Hi! My name is Dianne and I am a retired designer and active model engineer. My background is over 40 years in manufacturing, electrical/electronics, microelectronic design, and communications.

My current project is a 1" scale steam locomotive (from scratch) and I had reached the point where I needed patterns for the foundry for 7 cast iron parts (which I already had drafted in 2D CAD). Someone suggested having the patterns printed in 3D so I learned 3D drawing in SketchUp (and plan to learn 3D CAD) and bought a (EckerTech) RepRap kit. The kit arrived Monday and by Wednesday I had it finished. Thursday was learning Repetier-Host and getting the printer set up. After a few teething pains, I spent 11 hours on Friday printing 3D patterns. When I have resolved current problems with the hot end, there are a few more to do to finish the job.