Trains + 3d printing

[Reece Arnott]

Giving that I was demoing 3d printing at the Otago Model Engineering
Society this weekend I thought this was quite topical.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theflexiscaleco/3d-printed-kits-of-the-ffestiniog-englands-from-la

"The Ffestiniog Englands are the world's oldest working narrow gauge
engines. We're laser scanning them to make the most accurate kits"

I mentioned it to a couple of people there and they seemed quite
interested but I never got around to giving them the link so if you know
anyone who may be interested, feel free to pass this on to them
(although I'll also email the address on their webpage).

--
Reece Arnott
Dunedin
New Zealand

[arduino-novice]

As the 3D printer cost decreases and the print quality increase, 3D scanning/printing will become a major process in low-volume model making.....

The printer I used can only print with a layer thickness of 200 microns, and can already have a reasonable quality for the O scale (1:43) models, so a modern 100-micron printer can do even better, and can possibly tackle smaller scales such as HO scale (1:87) which is the most common scale in model railways.

This development will certainly slash the very high price of limited run models.