Track

Update 8 January 2024

I no longer produce products using Shapeways. I am experimenting with these products on my own printer.

3mm Fishplates

These were designed for 3mm finescale rail and printed in Shapeways FUD which is a clear acrylic material. They were printed in a fret as shown below.

You can view the design more clearly here 3mm Fishplate.

The bottom surface of the fret is flush with the fishplate which should be used the right way up. It is chamfered to the top. Place the fret on a flat surface and cut from the sprue with a sharp scalpel. You can feel the edge of the fishplate where it joins the sprue. Slide the fishplate on to the ends of the rails to be joined.

The latest instructions are here: 3mm Finescale Fishplate Instructions

3mm Chair-Fishplate-Chair

I had the 3D printed insulated fishplates available for a while but they are quite fragile and break if the rail gets a hard knock. The H shape makes them next to impossible to replace once the track has been laid.

I experimented with attaching a chair at each end and this does make them stronger. However, once broken, they are almost impossible to replace.

My latest product was an H shaped fishplate attached to a chair at each end but with 0.4mm holes where the chair bolts should be. These can be used as a jig to drill the sleepers 0.4mm to take NS wire pins. If they break they can be replaced by splitting one down the middle and pinning half each side of the rail. They are suitable for 3mm Society finescale rail and the chairs match those from the Society.

In the picture below the lower chair-fishplate-chair was attached to the rail when built and is not pinned or glued. It holds the rail ends correctly on a 30 inch radius. It has been coloured using a black permanent marker. The upper chair-fishplate-chair was also fitted on assembly and used as a jig to drill the sleeper. It was broken away after assembly and replaced with two halves pinned with 0.4mm NS wire, which has not yet been trimmed. This one has not been coloured.    

You can view the design more clearly here Chair-Fishplate-Chair.

The latest instructions are here: Chair-Fishplate-Chair Instructions.

3mm Vs

These are designed for 3mm finescale rail and printed in Shapeways FUD which is a clear acrylic material. They are printed individually but in a fret which spaces the parts. 

In the example above Evergreen strip is used for the timbers and fixed to the paper template with Butanone. The paper template was produced using Templot. The darker chairs are produced by the 3mm Society. The lighter parts of the chairs are part of my 3D printed V. Unfortunately the material is almost transparent so not that easy to see. It might help to click on the picture to see a larger view.

Do check for the correct angle before starting assembly. It is printed in the rectangle at the back of the main part of the V fret (currently 6, 7 or 8).The V holds the V rails together and locates the inside face of the wing rails. Half chairs hold the rails and V to the timbers. The V rails are filed using the Portsdown jig available from the 3mm Society. Note that the V includes the spacing blocks as well as the built up centre portions of the chairs. This might be more apparent in the next picture which includes the V itself. There is no solder involved so far. Obviously wires will have to be soldered to all four rails.

I am also working on an etch to help bend the wing rails to the correct angles.

The latest instructions are here: 3mm Finescale V Instructions.

I intended to publish the scale drawings which accompany the Vs as PDFs here. When printing the drawings directly from TurboCAD they are correctly to scale and match my 3D prints. However if I save them to PDF and then print the PDF it is not to scale. Have I got a setting wrong somewhere or should I not expect this to work? If this is not the way to do it has anyone got a better suggestion?