IMG_2769.jpegAfternoon Folks;
While I write this I have a little Anycubic Filament PLA printer (Kodia Go) chugging away on my desk making what I hope will be its first complete and correct 3D print. I bought it a little over two years ago when Anycubic was running a discontinuing sale as better faster units were out and this little guy is 'ancient' compared to what is available, or so I am told. I think I paid $189.00 for it but you had to put it together, which I got around to about 3 months ago. I tinkered with it, got bored and put it on a shelf till I got bored again. That time is now. So today I took the time to fuss with it and get it to work (YouTube Videos for learning and fixing are the best). I have been 3D printing now for 4-5 years but with liquid resin machines, this guy uses a spool of thread resin, heats it up in a nozzle and the plate and print head move back and forth to deposit the resin. Liquid resin printers produce a much finer detail finish product and can make pretty small items so great for working in HO (evenn N gauge). When I make something for someone in O gauge the detail achievable is truly amazing. These filament printers are getting better for detail parts too, just not as fine yet as resin and not this little guy. You can definitely see the layer lines with each layer .2mm thick (my main liquid machine deposits a .03mm layer). However none of that is to put this little guy down he has a bright future I hope.
The drawbacks of liquid resin printing is you are not done when the part is made. It needs to be washed, the support sprues removed then UV light put on it for some more time. All these processes turn out to easily cause a mess with dripping and sticking and such. Keeping the printing area clean is a must and is on going duty. Further, liquid resin smells, period. The manufacturers use cute names like 'low odor', green and so on but it smells until the product is hardened by UV light. I have my machine in an enclosure and vent the majority of smell outside and the machine sits in the garage. The wife says she can still smell the resin a little but I can't. Did I mention the liquid resin is slightly toxic (like fiber glass resin) so wearing nitrile gloves while dealing with the wet parts is a must. Still even with all that I love making resin details for my layout using the liquid resin printer.
So here is where this little filament printer comes in. I have begun to do use the 3D printer make the building 'shell' then I add the wood siding, details, windows, doors and such. Doing so creates a building with strong 'bones' and eliminates the stress of getting things plumb. I can do this because instead of using pen and paper to draw out my structures I use a free CAD program called Tinkercad. It was developed for elementary students to learn CAD through the use of object addition and subtraction such as rectangles, circles and triangles. I am sure the students learn it much quicker then my old brain did but I now can try things out on the computer before actually making the item. Now I export the file to a USB stick (or direct through internet) to the printer and it makes what I designed. Using the liquid printer to make these shells is overkill and expensive, lots of liquid used. I hope to use this filament printer to make these shells (and other stuff like the 9 volt battery power pack) at a lower cost and without the worry of a mess. As I mentioned to begin this it is currently on my desk in my office and no smell, even the wife can't smell it and she is the sensitive nose in our house. We will see how it and I get along but it is looking promicing. I will post to this thead a 'shell' when I get to that point. In the meantime here is a photo of the little guy chugging away.
Jim
I don't think I've seen someone use a 3D printer to do the shell, with wood or other siding, etc, added on top of it. So I'll be very interested to see how that works out.
dave
I don't think I'd ever get a 3D printer, but I am interested in what you're doing and how it turns out.
Quote from: Rick on May 13, 2026, 06:03:25 PMI don't think I'd ever get a 3D printer, but I am interested in what you're doing and how it turns out.
Hi Rick;
It is just another way to model, not better just different. For me I am comfortable with computers and was an old Cobol programmer when IBM ruled the world with their IBM 360 mainframe. (48K core memory if my own memory is correct). I was a student at USF and helped come up with some of their internal programs (more a keypunch operator than anything else). Coming to the hobby late I am just leveraging things I know to help create stuff I don't know. Glad I can share something a little different.
Jim
I actually used the 'shell concept when I made the power plant section of Pam's Flour Mill. Using the liquid resin printer to I created the four walls with window and door cut outs as a one piece unit. I then used my laser cutter to cut to shape embossed brick looking paper (got it years ago from a guy in Italy) and using 3M two sided tape attached it to the shell. I 3D printed the roof and made the gingerbread stuff along the roof separately so I could paint them a different color. Finally the interior was all 3D printed assembled boiler room parts. So here it is when it was made:
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/785-130526190359-57558257.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/785-130526190359-575592146.jpeg)
(https://modelersforum.com/gallery/785-130526190359-575601937.jpeg)
I was happy with how it came out.
