Replacement part for model railway wagon

[bkk-bkk]

Hello Curious AardvarkThanks for your reply. Good point about the need for a flat base. This was at the back of my mind and I was wondering whether to bring the subject up on the forum. I will take your advice and print the part with a flat base and see how that works. The rectangular tube at the left-hand end can be printed separately in the upright position and then glued in place. I have about 70 wagons to repair and this is the only one with that type of coupling mounting arrangement. Your comments about getting to grips with the printer and getting it to produce acceptable objects was also at the back of my mind. I'm sure it's going to be a case of not getting anything right on day one, week one, or even month one. I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm thankful that there will be plenty of help from YouTube and especially our community.Best regardsBrian (bkk-bkk)PS:A theory: To make a flat base, I suppose it would be possible to split the design into two parts and then glue them together back-to-back after printing. But in this case that would leave very thin portions of about 0.05 mm in each printed half. Would this be a viable option for such a thin component?For a wider/thicker object such as a model viaduct I suppose it would be achievable and could easily incorporate holes for alignment dowels.Am I thinking along the right lines here?RegardsBrian (bkk-bkk)

[curious aardvark]

I made them from transparent pla with 1mm thick walls. You can see the insects walking around inside them:

see-thru_640x270.jpg

It's an example of how you can make fairly complex shapes without supports.

The beauty of 3d printing is that you can think of a thing that nobody else in the world has ever though of and inside a couple of hours actually hold it in your hand :-)

I'm currently printing a tool to smooth down masking tape.
Got a bunch of window frames to mask off - and something better than my gloved finger (they are outside) to get a really good flat application of tape was needed.
I've actually made three all slightly different in design to see which is best :-)

[bkk-bkk]

Hello curious aardvark
Thanks for your excellent description of the insect catcher and your ideas about printing at an angle.
I have put the wagon coupler to one side for now until I get more hands on experience about 3d design and printing. I have continued with Autodesk Fusion 360. It is a complicated programme but I will not be using many of the functions. I will concentrate on the functions that I will need which are mostly in the sketch and design sections.
The original Creality Ender 3 Pro printer that I order from Amazon US is stuck in Bangkok airport customs and I have been asked to register as a dangerous goods importer and apply for an import permit. While I was thinking about this strange turn of events I received an email from Amazon apologising for the delay and offering a full refund if I wished to cancel the order. So I quickly hit the cancel button, waited for the refund to arrive in my credit card account and ordered a new printer from a local website. It was a lot cheaper and is a more advanced model (Creality Ender 3 V2). It should arrive tomorrow and I will concentrate on building and testing until I am confident. After that I will choose a simpler model part to design and print and eventually move on to the more complex parts that I need.
Thanks again for your valuable help.
Best regards bkk-bkk (Brian)