The Ship Model Forum

Tom,

You think that is a small piece, look at this TDT (Target Data Transmitter), another simple director, on a 1913 Indian head nickle! Here are pictures of the CAD model: Phil

WWII Fleet boats had a similar target bearing transmitter on the bridge for surface attacks which sent target bearings to the TDC below decks. The U Boot's also used a similar device for their favored night surface attacks. Complex items with many components require some design decisions, one part, or more? Sometimes some of the pieces are very small such as the rod linkage to control the elevation of the sight. It's always interesting to see just what will print detail wise. Unfortunately everything looks worse under a microscope, but at normal model viewing distance can look quite good indeed.

Indeed, a binocular, mainly to observe operations on my micro-milling machine:

There are some discussions of various optical devices here:

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/31420- ... ent=895836
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/31420- ... ent=891152

Keep in mind that with optics you get what you pay for. If it seems too good to be true it almost certainly is.

Phil

Apparently my security clearance has expired, not having permission to view the topic?

50X to 1000X is a range for viewing things that are not visible to the naked eye - unless you have about 20-10 vision, and very few people do (I did when I was a kid, 20-15 by the time I was 40, and 20-20 now with corrective lenses). That magnification is for things that are way to small to work with manually, and therefore not something you would be doing with ship modelling unless you really want to get a good look at dust specs.

Here is some of the discussion. Someone asked about a 50X video microscope with a USB connection.

The best microscopes for viewing small (but not microscopic) are in the 5x to 20x range. Things like human hairs, sugar grains, pin heads, 2mm blocks, tiny nails/pins, etc. If you just want to look at them a monocular device will work. But if you want to use it for manipulation and assembly work you need a stereo microscope that gives you a sense of depth. To get an idea just try assembling something small with one eye closed (or a patch over one eye to prevent "cheating"). Working without depth perception can be very frustrating.

(Note that Wefalck's microscope is a binocular "stereo" scope)

A large diameter lens - 4" to 8" like the kind surrounded by a ring light - is useful because you look through it with both eyes and have stereo vision and depth perception, but the magnification isn't great. The type of high quality dual lens magnifiers that dentists use are perfect for small scale modelling. I have several of the lower quality magnifiers that you wear on your head (with or without your eyeglasses) that work well. I have some with 5X and 10X with plastic lenses that are OK. I bought one with interchangeable glass lenses but the highest magnification is only 3.5X and that isn't enough for many things.

Someone also posted a link to a lower power (5-25x) USB video scope used by coin collectors. I had good magnification levels for inspecting small details, and it could be used for small assembly, but again without depth perception work will be slow and frustrating.

Phil

Well, I guess the joke has run long enough. If I had posted on the first of April you might have been more skeptical, but a week and a half in advance no one called me on the "tiny" TDT pictures posted earlier. Here is another shot:
The TDT is small, almost as long as a US penny is wide. The "nickle" is a large (3 inch/76 mm diameter) lead replica I picked up some time in the distant past - I don't even remember when. I was a coin collector when I was a kid.

On another forum a fellow was building a beautiful intricately detailed model with lots of fine machine work. He often included an ordinary match head in the pictures for a size reference. Someone asked him where he got the huge matches.

Phil

My (very expert) dentist uses a high quality set of magnifying lenses on his head band, much better than my cheap optivisor. His comment was that the bright light was even more useful than the magnification. Indeed eyeballs start out better and get worse. I had 20-10 vision when I was an early teen but flunked the vision test to become a Naval Aviator in my very late teens. Too much reading about aviation and model building? The irony was I ended up flying the big iron with several generations of Naval Aviators all the way from 'SPAD" and Crusader combat pilots to Harrier and FA 18 drivers. Maybe someday when I am feeling richer I will get a high quality set of head loupes (with light). There are some uses for a binocular microscope but with 3D I am doing less assembly. Would be good for painting small figures etc. Certainly surgeons constantly prove that being able to see is often the limit.

