SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Can anybody recommend a suitable 3d printer. I do model railway stuff and am thinking of making waggon/coach underframes and bodies. I'm getting to grips with Freecad 0.18 having tried Designspark. I found Designspark to clunky and disliked the tie in with RS.
Not coding, but I thought this forum might be suitable for such a question. Have fun CpS.

..well..if you are looking for quite good surface quality, ill recommend ANYCUBIC Photon M3 Max MSLA 3D Printer . Price seems to be very reasonable considering that surface quality is really really smooth..

If you need "details" and have access to fresh air (so not your man cave) use resin printers (SLA, like Naughty Alien suggested).

Classic 3D printers are able to print ABS -- which is what you most probably would prefer for sturdy waggon underframes. But they are less "detailed" so depending on the scale of your railway stuff (here we are used to H0, NN). The smaller the more details will be "lost" during printing.

So maybe tell us more about the "sizes" of elements you want to create. Figurines, little benches ... are hard to do. Printing some barrels and coloring them with acrylic paint ... is doable even with 120 Euro printers.


bye
Ron

Many thanks for the input. I'm avoiding the resin route as I just don't need that much detail (old eyes). The scale is 4mm to the foot which would mean a max 20Cm length if I do coach bodies. I did mess on with 3mm for a while but had a change of heart. Have fun cps.

Ah so scale/gauge is 1:76. I had to print stuff for "TT" (Table Top) which is 1:120. Had no issues to print stuff like "bridges" or "walls" but printing small humans ... let's describe it as "you had to have skills in painting in details" .
With 1:76 things get easier as you will have no issues to print some face details so that it at least looks a bit like a nose, eye holes, mouth portion. So same to say for train elements.

But: you need a bit of sturdyness (so maybe print with PET-G as it is easier to do in rooms than ABS). Also pay attention to maximum dimensions printers offer. 20cm will be possible. way Bigger elements need to be "cut" (or be designed in a way that it contains "snap together" elements - or surfaces big enough for some super glue) .

3d printer stuff is good as "basement" compared to classic "wood craft" + card board/paper/glue. Yet you at the end will still glue on your "grass" or paint in rivers etc.


bye
Ron