Author Topic: Gerrit's FDM Projects  (Read 4607 times)

Offline gerritv

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Gerrit's FDM Projects
« on: January 16, 2020, 03:47:49 PM »
This thread is in response to a suggestion that we provide 3D models and .stl's of things we made using 3D printing. In my case it is with Fusion360 and Cura on a Creality Ender3 Pro.


Out of the box it took 40 minutes to get to the first print. After running a bunch of test prints using the sample filament I switched to a budget roll of PLA. That lasted 6 months of printing. Now I have switched to a  premium brand (Neat) PLA which performs much better but still needs a bit of tweaking in settings to get to where I was with the budget material. The better brand flows better leading to over extrusion, aka bumps on corners.

I chose to buy from a local shop (local = 50km away). A) I wanted to support a local store, b) I wanted a relationship in case I needed help, c) only a 1 hour delay between deciding to buy something and picking it up. The shop also runs courses, which turned out to be a great learning experience.

The only substantive modification to the printer is the replacement of a cooling fan with one designed to cool filament directly beneath the extruder. This made for a significant improvement in layer adhesion and a reduction in part warping. Additionally I printed 2 trays that mount at the rear of machine to hold a Raspi (running Repetier Host server for remote control) and a presently empty one as I might relocate the controller board at some point in the future.
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Offline gerritv

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A Right Angle Viewer for the D-Bit Grinder
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2020, 03:59:43 PM »
I bought an Alexander 2CGD last year, made under license from Deckel it is same quality as Deckel SO. After watching Stefan Gotteswinter doing four-facet drill grinding I tried that myself. Works great but with smaller drills (in my case anything under 7mm) was too difficult to see.
As a result I drew up this right angle viewer. It uses 23mm diameter eyepiece, 10x10x10mm prism and 20mm objective. All obtainable from the usual Asian sources. The optical path is nominally 140-160mm per standard microscope optics but the depth of field is quite tolerant.
This item would not have been feasible for me to make out of metal, first because it took 3 iterations to get correct, and due to some equipment limitations. There is no stress or heat involved so the item will stay in use as is.

2/3 of the way down the eyepiece there is a thin wire that is used to align the drill cutting edge horizontal. The device gets flipped up during grinding, and flipped down to verify whether the grind is complete.
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Offline gerritv

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Univac II Panel Displays
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2020, 04:19:06 PM »
My first job was in 1968, working for Sperry Univac maintaining mainframes. The first site was Ontario Hydro where I was assigned to keep their 2 Univac II's running. Massive machine with a commensurately large and impressive console. When the machines were scrapped we managed to keep amongst other things the console panel. We had to however share by given the displays themselves to someone else. (who built a digital clock with them). My brother and I am now in the process of resurrecting the panel, including connecting an emulator to it using ESP32 and a bunch of custom boards. Of course while blinking lights are great, it needs the digital displays.
These were made by Electro Industries who are of course no longer in business. Two aluminum plates with grooves support up to 11 edge lit perspex panels. One of the plates has 11 holes for 328 bulbs. A rather complex item to machine manually, esp when you need 16 of them. I did make a custom cutter to do the groves and reliefs for the edge lighting but in the end I ended up experimenting with printing them.
One limitation of 3D printing is the minimum width of a feature. The general rule seems to be 3 nozzle widths or the feature will have no strength. After some re-design of dimensions I got a strong enough separator between the segments. The 'real' units will be printed in PETG for an even stronger result.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2020, 07:31:05 PM by gerritv »
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Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2020, 04:19:48 PM »
An excellent start to your thread Gerrit.  :ThumbsUp: I was just thinking this morning about your post in Jo's thread about doing this.

Question: Were you experienced with Fusion 360 before getting your printer?  I've been looking at some of the tutorials for TinkerCad which is a basic design program by AutoDesk.

Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline gerritv

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2020, 04:30:32 PM »
Being blessed with having an almost adequate supply of AXA holders, I wanted them better organized and at hand on my King KC1022ML lathe. Also having drill chucks, live centre and some countersinks handy is a great productivity booster.

I drew up this bracket and printed 3 of them. They bolt to the rear sheet metal using 10-32 SHCS and screw to bottom of shelf using small wood screws. Printed with 10% fill and 1.2mm walls they took 6 hours for the 3. Light weight yet structurally more than strong enough.
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Offline gerritv

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2020, 04:35:22 PM »
An excellent start to your thread Gerrit.  :ThumbsUp: I was just thinking this morning about your post in Jo's thread about doing this.