Jim
Well, I did some of my first 'production work' in COBOL, but the only time I punched a card was when I needed to test the card reader attached to the system. That was a microcomputer based system to replace card punches with online data entry.
dave
Update on the filament printer first test print, it worked! Couple hours of tweeking and watching a 'how to fix issues' youtube video but the little printer did a great job. Filament printers main advantage over liquid printers is speed in making a part. Well most filament printers but this little feller took 3 hours and 13 minutes to make the owl which is 4 inches high. Still it did a great job, tomorrow I am going airbrush this little guy and put him on the computer stand to watch over the printer.
I also found a photo of the power plant 'shell' I made using the large liquid resin printer. I think the 'little' filament printer could of made it but we will see.
Little Owl.jpeg
Power Plant Shell 4.jpeg
Jim
OK so the FPM machine is not ready for prime time but I did go ahead and make the initial building shell for the pickle factory using the Anycubic Mono 5s Pro. Given the size of this shell the FPM printer would not have been able to make it most likely anyhow. This first screenshot shows the design, such as it is at this point, for the facility. The largest part is in tan color and is modeled after a pickle factory located in Oregon at the turn of century. I exported this part as an .stl file to the slicer program for the printer and 12 hours later the shell was complete. In real life this structure is 7 x 5 x 6.5 inches high. The printer could just handle the size as one piece.
Tinkercad Screenshot.jpg
Pickle and Supply Warehouse.jpeg
I have never had a part with so many supports to remove, it took over an hour to remove them and I will need to go back over the inside tomorrow to clean up some areas. As I mentioned it took the printer 12 hours to make the part and the resin cost was $8.00. I have learned to really make sure the part is as best designed as possible and correctly oriented on the printers plate to reduce the possibility of a failed print. With this print I could not orient the building at the optimal angle due to size limitations but have learned that straight up works OK if lots of support is provided. If I had tried this a couple of years ago I probably would have had to try two or three times to get it right. The learning curve does cost money.
After removing supports and initial clean up of the shell here is how it looks and where it will go on layout. The building was sized for this area and the track siding will be in the back where you see the staircase and raised loading dock in the screenshot.
Warehouse with Supports Removed.jpg
Side View Supports Removed.jpg
Location will be on Layout.jpg
I will post a photo here of how it looks when everything is added to the shell.
Jim
Jim great work there!
Excuse my ignorance but i have not printed yet any structures on my resin printer yet (all fdm previously). I see that you printed the whole structure without any angle (relative to the build plate) at all on the resin printer. How come you did not have any skewness issues? I see many cases where they angle the piece in order to have a "better" print.
Quote from: Yannis on May 17, 2026, 11:20:56 AMJim great work there!
Excuse my ignorance but i have not printed yet any structures on my resin printer yet (all fdm previously). I see that you printed the whole structure without any angle (relative to the build plate) at all on the resin printer. How come you did not have any skewness issues? I see many cases where they angle the piece in order to have a "better" print.
Hi Yannis;
You are right, angling the structure on a liquid resin printer is the norm but I have found if the structure is printed upright, supported more than normal you can get a good print. I only do this when print space is at. a premium. You need to watch the doors and windows making sure they are supported properly and I have found it seems to work best if ABS like resin is used. The overriding reason to print this one upright is I would have to cut it into two halves in order to print it on an angle due to its size. Angling is best in keeping supports down but straight up has its place.
Hope that helps.
Jim
Many thanks Jim for the explanations!
My plan is to print single walls (like on a kit), so i guess angled might work better. I tried to print a small gas pump (ho scale) vertical and i did not like so much how some lower parts turned out.
Quote from: Yannis on May 21, 2026, 03:09:52 AMMany thanks Jim for the explanations!
My plan is to print single walls (like on a kit), so i guess angled might work better. I tried to print a small gas pump (ho scale) vertical and i did not like so much how some lower parts turned out.
