About 3 weeks ago I was making wooden patterns for the foundry to have some model locomotive parts cast in iron. I had been posting progress reports on a British model forum and one of the members said if I had the drawings in CAD he would turn them into 3D drawings and have them 3D printed for me. The next day he sent me .jpg images of the 3D renderings and I started researching 3D printing and within a week was able to turn out my own 3D drawings so the next step was to acquire my own 3D printer. I bought a RepRap kit which arrived Monday, was assembled by Tuesday, and aligned and printed my first 3D test piece yesterday. By tomorrow I hope to be printing my first foundry pattern. Sure beats working from drawings and making sawdust!