Does this tip the scale in my favor?

Not sure who on the marketing team needed olive drab scales on a gray outdoor/hunting knife meant to be used in the green and gray outdoors. I also didn’t like how thin the scales were. So here’s a little end-to-end demo of idea-laser-model-make. Printed in silk white PLA, it’s hard to appreciate from the pics, but the scales look like mother of pearl but made out of wood! It’s so cool! Makes me happy.
Since the only white I’ve seen in the woods was rabbit butts, deer butts, and bird butts, if I drop this, pretty sure I can find it now.


Ugh...fancy new scanner is so heavy

Just kidding, no it isn’t. But, if you have an electric turntable and don’t want to hold it, let a tripod hold it for you. Had the tripod for unrelated shenanigans, just got new scanner, so connected the two. Would have been best to scan my scanner, but would have needed another scanner…so scaled a picture instead. Once it’s all put together, it’s easy to grab it out of holder, catch harder to reach details, plop it right back in, keep going.

UP, FWD, INBD

I wish aircraft design terminology (also boats) were more prevalent in all other industries. Using words to describe what direction you’re looking in….it’s kinda important. Saying ‘on the left’, or ‘back there’ isn’t super useful. But saying I’m looking “forward” (in the direction of travel), or “inboard” (towards the centerline of the vehicle), and the good old fashioned “up” (which way IS up anyway?) makes things easier.
So I decided to, instead of basic 3D scanning target pyramids, make way more awesome ones that have text that will show up in the scan! These are first drafts, for a smaller project. Might make some larger ones as big as a stop sign. The red color helps them not get left behind…like those ‘remove before flight’ thingies. And they have secret magnets inside so they stick to stuff… Doesn’t hurt they look like ladybugs either.

AAAH...THIS IS NICE

We all know batteries die quicker when you leave them installed, often devices still drain them even when turned off. They also like to leak on the terminals. Have multiple sets of AAA battery powered shooting ear muffs, so needed something durable enough to live inside my range bag and get smashed by dropping things on it, ammo squishing it, so made myself this thing. Coin-slot lids, so they won’t catch on anything and loosen themselves up. Hasn’t dumped batteries out yet.

THEY COST HOW MUCH?!

Tungsten sharpeners for TIG welding are a dremel motor w/ a pseudo-fancy pencil sharpener on top. They’re great, they work well, fast/easy all that. But do a quick comparison between one of those, and a regular dremel motor. It is insane how expensive a “tungsten sharpener” is.
I found some designs on the internet, but they weren’t very good, so I started from scratch and solved all the problems of those other designs.
The lower part of my design, w/ a couple of pieces of tungsten, sets the correct height for the diamond grinding wheel.
It has 3 locations, each w/ 3 angles to sharpen…because sharpening tungsten for just a bit too long gets it hot enough to melt the 3D print. Be quick about it and it’s fine, but do it for too long = melt.
30-45-60deg angles, including a slot to cut off a blobbed tip, and a hole in the top for flat tip end (if you are so inclined).
Fits typical dremel motor w/ a slot for ample room to tighten the collet nut.
This certainly isn’t as fancy as expensive sharpeners, but it works great.

THY NAME SHALL NOT BE UTTERED

Someone, who shall not be named, was in a hurry the other day, whipped open the garage door, overriding the dooiiinnngggy-thingy on the baseboard, causing the door knob and the wall to…occupy the same physical space, resulting in what I’ve named a “poot”. When a door knob dents dryall, it makes a “poot”…what else you gonna call it? So I’ve now fixed the problem while creating a new brand name.
You’ve maybe heard of Lifeproof (phone cases and whatnont)? Here’s my new brand:

Wifeproof™

AND IT LOOKS LIKE A REAL SUNFLOWER EXCEPT FOR THE TOTALLY UNREALISTIC COLORS!!
Solidworks 3D textures are pretty cool sometimes.

Thus, the world’s first Wifeproof™ Poot Cover - Sunflower Edition.

And of course I love her so much, and in ~6yrs of dating, she got to read ALL the T&Cs…so this is what happens when you agree to marry a smart-assed mechanical engineer w/ a penchant for 3D printed jokes.

Lotusesses, or Pinecones? Both!

Due credit: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/41378-lotus-lamp

Made two of these for dining room. It is so cool that simple flat shapes can come together to make something so complex looking. The lotus-cone thingies are 100% rapid prototype, tab/slot together, ends up about the size of a small-to-medium pumpkin. Not as heavy though.

Voronoi Macaroni

I imagine those two words don’t rhyme, but it looks like they should. I enjoy those “organic patterns”, but there’s no easy way to generate them in Solidworks, so one youtube-hole later, I can do it in Meshlab, export it to 3D print, and voila, a cool useless thing!

