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Post by gene35146 on Jul 27, 2021 0:35:10 GMT -5
Thought I would try my hand at 3D Printing a puck holder using Fusion 360 and Prusa 3D Printer. Turned out good I used 4 magnets from Amazon that got printed internally. |
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Post by dadealeus on Sept 22, 2021 14:48:34 GMT -5
That's awesome! I considered making something similar, but haven't gotten around to it yet. How do you like your 3D printer? I have an old Ultimaker, but I found that the Axiom machine I bought will do a good 95% of the work my 3D printer could in a fraction of the time. For example, if you were to try to mill your design, you could get the cord holder, the puck holder, and the base milled, but you'd have to mill the recessed area for the touch-off sensor yourself (since it's on a different axis). However, if your altered the design slightly and made it a cup - holding the sensor vertically instead of horizontally (see attached image) - you could mill the piece (assuming you had stock that was thick enough.
This design does not keep the sensor from sliding out unless the cord is placed to the back and then wrapped around the cord holder, but you could mill it in just a few seconds. Additionally, if you wanted to, you could add a lip onto the front of the cup with some screws to keep the sensor from sliding out.
Anyway, I've found that planning my designs specifically for the mill has been a LOT more cost/time effective. To this day I have not found part that I simply could not mill and, unfortunately (maybe fortunately?) I haven't used my 3D printer since I got my Axiom machine!
If you're looking for a good material to work with for these sorts of projects, check out HDU (high density urethane foam). It's offered in different densities - super light, fragile, and cheap, to incredibly dense (feels like marble) - insanely strong, but expensive - and anywhere in between. You can get it in thicknesses up to 24" in any density, or you can glue together multiple thinner pieces to make a thicker one with simple wood glue.
It's basically a wood replacement that mills incredibly quickly and has an outdoor life of over 40 years. It's a closed-cell foam, so it floats (in the lighter densities), won't absorb water, won't warp or crack. Painted, the thermal expansion is almost identical to most modern-day paints, so it expands and contracts at roughly the same rate as the paint when it heats and cools in the sun, so it reduces paint cracking and peeling.
It's basically a miracle material for milling most of my parts with.
Anyway, awesome creation; thanks for sharing! I love seeing the stuff other makers come up with.
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pedro
New Member
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Post by pedro on Feb 13, 2023 8:30:28 GMT -5
That's awesome! I considered making something similar, but haven't gotten around to it yet. How do you like your 3D printer? I have an old Ultimaker, but I found that the Axiom machine I bought will do a good 95% of the work my 3D printer could in a fraction of the time. For example, if you were to try to mill your design, you could get the cord holder, the puck holder, and the base milled, but you'd have to mill the recessed area for the touch-off sensor yourself (since it's on a different axis). However, if your altered the design slightly and made it a cup - holding the sensor vertically instead of horizontally (see attached image) - you could mill the piece (assuming you had stock that was thick enough.
This design does not keep the sensor from sliding out unless the cord is placed to the back and then wrapped around the cord holder, but you could mill it in just a few seconds. Additionally, if you wanted to, you could add a lip onto the front of the cup with some screws to keep the sensor from sliding out.
Anyway, I've found that planning my designs specifically for the mill has been a LOT more cost/time effective. To this day I have not found part that I simply could not mill and, unfortunately (maybe fortunately?) I haven't used my 3D printer since I got my Axiom machine!
If you're looking for a good material to work with for these sorts of projects, check out HDU (high density urethane foam). It's offered in different densities - super light, fragile, and cheap, to incredibly dense (feels like marble) - insanely strong, but expensive - and anywhere in between. You can get it in thicknesses up to 24" in any density, or you can glue together multiple thinner pieces to make a thicker one with simple wood glue.
It's basically a wood replacement that mills incredibly quickly and has an outdoor life of over 40 years. It's a closed-cell foam, so it floats (in the lighter densities), won't absorb water, won't warp or crack. Painted, the thermal expansion is almost identical to most modern-day paints, so it expands and contracts at roughly the same rate as the paint when it heats and cools in the sun, so it reduces paint cracking and peeling.
It's basically a miracle material for milling most of my parts with.
Anyway, awesome creation; thanks for sharing! I love seeing the stuff other makers come up with.
