1907 Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge CAD designed and 3D Printed

[Jim Donovan]

That is quite a complex bridge project, Jim.  The printing is well done and your CAD drawings are more artistic in themselves.  CAD is where I've fallen short in my 3D endeavors. So far I've found enough drawings online to keep printing as much as I can. There are some nice projects ready to slice and print available.

Karl;

Thanks appreciate you following along. You are right, you really don't need to create your own items there are so many showing up on sites like Thingverse. Frankly many of them are beyond my abilities for sure.

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

I've also been following. Congratulations!

Thanks! appreciate it.

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

Howdy Jim,

Wow, the bridge looks amazing.  It's well-engineered and printed.

Have fun,
mike

Thanks Mike. Appreciate it.

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

Well it has been a couple of months and I thought I better catch this project up. Unfortunately I ran into issues with the project as I moved forward. I used the standard gray resin from Anycubic like most projects I have made but it proved a bad choice. Many of the beams and plates are .2mm thick. The resin proved to be too brittle and weak when working this thin. This resulted in making compromises to fit things together and the results unfortunately show it. Because of this I stopped showing progress as I do not feel the workmanship is of a level worth sharing. Overall it was a good learning experience and the next bridge will take all I learned and be far better. The first change will be to use ABS like resin. It is far stronger and not brittle. It will handle the tight tolerances much better. The second will be to design the parts in such a way as they slide into each other to ensure being square. CA glue used sets too fast to have the time needed to ensure the parts are perfectly square.

With that disclaimer out of the way here are photos of the bridge with most  everything in place. It will still look fine on my layout given were it will be placed and people will only be able to get within a couple of feet.







I still need to touch up the bridge and finish the overall scene but the bridge itself is done. I will post a couple of finished scene photos when completed. 

[Rick]

Jim, I think it looks fantastic!
Congratulations on an outstanding model.

[deemery]

It looks really good.  Of course, everything we build is a learning experience for the next time.

dave

[Bernd]

Jim,

That looks very nice. It be really would be neat to have an etched brass version and make it actually function.

Bernd

[deemery]

Jim,

That looks very nice. It be really would be neat to have an etched brass version and make it actually function.

Bernd

I would think the way to do that is to do the core structure in etched brass, and then add 3D printed overlays, etc, to finish the model.

dave

[Jerry]

Jim an outstanding model.

Jerry

[GPdemayo]

Great looking bridge Jim, well done.....

[jbvb]

Regardless of the problems you encountered, you've got an extremely unique and detailed model there.  I wonder if epoxy's curing time would have helped?  It certainly would have slowed down the job.

[elwoodblues]

Jim,

I can see the issues you had with the printing process, but that was only after taking a second look at it very carefully.  With the issues you stated a think you did a great job overcoming them and you should be proud of the result.  I hate to say this but a lot of people would have given up instead of persevering.  I for one would be honoured to have that bridge on my layout.

Very well done.

[Zephyrus52246]

I think the bridge looks great.   A nice scene with the bridge keeper's hut, too.

Jeff