3D tools

Is anyone working with 3D tools?

I'm talking 3D printers, CNC engraving, CNC laser cutting or CNC water jets?

Home tinkerers or professionals.

 

I'm just a home tinkerer. I like to have fun making things.

3D Printer - Monoprice Select Mini 2 - 120mm x 120mm x 120mm

3D printer - Zonestar 2 color 200mm - 220mm - 230mm

CNC - Chinese 300mm x 180mm x 45mm R11 spindle and 5500mw laser cutter/engraver

 

Yep, also a home tinkerer. I've got the Monoprice Select V2 personally. I also have access to a Form2, Ultimaker 3E, CNC Carvey, and Epilog LASER cutter/engraver, but I prefer to use my own since I can be a bit more picky with filament.

 

I really love how easy 3D printing can be. I am working on a sculpture for my back yard. It is a vortex water sculpture that a few others have made and am making mine my own.



I wanted to add bubbles of air and gas to make it look nicer and add fire to the top. I needed to make a 6.5 inch circle to add the bubbles evenly around the vortex. A quick hour in tinkercad and a few test prints later I had my parts made.



I ran the air tube thru it, hot glued the three parts together then took it to the drill press for some perfectly placed tiny holes in the 1/8" tube.



And now I have a perfect circle of air tube.

 

I have a XYZ Davinci 1.0A 3D printer that I play with at home, having issues with the extruder recently with not melting the ABS to print anything, IDK if my extruder isnt heating up or what is wrong. I really am not wanting to fix it though, as even tho it was a nice printer for the price, it never has been terribly accurate and is very challenging to get true.

 

Sometimes it can get clogged in the tip and won't remelt. You need a tiny tiny drill bit the same size as your extruder head to get it out.

OK I just got a super zoom lens for one of my security cameras to get a good view of the freeway traffic before I leave for work in the morning. The trouble was it was too long to put the cover back on. Back to Tinkercad and made a 2.5mm spacer to fit just right. This took about 5 prints to get it just right. then I printed it on flex filliment so it would make a good seal.



I left it a little large so it would seal it weather tight. It fits.

 

Nice work, I've been doing 3D design for fun/practice for a little while. I've done some work on a cheap chinese cnc machine, but it wasn't until recently I had access to a 3D printer. Here's something I designed for contest I'm entering.


Beyond that, I've made some phone mounts that have turned out really good.

 

Man, I feel like I can't make anything useful in Tinkercad. I had used SketchUp before and most recently used OnShape. OnShape has been pretty sweet so far.

 

For some reason Tinkercad and I get along really well. I had no real CAD experience before using it.

Now I'm really getting in deep. I ordered a Shapeoko 3 XXL.



The little Chinese one by comparison.



I will probably just use it for laser engraving.

 

Yea, my printer came with a package of "needles" to clear out the extruder, I did this and it still doesnt really print, I will get a very transparent extremely thin layer then nothing else.

 

I used solid works a little bit, but Fusion360 is my go to now. The timeline feature is the best.

I've used the same chinese cnc table. It's pretty impressive for such a small little machine. I really want to build a table, been looking at the cncrouterparts.com tables.

 

I just happened to be watching online tutorials for fusion360 today. At first I was like UG! but after watching the more advanced stuff I am beginning to like it.

 

OK I installed Fusion360 and was having a problem where my account was already created. It turns out Tinkercad and Fusion360 are using the same source.

 

Yea Fusion 360 looks like it'd be a good choice, unfortunately I don't think they have a Linux option.

 

Yea, just Mac and Windows I think. It's worth duel booting Windows though IMO.

It's pretty robust and is full of features, plus their 3D scanning software is amazing. I have yet to actually play with, but plan on it soon.

I think I actually ran into that same problem TK.

 

Yay! My Shapeoko arrived today. It's nice that it's partially assembled.


It is pretty much together. Just a couple more things before I test it out.



I even managed to 3D print out a dust boot for it. The skirt material should arrive tomorrow.

 

First test with a sharpie on paper worked.

 

Nice!



I got my new toy today.

 

I made a spoil \ hold down board out of 3/4" MDF with a grid of 100 1/4"-20 threaded inserts.



I also made and 3D printed various hold down pieces for the 1/4-20 screws.



I am now ready to start milling out a few projects I have designed in VCarve Desktop.

 

I ponied up the $350 for vcarve Desktop. Fusion 360 was very complicated for every step where vcarve is very easy to create things. Sometimes it's worth your time and effort to buy a product.