Using a 3D printer to make the building 'Shell'

[Rick]

Jim, that's looking very good.

[Jim Donovan]

Jim, 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

[Jim Donovan]

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:



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:



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!



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:



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!

[deemery]

Nice work!   What made this shape so challenging to capture?

dave

[Jim Donovan]

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

[deemery]

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

"Look, a shiny new toy!"     

dave

[KentuckySouthern]

Jim, have you looked at fish line?  It can be a possibility for the the bands.

[Philip]

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.

[Philip]

The fun part is always chasing down the prototype. These are on a feed mill silo in Irvington, KY

[Jim Donovan]

Jim, 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

[Jim Donovan]

The fun part is always chasing down the prototype. These are on a feed mill silo in Irvington, KY

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.

[Jim Donovan]

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