Cheers: Tom

David,

We had a Nikon Zoom binocular stereo microscope at work. We used it for soldering very tight spacing surface mount IC leads and inspection of circuit boards.

It was amazing! I think it was 5x through 25x - just rotate the zoom ring. I lust after one of those for small modelling work but they are very expensive!

Phil

One can spend thousands of �/US$/� on these, of course, and quality probably increases with the price tag. The key point in our case is not so much magnification but the depth of field I think, in order have a useable working volume.

I scanned ebay and got mine for around 90� in the UK. The make is Prior, a reputable company. It's an antique piece, probably from the 1950s or or even older. All solid brass. It came with a gantry clamping to the bench, which was important to be able to use it with my micro-milling machine and being able to swing it out of the way, rather than having to shift around a heavy base (which also came with it). There are three optics with different magnification that slide in an out on a dove-tail. The lowest magnification eye-pieces were 10x, which give with the lowest magnification optics (0.7) an overall magnification of x7. Together with my near-sightedness of x3, this was too much, so I got a set of x5 eye-pieces from China (their diameter is kind of standardised with different sizes, so you can always get replacements).

Initially, I had problems with the proper stereo vision and was frustrated, but then I took the optics apart and realised that some previous owner must have had tampered with it. Luckily, there are a lot of adjusment screws and I managed to reset the rogue lens properly and now it works perfectly.

However, all this has nothing to do with 3D-printing, I suppose. Perhaps one should move such discussions to a seperate thread ...

It is part of small modeling pieces, which is much of what the thread is about. I fo one appreciate a wide ranging discussion.

Cheers: Tom

Sort of related to printing: My printer in effect died, a leak caused the LCD surface to end up with a gnarly mass of cured resin on it. Yes I could replace the LCD, but at this point in an evolving technology it made some sense to upgrade. Being easy to please makes life easier and more satisfying. I ordered (and it showed up in 4 days) an Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K. Making peace with the slicer it uses may take a while but as a test I printed a 3 blade ship's prop, which came out perfect, smooth and accurate.

The adventure continues.

Tom,

I had problems with the Anycubic Photon Workshop program. It did squirrely things occasionally and sometimes produced empty sliced files. It is based on an old version of Chitubox.

So I just got Chitubox. However, there were some problems with it also. But the Chitubox tech support is amazing. I got responses to my email questions almost immeditely, and they sent me a version that works best on my Win 7 workstation. I also have the version for Win 10 on my laptop.

I have asked several questions and they answered them in just a few minutes.

Phil

Good choice the mono X 6K, think of buying FEP film from aftermarket in advance, you have to check frequently that it is not damaged, even slightly, because the screen can suffer quickly like your previous printer. I have an advance lcd screen in stock too.

I'm thinking of buying the new Anycubic Photon M3 Max 7K which was just released a few days ago, it can print very large parts like ship hulls.

Good choice the mono X 6K, think of buying FEP film from aftermarket in advance, you have to check frequently that it is not damaged, even slightly, because the screen can suffer quickly like your previous printer. I have an advance lcd screen in stock too.

I'm thinking of buying the new Anycubic Photon M3 Max 7K which was just released a few days ago, it can print very large parts like ship hulls.

425 x 269 x 256 mm

https://www.anycubic.fr/products/photon ... NqEALw_wcB

Phil and Pascal, thank you for the info. I think I like the Chitubox better, but of course that's largely because I am familiar with it. One thing that the Anycubic has that is a good idea is having a replaceable protective sheet over the LCD screen to manage issues with at least small leaks. As to the Chitubox, I stayed with an older version as it was stable and worked well. However it will be necessary to download a new version that can find my new printer. I got a large roll of FEP film from McMaster Carr, an industrial supply provider who carries all sorts of useful items such as crush rings for fuel and hydraulic banjo fittings.

Cheers: Tom

The new version of Chitubox contains your photon mono X 6K ( V.1.9.2 ) but not yet the Photon Ultra that I just received today and I'm testing right now.