I agree, smaller parts angle them if you can. Biggest issue I run into is attempting to get a good print with as few supports as possible to keep blemishes down and sanding them off down. The slicer I am using is the Chitubox Basic. They added an auto orientation feature that helps. I use it as a start but if I can reduce supports I might adjust it. Please let me know how doing the walls individually comes out. I would angle the wall in that case. I'm not sure if you are going to have a tongue and groove slot set up to lock the walls together but I found epoxy cement is best to glue resin to resin parts.
Thanks
Jim
So I cleaned up the shell and using 3M 465 tape I applied the clapboard siding to the walls. The upper Coppola walls I opted for using epoxy cement. I was concerned the wood would separated from the shell when painted.the large walls were fine because I airbrushed several light coats to keep water getting to tape adhesive to minimum. The epoxy is water proof once dry so upper parts had no issues. If I did again I would just use epoxy for all wood siding, keeps it simple.Here is clapboard on main walls. When painting done I post again.
Jim
IMG_2786.jpeg
Jim that really looks great!!!
Jerry
Jim, congratulations on a successful print and getting it right the first time.
Jim excellent work!!!! Following with interest!
Of course i ll keep you posted on the prints. So far I am using the fdm printer for walls, and i use support columns on the inside in some cases. I ll also try epoxy (stronger) and have used in the past some types of plastic glue.
Quote from: Jerry on May 24, 2026, 12:07:24 AMJim that really looks great!!!
Jerry
Thanks! I should have a picture with windows in place within a week. I just finished printing them and painting them now need to put the glass in place.
Jim
Quote from: Rick on May 24, 2026, 05:25:47 AMJim, congratulations on a successful print and getting it right the first time.
Thanks Rick;
Frankly I think I got a little lucky since it was just upright. I took the chance since you won't see the shell when complete and any slight imperfection I could live with.Turned out almost perfect for my needs.
Jim
Quote from: Yannis on May 24, 2026, 09:49:21 AMJim excellent work!!!! Following with interest!
Of course i ll keep you posted on the prints. So far I am using the fdm printer for walls, and i use support columns on the inside in some cases. I ll also try epoxy (stronger) and have used in the past some types of plastic glue.
Very interested in seeing the FDM walls, I still have not taken the time to get mine dialed in.
Jim
Amazing! You have those dialed in!
Did you clean the 3D substructure first, before applying the double-stick tape? Any adhesion problems?
dave
Quote from: Philip on May 27, 2026, 09:11:51 AMAmazing! You have those dialed in!
Thanks Philip;
I guess you do it enough things get easier, mostly.
Jim
Quote from: deemery on May 27, 2026, 11:33:11 AMDid you clean the 3D substructure first, before applying the double-stick tape? Any adhesion problems?
dave
Hi Dave;After I make the initial structure it gets washed in an alcohol bath, small items like windows or doors go into an automatic wash and UV station I have. Bigger items like this building shell I wash in a bin loaded with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, The bin is 14 x14 and has a sealed cover so the alcohol does not evaporate. Once dry and UV cure finished I cleaned up any burrs left and roughed up the walls on the outside to improve the 'bite' for the tape, just a light sanding. The tape held up well considering I ended up putting 8 air brush layers altogether on the wood. I changed the color midway through painting. I ended up having to put touches of epoxy on the upper section near the roof line the rest stayed glued tight. I was actually a little surprised it held up so well.Jim
The Storage and Supply Building is coming along. The wood walls had the nail hole treatment on 3 foot centers, the wood siding had the 3M 465 tape applied to its backside and 'This Side Up' written on it to make sure I cut the clapboard in the proper direction. I sent a cut file to the little laser engraver I have from the CAD drawings previously made for the 3D printer. The laser uses an old Mac Laptop to operate so I can just grab the file from the internet. The 'shell' sides were roughed up a little with medium sandpaper to help ensure a good bite for the tape and I made sure any burrs were removed. Once cut the sides were attached, weight put on the sides for an hour each to ensure a good bond. Since I was still worried about the wood staying put I airbrushed light coats building up to the color I wanted. The wife said the color was terrible soooo I changed colors and did it again. I did have some small lifting of wood up near the roof line so put epoxy glue underneigh the area, weighted it until dry and problem fixed. Painted 3/32 x 3/32 strip wood ( Vallejo flat green) was placed in the corners. I ended up using Valajo Green Gray on the siding. When airbrushing I have settled on just using Vallejo. There are a lot of really good airbrush paints out there but each has its own quirks. By staying with one brand I only need to remember one set of quirks.
