HO-scale water tower
facet-as-stave + bracing tessellation
Trackside wooden tank on a braced timber frame, 1:87 scale. Low-segment cylinder = staves for free.
What it is
A classic trackside wooden water tower at HO (1:87) scale: cylindrical slatted tank, three iron hoops, conical shingle roof with an overhang, four-leg timber frame with horizontal ring beams and per-panel X-braces, and a downspout dangling off the tank’s underside.
Why visual feedback matters
The tank exploits a segments: trick — the cylinder is built with a low segment count so its facets read as wooden staves without any extra geometry. The frame is genuinely parametric: change legCount or braceLevels and the ring beams + X-braces re-tile in place. Visual verification matters because the brace rotation has a sign convention that’s easy to flip — the model still "looks like a water tower" at iso, but the front view immediately exposes parallel slashes instead of Xs.
Screenshots
Parameters
Parameters 8
| Name | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
tankDiameter | — mm | Tank diameter. |
tankHeight | — mm | Tank height. |
staveCount | — | Facet count on the tank (the "stave" knob). |
roofHeight | — mm | Cone roof height. |
legCount | — | Frame leg count (3–8); frame regenerates around the tank. |
legHeight | — mm | Distance from ground to tank floor. |
braceLevels | — | Number of horizontal ring beams (X-braces fill each panel). |
spoutLength | — mm | Downspout length; set 0 to remove. |
Try it
- Open in your browser → openjscad.xyz, bundled single-file
- Source on GitHub →
- Full walkthrough on GitHub →