Sorry for digging this old post out again, but I am also wanting to create a pluck holder. I am concerned with the cable just hanging down to get caught on the gantry, so I guess I want to find a way to hold it in a safe way. What caught my eye though, besides the design...you talked about the HDU...sounds very interesting for these kind of projects...question is, where do you buy it? What density is the one you use most? Do you use normal (wood) bits ? thanks! |
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Post by dadealeus on Feb 14, 2023 15:41:24 GMT -5
Sorry for digging this old post out again, but I am also wanting to create a pluck holder. I am concerned with the cable just hanging down to get caught on the gantry, so I guess I want to find a way to hold it in a safe way. What caught my eye though, besides the design...you talked about the HDU...sounds very interesting for these kind of projects...question is, where do you buy it? What density is the one you use most? Do you use normal (wood) bits ? thanks! Sure thing. There are several different suppliers. If you're going to do a large number of projects with it, I'd recommend reaching out to a company like Precision Board ( precisionboard.com/products/high-density-urethane-pblt/). They do large orders and you have to go through a distributor, but if you reach out to them, they can provide you with one in your area. I manufactured a series of outdoor signage for a large campground here several years ago, so I needed a decent amount of the material and that made sense for me. I typically stick with around 20 pcf (pounds per cubic foot) density - it's a good mixture of strength and cost effectiveness. However, for specialized or smaller parts, I'd go with 40-48 pcf density or higher. You can ask them for samples of each of their densities and they'll send you a small block of each one so that you can compare them. They aren't really large enough to do anything with except feel the difference between the densities, however. Competitors (like SignFoam) offer similar products, but are not as easy to work with or as eager for your business (in my experience). When you order, you can ask for any thickness between something like 1/4" thick sheets to 24" thick blocks. I purchased several 4'x8' sheets of 1.5" thick 20 PCF material and it's been great. Here are some attached examples of the signs that were made. They look somewhat boring, but that's what the design language called for. We hand-carved the live edges to look like wood with an angle grinder and a sanding disc. However, if you're going to go that route, make SURE you are doing it somewhere you can collect all the fine plastic dust for disposal as it won't break down for decades. -and, of course, use a respirator or mask because you definitely don't want to breathe that stuff in - it'll stay in your lungs for the same length of time if you can't cough it up. Other than those safety/environmental concerns, the material is amazing and generally considered more "green" than using wood for long-term projects as wood will generally need to be repainted every few years (for outdoor applications) and replaced entirely after 10 - 15 years. The signs I made about 6 years ago still look brand new and haven't been touched up or repainted at all.    |
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pedro
New Member
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Post by pedro on Feb 16, 2023 13:44:22 GMT -5
Sorry for digging this old post out again, but I am also wanting to create a pluck holder. I am concerned with the cable just hanging down to get caught on the gantry, so I guess I want to find a way to hold it in a safe way. What caught my eye though, besides the design...you talked about the HDU...sounds very interesting for these kind of projects...question is, where do you buy it? What density is the one you use most? Do you use normal (wood) bits ? thanks! Sure thing. There are several different suppliers. If you're going to do a large number of projects with it, I'd recommend reaching out to a company like Precision Board ( precisionboard.com/products/high-density-urethane-pblt/). They do large orders and you have to go through a distributor, but if you reach out to them, they can provide you with one in your area. I manufactured a series of outdoor signage for a large campground here several years ago, so I needed a decent amount of the material and that made sense for me. I typically stick with around 20 pcf (pounds per cubic foot) density - it's a good mixture of strength and cost effectiveness. However, for specialized or smaller parts, I'd go with 40-48 pcf density or higher. You can ask them for samples of each of their densities and they'll send you a small block of each one so that you can compare them. They aren't really large enough to do anything with except feel the difference between the densities, however. Competitors (like SignFoam) offer similar products, but are not as easy to work with or as eager for your business (in my experience). When you order, you can ask for any thickness between something like 1/4" thick sheets to 24" thick blocks. I purchased several 4'x8' sheets of 1.5" thick 20 PCF material and it's been great. Here are some attached examples of the signs that were made. They look somewhat boring, but that's what the design language called for. We hand-carved the live edges to look like wood with an angle grinder and a sanding disc. However, if you're going to go that route, make SURE you are doing it somewhere you can collect all the fine plastic dust for disposal as it won't break down for decades. -and, of course, use a respirator or mask because you definitely don't want to breathe that stuff in - it'll stay in your lungs for the same length of time if you can't cough it up. Other than those safety/environmental concerns, the material is amazing and generally considered more "green" than using wood for long-term projects as wood will generally need to be repainted every few years (for outdoor applications) and replaced entirely after 10 - 15 years. The signs I made about 6 years ago still look brand new and haven't been touched up or repainted at all. View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentWAW, those are great looking side, love how you mimicked the wood! Looks really great. I will look around the links, thanks a lot. Thanks a for all the tips. I keep them in mind. I guess dust extraction during cnc cutting. And I guess you painted them afterwards. The first pic had a texture on it, did you make it as well or can you request material with that texture? Or CNC created? Txs |
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Post by dadealeus on Feb 16, 2023 14:15:09 GMT -5
