex

Great job Don.  Please keep us posted.  That will look great with a pan on the top.

Outstanding, Don.  Matt

Thank you guys. Marty, I have a number of MTH scale pantographs I bought just for these little electrics. They work great with the overhead. Good strong springs and they are the Milwaukee design with the ice guards. Don

Looking good!!

Very nice thanks for showing it to us.

Very nice.   Are you taking requests?   

LV4 only for steeple  cabs as a kit. I've been asking the big and little companies to make these for years and no takers. Don

What 3D printer did you use? How smooth are the surfaces? Please keep us informed of the project with pictures. Looks great, keep up the good work.

Would you be willing to print other parts if drawings were furnished? I would like to make 3D drawings for other parts.

Very nice, Don. What will you power it with?  

Bob

Very nice!! Amazing technology. 

Don, are you going to sell them?  You know I do need one.

Excellent!

scale rail posted:

Well, here is the first cab. There is a lot more detail you can't see because of the white, but there are doors and much more detail than shows in the picture. I didn't print the headlights, bells and air tanks because I have those in brass. Don

Don,

Glad to see that you finally have the shell. I suppose that you would still be waiting for someone to make one. Could you post the photo of that prototype again?

Aloha,

Carl

Carl, this was my prototype. GE made hundreds of these switchers for both large railroads and private lines. They were very common at one time. I shot this picture on vacation to Yakima where I grew up for a number of years. The crew had nothing to do that afternoon so they gave me a ride in the loco. It's a little small for a Milwaukee Road switcher but will have to do for now. Most of the GE electrics were on the small side for switching in towns and cities. Don

Thank you, that's it. Yes, I recalled the story of your experience, but couldn't recall what it looked like.

Good Job! When l was in HO in the '50's l remember the many kits for short line tea kettles.  Even the kits for O scale were not that common. Hope  there comes a medium where low volume creations are possible.

The learning curve for programing a printer for me is not easy at all. When they get a printer with camera that you can shoot your project from all sides and it makes a program,,,watch out. Everyone will buy a printer. It's coming but like every new thing, remember the first VCRs, and Blu-ray? They were expensive. I payed $1000 for my first Sony Blu-ray player and it took for ever to load. Don

scale rail posted:

The learning curve for programing a printer for me is not easy at all. When they get a printer with camera that you can shoot your project from all sides and it makes a program,,,watch out. Everyone will buy a printer. It's coming but like every new thing, remember the first VCRs, and Blu-ray? They were expensive. I payed $1000 for my first Sony Blu-ray player and it took for ever to load. Don

I agree completely.  I leave the programming to one of the young manufacturing engineers.  He's made me a few Cleveland Union Terminal dwarf signals which cost me some good craft brew.  A small price to pay.

Your wish, however, has been answered.  May I suggest you google: 3D scanner.  These devices are a turntable where the pattern or model sits and it is scanned while rotating by an infrared laser.  More than one of the model shops I deal with offers this service.

Lou N

Great work, Don!  I'm watching with great interest!

I just had a company come in and measure for cutting 3 pieces of granite for my kitchen countertop, the guy had a laser mounted on a hefty tripod and took the measurements to make the accurate cuts.  I was thinking about how cool that would be to scan railroad related items.  I’ve tried a number of different 3D software programs and have gotten nowhere  , I’ve decided to leave that to others