Check out my 12/7/21Blog entry "Where Citizens of Warrenville Work" on www.Warrenvillerailroad.com for my efforts to keep the unemployment rate low in Warrenville
Here's my model of a blast furnace. I'm hoping to have three on my layout all together. The model is 3D printed. It's mostly held together with hot glue at the moment but the final model will use glue and magnets. There's a lot more building that will go with it.
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@BillYo414 posted:The model is 3D printed.
I don't know much about the steel industry but it seems like a cool one to model. The industry has some unique cars to model, and I've seen older videos on YouTube showing slag cars dumping into slag fields. It looks fascinating.
And thank you for reminding me to get a 3D printer! Your work here and in other threads where members have showcased their 3D printed creations is outstanding and really shows the range of possibilities available with 3D printing (structures, locomotive shells, etc).
When you say everything is 3D printed, does that include the central tower (not sure its technical name)? That looks flawless with no signs of layering or any other "grainy" texture appearance, that is impressive! What material did you print with? What printer are you using?
The steel industry is an interesting one to model. There are a lot of parts to model and the equipment is often one of a kind. Plus there's 200 or so years of history to cover. So it's pretty cool.
Feel free to contact me or start a thread if you need help picking a 3D printer. I'm a little behind on what the current technology is but I would be happy to share what I know and what worked for me.
Everything in the picture is printed. You can't see the magnets holding the walls on. I just printed a pocket and then glued the magnet in. They're on the inner face so you can't see them. The central tower is the actual furnace shell. It's actually printed in four pieces and the seams are hidden under the walkways and piping. The layering is visible in person in certain light. I'm using 0.1mm layer height so that helps. I intend to experiment with smoothing the pieces out when the time comes to start painting. The material is just PLA and the printer is a Creality CR10S Pro. I added the synchronizing pulleys to the top to help with the leveling issues, upgraded the hot end, and started using mirrors with the adhesive bed sheets.
Awesome Bill, just awesome!!! 
George
Nice work Billy. It looks great.
All I can say is .... WOW
Thank you everybody. I'll updated when I get more done.
Truly incredible Billy. Must have been 72 hours to print that. Amazing.
John
@Craftech the biggest section of the blast furnace body was pretty long. Not quite three days haha
