[Bazzer]

Jason

I do 3D printing to support very competitive RC models rather than slot cars, however my experiences are relevant IMO.

I see three types of 3D print users away from the commercial arena.

1) People who buy a printer and download models from sites such as Thingyverse and print that item with very little input from themselves.
2) People who's hobby is 3D printing, and it is as much about the machine and process as anything else.
3) People who want to make items and 3D printing is viable to do this.

I fall into group 3, I have no interest in building a 3D printer as good printers can bought for a few hundred pounds.

I have settled on the Flashforge Dreamer / Dremel machines, these are fully enclosed stand alone machines and I have bought a couple second hand for £200.00, one was out of a school and only had a couple of hours use under its belt, the other had only light hobby use.

So to answer your question, IMO you can get started in 3D printing for a few hundred pounds and you will be able to print as per group 1 pretty well out of the box, like anything though to do it really well involves understanding what is going on and really learning the craft and that takes time and commitment.

The funny thing is, the more commitment the better the results !!!

B.

[JasonB]

The funny thing is, the more commitment the better the results !!!

B.

Yes, good point.

[Kevan]

1) People who buy a printer and download models from sites such as Thingyverse and print that item with very little input from themselves.
2) People who's hobby is 3D printing, and it is as much about the machine and process as anything else.
3) People who want to make items and 3D printing is viable to do this.

Three groups is a start, there are more 

[woodingboys]

Thanks for your answers, it sounds good.

To broaden things out a bit, I wonder if any of you 3d printers would be willing to give us a sketch outline of roughly where we are with current, affordable technology?

Hi Jason,
A newbie to 3d Printing. My family all chipped in and bought me a Bambu P1S for christmas/birthday/retirement (lovely family :-)

Since then I have progressed from Kevan's Group 1 to Group 2 quite quickly, albeit in a modest way.

I see a lot of horror stories on the Bambu thread about failing print jobs, but touch wood, I have had a faultless run so far.

I popped into WH Smith yesterday looking for latest slot car mag and failing to find it, I thought I would browse the 3d Printing section... to my amazement there were none to be found (this was a big WH Smith btw), which implies this is a very online type of thing. Grab a file and print it or Tinkercad your own files or adapt someone elses.
Imagination seems to be the only limit.

With regards cost and complexity. The Bambu is pretty much WYSIWYG and very easy. I added an AMS (allows printing of multi-colours) to specifically print my red and white Goodwood chicane, which as a collaboration and education from one of my son's on how to use Tinkercad (another free resource).
BTW once you have a printer you can print your own AMS holder to do multi-colour :-)

It strikes me where it can all go wrong is when you start experimenting with print setups and different filament types. 
I went in search of a smooth surface and found the Cool plate, which is amazing and delivers baby smooth surfaces when combined with slower outside surface speeds.

I also looked at the Silk filament and again a bit of patience on slower settings paid off.

I have even found my way into producing components for a classic caravan, which is now helping to keep said caravan level. 
That required internal threads to be created, which in Tinkercad was far easier than I expected. 

All in all, I would say with the right printer and RTFM any average hobbyist on this forum would be able to get great results from 3DP....

Love Brazzers comment. Get out what you put in :-)

Come on in, the water is lovely :-)

[woodingboys]

Oh the irony.....

Reading through the forum I found John May's 3d spray booth turntable. Just what I need right now for a fleet of Mustangs that need painting :-)

Download STL, pop it into Bambu printer app, Slice the model, check for any need for supports (none needed) and hit print......

Doh.... forgot I still had the cool plate (smooth base) in the printer.... 80% of the print was successful, but the small pegs didn't stick.
Also the base suffered a bit of warping due to lack of adhesion and the cooling fan.... 
Something I had not seen on my printer before.

Operator error.... 

Change to PEI textured plate, delete the components that have printed fine and hit print. 
Use different colour because I am getting a hexadecimal error in the printer screen, which refers to the filament feed..... (never seen before).

Hmmm, strange the initial test strip of print that is done at the edge of the plate hasn't stuck very well and gets dragged to the model. 
Again something I have not seen before.... 
Print progresses ok and no interference from the dislodged test strip.
75% through and the small pegs start to fail.... 
Stop print.

Clean off the plate, reposition the print of the 4 small pegs, slow down their outer and top surface print speed, re-slice it and send to print again...

Ta da.... All components now printed :-)
(bit of sanding on pegs to get the cams to sit down)

   

I thought it worth explaining the steps and learning process in case my earlier post gave the impression that 3d printing is no more complicated than inkjet printing, which for me, up until today, had sort of felt like the experience I was having....

Remember kids... everyday is a school day :-) 
Thanks again John May for the turntable..... now off to do some rattle canning :-)

[chappyman66]

Welcome to the rabbit hole....

Post pictures of your first printed slot car build!

[JasonB]

Come on in, the water is lovely :-)

It's certainly tempting. Having spent fifteen years using 3d modelling software professionally (albeit for presentation rather than printing purposes) it feels logically like the next step.

But....

Well firstly I need to clear the decks a bit. I've got too many projects on the go already; a big old house to renovate, a small business to run, a few websites to manage, a graphic novel to finish, etc, etc.

Secondly, I don't have anywhere to set up a track at the moment, so I haven't thought of anything that I'd like to 3d print.

I suspect I'll get into 3d printing at some point, but not for a while.

[woodingboys]

Welcome to the rabbit hole....

Post pictures of your first printed slot car build!

Execution and design of this one is all mine and the chassis is an adaptation from one I was kindly sent by a chum.
So I think I will claim these as my first printed slot car build, albeit only the chassis was printed by me :-)
Suspect my Le Mans Miniature Bugatti will be receiving some attention for a new chassis in the not too distant future :-)

[chappyman66]

Most of us start with chassis, so it's a common starting point.

Eventually you may want to print bodies if you want cars you can't otherwise have.  It is not the nightmare some would have you believe so give it a shot.

   

[JMay]

Printing 3dp bodies can be quick and easy from downloaded files or can be a very intensive journey into software packages. To illustrate recently I downloaded 2 bodies as below.

   
Jaguar  C type

   
FALCON 65 

Both files from 3Dexport at $10 each.

Note: To find files I usually type into the browser search bar
e.g. Ford Falcon 65 STL file

The Jaguar C type file has lots of detail, is high resolution but as downloaded impossible to print. The Falcon 65 is lower resolution, but presented as a shell that once scaled and with print supports from the slicer program (Cura etc) could be printed as shown. For the beginner the Falcon 65 file and other similar ‘shell’ files is the way to go.

To tackle the C type requires software editors that will edit STL files as most CAD programs will only add/subtract or rescale the file but will not allow you to edit the parts. My go to is Blender (Freeware) as this allow you fully edit, remove extraneous detail, then tidy up the shell such that the overall shell mesh is not compromised.

Bodyshells can also be obtained by using a 3D scanner

   
TR7 scan

This is a scan of the Scalextric TR7. Using the Scanner software to tidy up the file (and possibly Blender again) the file can then be loaded into CAD and new sections added and now you have a

   
TR8 IMSA

Finally you can in CAD draw your own.

   
Wolf Dallara  CAN AM

I started with drawing CAN AM shells from the 70s period as these tend to be more angular so easier to draw and there are Youtube videos showing different techniques on how to do this.

The above comes with a health warning as once you have printed your 1st shell it gets very addictive.

Cheers
         John