Information
FAQs Page
Contents
Payment Process
Error Reprints
Rescaling into other scales/gauges
Help the Store!
Material Information
Material Warnings
Regarding selling the STL Files
Payment Process
Just to help avoid confusion, payment is typically done via Paypal Invoice or Bank Transfer manually instead of automatically via the webstore, this is mostly due to that I want customers to see the final print beforehand, so payment on the store is set to "Bill Me / Pay Later", which means that no money is taken there and then.
Which personally I prefer as it means no money is exchanged until I've printed the order to a standard I'm happy with and the customer has seen photos of the order and is satisfied with the end result as well, only then should money be exchanged!
So please don't feat about no money being exchanged at the end of your order, this is normal and please feel free to order without worry!
Payments taken via Paypal will have a 5% Paypal Fee applied to them to account to the fee Paypal take on the transaction, this is currently now automatically added to the total on the website!
Error Reprinting
In the event that an item of an order needs to be reprinted, this is only in the case of major faults to the model such as significate structural damage or to highly detailed areas, places which the printers do have issues with (eg. the solebars) are not covered by this as it is likely that they will fail yet again unless there is significate issues with the area.
Scales which take longer than 3hrs to print (eg. OO Gauge) are less likely to be reprinted unless it's an extreme print failure, and a repair will be attempted instead. This is due to the amount of time and material that is required to create these items and isn't economical and leads to more waste as the cured material isn't recyclable.
Rescaling into other scales/gauges
I am also open to printing my designs at other scales if the design is durable enough to print, typically smaller items can be upscaled without issues, though downscaling will need a redesign, though will be charged accordingly due to the extra work and material differences.
Currently all my designs are made for 1:148 British N Gauge, I have printed in HO, TT and OO Gauges, and now have a larger printer to work in these scales without the need to cut designs in half (which to be fair, I wasn't too happy with)
But with the new bigger printer I shouldn't have any issues printing any of my items up to OO Gauge, O Gauge however still limited to what they can order.
When happy with everything after successful prints, will begin adding them to the range as per normal!
Below is a list of what I can print between my two 3d printers currently as whole pieces up to these 1:1 lengths and price differences
| Scale and price difference from N |
Elegoo Mars 4 Max (195 x 122 x 150 mm) |
Elegoo Jupiter SE (278 x 156 x 300 mm) |
Time to Print one coach (Roughly) |
| Z Gauge (1:220) x0.6 | Full range of items | Too Fragile to Print | 1 hour |
| 2mm Fine Scale (1:152) x0.9 | Full range of items | Too Fragile to Print | 2 hours |
| N Gauge (1:148) x1.0 | Full range of items | Too Fragile to Print | 2 hours |
| TT Gauge (1:120) x1.2 | Up to 64ft Long | Full range of items | 3 hours |
| TT 3mm Scale (1:101.6) x1.3 | Up to 60ft Long | Full range of items | Untested |
| HO Gauge (1:87) x1.5 | Up to 50ft Long | Full range of items | 4 1/2 hours |
| OO Gauge (1:76.2) x1.6 | Up to 40ft Long | Up to 64ft Long | 5 hours |
| S Gauge (1:64) x1.8 | Up to 35ft Long | Up to 51ft Long | Untested |
| O Gauge (1:43.5) x2.0 | Up to 20ft Long | Up to 35ft Long | Untested |
Now with the testing of smaller than N Gauge items, I am now able to offer them to customers on the store, however outside of N Gauge, all other models are rescaled from N Gauge, so material thicknesses will be effected, and anything smaller than N/2mm won't feature any interior walls and just be body shells only.
Help the Store!
With all the avaiable items that are now listed on ths store, adding the useful historical or contruction methods for each product is a daughting task for just the single person, let alone if I know it all!
But this is where all of you wonderful people can help with the store!
If you know some useful information about the prototype of the product (eg. History, Eras/Area used etc), or some useful tips on how you went about putting your model together that might be important to know for everyone!
How would one do this?
Well just let us know the item in particular (title, product ID or URL), a short paragraph or two of historical/construction info, and then simply just send it over!
Then after formating it a bit for the website, it will appear shortly on the product, with credit to the one who provided the info!
Material Information
My prints are made from water washable Photopolymer Resin, mostly due to it's easier to wash off with just any normal water than using alcohol.
The print process itself usually takes about two hours, this just depends on how tall the item is, so smaller items take less time and taller take longer.
Printing is done under a light cover to block out any stray light source.
After this, and after any remaining resin is allowed to run off the build plate, the prints are given an initial wash for thirty minutes in a tank with a propeller at the bottom to agitate the water.
After this the prints are given another wash under flowing water to wash off any remaining fluid resin prior to the curing process.
The models are now freed from their support struts at this point, which unfortunately at this point isn't recyclable, though looking into how to reuse them!
Once free and given one more wash, the models are checked over for any issues, if anything I note them down so can fix later on and reprint, if all good they are placed inside the curing machine, which blasts them from three sides with UV lights on a rotating turntable.
After at least fifteen minutes, the models are turned around and given another blast under the UV lights for around twenty minutes.
Total time under the UV lamps is at least thirty minutes or so.
| Printing | Around 2hrs |
| 1st Washing | 30mins |
| 2nd & 3rd Washing | 15mins |
| Curing | 25mins then another 25mins |
| Total | Around 3hrs 30mins per cycle |
And lastly, the models are left to sit, upright and to the side somewhere to allow any minor warping to right itself, once a day has passed, pictures will be sent to the customer, upon approval then they are packed up securely and safely to be sent off the next day!
Material Warnings
One last thing to add, the material, regardless of thickness, is brittle, there is some amount of flex in it but please always do handle it with care and not apply too much force to it.
Also while it's not required, you can wash the models at home if you wish, however please do NOT use washing up liquid at all, as it will effect the material and cause it to deform, it is possible to correct this however it can be tricky, please just use clear cool water to wash the material.
Also, please do avoid any other strong chemicals, while I've not done an extensive test on them, it's best to not attempt using them (unless you want to help me test them all that is!), this includes chemicals like nail varnish remover, acetone, paint stripper etc which are commonly used chemicals used in modelling, they will effect the material adversely.
Regarding selling the STL Files
I'll mention this here since I've yet to work out where better else to put it, might condense all these pages into a combined FAQs page, but to answer the question in short:
No
I am not interested in anyway in selling the stl files of anything I produce, as understandabilty I have then given someone unlimited access to print that model and I gain very little from that transaction.
It is unfair to ask anyone that produces models for the files used in selling that product, it would be the same as going to a bakery and telling them you'd buy the recipe to one of their cakes for "own uses", unless it's writing in a contract that you'd legally have to abid to, I'm sorry it'll always be a no as I cannot trust that they don't try to distribute my designs themselves.
I am not in the business of selling or giving away recipes to my products, and as many times I've had people asking before, it will get the same result.