Adventures in 3D Printing

[Morbii]

I’ve just recently been thinking about doing the same thing (getting a 3D printer to tinker). This thread makes me even more excited! The downside is I can’t seem to find one available in person, only via the mail. I’ll like to do some in person browsing.

 

[Sparafucil3]

I’ve just recently been thinking about doing the same thing (getting a 3D printer to tinker). This thread makes me even more excited! The downside is I can’t seem to find one available in person, only via the mail. I’ll like to do some in person browsing.

I recommend you watch a lot of Youtube videos. There is a lot of information at there. This guy does a good job. This guy covers a broad range of topic and printers. He also covers many printer types, printer comparisons, etc. This guy's videos are a little older, but still spot on. Watching and learning what these guys have to offer definitely flattens the learning curve. I got my first print to lay down and just print. That's not everyone's experience. I spent hours watching and planning and it paid off for me. -- jim

 

[Sparafucil3]

Today, I have been working on a NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). My friend John Slotwinski suggested I give this a try. He teaches additive manufacturing at Johns Hopkins. I have been posting pictures of the effort on my Facebook page if anyone is interested in following over there. It is a pretty complex piece. I am going to try and send this to John in MD so he can have it for his classes going forward.

On the ASL front, I did manage to get another very good printing of my Vehicles stl. I have been slowly placing them into my TPP Raaco to store 5/8" counters. I am pretty sure they will not be migrating to my main storage as they tend to increase the amount of air I am packing. Storage is a trade off between ease of storage, ease of retrieval, compactness of contents, and air packed inside the storage system. I have opted to have easy retrieval and less air so my kit is as dense as I can make it. I can just store more counters in standard Raaco A75's than I can in my special printed. I do use them in my counter system where I used a combination of printed 1/2" and 5/8" printed containers. Doing so, I was able to condense from a 3-deep Raaco to a 2-deep Raaco, with room left over. It is very compact now. -- jim

 

[Sparafucil3]

Now that I have printed 1/2 a Handy Tray of 5/8" counter storage, I can say unequivocally that it will not work for me. If I were trying to spread my counters out (i.e. use more storage containers, AKA pack more air) then this would be the way to go. The prints are easy. They come out very clean and fit into the system very well. Perhaps if I printed some 2/3 depth trays, allowing me to stack 3 deep, or maybe even 1/2 depth, allowing me to stack trays four deep, it would make more sense. There just aren't always enough counters of a particular type to make the inserts as I have them now practical. @olli 's edge on storage with dividers makes way more sense from a storage density/retrieval perspective.

Having said that, I am digging the whole printing thing. It is super fun. -- jim

 

[von Marwitz]

Now that I have printed 1/2 a Handy Tray of 5/8" counter storage, I can say unequivocally that it will not work for me. If I were trying to spread my counters out (i.e. use more storage containers, AKA pack more air) then this would be the way to go. The prints are easy. They come out very clean and fit into the system very well. Perhaps if I printed some 2/3 depth trays, allowing me to stack 3 deep, or maybe even 1/2 depth, allowing me to stack trays four deep, it would make more sense. There just aren't always enough counters of a particular type to make the inserts as I have them now practical. @olli 's edge on storage with dividers makes way more sense from a storage density/retrieval perspective.

Having said that, I am digging the whole printing thing. It is super fun. -- jim

Probably it would work for my style of storage.

You could maybe attempt to get three layers of inserts into a RAACO assorter instead of two using A75s or A78s if you only need to stack 6 vehicles per type.

von Marwitz

 

[fenyan]

One can fit 12 vehicles in one compartment so the 1/2 depth trays for vehicles would be the next step if you wanted to continue in that direction.

I love what these trays allow me to do organizationally. I have most of the informational counters, and all German-US-British-Russian in one handybox (4 assorters) which is what I carry in on game day. If I need the other nationalities they are in the second handybox in the car. Yes a lot of air but it's easy to find the counters needed.

