Member postings for John Baguley

That was the reason I went for the D5S MIni. All the frame is steel and it's pretty solid. The Z axis uses a proper 16mm ballscrew.

The type using threaded rods etc. must shake like a jelly when they are printing and there is no way you are going to get accurately aligned layers which is critical for good surface finishes. I'm not convinced about the printers that use thin plastic and plywood for the frames either, although the Ultimakers seem pretty good, maybe the best of the 'hobby' type printers actually but not the cheapest by a long way.

As mentioned before, my Mini was let down by poor quality rods and bearings but it didn't cost much to sort that. out. Originally, the end of the nozzle could rock from side to side by something like 0.5mm.

Whilst I agree that you need to spend a lot of time with the settings to get the best results, if the mechanics of the machine are not accurate enough, the results will still be substandard.

If I had the time I would have built one from scratch but I've just got too many other things on at the moment. For me it was quicker to buy a reasonable printer ready built and modify it if necessary.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 19/01/2015 12:38:02

Edited By John Baguley on 19/01/2015 12:39:04

I think it's only when you start to use the printer for serious work that you find the real problems with them. A lot of people seem to use them as just a 'toy' and seem happy with the finish etc. that they produce. I'm sure all of them can be improved though with a bit of work and maybe different software.

Reading on the forums, it seems the slicing software to have is Simplify3D. Unfortunately, it's not free but people changing over to it have reported vast improvements in print quality over the stock software that usually comes with the printers.

Unfortunately, the Wanhao D5S range use a unique format for the print files that they use (i files) so can't read standard Gcode files that most of the slicers produce. However, there is a slicer (Ideamaker) that has a translate function built in to it that will translate Gcode files to the Wanhao i format so you can use other slicers instead of the Wanhaomaker that is supplied. I've been able to try a couple of other slicers (Ideamaker and Cura) with success to see if my problem is slicer based.

I'm still chasing the problem with poor finish on wheel spokes but without a lot of success at the moment. I'm still not sure yet whether it's the printer or the software. There's not much left I can do to the printer! The finish on exterior surfaces is very very good. It's almost like glass and at 0.1mm layer height you can hardly see or feel the layers so the printer is obviously capable of good results. The prints are very strong as well so layer adhesion is good. I'm on my 3rd roll of filament without a failed print so far. Just this d**n problem with the spokes

Nigel - I decided against buying one off Ebay as well for the reasons you state - the possibility of poor or non existent support.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 18/01/2015 10:41:10

Some of the singles did run with a smaller 6 wheel tender later in life.

I think Martin refered readers to the Nigel Gresley tender for the general construction of the tender chassis. He only gives very brief details for the POW 6 wheel tender i.e. the frame plates and a general arrangement drawing. No details of buffer beams, frame stretchers etc.

John

In the articles Martin says that the POW tender is very similar in construction to the tender for Nigel Gresley so I would say that the distance between the frames should be 6.375"

John

I doubt it will make much difference in our sizes. In full size, the water issuing from top feeds fell onto perforated trays which gave it time to absorb some heat from the steam before mixing with the water in the boiler. It also helped to deposit some of the minerals out of the feed water onto the trays rather than in the boiler itself.

John

They sound the same design as the doors in my 1930s house Neil. They and all the woodwork were also painted with some sort of varnish that took ages to get off with a hot air gun and scraper as it went like chewing gum. Next doors had theirs stripped but it did affect the glued joints as well.

John

I received my copies this morning. Last day for ordering is now the 31st of January so get in there!

John

That would probably work but I think the printing speeds would have to be very low due to the large mass of the components in a milling machine compared to a dedicated 3D printer?

John

Having spent a lot of time reading forums etc. about printing and the various printers, the 'hobby' class printers seem to be let down by using cheap inferior components in the gantry systems i.e the rods, bearings and pulleys. That was certainly the case with the Wanhao that I bought and the Ultimakers etc. have the same problems. These printers are built to as low a cost as possible to make the prices attractive and inevitably corners are cut.

I replaced all the rods on the Wanhao as they were either undersize or slightly bent and also the two linear bearings that the print head slides on. Before, the head could rock from side to side which wouldn't help the accuracy of the prints. It's now rock steady and much improved. If you have to go down this route and go for the cheaper chinese linear bearings, buy at least twice as many as you need as you'll find all the fits will be different!

Fortunately, the mods to mine didn't cost that much compared to the cost of the printer and I expected to have to do some work on it myself anyway.

