Pocket Cars

thingiverse

While designing parts for the railroad https://3dprintedrailroad.com/ I found that “Matchbox Cars” had the wrong scale. A “Matchbox Car” was almost the size of a “Thomas” engine, so I needed cars built to a smaller scale. Also, they shouldn’t look like modern automobiles since steam engines became obsolete about the middle of the 20th century. The result was “Pocket Cars” because they fit neatly in your pocket. I slice .STL files in Slic3r®. For “Pocket Cars” I use a 0.15mm layer height and a 200% bottom layer thickness. I put about 1mm of plastic on the outside surfaces as a shell. Since my printer has a 0.5mm nozzle I use 2 vertical shells and 4 horizontal top and bottom shells. I set a honeycomb fill pattern with a 25% fill density. You will need support turned on for the fenders when printing the “Pocket Cars”. I do use the “Skirt” option when printing. This gets plastic flowing to avoid a skip as the print starts. If your slicing software allows: set 2 loops, 2mm from the object, with a skirt height of 2 layers. Use the same slicing parameters for the wheels. The wheels were output in a separate STL file so they may be printed in a different color (I use Black for the wheels). After printing the car bodies remove the support material and run a 9/64” drill through the axel holes. The edges of the fenders may be squared up by a couple of passes against some fine sandpaper. Cut the axels 24mm long from 1/8” poplar dowel. Press an axel end into a wheel, slide it into the car body and press another wheel onto the other end (Note: the smooth side of the wheels go toward the car body). If the wheels are loose on the dowel, a drop of super glue on the end of the axel before assembly should hold things in place. For more railroad themed printing projects I refer you to https://3dprintedrailroad.com/.