Custom 3d printed tracks in action

[Jacek]

Hello all,

I hope this is not seen as too much of a self-promotion. Anyway, I think there might be some interest in the custom tracks, like expressed in the thread about the BrickTracks Kickstarter campaign. For some time now my friend and I are working on various custom tracks and we would love to hear what kind of tracks we are still missing in our collection. I know that 3d printed parts do not have the nice glossy finish of molded parts, but the value comes in the relative ease of adding new parts to the roster, while molding requires high up-front costs. Here's a short video that shows some of the parts that we make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVN2rIGip40.

Best,

Jacek

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Fantastic tracks!

I simply love this video!

[Jacek]

Thank you Grand Duke.

I still have a lot of raw material from that day that shows some details in a more peaceful manner, I'll upload it when I put it together.

Actually, to make this video which is just about 2 minutes, we filmed for the whole day. Lots and lots of derails on the grass and gravel ;)

 

[pinioncorp]

Are they ballast compatible? The fact that they have no studs on the top makes it difficult to lay sleepers.

[Jacek]

1 hour ago, pinioncorp said:

Are they ballast compatible? The fact that they have no studs on the top makes it difficult to lay sleepers.

Unfortunately no - this is the compromise we took - no studs on top, and no holes on the bottom.

We had prototypes that had the studs, but since the 3d printing has less accuracy (~0.05mm)  than the Lego molds, we were afraid that the 3d printed parts could scratch the original bricks. This is the last thing we want of course. We could do the studs, but to be on the safe side, they would be smaller and wouldn't catch the lego bricks placed on the studs as good as the originals. But maybe keeping the bricks on top in a set position would be just enough? Thanks for pointing this out.

I'll see if ballasts like this one are achievable.

With the holes, it's a different story - mainly related to the production technology. Having the holes, the first printed layers would have a very small surface that sticks to the print bed and causes higher percentage of failed prints due to warping. While 3d printing opens a lot of possibilities, it also has some non-obvious but hard limits.

 

[igordost]

Excellent! You didn't wait for community feedback but just did it :) Glad to see 45deg and double crossover. Great job Jacek!

[Jacek]

1 hour ago, igordost said:

Excellent! You didn't wait for community feedback but just did it :) Glad to see 45deg and double crossover. Great job Jacek!

Thanks :) The double crossover was the hardest one to pull off, barely fits on the printer bed. Glad you like it :)

[Interlocken]

Do you accept blank checks?

[Hod Carrier]

Very interesting. I wonder if there's sufficient demand for you to consider producing 4-wide "narrow gauge" track, including a modest selection of curves and switches. I know I'd be in the market for some as I model in 4-wide scale.

[ALCO]

Very cool idea! How about double slips and r104 switches?

[Jacek]

14 hours ago, Interlocken said:

Do you accept blank checks?

Of course. You can send a blank check to http://trixbrix.eu ;)

9 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

Very interesting. I wonder if there's sufficient demand for you to consider producing 4-wide "narrow gauge" track, including a modest selection of curves and switches. I know I'd be in the market for some as I model in 4-wide scale.

This might be too much of a niche, same as with monorails. Sorry :(

6 hours ago, ALCO said:

Very cool idea! How about double slips and r104 switches?

Double slip is definitely on our map, quite a challenging part! As for r104 switch, not sure it would fit in the print bed (20x20cm), it's quite a wide curve.

[jrathfon]

5 hours ago, Jacek said:

This might be too much of a niche, same as with monorails. Sorry :(

I'd disagree. There are a number of people who have modeled and want to model in narrow gauge (4-gauge). We currently have a hodge podge of a system and with a few key elements we could have an entire new gauge to model in! Currently we just have 12V straight rail, 4-wide ramps (useless for modelling), 4-wide tight radius curves, and 12V curve rails which can be used awkwardly to form gentle curves. To start, what we lack to make a complete system is straight rails. An adapter piece, identical to your 12V adapter at 4 wide, would allow us to use loose straight rails with the 4-wide lego curves. To 3D model all you have to do is cut out the center 16mm (2 studs) of your current model. Boom! Done.

That single piece would allow a hodge podge narrow gauge system to be a complete system with continuous rails. Now if you want to get fancy... gentler 4W curves, points, and a dual gauge turn-out would be excellent!

I'd do with just the 4W 12V adapter!

[Jacek]

20 hours ago, jrathfon said:

An adapter piece, identical to your 12V adapter at 4 wide, would allow us to use loose straight rails with the 4-wide lego curves. To 3D model all you have to do is cut out the center 16mm (2 studs) of your current model. Boom! Done.

It was a bit more than just cutting the middle, but nevertheless here it is, I will print a few in the evening to make sure it fits. Too bad I don't have any 4-wide tracks to ensure it works perfectly with real parts. Are the connections geometrically the same as in the wide tracks?

Edit: Just grabbed some straight rails and narrow curved tracks from bricklink to do a proper testing.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Jacek

[bartvdpoel]

Jacek, great. I just ordered a few pieces. You're last order page is still in Polish (and my Polish is a bit rusty :-) ). So maybe check out your webshop and do some extra translation...
 

