Dick Kerr WDLR 04, Form 1 02

The Dick Kerr project is really moving along.  I've been printing prototypes on the Form 1 and modelling.  In the future I expect things to go faster, however I've been experimenting and learning.

One of the peculiarities of designing things digitally you can draw detail at scale.  Even if you can print it, which the Form 1 can, you can't always see it.  I've spent several hours "beefing up" hardware so it's more visible in the final print.  It looks silly in the 3d model, but boy does it look good output at scale.  The images below illustrate, the lavender color is the exaggerated hardware, the orange is drawn near scale, with some thickness boost to meet minimum resolution requirements.

I've spent a good amount of time in both Rhino and Photoshop, extrapolating, doing and re-doing.  I started with the most delicate parts, and have gradually worked towards the more general ones--all the while re-building parts as needed based on lessons learned from successful and failed prints.

 My build style is to have a mother model based on an AutoCad drawing.  I keep things in logical subassemblies on layers.  I then "move them off" and regroup them as needed to export my .stl files.  This method preserves sanity and maximum flexibility.  I keep the coordinate locations the same between the two softwares, so if I need to work in line I can draw in AutoCad, which is much faster, and then import and know things will line up.  Precision counts.  If in doubt, rebuild it, it's faster than fussing with a repair.

As I make prints I'm updating the model.  Ultimately I'll make the cab to final standard--and skip doing the rivets in true scale, as it's pretty pointless.  

I'm also fairly certain that my ultimate plan will be to cast most of the model in resin, reducing the number of 3d printed parts in the final model.  That way I'll only have to print masters.  As I want a few, and I know Bruce Wilson wants a couple, casting will be more cost effective . . . .especially if I decide to make a few more.  

I have other exciting news on the mechanism design, but I'll save that for when I have some photos.