The new version of Chitubox contains the photon mono X 6K ( V.1.9.2 ) but not yet the Photon Ultra that I just received today and I'm testing right now.

As for the film, I tried to put a protection film that I had bought in place on my mono 4K, but it makes bubbles, it's not usable .
I'm not the only one to have made the remark about the one that came with the 6K from the reviews I've read.

This film is supposed to protect the screen, but not the FEP film.

..........We�re assuming you spotted that mostly qualifier a couple of sentences back though. To protect it�s fancy 6K screen, the AnyCubic Photon Mono X 6K comes with a screen protector that you have to install yourself and we found it to be an absolute nightmare, to the point where we just didn�t put it on. We made multiple attempts following the instructions, but we just could not get the protector to go on without air bubbles, and the advice to push them out using the plastic scraper didn�t work either.

Once you got the screen protector on (or thrown it in the bin in a fit of rage), the rest of the setup is nice and easy though. The AnyCubic Photon Mono X 6K has a 3.5 inch color touchscreen that is used to control the device. We found the touchscreen to be accurate and responsive, and the menus are all laid out sensibly.........

https://www.space.com/anycubic-photon-mono-x-6k-review

Tom, Phil, Pascal -

I'm following this line of the thread rather closely as Tom & I started out together with the same printer. At this point I've replaced quite a few of the usual parts that wear out, but so far I'm chugging along without any problems at the moment. However, I've been doing research on a possible upgrade - and, what's actually available now due to the Brandon Economic Plan which has screwed up the entire world trade situation and supply chain, 3D printers notwithstanding!

There are quite a few online reviews of the mini 3D SLA printers available for examination and I'm leaning towards the Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K printer at this point. However, I'm closely watching what's being posted re. this thread as well as reviews of various 3D SLA type printers on 3D printing websites. I was looking with interest at the Phrozen Mighty 4K but there are quite a few detailed reviews which are a bit disturbing as to certain aspects about that printer that I am calling into question - mainly regarding the actual print area vs what the mfgr. has claimed will print. So, at this point - since the Mini 8K and Mighty 4K have almost identical print areas, I'm reading better overall reviews re. the Mini 8K - of course back to supply chain - the Mini 8K seems to be back ordered regardless of who you purchase it thru - and, perhaps more importantly, the price you pay!

As Tom pointed out, he's not particularly interested in learning yet another new software program (slicing program) nor am I - what I've gotten out of Chitubox over the last couple years (and I've upgraded 3 times to version V1.8.1 currently) is quite satisfactory in terms of detail and accuracy. So, that's another reason to continue with the Phrozen brand of printer.

FYI, I've also looked into the Phrozen Mega 8K printer which would be a MAJOR decision and I would probably have to carry that from the front porch upon delivery under the dead of night in order to avoid the ever-present RADAR-like eyes & ears of The Admiral and her Cat-O-Death - a constant reminder of Who's who in the Zoo...

This thread has been extremely helpful so I hope it continues as it provides very good info along the way.

Hank

Having "annoyance" issues with the Chitu website. They make it difficult to just get to the download and have an annoying chat box that won't go away and covers stuff up. Trying yet again, the download seems to have an issue (third download) and won't start to install on my computer. Maybe fourth is a charm? For some reason the files are corrupted or some other issue and no install. Trying to make peace with the provided slicer. Anyone use the "Pro Chitubox"?

Eventually some solution will be arrived at!

You have a PC?

Fliger747 wrote:Having "annoyance" issues with the Chitu website. They make it difficult to just get to the download and have an annoying chat box that won't go away and covers stuff up. Trying yet again, the download seems to have an issue (third download) and won't start to install on my computer. Maybe fourth is a charm? For some reason the files are corrupted or some other issue and no install. Trying to make peace with the provided slicer. Anyone use the "Pro Chitubox"?

Eventually some solution will be arrived at!

@Tom: I have downloaded it for you, PC version 64 bits:

https://we.tl/t-cGLmhR5m8s