Dividers with counters standing edge-on does help the density quite a bit, I tried it but my dividers were too flimsy.

 

[von Marwitz]

As soon as so go into 3D printing, you can think outside the box:

Nothing would limit you to the size of the typical A78 or A75 insert neither in width, breadth, nor height as long as it fits the 'grid' and height of the RAACO Assorter.

So with the 3D approach, you could probably 'push much air out' of the Assorters even if you prefer a 'visual' storage system. It won't beat density of the upright & tabs storage that Sparafucil favors, yet there is much potential.

von Marwitz

 

[Sparafucil3]

Dividers with counters standing edge-on does help the density quite a bit, I tried it but my dividers were too flimsy.

Perhaps I should print dividers. The could be 5/8" wide and say 1mm shorter than the depth of a standard A75. They would print fast too. -- jim

 

[Sparafucil3]

One can fit 12 vehicles in one compartment so the 1/2 depth trays for vehicles would be the next step if you wanted to continue in that direction.

I said upthread my system counters are all stored in printed storage. It works super well there. Everything stored in it's own place. The only downside of this is knowing whats on the back. For some of the lesser used counters, this can be frustrating. I may trying printing some half-height to create more vertical room. That's the dimension where I need more room.

I love what these trays allow me to do organizationally. I have most of the informational counters, and all German-US-British-Russian in one handybox (4 assorters) which is what I carry in on game day. If I need the other nationalities they are in the second handybox in the car. Yes a lot of air but it's easy to find the counters needed.

I already can do this with my current storage. I was (and am still) hoping to get my whole system into one handybox (minus the system counters). I need to think a bit and see what a half height looks like. Another consideration of these is they have no "feet" which makes them slide around a bit more than standard Raaco inserts. -- jim

 

[Sparafucil3]

Nothing would limit you to the size of the typical A78 or A75 insert neither in width, breadth, nor height as long as it fits the 'grid' and height of the RAACO Assorter.

The problem isn't horizontal space, it's vertical space. Unless you want to stack your PzIII-H under your PzIII-J, you need to find more vertical room. As they are now, if you have two counters in a slot, the rest of the tray upwards is wasted space. If you could go from 2-deep to 4-deep in the same space, you have effectively doubled the storage capacity in terms of slots. If those slots are at least 5 deep, you could store most vehicles in one slot. Each tray has 24 slots for 5/8" counters. With half-height trays, you now have 48 slots in the same space as 1 tray. As a frame of reference, the Germans have 99 vehicle notes and 30 Ordnance notes for ~130 slots needed. That's really closer to 150 as some will over-flow half height (and I don't carry HASL stuff in my Raaco). The real problem for me though isn't the Germans; they are in their own Raaco. It's the one containing my French/Italian OB. With all the squad types, all of the guns for each OB take one tray (each) and the AFV's take another (each). The rest of the box is stuffed to the gill's with 1/2 counters. -- jim

 

[Morbii]

I recommend you watch a lot of Youtube videos. There is a lot of information at there. This guy does a good job. This guy covers a broad range of topic and printers. He also covers many printer types, printer comparisons, etc. This guy's videos are a little older, but still spot on. Watching and learning what these guys have to offer definitely flattens the learning curve. I got my first print to lay down and just print. That's not everyone's experience. I spent hours watching and planning and it paid off for me. -- jim

Excellent, thanks!

 

[Morbii]

Perhaps I should print dividers. The could be 5/8" wide and say 1mm shorter than the depth of a standard A75. They would print fast too. -- jim

I did this for all my vehicles and I’d say I have pretty much no wasted space there. Used a nice cardstock for it; can’t complain.

