Good Morning Jeff and all the rest that pop in. These are my two buddies that wake me up in the morning by licking my ear letting me know it is time to get up and take them out. Now if I can just teach them to turn the coffee pot on life would be perfect. Central Florida seems to be settling into its normal routine of 90 degree weather and afternoon to evening thunderstorms in area. Got an inch yesterday. 

I have the guys (ACL Tom calls us the Village Mafia, kind of fits) coming over for a couple hours of modeling and bull xxxx. Other than that just normal stuff. Have a great day.

Jim (plus Holly and Franklin)

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

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: 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

Good Morning Jeff and all who follow;

Made progress on current project yesterday, hope to do a little more today. The rain arrived last night which we sure can use and temps today are going to be a repeat of yesterday, mid 90's so I better get my walk in this morning.

Off for coffee, have a great day.


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

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

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: 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

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: 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

Good Morning Jeff and all that follow:

Another hot one in Florida, going into the 90's but perhaps rain. Weatherman says so anyhow, we will see. I am making progress on the Pickle factory, I'm at an enjoyable phase so all good. Hope everyone enjoyed Memorial Day and has a great day today.

Jim

A late evening check in. Just wanted to thank all that have served to keep our country safe. Deb and I were at the Florida National Cemetery yesterday helping place flags on each grave and thanking each personally for their service. It was amazing, there are over 200,000 graves and the outpouring of volunteers to help was such that we arrived at 9:30 am and the entire cemetery was completed by 10:30. We had expected to be needed for the entire day. I would say Americans are still very much proud of our country and especially to those who serve. I wish everyone a great Memorial Day this 250th year of the Union.

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

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