Quick Project

[jcdammeyer]

My wife Linda, came home from work today and handed me the blue plastic part and asked if I could 3D print something like that. It's a clip used to hang up blister packs with all the patients medications. The group homes for disabled or elderly people have each days medications in a blister pack and it looks like they hang them up on some sort of rods or cables.

So 30 minutes later I had the CAD drawing done. Then 1 hour and 30 minutes later the first prototype. Came out really well and stresses what I've said before. 3D printing is all about being able to use CAD to create models of what you want to build. Then often the stock settings on the printer are all that are needed.

This had 10% infill and support so the spring tang wouldn't be too fuzzy. Here's the result.

And the cad drawing of the back.

She'll take it to work tomorrow and try an empty pack into it to see if it clips as well as the original.

 

[Cryoine]

I agree with the 3D printer being able to quickly 'spit' out prototypes its almost unreal lol right now I'm printing a CNC router and should have it mostly done by next week, but ill need to order the hardware to fasten it together since I don't have that many of the types that are required

the pictures are just a little teaser for things to come lol

 

[DavidR8]

Are you making an MPCNC?

 

[jcdammeyer]

One thing to keep in mind is that a CNC router pushes around a lot more mass than a 3D printer. The motors will get hotter. You may find you will have to make motor brackets out of metal rather than plastic.

 

[Cryoine]

Are you making an MPCNC?

yup, the low rider V3 version

 

[Cryoine]

One thing to keep in mind is that a CNC router pushes around a lot more mass than a 3D printer. The motors will get hotter. You may find you will have to make motor brackets out of metal rather than plastic.

i plan on using it to actually make better parts for itself when it is completed

 

[jcdammeyer]

i plan on using it to actually make better parts for itself when it is completed

Love boot strapped systems

 

[LenVW]

3D printers are the NEW manufacturing machines.
They only place material we’re it is needed and depend on accurately designed ‘models’ in a ‘modelling’ software application.
They efficiently make use of materials and deposit them accordingly.
But,
They are far from metal components that can have hardened surfaces to prevent wear.

 

[jcdammeyer]

3D printers are the NEW manufacturing machines.
They only place material we’re it is needed and depend on accurately designed ‘models’ in a ‘modelling’ software application.
They efficiently make use of materials and deposit them accordingly.
But,
They are far from metal components that can have hardened surfaces to prevent wear.

They also don't have mass. My Gingery Lathe with the cast bed to which a 0.25 x 3" CRS was screwed still twisted and had deflection. A 3D printed bed would be even worse.

The problem is the "If all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail" syndrome. And I know people who have machine shops with all the fancy tools and spend most of their time 3D printing instead.

 

[jcdammeyer]

They also don't have mass. My Gingery Lathe with the cast bed to which a 0.25 x 3" CRS was screwed still twisted and had deflection. A 3D printed bed would be even worse.

One thing to remember about the Gingery Series though is the crucible size (and to some extent his charcoal foundry) was limited to max 6 lbs of aluminum scrap. Take the dross off the top and you might get 5.5#. I found his method of feed metal into always resulted in a warped bed. Creating a long runner with multiple feed points (and melting the two failures) finally resulted in a bed that matched the drawing and the pattern.

I think if you knew you had 12# of aluminum available the bed design would have been much more robust.
The same can be said of 3D printing. I think designing parts as if they were cast aluminum or iron doesn't lead to stronger parts. But I am constantly amazed at what I can turn out. One day I might even try casting lost PLA.

 

[LenVW]

I did some quick referencing, since I have not ventured into 3D printing.
In 2021 . . .
“PLA had the highest consumption volume of any bioplastic of the world,[3] although it is still not a commodity polymer. Its widespread application has been hindered by numerous physical and processing shortcomings.“
I have noticed that it requires additional processing to improve its physical properties.

You may have to try a few experiments with PLA.