Next up is windows and doors which is how you see the structure as it is right now. All the windows are tilt style since pickle factories were very fragrant. I designed them based on photos of real factory windows and 3D printed them. I use real slip cover microscope slide glass in almost all my structures and have developed a 'pocket' system enabling me to slide the cut glass into the window to hold it in place. The slit opening on the one end of the window frame that allows the glass to slide into place is then dabbed with canopy glue locking everything. I can cut and place about 10-12 windows an hour these days. I will glue the windows in place either open or closed as needed. The warehouse doors will be a sliding double door arrangement and will be able to manually move open or closed. I designed and printed the track system for the doors with the upper and lower tracks attached to the inside door frame. You can see them in the last photo showing the inside of the shell.
So here are a couple of photos. The one end has all windows in place. The glass is very clear in this photo so you'll need to zoom in to see the reflection. The side photo shows the warehouse framing and the third photo shows the inside. I have a lot more windows to make and install then on to the doors. I'm thinking Dutch doors just because I like them.
Jim
End on View with Windows In place.jpeg
Side View warehouse Door Frames In place.jpeg
Inner Warehouse Tracks can be seen.jpeg
This is really turning out nice.
Great coloring and the windows are perfect.
Jerry
Howdy Jim, the S&S building is looking terrific. What type of roofing do you plan to use? Have fun, mike
Cool idea how you make the windows so the glass fits into them. They look great as does the whole structure.
Jeff
Quote from: Jerry on May 27, 2026, 10:54:08 PMThis is really turning out nice.
Great coloring and the windows are perfect.
Jerry
Thank you Jerry. My better have took charge of the colors after she saw what started with. I would have liked the green a little darker but should be OK.
Jim
Quote from: friscomike on May 28, 2026, 07:39:42 AMHowdy Jim, the S&S building is looking terrific. What type of roofing do you plan to use? Have fun, mike
Hi Mike;
I am planning on a corrugated roof for this building. I love the thin paper based ones available (forget who off top of my head). Before I do that I need to 3D print 'roof skirts for all three roof sections. The skirts will provide the overhang and the truss tails around the edge of the current roofs. I wasn't sure how much I wanted as overhang so went small knowing I'd add later.
Jim
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on May 28, 2026, 08:13:55 AMCool idea how you make the windows so the glass fits into them. They look great as does the whole structure.
Jeff
Hi Jeff and thank you. We had a member Bob Parrish who got me started with glass. I am not sure what happened with Bob, lost track of him when the Forum went down for a bit. Anyhow as time went by I did get better at it but when I figured out how to 3D print the pocket idea came to me. The ones for this building are the best yet. Because of the slip in pocket no glue touches the glass directly. I always had issues with the glue showing in the corner of an otherwise good looking window.
Jim
Jim, that's looking very good.
Quote from: Rick on May 29, 2026, 06:32:27 AMJim, that's looking very good.
Thank you Rick. I need to start being betteer at keepint the model 'clean' I tend to get stuff dirty then have to go back and clean it all up again. in this case the interior.
Jim
I am going to share a side journey I took today on the pickle factory. The factory needs barrels and wooden tanks, lots of both. So, I have been doing the research on how wooden tanks for pickles were made, much like water tanks it turned out. I won't bore you with all the neat stuff AI helped me find in an hour, just that things were a lot more structured in 1910 then I ever thought. Engineering groups had laid out standards and recommendations for type, size, method of construction, and so on.
