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NormL

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    Norm Larson

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  1. Well I see that it has been 4.5 years since I posted, LOL. I bought some 3D printers and have learned the hard way what can go wrong. I bought an AON M to print full scale fenders and fairings and have learned that big prints are very much harder than little ones. It is FDM and has an 18" x 18" x 25" print area along with two other FDM's for smaller work. I see that the Form 3 has finally been released and I need one of them as well. When I got the large printer, all effort went into learning and then making large objects, so, the Atom model was sidelined. When I get an SLA (the Form 3) I will circle back to the Atom model. Until then, here is a 1/256th scale Ariel Atom printed using sintered stainless steel I also made some Minions I had to make a filament lifting machine to get the big rolls of filament (10kg) to work
  2. Actually they were designed specifically as a road AND track car. Only the SRA Atoms are track only. The very earliest Atom's had turn signals, lights, brake lights and seatbelts. They are a absolute hoot to drive and driven calmly, they are very reminisent of old time wind in your hair sports cars of days gone by
  3. I check in with this build every once in a while and all I can say is I am staggered! The ingenious ways that I see you create parts. My eyes are still ringing with reading that you made your own worm gears for the hose clamps ... I get the feeling that if I left you alone with some iron ore, bauxite, nylon and rubber, I would come back to a completed car and not be surprised if it could run
  4. Skip, the 3.5R is the European Turbo, the US one is the 3S http://www.arielatom.com/buy-an-atom/ariel-atom-3s/atom-3s-options
  5. Yes, the printing straight to mold is a concept we have been waiting for. You still have to do some post printing work especially for composite casting though
  6. Things are about to get really interesting ... Shapeways is reviewing FULL color plastic printing. Yes, drape a jpg on your model and print it with finer colors than you can paint, er ... well most of you. Will there be draw backs, sure, but the concept is totally awesome. Can't wait to play with this! They have had full color sand stone, but, it is brittle and the design rules don't give you room for detail, but, this stuff has the same design rules as the plastic I usually use of theirs, WSF I will be able to drape my little HO Atom's for full color and make the 1/24th snap together full painted with moving steering, suspension and rolling. Making the seats slide is still a little much, but, it is still on the list Current draw backs that I am aware of, rough texture, no true black and no shinyness
  7. OK, I am getting back on track to finish this project, sorry it is taking so long. I have gone back in and added a lot of detail to the model enough so that I feel 1/43 and 1/87 are good to go, although neither of those scales as a kit. I have learned a lot by making snap together surveying models since I posted last. I decided that I wanted a stainless steel key fob for myself and a gold plated brass pendant for my wife. I got both of them today and they a fabulous!! Pictured with some miniature candy, my thumb is wider ... #D printed stainless and 3D printed gold plated brass The 1/24th scale kit is still a ways off as I want to add a lot of detail The gold one is gold plated brass that is first printed in wax and then through the lost wax process converted to brass (I have been meaning to look into what that means just haven't). The silver looking one is Shapeways Polished Nickel stainless steel, which is a two stage process of layer printing of stainless and glue that is later infused with bronze. Stainless is approximately 70% stainless and 30% bronze when done. The stainless prints that I have all have a slightly rough texture about them, but, the close ups make it look far worse than it is. Look at the one with the pen. The stainless one is very robust and I will be using it with no reservations as a key fob. The brass one is much more robust than I expected, but, I don't believe that a brass fob would work myself. The brass one is heavier than I expected and I was informed that it is a bit heavy for a pendant. The stainless one is just slightly heavier Better said, ... the silver one is from their stainless steel print (there are like 8 different options) and they are all going to be a little pitted looking up close, they are cheaper and stronger. The gold one is from their semi precious metal collection and because they are made like jewelery they do look better, the trade off will be strength. They have some silver options in their semi precious and their precious metals
  8. I know I am very tardy with any updates on the Atom model, but, in the interim I want to share some pictures fro the SurveyorConnect website. Nate Drummond did an awesome job painting the laser sintered plastic (these are not the detail plastic ones) surveying instruments The large one is 1/4th scale and the small ones are 1/6th scale. http://surveyorconnect.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=256600
  9. Always impressed with your ability to look at an object you want to mimic and the creative way that you create it. Obviously you look at things from a place of a huge skill set, but, do you ever just have to "think on it"?
  10. Yes, it is a surface file that you download. You can cut it however you want and then just make sure it is a water tight solid and export again. An stl is a standard print file and does NOT contain the model as a mathematical version, only a surface TIN (triangular irregular network)
  11. David, good to hear I am not the only doing this! I do use lofting, but, not as much as you might think. Lofting is a great tool, but, as you probably know it can have its dark side when you try to find that little reason it won't allow you to do what you want. I am a land surveyor by trade so I have some very awesome geometry programs and will find the basic geometric shapes that must have been the original design and extrude them fillet and chamfer from there. This works great for manufacturing shapes, however, there for fender curves and shapes like that, RapidForm or finding splines and lofting works the best That Porsche is a nice little model of course, good detail that the prints I have seen don't really demonstrate: I uploaded it at 1/25th scale to Shapeways just to see the cost of a solid design like that. $256 in WSF and $1205 in FUD. Might want to plan on hollowing it out if you are going to print this, LOL. The stl as downloaded is full size
  12. It is not that hard to figure the difference. 1/25th to 1/8th is 3.125 numerically, so it is 3.125 x 3.125 x 3.125 in volume or 30.5 times the volume = cost
  13. You are spot on, however there is a third option that I have used and that is just to take the scan and grab a few points, if I can see how the geometry has to be, and make the geometry by hand. I actually do a lot of that now as i find it the fastest way to the end in many cases
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