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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
    Age
    57
    Posts
    2,651

    Default 3D printers - what are you printing for the workshop?

    Common 3D printers don't do metalwork directly, but over the few months I've had mine I've found a lot of workshop related uses for it.
    The current working from home situation means I can feed and babysit it during the day while it makes things for the workshop

    Here's a couple of my recent prints - what are you guys printing?

    Reducer duct for welding fume extractor:


    Index plates for the rotary table that cover the hole numbers I’m missing on my proper ones:



    Steve

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Toorloo Arm, VIC
    Age
    39
    Posts
    1,270

    Default

    Couple of days ago I finally got around to printing a new check valve for the air compressor out of TPE. Pretty simple part, basically just a solid cylinder with a small step in one end for the spring. Put it in and ran the compressor yesterday, today the pressure in the tank has dropped a whopping 2 psi. Win! It used to all leak out over about 2 hours. See how it lasts, but at a 20 minute print, no great hardship if it needs replacement every 6 months or so...

    I've also printed various angle plate parallels for setups in the vice, since I don't have any real ones. Work well if the angles aren't super critical (and are probably surprisingly accurate anyway).

    I made a quill light for the Bridgeport, using (from memory) a 120mm LED ring light sold for "angel eyes" conversions in cars...

    Few other things I can't think of at the moment. Pictures of quill light for inevitable "Pictures Please" clickers
    Attached Images Attached Images

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Newcastle, AU
    Posts
    238

    Default

    I have been doing a lot of Ryobi One+ wall mounted battery holders - I wasn't sure if I'd use them at first but it's actually darn convenient having them on the wall near the charger rather than in a drawer, and they're popular with customers.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Werribee, Melbourne
    Posts
    177

    Default

    I burnt some time during the first lockdown here to get my head around the basics of Freecad and have also done some workshop goodies.

    The black gear here is an fancier 50T metric conversion change gear for my ancient Senecca Falls lathe (has raised lettering for the tooth count and recessed sides on the gear).
    The grey ones were designed by a friend in Fusion 360 and I printed them a couple of years ago (yes, they do work in this application).
    IMG_0975.jpg

    Here is a selection of various gears of various pitches, some with tooth count lettering and some not.
    IMG_0968.jpg

    This one was quite tricky with a slightly off-centre tapered pin mounting - a replacement gear for the thread dial on my old Macson. Given the application, a plastic gear is perfectly workable.
    IMG_0999.jpg

    I've posted these before - replacement knobs for levers on the Hembrug. I was surprised how well you can polish up PLA.
    IMG_0941_1.jpg

    Another one for the Hembrug - a replacement cover for the power connection. The original cast alloy cover was missing so this is an approximation based on what the parts diagram shows.
    IMG_1024.jpg

    Some MT2 tool holders for my neighbours Seig.

    IMG_0989.jpg

    The 101 uses aren't restricted to the workshop either - this is a redesigned knob for the cheapo Bunnings garden shears (the original didn't last very long at all).

    IMG_1010.jpg

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
    Age
    57
    Posts
    2,651

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde View Post
    Couple of days ago I finally got around to printing a new check valve for the air compressor out of TPE. Pretty simple part, basically just a solid cylinder with a small step in one end for the spring. Put it in and ran the compressor yesterday, today the pressure in the tank has dropped a whopping 2 psi. Win! It used to all leak out over about 2 hours. See how it lasts, but at a 20 minute print, no great hardship if it needs replacement every 6 months or so...

    I've also printed various angle plate parallels for setups in the vice, since I don't have any real ones. Work well if the angles aren't super critical (and are probably surprisingly accurate anyway).

    I made a quill light for the Bridgeport, using (from memory) a 120mm LED ring light sold for "angel eyes" conversions in cars...

    Few other things I can't think of at the moment. Pictures of quill light for inevitable "Pictures Please" clickers
    Nice. I've used mostly PLA/PLA+ so far. Spent far too much time getting some PETG to print nicely, only to find that it was actually more brittle than the PLA+ I'd been using.

    Looks like you've got a tired LT230 there. How did bushing it go, and equally important - whats it running in?
    I tried to cure that disease with machining, but its like cutting back on drinking and starting on ice
    Now I just have 2 sets of medical bills !!!

    Steve

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Newcastle, AU
    Posts
    238

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post
    Nice. I've used mostly PLA/PLA+ so far. Spent far too much time getting some PETG to print nicely, only to find that it was actually more brittle than the PLA+ I'd been using.

    Looks like you've got a tired LT230 there. How did bushing it go, and equally important - whats it running in?
    I tried to cure that disease with machining, but its like cutting back on drinking and starting on ice
    Now I just have 2 sets of medical bills !!!

    Steve
    Too much cooling can make PETG super brittle - most of my PETG printing is done with zero fan at 250degC and the parts are much, much stronger and less brittle than the PLA equivalents. You may have already tried less cooling, but if not... maybe give it a go!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
    Age
    57
    Posts
    2,651

    Default 3D printers - what are you printing for the workshop?