Question: Were you experienced with Fusion 360 before getting your printer?  I've been looking at some of the tutorials for TinkerCad which is a basic design program by AutoDesk.

Jim
I have been forcing myself to practice with Fusion360 for several months. I had some limited experience with Inventor and long time ago Alibre but nothing substantial. I find the volume of tutorials and other help available invaluable. I use it because I am in the background working up drawings to start a few models, some of which require casting. Thus my interest in 3D printing PLA items for lost 'wax' casting. By forcing some time to draw even relatively simple items that I machine, it gets the key strokes etc into my finger tips. Later in this thread there will appear an item that forced my to learn placing tubes at angle to a surface in a known location and orientation. Took a while but will come in handy in the future :-)
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Offline gerritv

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Printed Flex Hose
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2020, 05:07:03 PM »
For the Alexander 2CGD D-bit grinder I needed some dust management. This is a scaled down print of an item from Thingiverse. One of the useful features of .stl files is that they are scale-able. So if you find an item but want it a bit smaller or larger, just scale it in your slicer.

I printed this in PLA as an experiment and to get dimensions for some related bits. PETG is the recommended filament, the PLA seems to 'stretch' over time under expansion pressures from the joints. The joints are looser now than when printed.
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Offline gerritv

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USB Cable Holders
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2020, 05:13:05 PM »
USB cables seems to grow overnight, sometimes entangling themselves. Much like the mainframes I worked on in the 1970's, you lay them out neatly somewhere and then a few days later they are intertwined!

This was also a bit of practice drawing items in Fusion360.
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Offline gerritv

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E355 Collet Holder
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2020, 05:20:41 PM »
The Alexander 2CGD came with a few collets, I bought some more of course. To keep them from banging around I drew up this rack.

This uses 61g of filament, aka 20.57 metres. At CA$1.84 this is great value. It did take 5h to print, but there was other stuff to keep me busy.
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Offline gerritv

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Nixie Tube Clock Case
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2020, 05:27:28 PM »
For my wife's special birthday last year, I built a Nixie tube clock. Genuine USSR production tubes. The controller was bought from Swizterland.
I messed about with making a case out of Aluminum and wood but once the printer arrived I drew upa design and printed it. A flat base, with pre-printed 3mm holes for the 2 brackets holding the display board. The top and sides are one piece, with pre-printed holes as well for screwing it together. The top was printed upside down on smooth glass, which turned out great.

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Offline gerritv

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4" Twin HA/LA Training Base
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2020, 05:54:01 PM »
One of my long term projects is to build a largish scale model of the 4" HA/LA guns mounted on many WW II destroyers. My interest started when my father built a 1:48 model of G07 HMCS Athabaskan for the Canadian War Museum in 1975. We are blessed at having HMCS Haida, the only remaining Tribal Class destroyer in the world in Hamilton, just 35 minutes from home. So getting details is easy. Having the manual for the gun is also of great benefit :-)
I would not dream of carving this out of metal. But printing a pattern and casting this is well within reach. This is also an example of the power in Fusion360, you can import a photo and draw over it. This part is actually drawn full size, this is approx. 6' across.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2020, 06:07:50 PM by gerritv »
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Offline Jo

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2020, 06:08:52 PM »
Gerrit now you have go me looking through all the goodies on Thingiverse again  :facepalm:

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline gerritv

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AXA Indicator Holder
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2020, 06:52:43 PM »
This is one of those items that I should have made a long time ago but never did. Thanks to BlondiHacks I now have one.

The files are on Thingiverse.

Gerrit
Don't confuse activity with progress

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2020, 06:55:09 PM »
A lot of neat ideas! I look forward to more contributions.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline gerritv

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Re: Gerrit's FDM Projects
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2020, 01:50:51 AM »
I have a large Kennedy toolbox loaded with taps, end mills, boring bars, taper reamers, straight reamers, drills etc etc. All happily banging against each other in the night keeping the cat awake :-)

Having recently bought Simplify3D for better control of my printing I thought: Why not doodle up a drawer and print it out to exercise the new software. This is Style 1, .75" tall with .375" tall separators. This works ok but the separators are a bit tall so Style 2 is being printed as I type this. It is .5" tall with .25" tall separators.

I plan to print a bunch of these and build a box to hold them. Enough to get my inferial and metric taps separated, ditto with drills. And so forth. Additional Styles will appear depending on end mill sizes etc. Once you have this in Fusion360 it is easy enough to modify.
i will post the .f3d file once I am happy with the design.

gerrit
Don't confuse activity with progress

 

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