Welcome to our first blogpost!
We are building our own NS 1700 in HO/OO scale.
During this project we will give insights in the processes involved in building a HO/OO locomotive with our 3D printable files. We'll share tips and tricks, show the materials and tools we use and give you the 3D printer settings that we use.
The goal of this project is to produce a rolling model of the NS 1700 class steam locomotive in HO/OO scale. No electronics in this one.
Want to build along?
All you need to build our models is a 3d printer and the files, and perhaps some tools like clippers and sandpaper. the files that we are going to use for this build can be purchases in our webshop.
Slicing the files for 3D printing
Our journey starts with the files for this build. The plan is to print all files and start assembling the kit after all the parts are done.
The frame of the locomotive consists of 88 files. The main body consists of 59 files. The tender has 53 files.
Let's start with making a testprint to check if our printer is working correctly.
For the testprint I have selected a few parts that form a good baseline for quality checks.The smallest wheels, together with some bigger frame parts and axles will be printed in this test print.
The estimated print time is 2 hours and 22 minutes
The print settings
Print settings are a crucial part of making good looking parts. We print with PETG. This material needs a bit of tweeking to get it to print correctly.
PLA is more forgiving and usually gives really clean prints. PETG doesn't like to play nice like that. The prints are often stringy and need a lot of cleanup.
Why print with PETG then?
the reason that we use PETG is that it is a material that is very sturdy, has good mechanical properties and has a higher deformation temperature. This means that you can use PETG prints outside cooking in direct sunlight without them deforming like PLA prints. And that's absolutely worth the hassle for us. Feel free to use our settings if you're also printing with PETG. They go slow and steady.
The printer
We find it very important that everyone must be able to print our models, even on very cheap printers. For this reason we print all our prototypes on standard Creality Ender 3 printers. The only upgrade we make to our printers is exchanging the plastic bits on the bowden extruder with metal parts. The rest of the printers stay fully stock.
For this build we use an Ender 3 with a 0.2MM nozzle.
Printing
Upload, pre-heat and go! Enjoy the show of the printer working on it's first batch for this locomotive.
Results
The parts are properly small! But they look very good nontheless.
All in all a good first step into this project. We only encountered stuff that worked and things that went our way. Pretty good for a Friday the 13th.
So far this first part of our build. Check back soon for the next parts.
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