F-22 Flatcar And 3D Printing

[2railjon]

The only F-22 flatcar in O Scale I know of was produced by Rich Yoder or RY Models. They’re rare and expensive! While doing a search I came across a 3D program someone shared for an F-22.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2069464


I sent an inquiry off to Shapeways but would also like to know if anyone here 3D Prints or would anyone else be interested in this flatcar if Shapeways quotes me a price. I have no idea what I’m getting into price wise.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Curious, Jon, curious.

[2railjon]

The reply from Shapeways was not what I was expecting.
“James (Shapeways)
Aug 16, 16:28 CEST

Hello Jon

Thank you for reaching out to us! I'm glad you are interested in using Shapeways to bring your ideas to life.

Let me take a second to explain how our services work, so I can set the right expectation for you.

We are a company that exists through cooperation of independent designers and production teams to provide quick, reliable and quality 3D printing production services.

All of the models you see for sale on Shapeways.com are created and uploaded by independent designers. That means every design you see is owned by the users and not the company.

Where Shapeways comes in is the back end production and distribution services. This allows our users to upload files and run shops on our website, while we handle the heavy lifting of creating and shipping the models all over the world. We 3D Print everything on-demand, which means that every order is customized and personalized.

The fastest way to get a quote and create 3D printed products of your own is to upload a 3D digital design file to our website via http://www.shapeways.com/create

As we charge by the material used and each material has slightly different pricing, we are not able to provide quotes via email.

Our software calculates the price per volume, and then gives you a price in each available material.

You can see our available materials here: http://www.shapeways.com/materials

If you need a 3D file, I recommend checking out our Design with Shapeways program.

Here you can connect with our team directly to find a solution for your 3D print needs, whether you have a 2D drawing/image, a 3D file, or just an idea and aren't sure where to start.

You can reach our Design team through this link: https://design.shapeways.com/.

Click "Start a new project" and then choose a project category on the page that follows. Someone from our Design team will get back to you soon.

You can also work with our designers in our Community forum or use our Hire A Designer program to get someone with 3D design experience to create the model for you:
www.shapeways.com/forum
www.shapeways.com/hire/designer

I hope this is a helpful start, but please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. I'll be glad to follow up!

Best Regards
James
Senior Customer Service Agent - NYC”

[DaveJfr0]

You need to create an account at shapeways.

You then need to download the zip file from thingiverse with the part (.stl) files.

Unzip the file. Read the readme and try to understand what the files are in the zip file from that. I see a v1 and v2. Not sure what is what.

Then upload each .STL file thats in the zip file you download into shapeways. You will then get to see what the parts generally look like.

You will have to choose a material (strong durrable white, or thin frosted, etc.) All materials cost different money and there are pros and cons, but once you upload the file and choose a material, it will list you a price that you're looking for. You should google or read the help sections on shapeways site for help with picking a material. FUD is probably okay for your needs, but the ultra thin frosted or whatever its called these days have the best detail, but are the most fragile.

If you have questions on the files themselves, you really should ask the designer on thingiverse. You probably have to create an account to do that, or if his username (professorburnout) is on a forum somewhere else, maybe you can find his contact info elsewhere. I have no clue if he designed his files for kadees and the appropriate 2R trucks.

Good luck. If you can get it printed, would be interested if you can get it to look at good as RYM's version. You probably can with your skills.


The only problem with all of this, is I think the file you linked to is for G-scale and not O-scale. If you have the ability, you can probably rescale it, if you don't, you need to ask him if he can do it easily.

[2railjon]

Hi Dave! Thanks for your input! Yes, the originator did the print in G Scale but I figured a person who could do the prints for me could do the scaling in O. I was wrong!
I went to a 3D Hub and this was the reply:

I had no idea how difficult this was going to be. I took 3 semesters of Auto-Cad at a community college and assumed that once you wrote a program you simply change the scale of the drawing. Apparently 3D Printing is not as easy a CAD.
I did join and contact the program originator and I’ll see what happens!!

[DaveJfr0]

You gotta hope the author still has the original files, and drew it in a program that makes it easy to scale down. If not, you're back where you started...looking for a RYM F-22, or figuring out how to draw your own.

[2railjon]

Dave, keeping my fingers crossed I hear a response!
I have 3 RYM F-22’s plus an extra cannon barrel that I’d like a few more flatcars for. The problem is the RYM’s are scarce and bringing prices of $300 per car when you find them. Interesting that no other train manufacturers have produced one!

[J. S. Bach]

Now you need the rest of the battlewagon!

[Proto48Patrick]

I do a lot of 3D work and printing for my P48 needs and occasionally offer my time to others. Usually for trade instead of $$. I can take a look if you cant find anyone and Im pretty familiar with shapeways as its all I use currently.


Patrick

[2railjon]

Patrick, thanks for chiming in! Yes, I’m good with a trade or $$ for your work! Check out the link earlier in the thread to Thingiverse I posted. He has a downloadable program. It would need to be scaled down from his 1/24 to 1/48.
Look it over and holler back!
Thanks! Jon

[Proto48Patrick]

I'll see what I can do. The mounting screws and coupler mounts will need to be adjusted among a few other things I suspect. I'll get back to ya.


Patrick

[Proto48Patrick]

ok I played around for a second on this flat. there's a few issues.

Just scaling it down leads to some parts being too thin to print. I can't edit his file so I cant "fix" some of the issues, including the truck and coupler mountings. Do you have dimensions and/or 2D drawings available for this car?


Patrick

[Proto48Patrick]

ok I played around for a second on this flat. there's a few issues.

Just scaling it down leads to some parts being too thin to print. I can't edit his file so I cant "fix" some of the issues, including the truck and coupler mountings. I searched and dl'ed a PRR drawing with basic dimensions. I could just draw one up. I have a few questions for ya...

A. How "extensive" do you want this flat to be?
B. What trucks and couplers will you need?
C. We can make this a pretty nice model or are ya looking for "good enough"?
D. I am assuming you'll want to add weight to this car somewhere correct?

Let me know what you're looking for and we can go from there. Printing is great but there are a lot of factors that need to be considered so the more I know your expectations, the better the model will suit your needs.

Patrick

[2railjon]

Hi Patrick! Thanks for taking a look at the designers program! I’m beginning to see that scaling a 3D program to a different size isn’t as simple as doing it in Auto-Cad!
Here’s a link to give you nice pictures of the flatcar:

https://brasstrains.com/Classic/Product ... Car-435384

I wouldn’t need anything more the the half a frame the guy produced in his project then reproduced and the halves put together. The couplers would be Kadee’s. Real wood would be used for decking and brass trucks for weight.

But before you look any further into this project I would like some kind of ballpark estimate on costs as I’m pretty clueless on 3D printing and don’t want to get in over my head!! I appreciate your interest so far!!

[Proto48Patrick]

I wouldn't dare guess a price yet. Are you in a hurry? Another question to ask is the visible layering on printed models, Is that acceptable to you?


Patrick