Shupp

Custom 3d Printed Steam Drivers

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15 hours ago, Shupp said:

They're done. And based roughly off the later SP cab forwards, seeing as I had no other prototypes in mind. I made variants with large and small counterweights, flanged blind, and with and without traction tire grooves. Haven't tested them in person, so I can't guarantee how well they work.

32287248973_1005f6a1f4_b.jpgLarge Boxpok Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/shupp-s-brick-train-stuff?section=Large+Train+Wheels&s=0

XL Boxpoks coming soon!

Oh! these are beautiful! Is the price per wheel? So if I needs 6 wheels, roughly $30+ for all 6?

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21 hours ago, Shupp said:

They're done. And based roughly off the later SP cab forwards, seeing as I had no other prototypes in mind. I made variants with large and small counterweights, flanged blind, and with and without traction tire grooves. Haven't tested them in person, so I can't guarantee how well they work.

...

Large Boxpok Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/shupp-s-brick-train-stuff?section=Large+Train+Wheels&s=0

XL Boxpoks coming soon!

Wow! Those are incredible!

 

 

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Got my wheels in today. They look great. Just wish they had that polished appearance like actual bricks but not much can be done about that since they're being printed. Will post some pictures when I post pictures of my Cab Forward.

-Jeffinslaw

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I've gotten mostly positive feedback and some helpful suggestions from the community since I started offering these wheels. Thanks, everyone!

I have had a couple requests for more types of wheels, and I finally got around to making some. First up, XL sized Boxpok drivers:

37786741244_798c7c51e6_b.jpgXL Boxpok Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

These are available flanged, with or without traction tire groove, blind, and all can be had with either a larger or smaller counterweight.

I have also made a size of wheel between large and XL:

26726206509_cbd7b35f02_b.jpgLarge/XL Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

These are available as spoked drivers right now, but there will probably be a Boxpok available soon. They also come flanged with or without traction tire groove, blind and with small or large counterweight.

I have not yet tested any of these, but I haven't changed any critical dimensions from previous wheels, so hopefully they work as well as the others. Everything can be found at my Shapeways store.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/shupp-s-brick-train-stuff

I've also added new colors and materials for all of my wheels. Shapeways now offers a premium black strong and flexible, which is about 2x the cost of regular. If anyone tries it, I'd love to hear how they work out. I'm also offering metallic plastic, which is an identical process to Benn Coifman's custom side rods, and the wheels should look the same as those rods.

Most of the colored plastic does not closely align with Lego colors unfortunately, but they might provide a better base if you intend to paint the wheels to match Lego. Cale has done this on his Blue Comet model recently, and the wheels seem to take paint well.

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On 11/18/2017 at 8:32 AM, Shupp said:

I've also added new colors and materials for all of my wheels. Shapeways now offers a premium black strong and flexible, which is about 2x the cost of regular. If anyone tries it, I'd love to hear how they work out. I'm also offering metallic plastic, which is an identical process to Benn Coifman's custom side rods, and the wheels should look the same as those rods.

Most of the colored plastic does not closely align with Lego colors unfortunately, but they might provide a better base if you intend to paint the wheels to match Lego. Cale has done this on his Blue Comet model recently, and the wheels seem to take paint well.

I just made an order from some of the Premium black. $140 for 12 wheels, yikes, hope it is worth it! Will probably get some of the XL Boxpok drivers if the premium black works out well. I love the large Boxpok drivers I bought for my SP Cab Forward, just wish the finish was a bit better but not much you can do with 3D printed stuff.

-Jeffinslaw

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Just started putting together an order for some of these wheels! They are exactly what I've been looking for!

Might order them post Christmas, as they don't come cheap, and I've got presents for others to buy!

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My shapeways order was supposed to arrive today. Sadly it did not, been having major problems with UPS and USPS lately... on another note, is it possible to get these made into .DAT files for MLCad etc.? Would be nice because then we can design for proper spacing which is quite difficult without buying a ton of each part.

-Jeffinslaw

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On 2/25/2017 at 7:42 AM, Shupp said:

They're done. And based roughly off the later SP cab forwards, seeing as I had no other prototypes in mind. I made variants with large and small counterweights, flanged blind, and with and without traction tire grooves. Haven't tested them in person, so I can't guarantee how well they work.

32287248973_1005f6a1f4_b.jpgLarge Boxpok Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/shupp-s-brick-train-stuff?section=Large+Train+Wheels&s=0

XL Boxpoks coming soon!

