3D Scanners and Printers - and other technical stuff

[bob turner]

First, the other technical stuff - had a PM (that I just noticed) asking about sprung drivers. I think everybody here knows that I usually machine for springs on the driving boxes, using Lobaugh techniques and dimensions, and that I have decided after making a rather large number of scratchbuilt steamers that springing is not necessary.

So I still make the slots (pedestals), driving boxes, pedestal binders, and holes for the springs exactly as if I were going to install coil springs, but then I just stick in a cork or rubber cushion and get on with it. My thinking is that a lot of folks are pretty much hung up on sprung drivers, and when I croak whoever winds up with my models can install springs easily. They will have to disassemble and re-lubricate anyway.

A number of my more recent smaller locomotives just have U shaped driver slots, no bearings, and an adjustment in the pedestal binder for keeping the slop to a minimum. And I discovered this month that steel on brass requires good lubrication, and that even motor oil can get old and seize up a driving axle. ( I learned that a long time ago with a Lobaugh Challenger - I literally had to remove drivers and press the axles out for cleanup - that Challenger had been in the Lobaugh showcase for a quarter-century at Jack Campbell's store in LA).

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Now the 3D stuff - one of the airplane guys was scanning some part, then printing it for use in an airplane! Granted, it was an interior part, but still - he apparently had all the stuff in his garage. Here is his comment:

I'm going to scan that mount thoroughly with a 3D scanner when I take it off and see if I can re-create it in Fusion 360 so that I can CNC cut a duplicate out of aluminum.

My dentist buddy also has a scanner - he says it takes the place of all that horrible wax they put in your mouth to take an impression. Still, last time he worked on my teeth I got the horrible wax. I was thinking of taking the Skytop end to him to see if his scanner was big enough, but haven't gotten around to it. My built up Skytop is languishing - I am finding other more satisfying things to do.

But darn - you would think we would be hearing more about printing models in O Scale - all I hear is that brass steam imports are now in the $3-4000 range. We must be getting close to being able to push a button and having a boiler shell or main frame pop out in some kind of metal we could solder to. I suspect that between the five or so of us here we do not know much more than that, but I thought I would pose the thought.

[robert.]

https://markforged.com/3d-printers/meta ... 0interlock.

[robert.]

https://www.raise3d.com/3d-printers/?ut ... gJWpPD_BwE