 

[olli]

I liked the idea of the 3D printed trays , but with my counters I’m happy to stay with the A75 trays I get approx 250 counters per tray

 

[Sparafucil3]

I liked the idea of the 3D printed trays , but with my counters I’m happy to stay with the A75 trays I get approx 250 counters per tray

I suggest you try the 3D printed trays for your system counters. Based on the pictures I have seen posted here and Facebook, I think you would be able to slim down your storage (not that that matters for you ) and still maintain your 1 counter-type per slot. I do think the way you store your vehicles is the best there is. I think I have try to find some good colored card stock and go the path you have. It makes a lot of sense. -- jim

Edit to add: I might improve on yours a little bit by printing a "3-counter filler" specifically designed to be removed by tweezers with the intent of creating space when retrieving and storing. I will let you know if I go that path.

 

[von Marwitz]

The problem isn't horizontal space, it's vertical space. Unless you want to stack your PzIII-H under your PzIII-J, you need to find more vertical room. As they are now, if you have two counters in a slot, the rest of the tray upwards is wasted space. If you could go from 2-deep to 4-deep in the same space, you have effectively doubled the storage capacity in terms of slots. If those slots are at least 5 deep, you could store most vehicles in one slot. Each tray has 24 slots for 5/8" counters. With half-height trays, you now have 48 slots in the same space as 1 tray. As a frame of reference, the Germans have 99 vehicle notes and 30 Ordnance notes for ~130 slots needed. That's really closer to 150 as some will over-flow half height (and I don't carry HASL stuff in my Raaco). The real problem for me though isn't the Germans; they are in their own Raaco. It's the one containing my French/Italian OB. With all the squad types, all of the guns for each OB take one tray (each) and the AFV's take another (each). The rest of the box is stuffed to the gill's with 1/2 counters. -- jim

This is exactly what I tried to express in my post #25, except that I had envisioned only 3 layers of 2/3 height instead of 4 layers of 1/2 height which you thought of.

You could maybe attempt to get three layers of inserts into a RAACO assorter instead of two using A75s or A78s if you only need to stack 6 vehicles per type.

In my current kit, I generally allocate the height of 6 counters for each stack/type of vehicle/gun using A75's.
Since some 'standard allotments' are less than 6 per type, I fill these up to 6 by using units from my secondary OoB. This is mosty to reduce counter shifting within the A75's during transport and for aestethical purposes.

By using 3D printed inserts, the lateral counter shifting would be reduced to zero. I'd probably still attempt to 'fill up' to six units per type or allocate two slots for 12 vehicles for some very common types (such as T-34/43 or Pz IVH). Labelling the inserts is not really necessary as you store the counters horizontally.

Still, using 3 or even 4 layers of 3D-printed inserts will probably result in somewhat less of a final-counter density compared to upright storage in RAACO A75's with tabs. But it might be more appealing to the eye.

von Marwitz

 

[olli]

The problem wit

I suggest you try the 3D printed trays for your system counters. Based on the pictures I have seen posted here and Facebook, I think you would be able to slim down your storage (not that that matters for you ) and still maintain your 1 counter-type per slot. I do think the way you store your vehicles is the best there is. I think I have try to find some good colored card stock and go the path you have. It makes a lot of sense. -- jim

Edit to add: I might improve on yours a little bit by printing a "3-counter filler" specifically designed to be removed by tweezers with the intent of creating space when retrieving and storing. I will let you know if I go that path.
[/QUOTE
The problem for me is with some counters I have over 500 of a types so 12 to a space is not going to work I . My travel kit is far more contained taking only 8 1/2 boxes not like the monster 130+ of the home kit

 

[Sparafucil3]

The problem wit

Are you OK? You stopped quite suddenly there. -- jim

 

[von Marwitz]

The problem wit

Are you OK? You stopped quite suddenly there. -- jim

All of a sudden, he ran out of wit...

von Marwitz

 

[Gordon]

Are you saying he's wit-less?

 

[Sparafucil3]

The problem for me is with some counters I have over 500 of a types so 12 to a space is not going to work I . My travel kit is far more contained taking only 8 1/2 boxes not like the monster 130+ of the home kit

I see the misplaced quote construct now. I know your concerns are beyond us mere mortals. I believe you have the total Axis and Allies OB ensconced in Raaco -- jim