These look great! Would love to use these at some point for a UK Bullied Pacific!

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Got my shapeways order today! Somehow ended up with eight! additional wheels! Score! Here is a picture comparing the injection molded LEGO flanged/blind drivers to the "Black Premium Strong and Flexible" and to the "Black Strong and Flexible."

38882788001_15f739cee0_c.jpg

3D Printed Boxpok Drivers by Jeffinslaw, on Flickr

As you can see, it is definitely an improvement but still quite a ways off from the injection molded pieces. Wish Ben Fleskes could create some new drivers but injection molding is expensive...

-Jeffinslaw

Edited by Jeffinslaw

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Anyone heard from Nate in awhile? Hoping he will make the Scullin style drivers in the XL size. Only available in XXL right now.

-Jeffinslaw

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On 11.1.2017 at 10:33 PM, Shupp said:

Several members of my club have discussed the need/desire for larger and different sized train wheels, and the possibility of 3d printing them. Earlier this year, I was down with a back injury for a while, so I used the time to figure out some 3d design fundamentals and make my own. I don't have any 3d printing equipment so I put them on shapeways for my own use.

I have had a couple requests for these since word got out that I made them, so I set up a shapeways store:

www.shapeways.com/shops/shupp-s-brick-train-stuff

I have made XXL sized (the next size up from Ben Fleskes' XL sized), a size between medium and large, and a medium diameter train wheel i.e. not a steam driver, just a thin train wheel but with a larger diameter.

31410703584_e694a5a8ce_z.jpgXXL Flanged Driver by Shuppiluliumas, on Flickr

These are being offered at cost (I make no money) because I cannot guarantee the fit of the pin and axle holes and other aspects of the production which are out of my control, nor can I make any easy changes that would solve the problem.

I don't know if I will be making any more different designs, and I probably won't make any changes to the existing ones at this point, but feel free to suggest ideas anyway. Again, I'm not putting these out here for my profit, but just because I already had them myself, and I figured I should share them, and I don't have a ton of time to devote to it.

I have these notes in the store as well, but I will repost them here:

The ML sized wheels do not 'align' with other sizes of LEGO train wheels. If you have a standard small LEGO train wheel, a medium sized driver, a large, and XL and my XXL size drivers running on LEGO train track, the centers of each bigger sized wheel will be one LEGO plate higher off the track than the next smallest. As such ML drivers are not really 'in system' and may cause problems in some designs where multiple wheel sizes are used.

XXL sized wheels, while I think they are the right scale for many LEGO steam engine models, are a little too big for standard R40 LEGO curve track. If one were to use them in a flanged-blind-flanged arrangement to make, for example, a Pacific type locomotive, the two flanged wheels will be so far apart that they will bind in curves. The XXL wheels do work well when two flanged wheels are placed next to one another but, for other arrangements, you will need to look into after market wider radius curves if you are looking to run with these wheels. There are several options out there for wider radius curves, so maybe the curve issue is less important now than it once was.

Hey for my next Moc I wanted to test your XXL wheels, since I think they are the best size out there. But I´m tide on a budged and have to plan all my mocs on the computer.. Is there a posibilty to get LDraw Parts of the XXL Wheels???

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On 5/31/2018 at 10:04 AM, Dampf Stein said:

Hey for my next Moc I wanted to test your XXL wheels, since I think they are the best size out there. But I´m tide on a budged and have to plan all my mocs on the computer.. Is there a posibilty to get LDraw Parts of the XXL Wheels???

I would like to have this as well. I dont care for all the variations in LDraw but an XXL Flange and Blind of any type would be useful. 

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On 5/31/2018 at 11:04 AM, Dampf Stein said:

Hey for my next Moc I wanted to test your XXL wheels, since I think they are the best size out there. But I´m tide on a budged and have to plan all my mocs on the computer.. Is there a posibilty to get LDraw Parts of the XXL Wheels???

I'll third this.  Any chance of LDraw parts?

Just the basic Boxpok flanged and blind ones are probably fine, I'd just like to actually use a wheel when planning instead of nothing, or a gear.

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On 5/31/2018 at 1:04 PM, Dampf Stein said:

Is there a posibilty to get LDraw Parts of the XXL Wheels???

It would be awesome to have XXL wheels in digital form!

