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Early forays into 3D printing for HPR parts:
I've been using Rhino, but I will eventually switch to Fusion 360 (which seems to be more popular).John great video, what CAD program do use?
I am still using the 0.4mm nozzle that came with it. For detail parts, a finer resolution would definitely be nice, but for these largish parts, I'm fine with the coarseness of the default nozzle.BTW I just received the new Nozzle X for my MK3. I typically print at .2 and sometimes .15, but I have never really observed that .15 was 25% better in resolution. That is until now. I ordered both the .4 and .35 Nozzle X and I installed the .35. With that I just printed something at .15 and man is it clean. The resolution difference now is night and day. I would say out of all the modifications I have done this is the most obvious improvement.
You don't need any special features. For a rabbet, draw a tube that overlaps the end of the part and the "subtract" it from the part. For a gusset, draw another part that forms the gusset (disks or triangular solids). You don't even need to join them; just export them in the same STL file and the slicer will treat it all as the same part.I will have to figure out how to gussets and rabbits in tinkered.
So do I! I'm still refining the parts (I eventually need four). Right now, I'm trying printing the mid section as a single piece since only the tip really needs to be split to accommodate the aluminum bracket.I would like to see the finished booster nose cones. Those are the kind of parts that seem ideal for a 3D printer.
I'm not sure if it helps, but this is how I've done in Rhino:I know how to cut things apart in OpenSCAD (well, sorta) but I have no idea how to in Solid Edge. Will be interesting to see if I can figure it out.
Wow, very cool. I downloaded it and tried it out. It works well in inches. When I tried the metric option though the slider limits prevented me from entering any practical numbers. Looking over the code I see the slider values are comments after the variable definition. Seems like you'd almost need two files, one with the values for metric and the other for imperial.Being a long-time hacker and a 3-D printing noob, I had to give it a try. My lathe skills are at best moderate. I always dreamed of printing the plugs for my larger nose cone molds. So here it is. Yet another nose cone designer. ....<snip>]
Wow, very cool. I downloaded it and tried it out. It works well in inches. When I tried the metric option though the slider limits prevented me from entering any practical numbers. Looking over the code I see the slider values are comments after the variable definition. Seems like you'd almost need two files, one with the values for metric and the other for imperial.
Otherwise, a very useful file, already learned quite a bit by looking over the code. Thanks for posting.
Tony
Thanks! I thought I had picked range values that covered both the mm and inches options. Which ones were most offensive? You're probably right that there should just be two files. What I really wanted was to be able to compute the range endpoints based on the units choice.
Doh! I see now. I must have had 2.54 mm/inch in my head when I entered some of those ranges.
Excellent work! (I added a link to my page.)Yet another nose cone designer.
Being a long-time hacker and a 3-D printing noob, I had to give it a try. My lathe skills are at best moderate. I always dreamed of printing the plugs for my larger nose cone molds. So here it is. Yet another nose cone designer. Rename the attached .txt file as a .scad file and open it in OpenSCAD with the customizer enabled. You'll have a little UI that lets you design and tweak any of the 10 basic styles described on the wikipedia "Nose Cone Design" page. The program also lets you specify the size of your maximum print volume. If your nose cone is too big, it'll slice and dice it to fit. The program adds alignment tabs and gussets as necessary when large cones are chopped. There are also a couple parameters to control the looseness of the fit for the alignment tabs. I've only printed a couple cones so far, but it seems like it's working, well.
Enjoy!
I can't figure out how to export the individual pieces as STL files for slicing. When I've created objects in OpenSCAD before I can render individual pieces, but I can't figure out how to do that here. I'm using Cura for slicing and I can't see a way in that to break the STL into pieces.
Is there an intermediate step I need to use in this case?
I don't know about Cura. I export a single STL from OpenSCAD and use Slic3r PE (Prusa Edition) for slicing. It has an Object/Split menu option that finds each of the separate pieces and drops them on the X-Y plane. From there you can delete, replicate, and arrange as you like.
@kalsow This is AWESOME. I've been struggling with printing different shape NC using TinkerCad and then I found your amazing OpenSCAD file. Wow! I do seem to be having a few problems (like wall thickness in mm causing the cone to print solid), but I'm sure its something I'm doing. Anyway, THANK YOU for sharing this tool.Being a long-time hacker and a 3-D printing noob, I had to give it a try. My lathe skills are at best moderate. I always dreamed of printing the plugs for my larger nose cone molds. So here it is. Yet another nose cone designer. Rename the attached .txt file as a .scad file and open it in OpenSCAD with the customizer enabled. You'll have a little UI that lets you design and tweak any of the 10 basic styles described on the wikipedia "Nose Cone Design" page. The program also lets you specify the size of your maximum print volume. If your nose cone is too big, it'll slice and dice it to fit. The program adds alignment tabs and gussets as necessary when large cones are chopped. There are also a couple parameters to control the looseness of the fit for the alignment tabs. I've only printed a couple cones so far, but it seems like it's working, well.
Enjoy!
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! I do seem to be having a few problems (like wall thickness in mm causing the cone to print solid), but I'm sure its something I'm doing. Anyway, THANK YOU for sharing this tool.
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