WAW, those are great looking side, love how you mimicked the wood! Looks really great. I will look around the links, thanks a lot. Thanks a for all the tips. I keep them in mind. I guess dust extraction during cnc cutting. And I guess you painted them afterwards. The first pic had a texture on it, did you make it as well or can you request material with that texture? Or CNC created? Txs Thanks, man! I can't take all the credit though; a previous employee/current friend was the one who did most of the "live edges" - he's great with that sort of thing and worked with me for this project. I handled the CNC aspect (cutting, painting, etc.). Basically, I'd cut the raw rectangle of the sign out of the foam using the CNC machine, then we would carve the edges down using the angle grinder. I did the more "simple looking" edges, but he did the ones that look like they had cut off branches sticking out. Then, we'd spray two coats of primer (one each day), and two coats of paint (again, once each day - so 4 days for the first painting). Then, we'd take the blank signs back to the CNC machine and put vinyl masking where the words needed to go, and then we'd cut through the vinyl masking with a chamfer bit to make the words. Then, we'd mask off the painted part of the sign that was still exposed and spray the letters with primer and paint (again, 4 more days). At that point, we'd remove the vinyl masking and you'd have a finished sign. So each sign took around 2 weeks to make. The first sign was the only different one. I made that one with the CNC machine, entirely, as an example of what we were capable of doing and showed it to the client - but they just wanted the boring flat signs because "that's what's in the design language that their graphic design group came up with". For that sign, it was fairly advanced. Basically, I got online and searched for photos of wood grains. Then, I took one that I liked into Photoshop and turned it black and white and amplified the dark and light colors. Then I took that image into a heightmap mesh generator and played around with it until I got something I liked. I honestly don't remember what software I used because it was before I purchased Vectric Aspire - and Aspire can do the same thing much more easily, so I've never looked back at the original method I used. Anyway, then I took that mesh into Fusion 360 (the cutting program I exclusively used at the time) and combined it with the rectangle sign and raised lettering, then passed all that to the CNC processor to calculate the cuts. I used a 1/4" flat to clear out most of the material and then had it go over the rest with a small rounded bit for the details. Finally, I primed and painted the entire thing that same grey color they wanted and then manually did a coat of white on the border and letters using a small foam paint roller. I *really* like how it turned out, but now it's just a showpiece in my shop because they didn't want it. *shrug* |
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pedro
New Member
Posts: 84
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Post by pedro on Feb 16, 2023 14:55:10 GMT -5
WAW, those are great looking side, love how you mimicked the wood! Looks really great. I will look around the links, thanks a lot. Thanks a for all the tips. I keep them in mind. I guess dust extraction during cnc cutting. And I guess you painted them afterwards. The first pic had a texture on it, did you make it as well or can you request material with that texture? Or CNC created? Txs Thanks, man! I can't take all the credit though; a previous employee/current friend was the one who did most of the "live edges" - he's great with that sort of thing and worked with me for this project. I handled the CNC aspect (cutting, painting, etc.). Basically, I'd cut the raw rectangle of the sign out of the foam using the CNC machine, then we would carve the edges down using the angle grinder. I did the more "simple looking" edges, but he did the ones that look like they had cut off branches sticking out. Then, we'd spray two coats of primer (one each day), and two coats of paint (again, once each day - so 4 days for the first painting). Then, we'd take the blank signs back to the CNC machine and put vinyl masking where the words needed to go, and then we'd cut through the vinyl masking with a chamfer bit to make the words. Then, we'd mask off the painted part of the sign that was still exposed and spray the letters with primer and paint (again, 4 more days). At that point, we'd remove the vinyl masking and you'd have a finished sign. So each sign took around 2 weeks to make. The first sign was the only different one. I made that one with the CNC machine, entirely, as an example of what we were capable of doing and showed it to the client - but they just wanted the boring flat signs because "that's what's in the design language that their graphic design group came up with". For that sign, it was fairly advanced. Basically, I got online and searched for photos of wood grains. Then, I took one that I liked into Photoshop and turned it black and white and amplified the dark and light colors. Then I took that image into a heightmap mesh generator and played around with it until I got something I liked. I honestly don't remember what software I used because it was before I purchased Vectric Aspire - and Aspire can do the same thing much more easily, so I've never looked back at the original method I used. Anyway, then I took that mesh into Fusion 360 (the cutting program I exclusively used at the time) and combined it with the rectangle sign and raised lettering, then passed all that to the CNC processor to calculate the cuts. I used a 1/4" flat to clear out most of the material and then had it go over the rest with a small rounded bit for the details. Finally, I primed and painted the entire thing that same grey color they wanted and then manually did a coat of white on the border and letters using a small foam paint roller. I *really* like how it turned out, but now it's just a showpiece in my shop because they didn't want it. *shrug* Amazing, thanks for sharing. I think I would be glad if the customer just wants a simple an plan surface, it must have taken so much more time to do the texture, not sure they would be willing to pay for it. With vinyl masking are you referring to oramask, right? I bought a roll but never used it so far. |
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Post by dadealeus on Feb 16, 2023 22:15:15 GMT -5
Amazing, thanks for sharing. I think I would be glad if the customer just wants a simple an plan surface, it must have taken so much more time to do the texture, not sure they would be willing to pay for it. With vinyl masking are you referring to oramask, right? I bought a roll but never used it so far. The H.E. Butt foundation is the charitable side of the HEB brand of grocery stores in Texas - they did 38 billion in revenue in 2022 alone, so the cash wasn't an issue for them. Their design firm was, honestly, just lazy and didn't want my signage ideas looking more impressive than the designs they were offering, so they basically just stonewalled the designs from ever making it to someone higher up the chain. After enough interactions with them, I eventually passed the project on to someone ... less skilled/ambitious; I felt I was wasting my creative time with them. As for the vinyl mask - yep! - Oramask, or a similar brand. I don't remember the exact one I used, but they all work similarly. |
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