On the whole, the surface finish from the Wanhao is superb, much better than prints from most other 'hobby' machines that I've seen. I've used about 1 ½ rolls of filament so far and never had a failed print so long as the bed levelling is correct. I can happilly just set it going and leave it to it's own devices and often leave it printing overnight.

I still haven't got to the bottom of the problem with spoked wheels though, where the finish on the spokes is not as good as the hub and rim. It's really bugging me! There's no problem at all with solid objects.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 09/01/2015 12:12:05

I just screwed mine to the wall behind the lathe so it was out of the way of chips and any spray from suds when I do use them.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 07/01/2015 17:20:43

Hi Keith,

Haven't built one so can't help with the blast nozzle size but the elbows are indeed connections for a condensate drain valve. They are piped to a valve mounted behind the rear cylinder drain cock and operated by the same linkage.Details are shown on sheet 8 of the drawings (bottom right).

John

There's still nothing in the regs that covers an external steam pipe, even if the safety valve is fed from that pipe. The inspector presumably assumes that a 1/4" pipe is not adequate to relieve the pressure via the safety valve. That can easily be determined by the steam test. If the inside diameter of the pipe is equal to or greater than the diameter of the seat in the safety valve then it should be fine. If the boiler passes the accumulation test and the pressure doesn't rise above 10% of the working pressure (50psi?) with the burner on full then there shouldn't be a problem.

At the end of the day though you have to satisfy the inspector (even if he is wrong!) if you want the boiler tested. I'm sure it's no big deal to increase the diameter of the pipe if that will make him happy.

John

George, what the inspector told your mate is a load of rubbish. The steam piping is external to the boiler and not covered by the regs.

John

Don't forget that the machined surface of the shoes needs to match the taper on the wheel tread, otherwise the shoes will not sit square when the brakes are applied.

John

That reminds me of a Chuck cartoon in an old ME where he machines a boiler out of the solid!

John

Mine will be used for sand casting as well. It is possible to use patterns made from PLA in 'lost' PLA casting where the pattern is used directly and burnt out by the molten metal, as in lost foam casting. The cost of the material is so cheap that that becomes a viable proposition.

I've no doubt I will find many other uses for the printer once I get into it. I'm already thinking about printed tool racks for the workshop!

I printed out some squares today and found that the corners were not all at 90° so it seems the X and Y axes were not correctly aligned. A quick check confirmed this. I've realigned them now and there seems to be a definite improvement in the finish on the spokes

I'm aiming to print with 0.05mm layers reliably. Although there is little noticeable difference on the finish between 0.05 and 0.1mm layers on a vertical surface, it makes a big difference on a curved surface. Each layer produces a very visible step in the curve and the smaller the layers, the smaller and less noticeable the steps.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 26/12/2014 16:56:24

So far I've found the general surface finish with the Wanhao to be really good, much better than I expected. I am having an issue with it though in that the surface finish is not consistent. When I print out a spoked wheel pattern the finish on the rim is excellent but the finish on the spokes is not as good, as if the layers don't quite line up properly. Haven't sussed out why yet.

I've rebuilt the gantry of the printer with better quality rods and bearings which has helped ( some of the original rods were slightly bent and the bearings a poor fit) but the problem is still there. I'll get it sorted though. I wasn't expecting the printer to be good enough for what I want straight out of the box but to be fair it was pretty good.

John

Ordered a set yesterday as a Xmas present to myself. Works out at £68.37 in UK money for the drawings for over 90 locos and several books.

I bought the set for the 25NC a few years back and they are excellent quality containing the original scans (over 500 drawings) , a pdf version, and some CAD drawings as well.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 26/12/2014 10:45:51

I used my Denham last week to finish turning the treads on some wheels for a 7.25" B1 for a chap at our club. I thought it would be a doddle but couldn't avoid chatter when turning the flange. I finished up having to turn the faceplate by hand to get a decent finish. Maybe the 30 rpm bottom speed wasn't slow enough for this job or there may be a bit of play in the two big angular contact ball bearings at the chuck end of the spindle. I changed all the other bearings in the head when I rebuilt it but these two seemed ok. At 3.5" od I think it would probably cost an arm and a leg to replace them!

John

Hi Ron,

Not used one myself yet but people seem to have good success with them. The only thing is that you need one that will withstand the temperatures. If it's going in the boiler it needs to be able to withstand at least 160/170 °C and maybe 200°C if fitted in the smokebox. An ordinary gas valve may not be rated for such high temperatures as the seals may be a low melting point plastic (could be wrong though). I think the higher temperature ones may have PTFE or metal seals.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 21/12/2014 13:31:22