@Shupp, would you be able to make the CAD files available for these wheels? 

If so, we might be able to use this converter for .stl to .dat files: https://sourceforge.net/projects/stl2dat/

Unfinished_Projects

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@Dampf Stein @supertruper1988 @Minh_Kha_N ,

Shupp hasn't been on the site since November 2017, so I don't think he's going to reply about the Ldraw files. 

There is however basic dimensions for the wheels on his shapeways page. After classes are done today I'm going to start working on some LDraw files for the basic XXL wheels.

Unfinished_Projects

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8 hours ago, M_slug357 said:

would you be able to just upscale the basic steam drivers...?

Maybe, but unfortunately I have no clue how to manually manipulate .dat files.  I chose to design them from scratch in Solidworks and convert them to .dat

 

@Dampf Stein @supertruper1988 @Minh_Kha_N ,

I finished the basic XXL wheels and posted them here:

 

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14 hours ago, Unfinished_Projects said:

@Dampf Stein @supertruper1988 @Minh_Kha_N ,

Shupp hasn't been on the site since November 2017, so I don't think he's going to reply about the Ldraw files. 

There is however basic dimensions for the wheels on his shapeways page. After classes are done today I'm going to start working on some LDraw files for the basic XXL wheels.

Unfinished_Projects

Ah, you're a lifesaver, you are.  Thanks a million!

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Here are my humble experiences with Shupp's 3D printed wheels:

The designs are simply spoken great. Many thanks to Shupp who shares the designs with us. Please keep in mind he earnes nearly nothing with them, all the charge is for manufacturing and shipment by Shapeways. BTW, Shapways increase their prices heavily in the passing weeks ...

I'm using XXL drivers (both boxpok and disk drivers), large boxpok drivers compatible with the large original LEGO wheels and medium small wheels fitting to a train motor with three axles like in the 12V era.

The surface quality is rather rough, if you choose "natural versatile" quality and remarkable smoother if you choose "processed versatile". I have no experience with higher polishing grades like "premium" due to high costs. I prefer "processed versatile", the smoother surface is worth the additional $1 or $2 or Euro equivalent.

The dye from Shapeways is trash and has no value despite the bold charge for it. Black ist more a translucent dark gray and red delivers an ugly pink tone. Buy original white wheels and paint them by yourself and save the money. Black ist black (RAL 9005 for instance) and the best matching tone for LEGO Red ist "Traffic Red" RAL 3020, a very common colour tone. Two or three very thin layers and the colour cannot distinguished from original LEGO parts. The surface is still a little bit rougher than injection molded part but not much.

The axle hole in the center is not printed very exact and often too tight to fit with an axle at the first attempt. I have to use a screw vice to force an axle into the cross hole at the hub, but only once. Afterwards the hub widens a liitle bit and the axle will fit with acceptable force. But fortunately I have never found a hub with a too wide hole. The holes for the crank shaft make no problems, any pin will fit direct.

On the rail the wheels do their job flawless. I never experienced a derailment caused by Shupp's wheels. O-ring gaskets fit immediately with the right dimensions. The nylon material is very sturdy and shows no wear.

Conclusion: Highly recommendable!

Pros: Full functional, perfect looking designs, large variety. Cons: High price cause only by Shapeways, unsable dye tones from Shapeways

 

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15 hours ago, legoman666 said:

I've partnered with Shupp to provide prints of his designs for a better price on Bricktraindepot: https://bricktraindepot.com/shop?tag=wheel

And unlike Shapeways, Nate gets a 20% cut of all wheel purchases. I'm glad he'll finally get a return on the time he spent to create these for us.

I think this is a good partnership.  The prices look much better!

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18 hours ago, legoman666 said:

I've partnered with Shupp to provide prints of his designs for a better price on Bricktraindepot: https://bricktraindepot.com/shop?tag=wheel

And unlike Shapeways, Nate gets a 20% cut of all wheel purchases. I'm glad he'll finally get a return on the time he spent to create these for us.

This is good news! I'll definitely try them out next time. :D

 

By the way, does anyone know what size of o-rings to get for use as traction bands for the XXL drivers? 

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1 minute ago, Daedalus304 said:

By the way, does anyone know what size of o-rings to get for use as traction bands for the XXL drivers? 

Yes! I figured this out for myself. For XL, use #33 from Danco, for XXL, use #81, also from Danco.

-Jeffinslaw

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