The Bridge

[dkightley]

Made it!!!

I've finally finished the overall build of the cantilever arm....after taking a 12 day break away from my PC to help run the Starlight Halloween event at the Tramway Museum:

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I'm in the middle of creating separate 3d files for each of the 64 components, then I need to do is to add support sprues where needed and convert and print six sets!!

That'll keep me quiet until Christmas!

[dkightley]

Hit a little.....well quite serious....problem with printing the bridge components. My printer has developed a fault!

Over the past week or so, I've been experiencing random print failure and rather strange smells from the extrusion head! During attempts to establish the cause of the failures, I've tried the various un-blocking and cleaning procedures and adjusting the print settings...with varying degrees of success. And I discovered that the insulation around the print head was disintegrating, allowing its plastic outer wrap to conact the hot metal, causing the smell!

Then, last night I had yet another incidence of the filament jamming in the extruder feed mechanism.....and after trying remedial actions,I ended up with a cold extruder and the head temperature showing as being 1024 degrees C. Essentially, I've concluded that the "hot end" assembly is knackered...or to be more precise, the thermocouple has broken, the insulation has fallen off (probably causing temperature issues!), and the filament feed appears to be blocked up with carbonous deposits (probably due to the surface being too hot!).

Last night, I placed a web order with a uk supplier for a replacement assembly (not a cheap component I might add!) and this morning I had an email advising the order had been refused and my payment refunded...as they only supply spares to educational and commercial organisations. After a couple of phone calls, I've just placed an order with Letsprint3D, who will try and get a part to me on Monday.

I'll report back next week on progress...

[hedge]

Sorry to hear that Doug. I hope it doesn't hold you up too much.
Very short sighted of the company not to supply you direct. This project would make a great advert for their product.

[dkightley]

In the process of getting things back on track. The "hot end" for my Bot has arrived and is installed.

Just need to get to grips with the slight difference there is between different print heads. I'll need to make slight changes to the print settings to ensure good prints!!

While I've been waiting for the part to be delivered, despite having a few days where I've been feeling a little "off"....not sleeping at night & feeling weary & tired during the day!!...I have managed to make progress elsewhere. I've produced well over a dozen print files for some of the houses in Dalmany, and I've started making some of the couple of hundred trees I'll be needing:

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[dkightley]

Had a megga-boost for my 3D printing productivity today!!

Doing a bit of rumaging around in the ether for news and developments in 3D printing, I was drawn to a few reviews on a piece of slicing and printer software called Simplify3D. Having dismissed it some time ago as being too expensive to consider (at £90 ), I was quite impressed with what is could do...and even found a Youtube video showing off its features.

Keen to improve print efficiency, I took a gamble and purchased a licence.

Boy....am I impressed!

For the first time I have been able to print multiple parts that are clean and detailed! I'm even considering reprinting some of the complex girderwork I've already printed to work around having to spend hours cleaning off unwanted bits, etc.

[dkightley]

And with my new found printing method, I've now started producing the final versions of the buildings that Ivan has been helping me create.

Here's the first ten houses laid out on a to-scale print off Google Earth:

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Note the three missing garages at the very bottom. They were printed...but I found out I'd used the wrong 3d model! Duh!

This print is also going to make it easy to get accurate roads as well!! I can use it as a template to create the road and pavement profiles in 2d...which can then be separately profile cut out of thin card and varnished...then stuck down on the layout ground surface.

[NeilM]

This just gets better and better Doug. As if the bridge was not enough on its own, the level of accuracy that you are going for in the scenery is fantastic.

Looks like you are again highlighting the advantages of working in T gauge, not only for building accurate large structures (and there are not many bigger than this bridge), but also to model the surrounding urban area to scale as well, with non of the usually required 'selective compression' that afflicts the larger scales.

As a shameless personal plug for my Shapeways models, I could not help looking at that Google earth view to see if there were any Land Rovers parked up. Did not see any, but if they are there then you will need one to ensure total accuracy!

[ConnorL]

That is seriously cool! I really liked the idea of using google as a map for modeling houses. Are you going to model the cars too?

[dkightley]

Cars? Yep. There'll be lots of cars...I hope!

And here's the full set of buildings for the first housing estate in Dalmany:

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The rail line runs parallel to the road running diagonally bottom right...and there's another housing estate off to the right with about the same number of houses...but spread out a bit (they're posher houses!!)

[dkightley]

And the second housing estate...just to the north of the first:

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I still need to sort out all the conservatories that there are on these two estates...there's loads of them.

[dkightley]

Conservatories.....and no lead piping in sight!

I've had a go at creating a few conservatories out of "natural" PLA.:

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Not sure if they're okay or not.....have to sleep on it!

[mattd10]

I like them! I'm guessing this is the standard cruel magnification? How do they look at viewing distance?

I think when it's done people will be focussing more on the full length trains over the bridge than the conservatories on the accurately modelled housing estate....

[dkightley]

Got it!

I know what's wrong!


I've put the net curtains on the outside....instead of on the inside!


And what "cruel magnification" are you referring to?

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Oh, yes. See what you mean.

[dkightley]

Having gone through a major upheaval at home...for the better...I'm now able to push on with the layout.

Living in a two bedroom house, I was trying to use the smaller of the bedrooms as a "workroom", but it wasn't big enough...and the bigger bedroom had a lot of wasted floor space. So...I decided to swap the use of the two rooms...and redecorated the smaller bedroom and moved my bed, etc in, and then tidied up and rigged the larger room out as a proper work room...which now has space to set up two or three sections of The Bridge.

No more shots in the lounge....layout shots will now have blue walls in the background instead of a fireplace:

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Now I'm back in business, I can start fitting the two housing estates on the layout:

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[dkightley]

I've created more map prints for the south shore so I can finalise the building requirements:

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I've actually found some of the houses I've created are not required...right at the far end....and there's a few I've missed along the edge...on the RHS. So its been worth doing!

Next step on this area is to create the road sections......

[dkightley]

Doing another jump to a different thread in the build....I've started looking at printing the window details.

The method is documented on this thread:viewtopic.php?f=13&t=150&p=1010#p1010

[dkightley]

With Christmas over....and New Year just about!....I thought it time I gave an "End of year" report:

The Forth Rail Bridge structure:
The production of the component parts for the bridge is well under way. All of the parts with the exception of the two sections that span the joins in the three cantilevers have been designed in 3D. Both of the lead-in viaducts have been completely printed and are awaiting final assembly and painting. All component parts for all three of the cantilever towers have been printed and are awaiting assembly, etc, and approx a quarter of the component parts for two of the six cantilever arms have been printed.

The North shore:
Three of the layout boards have been started, and joined together with alignment dowels and clips. Terrain has been started by laying down and rough sanding of foam insulation material. Scale terrain prints from Google earth have been produced to assist with the layout and alignment of buildings and roads. 153 buildings have been identified, however 3D modelling has not yet started.

The South shore:
Two of the layout boards have been started, and joined together with alignment dowels and clips. Terrain has been started by laying down and rough sanding of foam insulation material. Scale terrain prints from Google earth have been produced to assist with the layout and alignment of buildings and roads. 158 whole or part buildings have been identified and 3D modelling is very much advanced with less than 10 buildings yet to be designed and printed. Preparations for decorating the models has started with the definition of some of the window inserts and with documentation of the colour schemes ready for painting.

The layout construction:
All eight of the layout sections have been started. Five are as stated above, with the remaining three having most of the basic frame made up. Once I've been able to get an accurate measurement of the length of the bridge construction, I can then work out the exact length of these remaining pieces. I have already obtained aluminium folding tables ( 6 x 1m long and 1 x 2m long ) and have sourced a number of 10 watt LED floodlights for lighting. The final design of the stand construction is yet to be finalised...but thought so far are that the backdrop will be printed material stretched between the two angled backing pieces that will be fitted onto the end layout sections.

Power will be from two PWM controllers, one for each direction, and the loop-arounds will have power switched to the main track section as required. I'm hoping to feed power to each end of the bridge track section. With there being only a handful of joints on the bridge, this should suffice.

When I first started the project, I had no completion date other than "..sometime in 2015...". Now 2015 is here , I'm having to resist starting to worry about when I'm going to finish. I've been invited to take the layout to a couple of shows this year (In july & September) if finished, but I can't see being able to get the finished layout to them. I have a promise of an invite to one of the big shows in 2016...which I have no problem in making...and I'm in the process of enquiring at another show for 2016.

So...that's it....my "End of term report". 2015 looks like an interesting year.....

[dkightley]

Seeing as I've not posted any images for a while....here's a few of the latest buildings to come out of production:

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Posh houses, eh?

[dkightley]

Here's an opportunity I couldn't pass by.

I spotted that one of the houses covered by the layout had a boat in its front garden. So, guess what? I had to model it!!

Now usually, you have the boat under the bridge....but in this case I couldn't resist putting the bridge under the boat!

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[dkightley]

A couple of printer issue have delayed me getting to this point.....but I've got there! I'm glad to report I have finally finished printing the buildings for the south shore.

I still have window inserts to finish designing...which I'll be able to do in between other things. And there's a likelyhood I'll be creating a few scenic parts in plastic...such as the sloping footpath up to the station.


Time for a deep breath.....and on to the north shore.