CAD and 3D printing.

[Yawns]

Learning CAD before buying a 3D printer.. now they are affordable and something very decent can be bought for under 300 ...

Fusion 360 it's impressive .. so intuitive, and the rendering is stunning.
(A license is outrageous expensive, but we can use it free if we register as "Hobbyist" and don't do commercial use (or less than 100.000 / year for "startups")

Could come out with those designs only with 2 sessions of practice, but some experience with flat 2D vectorial drawing helped a lot ... and 3 years of descriptive geometry in high-school 40 years ago

Let's see what the plastic wire can do in terms of diffusion, resistance etc... as I have a lot of ideas in mind... and I saw online very nice "macro" stuff printed.

if doesn't goes anywhere... at least it will be a pleasant mind challenge and will help to keep Mr. Alzheimer at bay... 300 it's the price of an average used lens...

[Smokedaddy]

I've had mine for a few years now (Robo R1 plus). I've been happy with the quality considering its cost for a pre-assembled printer of that era. I've printed quite a few custom things with it over the years. Unfortunately it takes a LOT of tinkering to get things right and why many loose interest in a short time. Then you have the learning curve of a better slicing software to deal with IF you choose to go that route. If you want to print with ABS you'll deal with the smell (not healthy) and you should have an enclosure (unless it comes with one), otherwise you'll have other issues like layer separation, keeping the temp right, etc.

As I've posted here before I 'test printed' a 18 tooth module 0.3 pinion gear for my Optiphot and visually it looked fine but not under a magnifying glass. I never actually installed it to see if it would work. Designed and PLA printed a few dovetail adapters that worked great for my purposes, miscellaneous microscope stuff, diffusion dome holder, and astronomy telescope rings. PLA doesn't like heat BTW so you need to think about what you'll use it for. Made a quite a few two piece molds and I thought those turned out really nice including parts I mimicked. Started to print a microscope stage project too but wasn't happy with the overall quality. For me 3D printing has a lot of uses but also a lot of limitations. I would love to have a higher-end enclosed 3D printer, something in the 10 micron range to see how the quality really is.

Something don't print well without a ton of bridging.





-JW:

[JKT]

If someone knows a good (neutral) translucent material for extrusion printing, I would be most interested. A printing service with such material available would do as well ... and it would be even better if it was laser sintering or photopolymer as that removes many design constraints.

I've used Frosted Detail from Shapeways, but that isn't exactly cheap for diffusors ... and it tends to turn yellowish over time.

[Miljenko]

If you manage to control heat buildup, then PLA would be a viable solution. This one seems OK: https://www.makergeeks.com/products/mak ... -white-1kg
Best.
Miljenko

[JKT]

Thanks! I'll have to see if I can find some for testing.

Heat won't be an issue - not with flashes at low power and a few focusing LEDs a reasonable distance away from the diffusor. First I'll need a new design. The old one won't work with extrusion.

[Andy]

Never got on well with products from this company even though being a licensed user. It should keep Mr Alzheimer from looking in. Have used SolidWorks since 1998 but this also has similar license and pricing. Now, happily retired, playing (totally free) with FreeCAD - full 3D, running on Linux op system which is also free, lightening fast and does not have those regular time consuming updates of W10. There is no real need for AV software to slow everything down either. Always found it much faster to machine (casting patterns and visualisation components) out of modelling board to ten microns accuracy but kept eye on Universities with 3D printers. They never had the accuracy or surface finish at affordable pricing. Having said that I have examined 3D printed components in exotic materials that blew me away as did the cost. Please take note that pretty pictures created by a CAD jockey may have no relation with engineering in a traditional sense or any understanding of tolerances especially cumulative. However 3D printing enables components and assemblies to be made which would be unachievable by traditional engineering. Hollowing out for example - this reduces both material, weight and print time.





Persevere with your challenge and try 3D printing agencies, thingyverse etc. Some schools may have Millwiz.