First shapeways project: ATSF hexagonal phone booth

[randgust]

I spent a good part of the post-Christmas holiday with my son, who got me 'over the hump' working with 3-d modeling, and two weeks later, here's the first 'Randgust' creation out on Shapeways - the Santa Fe standard hexagonal phone booth in N:







This was a great beginner project for me on Shapeways, and it's a real signature piece for ATSF modelers.  These lasted up until the mid-80's across the western lines.  It's also next to impossible to do a decent N model any other way as the multi-plane geometry and size is very challenging.

Here's a prototype:  http://atsf.railfan.net/structures/pbdalies2.jpg

Search for 'ATSF Phone' on Shapeways and you'll come right up with it.

[peteski]

A model of a structure unique to the railroad.  Very nice Randy!  I like it!  Plus, the fact that it is supposed to be wood puts the layering effect of FUD printing to a good use.  One of these days I have to jump on the Shapeways bandwagon.  I have couple of ideas, and I played a bit with SketchUp. One of these days...

[draskouasshat]

Are you going to offer these up as castings?

[peteski]

Are you going to offer these up as castings?

...or just directly from Shapeways?  These are tiny. These probably don't cost much to print (assuming they are hollow).

[randgust]

They are hollow so the price even from Shapeways is like $8.75.  You can get them effective yesterday.

I'm going to clean one up and see if I can make it into a master.   Should work OK, but I'll guarantee you that the Shapeways one will be sharper, mine maybe smoother, but those lines around the windows and the sharp edges on the battens are hard to beat.

[nscaleSPF2]

I like it too. 

You should be able to reduce the layering effect if you print the roof separate from the sides.  With the current part, the overhang of the roof exaggerates the layering on the sides.  The window sills may still cause some layering under the sills, though.

Just a suggestion to save some work.

Jim Hale

[arbomambo]

GREAT!!!!!
~Bruce

[wcfn100]

They are hollow so the price even from Shapeways is like $8.75.

Much of that is the material setup fee.  If you can, try and make a four pack.  The final price won't be much more than it is now.

Jason

[randgust]

Yeah, I'm going to work on getting a 3-pack loaded this weekend, that should hit a pretty good price point.

I'm still pretty new at this.    Nobody could be more surprised than I was when I opened the box and it came out this well!   I know this is populated with rivet-counters, but the only 'tweak' I made on the dimensions was the wall thickness to give it some structure.  The battens are drawn at the proper actual dimensions, even the thickness of the roofing paper, and it did actually render.  The only thing that mysteriously disappeared was the doorknob.   We'll doublecheck that one.

One thing I'm almost certain of is that they two I ordered were NOT oriented the same way when they were printed, so that I still think that trying to design to work around the orientation is pure luck at best.   On this design the layering really isn't objectionable at all.   On others I've seen it really is.  Until you can lock the orientation by choice no matter how obvious you make it it's a crapshoot.

[Chris333]

So you jump over CAD and right into 3D    I still can't do 3D.  As for the orientation, yeah I know. I recently ordered 20 small dump cars from Shapeways and they all look like they were printed at a different angles. One car that is fuzzy in a certain area will be completely smooth on another car.

[randgust]

That's OK.  You absolutely mastered photoetching and I've concluded it's just as messy and not as financially rewarding as other similarly hazardous chemical experiments one could do in the basement!

I used sketchup, although my son swears by Blender.   One tip, don't have the PUSH/PULL tool active when you have a sneezing fit while holding the mouse. It looks like you sneezed right into the digital model.   Another is to get a manual; I made it all the way through the tutorials and couldn't remember anything, let alone find it.   I'm enough of a Luddite I still need a book.

[up1950s]

Could be used as a crossing gate shanty , parking lot gate keeper , or blended into roofs as turrets on dated buildings .

[Joetrain59]

Phonebooth? Or an outhouse????? LOL

[3rdboxcar]

I'm going to clean one up and see if I can make it into a master.   

I know people who have printed in metal and cast from that, just got to figure in a shrinkage factor in the drawing.

Alexander

[Lemosteam]

I think these small structuress are perfect for Shapeways.  Nice model Randy!    If you can make a pack on a sprue, is it more likely that they will try to print the sprue (and so the model) horizontal?