JET WHISTLE

You know those little whistles for kids, when you blow thru them, they spin up like a turbine? This is that, but a jumbo jet whistle. Was a study in tolerances of the Prusa, to check threads, bearing tolerances/fits, etc. Makes fun sounds and worked great until we fed it 130psi from the air compressor.
We were trying to make it explode, but all it did was a bit of melting…

ARE YOU READY TO ... TAKE THIS PLUNGE?

Aye…there’s not a lot of sense in this, unless you’ve lived it.

Imagine you have a few sinks in the house that enjoy clogging up, due to grubby kids, or soap build up, or whatever. And the only solution is to disassemble the drain valve, which is gross mess every time.

So design yourself a SINK SIZED PLUNGER!!!!! Because toilet plungers won’t fit. I also needed a reason to experiment w/ Prusa + flexible filament.

Prusa w/ flex filament, apparently like ALL flex filaments, especially of low durometer, is tricky. No exceptions here.

Yes, it works.
Yes, I’ve used it several times.
Yes it sticks really well to a kid’s belly. And dad’s belly. Windows. Foreheads. Sides of the tub.
YES, it makes a satisfying MMPOP! when you pull it free.
Yes, if you stick it really well to your shoulder it is actually difficult to remove, and pulls enough suction to actually hurt, it’s surprising.

The wall thk for cup is ~0.06in, printed in Filaflex 40. Handle is PLA.

From burger truck to delivery van

I didn’t have much reason to have a model of a burger truck, but since everyone is buying everything from home, a delivery truck makes more sense.

Started life as this:
https://fab365.net/items/260

Then deleted a bunch of stuff, filled in and modified some spots, then out popped the blue truck in pics below. A very cool model! The working doors/wheels is pretty slick how they were designed and printed.

RP Machine, Biz Case #2

I’m not to be trusted around your ATVs, or UTVs, or Side-by-Sides, or really any motorized vehicle of any sort.
Because, they…seem to end up damaged. I never set out to damage them, that’s just what happens. Just the way the world works, amiright?

But it may also be due to the fact I’M WILD AS HAIL BABY!!! However, being wild has…consequences.

Steps for how to make better use of your rapid prototype machine:

  1. Be WILD AS HAIL!!

  2. Drive your parents’ UTV thingy as fast as it will go over rocks wildly inappropriate for that UTV.

  3. Break the front left shock into multiple pieces.

  4. …which causes the front left tire to rip the headlight bucket all to pieces.

  5. Confess to your parents what you did, and promise to fix it.

  6. Wait three years.

  7. Do some online searching for replacement parts, find none.

  8. Grab your laser scanner.

  9. Scan the unbroken passenger side.

  10. Reverse engineer and mirror it.

  11. Do some RP mockups to verify the shape of things.

  12. PRINT A NEW HEADLIGHT BUCKET WITH YOUR RP MACHINE!!!

The various pics show fit checks along the way. It makes more sense to risk wasting a few 2-3hr prints than waste a single 24hr print. None of this part was flat/straight/circular…someone with a surfacing background obviously went nuts.

The final part was split into 2x pieces so it fit on print bed, glued together w/ a layer of fiberglass to reinforce it (where you can’t see it after install).

And that’s yet another way to convince yourself that buying a 3D printer was a good idea. Because it was. You should get one.

Rapid Prototype Machines, A Business Case

To have a pool that doesn’t immediately devolve into a slime puddle, you have to have a ‘floaty poison holder’ to kill all the space germs.
Then you gotta be jackin around with it adding more poison, (naturally) have to chuck it out into the middle of the pool while putting just enough spin on it that it lands upside down, blasting the lid and contents into the pool.

…which is one good reason to own a 3D printer!

Files added to grabcad here:
https://grabcad.com/library/chlorine-floaty-lid-that-doesn-t-suck-1

I got a new thing! Prusa i3 Mk3

For what it’s worth, I’ve read this is the ‘gold standard’ for home FDM printers, and I have to say that seems accurate. This thing was dialed right out of the box. I got the pre-assembled because I’ve built a RP machine before and it wasn’t terribly exciting. That, and I’m a baller.

And then I got some rainbow filament:

And THEN I done went and got crazy with the rainbows…

2 lions.png

The biggun was a ~24hr print, and it went perfect for the first 16hrs, then the Prusa had some random ‘crash detections’ even though it didn’t crash, and it had a layer shift, confined to a single layer. So gold standard as it is, it’s not perfect. But still waaaaaaay better than the Rostock v2 Max I built.

These things, especially w/ fast-change rainbow/silk-like filament, is shiny and sparkles like a dang sparkly thing! Awesomer than hail baby!

Card Carrying Sleepy Owl

https://grabcad.com/library/sleepy-owl-on-a-log-business-card-holder-1

Loki's Chitauri Scepter

Loki's Chitauri Scepter = done! Files from thingiverse, parts off my Rostock v2Max, 'lectronics from Sparkfun....my son's Loki costume just went to 11!