My 3D printing journey

  • Thread starter TB
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Eunos_Cosmo
@TB , what material would you recommend for a fairly simple bracket that will be subject to ~20lb loads? I was thinking Nylon would probably be sufficient. This is the piece I've designed, for reference.
sSutQjC.jpg


(dimensions in mm, thinnest wall at the gusset plates is 1mm)
Click to expand...
I haven't done anything for either strength or with nylon, only PLA and ABS and the ABS was for heat resistance, not strength.

What direction would the load be? Pushing down on the right and up on the left?
 
TB
I haven't done anything for either strength or with nylon, only PLA and ABS and the ABS was for heat resistance, not strength.

What direction would the load be? Pushing down on the right and up on the left?
Click to expand...

The left side would be bolted to a rigid metal support and the right side would be supporting an aluminum rail/extrusion above it, running parallel to the long dimension of the bracket. To further explain, there are two of these brackets so the aluminum extrusion is supported at both ends. The extrusion itself has a bicycle fork mount attached to it, so it will be taking about half of my bike's weight. Figure 18lbs / 2 = 9lbs total. Then divide that by 2, and each 3d-printed bracket would be supporting about 4.5lbs gravity load. There will likely be some lateral load too.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
The left side would be bolted to a rigid metal support and the right side would be supporting an aluminum rail/extrusion above it, running parallel to the long dimension of the bracket. To further explain, there are two of these brackets so the aluminum extrusion is supported at both ends. The extrusion itself has a bicycle fork mount attached to it, so it will be taking about half of my bike's weight. Figure 18lbs / 2 = 9lbs total. Then divide that by 2, and each 3d-printed bracket would be supporting about 4.5lbs gravity load. There will likely be some lateral load too.
Click to expand...
I don't see why ABS wouldn't work for that. I think...

Do you have access to a printer?

If not, do you have an stl file available? ;)
 
TB
I don't see why ABS wouldn't work for that. I think...

Do you have access to a printer?

If not, do you have an stl file available? ;)
Click to expand...

It seems like its worth a shot. ABS seems pretty tough.

I do not have access to a printer, but I do have an STL file. I'm still tweaking the geometry at the moment but I think V1 is almost ready to go.
 
Now that it's been many years, I just got myself a Qidi X-Max 3D printer. Got her setup in a jiff (well, assuming I lelved the plate properly) and it's doing the test file on the flash drive 🤞

After that, I'll start printing my lego organizer bins. We'll see if my rookie CAD skills are ready to be upgraded to lowly amateur :lol:


Jerome
 
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Aaand the printer got filament jammed in the extruder in the middle of my 2nd print.

EDIT: I decided to give the Hatchbox filament a try with the other higher temp extruder. It's just ABS, but maybe it will perform better(?) I did tear apart the original extruder and sure enough, it was all mucked up...baaad. I even had a black clog in the plastic feeding tube and had to get out my skinniest hex key to clean it all out. I can easily see through the extruder now and I'm like 95% sure I re-assembled it properly :lol: So, I'm holding off on returning it for now.

1.JPG


Jerome
 
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I tried so many things this weekend, Cura setting changes, baseplate temps, higher/lower temps, even the default settings and tons of reddit/youtube tips. I just had to return it. I had to clean out a clog in the extruder each and every time. Maybe I'll try again in 10 years.


Jerome
 

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