That will be great Tugs. I will check and see how many I need. I know I need to gun the MO and the NC and I need to improve the Yamato and Bismarck systems so looking at quite a few of these to get from you. I will check and see the exact amount I need. Are you still making the AA guns?
I am, I'll have pics this weekend, possibly tomorrow night. depends on how well the computer running the printer behaves I got a new laptop to run it, but the slicing software isn't on it yet and it's a Linux laptop that I need to upgrade to the newest version of Ubuntu (Cura slicer wants 12.10 or better, and I think I've got 12.04 on the laptop now). Give me a count when you get it, I've got 4 of the triple valve holders and 3 of the duals sitting in my 'shop' (plastic tote) at the moment, but they print fast (which is why they're relatively cheap). At this point, your order will be next weekend (time to print AA guns will be Saturday). Looking forward on roughly-scale AA stuff, I will be doing the Pom-poms for UK BBs and the triple 25mm AA gun that the Japs used, got good drawings from Miyukikai to go by on those.
Rough scale is fine for the AA's Tugs. I will get what you need this weekend and post it here for you.
Got triples ready now, I'll print another batch of duals and get them packed. I'll send a PM with specifics. The Quad bofors are almost finalized (design-wise) but I am almost out of grey filament (waiting on it to get back in stock). I may have enough for a sheet or two of them. Pics tomorrow.
Got more done on Malaya, she's got her outer layer of silkspan and is getting closer to ready! I also found that she fits (barely) in the trunk of my Sonata hybrid, which is the designated transport for Nats travel. So I'm back to running May (all my boats have girl nicknames) at Nats in June. Made progress on the files for printing the superstructure. It will ROCK. Ditto for the quad Bofors, but both of those projects are held up by lack of grey filament, which has not come in yet. On the plus side, I ordered two spools of it so I will be set for months of happy boat part printing. Pic of May with the two Golos is in the IRCWCC Nats thread.
SO! Th grey plastic came in, the last two spools from my favorite supplier until they get a new formula developed (not sure what's wrong with the current one). So with the February battle looming, I put the Mendel to work! Below is the front part of the 01 level of May's forward SS. There is some surface roughness where the roof is. Not sure why, I will have to investigate. But it's easily dealt with. There is also some X-axis ripple that is due to springiness in the system that I need to investigate. It could be belt stretch as the print head moves along that axis, or it could be in the stepper motor itself between microsteps. \ Below is how I got the pretty top,a nd saved a BUNCH of grey plastic by not using infill. I printed it upside-down! The roof is 2mm thick and nearly solid. The aft section just finished printing, so I'll post some pics in a few hours of them together on the deck!
These printers are going to change the way the these boats are made. While I am sure the old skoolers will want to build a wood hull now and then the ability to print an entire hull short of the guts and skin is going to make it a lot more economical hopefully with mass production of guns bring a lot more people into the sport. Could that thing lay bead of plastic that when cured would simulate the resistance of balsa? Skip sheeting all together, at least until the initial skinning is so shot to hell you just cut out the plastic with preformed windows and sheet with balsa to spec? My wife is telling me we need to get one of these.
Okay! Carl and Eric came up to work on boats today, and towards the end of the day, I got to put May in the test basin for some trials. She's floating really high because she's missing some combat systems, but the important thing was that she held water and drove. Albeit drove really slowly. It seems that the motors I've got in May are from the same order (should have marked all of them) and are 12V motors, not 6V motors. So I drove her around at a very leisurely pace, but she drove! Motors will be replaced forthwith. The 01 level of the SS was welded together and can be seen taped to the deck in this pic... didn't want it to go swimming and hadn't had time to drill the mounting holes through the SS and deck. The aft SS was in place just to cover the hole in the aft deck. Okay, so it looked cool, too... So here she is, cruising away from the camera... Can't wait to get the full SS on there! I also popped out some more impellers to put collars in, still waiting on motors! Grrr.. Anyhow, the white ones were sliced with a new program, Cura. It made them much stronger than the old program did, which makes me very happy. Everybody who is waiting on a pump will get one of the new impellers and the old ones willgo in my own spares box. I think the old ones are plenty strong, but the new ones are crazy. There are more pics, but for some reason Google+ for iPhone updates a lot slower than my old Android phone did. Perhaps by morning.
So here is the missing pic from yesterday... Malaya with the forward 01 level on! The 02/03 level piece is printing and I'm working on the 04 and 05 levels. I'll post another pic of the ship when I add the 02/03 levels. They're going to rock In sadder news, I printed the stern 01 level all night, and Cura decided to fill in the big hole in the middle that I want to be able to grab my pump through. This created a LOt of tension in the structure as that solid layer cooled, and warped the sh** out it. Complete waste of time and plastic. So, I went back to Slic3r for the SS, it did a little better on details than Cura did, and I can tell it to slow the acceleration down, which kills some of that ripple we saw in the 01 level. I will still use Cura for impellers and props, it's great at those. The waste of plastic is not a total loss, as I will be buying a Filastruder in a few months, which will let me save a LOT of money on filament,as I can buy the little plastic jiblets for about $4-5/kg and extrude my own. I need to find a good way to shred the scrap plastic (I already separate it for colors and types as it's generated), and I can recycle my scraps. Yay recycling! But the Filastruder costs about $300, so it'll be a few months.
HOOOAAAHH!!! The 02/03 piece came out great! A little bit of X-axis ripple still there, I probably need to tighten that belt... but LOOK AT IT!! Printed in one piece with vents and doors and everything! Almost done with the files for the 04 and 05 levels, they'll be two pieces but printing them in one shot.
Cool, but of course, it wouldn't look good at all unless there was a can a Root Beer next to it. Beaver
Note the 'No Caffeine' thing on the label. In the past few years, I've had some heart issues. Thankfully, the problem causing blockages is pretty much past, but the more recent threat to my continued boatbuilding and breathing is unstable angina - I get spasms in the coronary arteries, starving parts of the heart for oxygen. We have narrowed down the triggers for these events to two things: stress and caffeine. So I try to keep my stress low, and I get no caffeine. I cheated one day a few weeks back and it was unpleasant and I had to use a couple of nitroglycerin tablets to stop it. Not really how I want my life to go. So no caffeine. With that limit on soda, the only soda worth drinking is root beer. Besides, a famous World War One flying ace told me that he used to hang out with Joe Mauldin and drink it in between battles with the Red Baron in his Sopwith Camel. Back to work on the 04 and 05 levels. I want to post a composite SS pic tomorrow up thru the 05 level (maybe higher!).
That superstructure is looking really nice! Compliments to the chef. Is there any chance I could beg you to do a run of Brit 4" secondary (aka cruiser) turrets? Also - regarding caffeine free, try some Vernors ginger ale. If you can find it. Regards, Chris