So my big question was what type of band was used to hold the wood boards (turns out on a water tank they are called staves). The band (called a hoop) was normally an iron round band with its ends threaded. Each end was slid through a device called a cinch with a double washer on each side and a nut of proper size put in place to tightened and 'cinch' the hoop tight to the boards. So here is a photo a friend gave me of one:
cinch clamp.jpg
I thought wow I will just bang this out on Tinkercad and away I go!..... THREE hours later I got it done. On both ends not seen are .5mm round openings to thread EZ line through. I will have the heavy version wrapping around the tank stretched so it holds everything tight. The threads ends go into each side of the cinch, with the underneath side being hollow a dab of CA glue holds everything together. You can see the 'bottom' and the top of the CAD design below:
Cinch.jpg
I had learned the two usual sizes for these was 6 inches and 8 inches. I dropped the design into the 3D printer after converting it and printed both sizes, 20 of each. Of the twenty 6 inch I was unable to get the heavy EZ line through both sides. I could get one or the other, not both and as they are fragile 20 samples and a couple hours later I said OK won't work. I know I'm a little stubborn. The 8 inch size worked first time. I wrapped the band around my test tank and we have a cinched hoop!
test water tank.jpeg
So after the better part of a day I had success! Oh wait, the above photo was taken 3 inches from the cinch. Here is that same shot from 18 inches:
tech trumps eyes.jpeg
OK so it is small, tiny, some might call it a speck and certainly it is a classic example of technology having improved way beyond what my eyes can see. But I am going to have the coolest pickle tanks around! Now I just need to find a single thread that is elastic so you don't see the multiple strands that make up EZ line when you are taking pictures from 3 inches away!
Nice work! What made this shape so challenging to capture?
dave
Mostly me. Tinkercad added a couple of advance shape making tools and I got caught up in trying to figure them out and before I knew it and hour and half had slipped away.
Jim
Quote from: Jim Donovan on May 31, 2026, 11:39:33 AMMostly me. Tinkercad added a couple of advance shape making tools and I got caught up in trying to figure them out and before I knew it and hour and half had slipped away.
Jim
"Look, a shiny new toy!" ;D
dave
Jim, have you looked at fish line? It can be a possibility for the the bands.
Great work!
I made a few from brass tube and then resin cast them before 3dp was around. My tanks shows the cable in plastic. Karl's suggestion about fishing line is the better choice. You can paint the line with a black marker and it actually doesn't wipe off or flake and a bit stretchy. Mount Blue models include fishing line for their truss rods. So much easier to deal with than wire or plastic.
bands.jpg
The fun part is always chasing down the prototype. ;D These are on a feed mill silo in Irvington, KY
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg
Quote from: KentuckySouthern on May 31, 2026, 07:10:13 PMJim, have you looked at fish line? It can be a possibility for the the bands.
Great Idea and I plan to use it. Thanks
JIm
Quote from: Philip on May 31, 2026, 09:13:58 PMThe fun part is always chasing down the prototype. ;D These are on a feed mill silo in Irvington, KY
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg
Thanks Phillip;
Great photos thanks. I will be using the poly fishing line for the hoops as suggested. I remember when poly line just came out and was suppose to be tangle free, it wasn't and I can't remember the number of times I lost a a fish because of that stretching characteristic. The newer lines out like fireline and such have zero stretch but that is another story. Poly line is now the poor mans choice in fishing but perfect for this project. By the way I still use polyline on salt water leaders, ocean fish hit hard and the slight give can save the day from the rest of the line breaking.
When using 3D printing for a project expect it to add a lot of time for completion. It enables a ton of additional detailing and customization but at the price of time. Unless you are simply downloading and printing on-line files the CAD drawing alone takes up 50% of all time. Not because you design it but because you tweek this and then that and then again. For this project all the windows, doors and a complete interior will have a lot of 3D printing involved.
Anyhow I have added the 48 panes with the real glass and the two dutch doors, warehouse doors and today the corrugated material which will become corrugated panels when painted. I attached the roof using two sided tape. It really adheres to the resin shell well. So here are a couple of photos showing the windows and a first look at where the building will sit when done. While I am making a complete building the backside will be hidden when on the layout due to space limitations.. There will be three smaller buildings in the open space you see, all connected, two processing building and the office.
That about covers the use of a resin shell in building. Hope it gave you some ideas. I will post here final pictures when done but that is three buildings and interiors in the future.
Thanks for stopping by.
Jim
windows installed.jpeg
Canal Look.jpeg