Thank you for your order

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Pozdrawiamy, 
Zespół Obsługi Sklepu TrixBrix

[Jacek]

Bart, thanks for your order and for the feedback - I must have messed up the webshop config, will fix :) I'll throw in a few of the narrow adapters that I modeled in the morning. Not thoroughly tested though. This is how they look: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNARS3RjrTj/

[jrathfon]

On 11/19/2016 at 1:59 PM, Jacek said:

Bart, thanks for your order and for the feedback - I must have messed up the webshop config, will fix :) I'll throw in a few of the narrow adapters that I modeled in the morning. Not thoroughly tested though. This is how they look: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNARS3RjrTj/

Awesome Jacek! That's perfect, and the lack of sleepers will actually aid with track ballasting! The 4-wide lego track has the same connector (minus two studs) that the regular track has, so you should be good to go. This adapter may also be useful to tie in lego 12V curves as well. I can't remember exactly, but the puffing billy AFOL guy was using all inner 12V curve rails (or possibly all outer) to make less acute narrow gauge curves, but you then have to deal with spacings and gaps. This adapter will tie 12V straight (loose) rail right into the existing lego 4-wide curves! Once you test a few out, post some pics. I'll definitely order! I'm making a layout for my tweetsie engine:

 

[bartvdpoel]

Thanks Jacek. Hope to test them soon. Just cleaned up my LEGO attic so looking forward to my order.

[igordost]

I just got 2x 45deg crossovers. They work really good and are solid! Missing balasting is not an issue in my case because I do not balast my tracks :) I tested them in few basic configuration - no problems so  far :)

[Jacek]

Glad to hear that Igordost!

As far as the narrow gauge 4-wide tracks go, in addition to the narrow adapter, I will design straight tracks and crossings first as soon as I get the original curved tracks from bricklink.

[jrathfon]

20 minutes ago, Jacek said:

Glad to hear that Igordost!

As far as the narrow gauge 4-wide tracks go, in addition to the narrow adapter, I will design straight tracks and crossings first as soon as I get the original curved tracks from bricklink.

I think straight tracks would be redundant with the adapter and the availability of loose rail from lego. Wider 4-wide curves and a dual gauge turnout would be the most useful and crossings would be cool. Dual gauge turnout with the 3rd (center) rail just having a flat end would allow connection to normal lego 6-wide track with loose straight rail placed in the middle for dual gauge track. Hope that makes sense. The nice thing about a dual gauge turnout is that it can be made passively with no moving parts (for an inside turn).

This piece is what I keep referring to as loose rail: 3228c

Dual gauge turnout: turnout with a rail guide on the standard gauge track instead of a moving frog as pictured

[bartvdpoel]

Hey Guys, received my package. Two switches and the connections for connecting to older rails .Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3. They work quite well. You need a bit more pressure to connect but I really like them. The color is a bit lighter. Thanks a bunch. I will keep an eye on your site, and probably will order a new bunch when I need some more components.

[supertruper1988]

On 11/25/2016 at 6:07 AM, bartvdpoel said:

Hey Guys, received my package. Two switches and the connections for connecting to older rails .Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3. They work quite well. You need a bit more pressure to connect but I really like them. The color is a bit lighter. Thanks a bunch. I will keep an eye on your site, and probably will order a new bunch when I need some more components.

These look great!

@Jacek Would it be possible to have these made so that plates could be attached to the bottom? even if there are no tubes to keep everything perfectly inline, I would just prefer to be able to put them down on my ballast. 

[Jacek]

13 hours ago, cameronmiller1988 said:

 

@Jacek Would it be possible to have these made so that plates could be attached to the bottom? even if there are no tubes to keep everything perfectly inline, I would just prefer to be able to put them down on my ballast. 

@cameronmiller1988 We are planning on doing this for some time now, we have some promising results but still a lot of work before we are finished, mainly related to the printing difficulties. Which type of tracks would you like to be attachable first?

@bartvdpoel Glad you like it, saw the photos :) Would it be ok if I posted your photo on facebook? 

On 11/23/2016 at 5:00 PM, jrathfon said:

I think straight tracks would be redundant with the adapter and the availability of loose rail from lego. Wider 4-wide curves and a dual gauge turnout would be the most useful and crossings would be cool.

@jrathfon You're right about the straight tracks. I'll start with the crossing since it's the easiest. The dual guage turnout is a great idea!

 

Guys, thanks for the great feedback, I appreciate it very much!

[bartvdpoel]

Yes sure, you can post them where you want.

[supertruper1988]

4 hours ago, Jacek said:

@cameronmiller1988 We are planning on doing this for some time now, we have some promising results but still a lot of work before we are finished, mainly related to the printing difficulties. Which type of tracks would you like to be attachable first?

I would like to have both the single turn out and the double crossover first if possible. I need to have 3 sets for my lay out and haven't taken the plunge to modify TLG ones or purchase the very expensive 7996. I like your switch mechanism a lot better than LEGO's as well.

After that I would be interested in some R56 curves that are the same way. 

 

In case it wasn't clear before I am meaning to make them like this: