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…...................e Fencing ------ N Scale Water Tower ---

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You can find all the files to 3D print this object and others on my thingiverse.come account ( HERE ).

I found a picture of a water tank on …

cherelvalleyrailroad.com/ . They have a great site with lots of really nice scratch built buildings. Check them out.

I decided to try designing something similar using Fusion 360 with the hope of printing it out with my Ender 3 Pro 3D printer.

I started with round uprights like in the picture and tried to print the tower as a single unit. That didn't go well as there are so many overhangs that require supports to be printed in addition to the structure itself. I started one print but aborted it part way in once I saw that there was no easy way to remove all the supports that were being printed also.

Then I decided to break it apart so that it would be printed in individual pieces that wouldn't need supports. This meant that the pieces would have to be glued together after printing. The round uprights and crossmembers would be hard to print in such a way that it would be easy to also glue.

I went from round to square uprights and changed the crossmembers and “X” bracing to square and rectangular shapes also.

Above we see the pieces that resulted but at this time I didn't also design the pump building that is the first picture. That will come later. The different structural members now printed out very nice and also a lot quicker than if the tank was printed as a single unit.

I also designed two different tops for the tank. One has an access hatch that would be used as access to the tank.

The separate parts glue together quite easily and quickly with CA.

The Insta-Set helps in this part of the build. I would put a dab of CA on just one point where two pieces were joined together and held it by hand of with helpers (shown above) and hit it with the Insta-Set and the joint would form instantly. Then I'd put glue on the rest of the joints between the pieces being glued together and hit it with the spray again.

Holding it and gluing it in only one place is easier than trying to glue all of the crossmembers at the same time. If you made a mistake it would also be easier to take the joint apart with 'Un-Cure' and starting over. I didn't have to do that.

I did design it to use one piece of round styrene tubing. I tried to print that at the same time as the tank but it was too tall an flexible when the printer was tryng to print it to be a success. The tube works much better and also assembles better.

I designed the tops of the uprights to fit into the bottom of the tank but a couple still printed a little large but he nippers quickly took card of that.

I'll print some ladders to go up the tank to the access hatch on the top. You can find the ladders here along with a link to the files to print them ( HERE ).

You have options on how and/or where to use the tank on your layout.

I was very happy with the way the Ender printed this and other objects.

I'll soon design the pump house that can go at the base of the tower structure.

=============== Update ==================

There is now a second option for the water tank.

The second option is a tank that appears to be made up of vertical boards which was typical of early water tanks. For some reason the printer printed small round nibs where the bands crossed the depressions. I spent about 15 minutes trying to remove most of them with an Exacto knife and a file. I could of done better. Not sure how your printer will handle this but wanted to point it out.

I also designed a new top (roof) with a smaller access hatch and will post that file on line along with the larger one.

Now there is the option to have either a smooth sided tank that can still be painted to resemble wood or not, or a tank that has the appearance of vertical boards.

You can find all the files to 3D print this object and others on my thingiverse.come account ( HERE ).

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