3DP mag stand flashlight clamp

[PeterT]

I've only had one 3D printing experience & that was for an RC part using a local outfit. It wasn't very pretty or very strong so kind of turned me off 3DP. I decided to give Shapeways a try with this do-dad, more out of morbid curiosity. The part was $6.94 plus ~$5 S&H (USD) printed in their pseudo nylon. Guess I'll find out what I get when it arrives. The account setup & upload was painless. Some of the sample parts on the website looked decent, but who knows....

Anyway, I want something to hold my LED flashlight on a standard machinist indicator mag stand. So kind of point the light & lock the position. Often times I want to peer down dark nooks & crannies like hole boring or whatever. Its kind of one of those PITA shapes to make from metal. I decided to make the clamp ID a standard 1.0" because flashlight body OD's vary all over the map. So I'll turn an adapter ring to suit. I made a recess to embed a standard hex nut which engages a bolt or thumbscrew to tighten.

More of a test to see how the cad features turn out. If it works, I have some more ideas. If its glue gun crap, then I guess back to metal we go!

 

[Janger]

Peter - What cad did you use and what format to upload?

 

[PeterT]

I'm a Solidworks snob. Long story but years ago I did some plug & mold development work for some racing dudes & that got me in on SW promo at the time. But simple stuff like this (or much more complex) could bang out in Fusion360 easy-peasy from what I can see of the software. I don't use it myself but probably would be my weapon of choice nowadays. Upload format was .STL Shapeways has a list of acceptable formats on the website somewhere. I just recalled that's what the last guy said generally works best, but not sure why or if true. That procedure was simple too, design part, file save as *.STL, spec inches/mm (they ask for that on Shapeways), upload. It does some checking & shows a mini rendering. Then it provides costing in like 20 different dimensionally acceptable materials from $ to $$$. I didn't keep a screen grab of that, but a very nice layout I thought. They have some materials reference but not super techy. I'm sure there are more resources out there if it was critical. So overall good web experience, we'll see what the critter looks like in real life. I'm kind of intrigued by their 'aluminum' material. I know its not like billet but it come in handy one day on this engine for weird shapes, manifold fittings etc.

 

[Alexander]

Cool show us a picture when you get the part

 

[Tom O]

Someone at Protospace had Shapeways make a part in metal it looked quite good!

 

[PeterT]

Tom, was the part kind of for functional purpose requiring some metal-like strength, or more ornamental?

One thing I have to check out is when the part has specific dimensions, do they do the behind the scenes scaling as necessary? My limited understanding is they are printed & then sintered at high heat which fuses the metal powder & presumably shrinks a bit. If so, would they be scaling it that much bigger to account for this? I'm sure there is guidance & resources on the site, just haven't got that far yet. But if you have any words of wisdom, please pass them on.

Some of you guys were talking about printing parts with lost wax material, they have that medium available too.

 

[Tom O]

Try Ken's gems for wax casting they have the spinning type crucible's and the different shaped wax and if the ladies want into it a whole slew of jewlery patterns.

 

[PeterT]

Ya I know Kens well, been going there for many years. That kind of casting equipment is big bucks though & quite specialized. I guess like anything that's the tools of the trade, just not for me. I wish there was a reasonable casting place you could just send your wax model to, that would be the perfect relationship with 3DP for me.

Kens is also Paragon distributer. They use different oven/kiln models for jewelry, but he can bring an any of the product line.

 

[Tom O]

It seems to me that the most expensive part would be the spring loaded centrafuge and that looks like a easy project hell you could use a stepper and Arduino to turn it the crucibles are cheap.

 

[PeterT]

A magnetic base flashlight thingy exists, Damit!
Oh well. My black anodized Rona flashlight will look so stealthy on a nice Noga mag stand. LOL

 

[PeterT]

Well it arrived from Shapeways today. In an oversize box that made me blush - could have fit 20 of them in there. But that's standardized shipping for ya. It looks better than the other part I had printed, more of a sugary finish & not as much striations. Dimensionally pretty accurate. Not quite as rigid as real nylon but useable.

Also some boo-boos on my part. I must have inadvertently loaded a 4-40 nut profile because that's what fit perfectly vs. a 6-32 which is the clearance bolt hole. (Think I mislabelled a downloaded 3D hardware file). I made the stem diameter 0.375 like my dial indicators, but looking at it now, could have probably gone 6mm. Or maybe even a dovetail, it might be tough enough but hard to say about tolerances. That would save a bit of material but hard to say if it would reduce cost much.

I sized the ID to accommodate a range smaller flashlights with an adapter ring but it actually (kinda) fits my stubby bright one on the non-knurled section. Hard to show the light difference because of camera flash but it really does light up & expose ID holes like boring. Anyway, it was more a sh*ts & giggles evaluation test. Don't expect me on Dragons Den I now think there are some other parts I would now feel confident to print but others not.

 

[PeterT]

Visualize a spacer ring

 

[Bofobo]

looks like i already have the parts i need for this project lol

 

[PeterT]

Ha! They do look similar.

 

[kevin.decelles]

Peter, can u post the stl files? I'd like to do some tests with my printer


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[Janger]

Interesting test Peter. What was the all in bill If you don’t mind us asking.

 

[PeterT]

The part was 6.94 + shipping was 11-ish I recall (USD). Buying only 1 is not cost efficient on either front, but this was as far as I wanted to venture just to try the service. I should also mention my heart stopped when I saw UPS shipping notification after the fact. I figured great, now add another 35$ on top of that which was never stated in price structure. But all is good, its UPS inside States & auto transfer pre-arrangement via USPS to Canada. So still not cheap, but landed to my door with no added dinger fees. Here is my inquiry post & response. https://www.shapeways.com/forum/t/ups-to-canada.96145/#post-220554

They do have a cool 'store' concept where you can post your design, people order direct & you are out of the delivery loop altogether. I might try that one day, but seems like the big movers are nik-naks & Iphone cases

 

[PeterT]

Stumbled on a (mostly face mill review) YouTube vid but he also chats about the Shars mini mag flashlight I mentioned ^above^. Kind of funny, the light output is a bit anemic but also different LED tint on the pair he got. Hey, what do you want for $29.95? (Well... OTOH that USD, so probably 60 KanuckleLoonies by the time its landed).

 

[gsg9.ca]

Has anyone ever come across a Canadian version of Shapeways ? If possible I'd like to keep the $$ at home.