    Thanks J.C.
    My "successful" PETG prints were done with no part cooling and around 245 from memory. I've only got the Ender3 so that temperature is supposedly starting to push its limits unless you mess around with upgraded hot end components etc.
    Item was some fuel line clips, and I could still break the sides off with my hands and a bit of effort. Same print with some eSUN PLA+ I couldn't break it - more pressure was going to cause leakage of the red stuff from my fingers!




    What printer/s are you running? (apologies if I've asked before!)

    Steve

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Newcastle, AU
    Posts
    238

    Default

    Interesting. I have had good results with both eSun and 3DFillies PETG. I PM’d you printer details.

    PLA is darn good for so many things. One of these days I’m going to get some nylon and have a go at that - no requests for it yet though so no urgent need to experiment just yet...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Mornington Peninsular
    Posts
    23

    Default

    I made a dust shroud for the Mitre saw cabinet. Was going to do a metal transition from a rectangle to 150 mm pipe but figured it would take a few tries to get it right and work out expensive if I used Aly.

    Ended up printing a transition which fits in the bottom of the mdf shroud. Took a few minutes to create in Fusion 360 and printed over two nights.





    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Toorloo Arm, VIC
    Age
    39
    Posts
    1,270

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post
    Nice. I've used mostly PLA/PLA+ so far. Spent far too much time getting some PETG to print nicely, only to find that it was actually more brittle than the PLA+ I'd been using.

    Looks like you've got a tired LT230 there. How did bushing it go, and equally important - whats it running in?
    I tried to cure that disease with machining, but its like cutting back on drinking and starting on ice
    Now I just have 2 sets of medical bills !!!

    Steve
    Yep, LT230. Was wondering how many would pick that. It's actually the second one I've done, but the first is still sitting on my garage floor waiting for an extremely lazy mate to get round to fitting it. Both are Disco 2 (Td5) and were sleeved, rebuilt with kits from Ashcrofts, and fitted with an Ashcroft ATB. And so far, the one in my car has been faultless, no leaks or noises, and the ATB is an awesome mod, I couldn't go back to not having now. Makes an amazing difference in how planted it is even on bitumen (not that a D2 is bad anyway when it's fitted with ACE!), and on the gravel it just tracks dead straight through all kinds of potholes and bumps, without any of that subtle feeling of the front end tugging side to side into them that you'd normally get.

    As far as plastics go... My usual go-to is polycarbonate - not an ABS blend, straight polycarbonate from Hobbyking. Holy crap is that stuff strong, but there's a couple of tricks to printing it. One of the tricks involves putting it down stupidly wide, which means a print in polycarb takes me about half the time of PLA/PETG (don't like it)/etc. Part of the reason it's my go to, given that the Hobbyking (not the premium brand) is about the same cost per KG as anything else.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Age
    67
    Posts
    362

    Default

    Have not printed anything yet. Just ordered the electronics to have a go at building a printer.

    This learning to draw, model then slice is driving me crazy. I have not even begun to delve into Arduino yet.


    Might take me a while to dig myself out of this hole.

    Tony

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    9,088

    Default

    Nice work guys.

    Can't think of anything I've printed for the workshop. It's more things I have printed that meant I didn't have to make them in the workshop. So much warmer in the house at this time of year.

    Most popular with SWMBO have been a flag for the letter box so we know when the postie has been and a tool so she can lock the hubs on the 4WD without getting her hands dirty. It is truly amazing what you can score points with.

    Its chugging away behind me making a mount for a bedhead light.

    Flown 3D printed RC planes that go about 100mph. Though I didn't do the printing, I did glue some together. Two of my mates are far more into it. I only have one printer after all. One of the mates has something like 16 including a couple of largish custom built deltas.

    Amazing what they can do.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    33

    Default Dividing head plates

    Are you willing to share the programming for the plates?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
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    Quote Originally Posted by alfclp View Post
    Are you willing to share the programming for the plates?
    No dramas. Don't think for a minute I'm smart enough to have designed them myself

    https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1908993

    I didn't have any luck with the Thingiverse customiser, but the design is done in OpenSCAD, so I downloaded that, set the sizes and number of holes I wanted, rendered it and exported the STL to slice.

    In my case I've got a Homge rotary table which is 90:1 ratio so I just grabbed the number of holes from their plate specs for the larger tables.
    AFAIK most dividing heads are 40:1
    My proper plates are only about 100mm diameter so not practical to do high numbers of holes. I used 150mm for the printed plates.
    Just a heads up that the smaller plates use different numbers of holes compared to larger plates (ie if you've got room for 60 holes there's no point having a 30 hole pattern).
    Here's the Homge numbers - DP1 is the smaller plate, DP2,3 are the larger ones:
    DP-1
    A Plate / 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
    B Plate / 21, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33
    C Plate / 37, 39, 41, 43, 47, 49
    DP-2, 3
    A Plate / 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 49, 51, 53, 57, 59
    B Plate / 61, 63, 67, 69, 71, 73, 77, 79, 81, 83, 87, 89, 91, 93, 97, 99

    Steve

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
    Age
    57
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    Default

    This ER32 collet rack was finished when I got up this morning.




    Steve

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