Steel-Reinforced 3D Prints

April 22, 2019 by Brian Benchoff 17 Comments

Continuing on the never-ending adventure of how to make a 3D print stronger, [Brauns CNC] is coming at us with a new technique that involves steel-reinforced 3D printed parts.

We’ve seen plenty of methods to create stronger 3D prints, from using carbon fiber filament to simply printing the part in a way that the layers of the print are orthogonal to the direction of force. We’ve even seen casting carbon fiber bars into 3D prints, but of course that will only work with straight parts. [Brauns]’ technique uses steel wire, embedded into the print itself, and from some testing there’s about a 50% increase in strength of the part.

The process of embedding a steel cable into a 3D printed part is simply taking apart the model and putting a channel in for the cable. At a specific layer height, the printer is stopped, the steel cable is embedded with the help of a soldering iron, and the printer continues doing its thing.

There’s a slight amount of Gcode hacking to make this happen, and the process of embedding a steel cable into a print is a bit finicky. Still, if you want stronger 3D prints, there are worse ways to do it, and certainly less effective ways of doing it. You can check out the video for this technique below.

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Watch These Two Robots Cooperate On A 3D Print

April 20, 2019 by Donald Papp 16 Comments

Putting a 3D printer on a mobile robotic platform is one thing, but two robots co-cooperatively printing a large object together is even more impressive. AMBOTS posted the video on Twitter and we’ve embedded it below.

The robots sport omnidirectional wheels and SCARA format arms, and appear to interact with some kind of active tabletop to aid positioning. The AMBOTS website suggests that the same ideas could be used for other tasks such as pick and place style assembly work, and the video below of co-operative 3D printing is certainly a neat proof of concept.

As a side note: most omni wheels we see (such as the ones on these robots) are of the Mecanum design but there are other designs out there you may not have heard of, such as the Liddiard omnidirectional wheel.

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3D Printed Tank Track Pops Together With Plastic BB For Hinge

April 20, 2019 by Donald Papp 20 Comments

3D printing is well-suited to cranking out tank tread designs, because the numerous and identical segments required are a great fit for 3D printing’s strengths. The only hitch is the need for fasteners between each of those segments, but [AlwynxJones] has a clever solution that uses plentiful hard plastic spheres (in the form of 6 mm airsoft BBs) as both a fastener and a hinge between each of the 3D printed track segments.

Each segment has hollows made to snugly fit 6 mm BBs (shown as green in the image here) which serve both as fasteners and bearing surfaces. Assembly requires a bit of force to snap everything together, but [AlwynxJones] judges the result worth not having to bother with bolts, wires, or other makeshift fasteners.

Bolts or screws are one option for connecting segments, but those are heavy and can get expensive. Segments of printer filament have been successfully used in other tread designs, though that method requires added work in the form of either pins, or heat deforming the filament ends to form a kind of rivet. This design may be a work in progress, but it seems like a promising and clever approach.

[via Reddit]

Thirty Six Frets For A 3D Printed Guitar

April 19, 2019 by Brian Benchoff 5 Comments

Only 80s kids will remember actual hair metal with the meedley-mees way up high on the fret board, and in the 80s, fret boards got longer. Twenty one or twenty two frets on a guitar weren’t good enough, and you needed the full two octaves of twenty four frets. As with anything, more is better, so [Said Too Much] decided to add frets to his guitar. Yes, you can do that, and it actually doesn’t sound too bad, all things considering.

A few things to cover before going over this build. This did not start out as an experiment to extend the fretboard of a guitar. This started out as a soprano guitar build; this would be the inverse of a baritone guitar — instead of an extended scale length and heavier strings to play a fourth or fifth below a regular guitar, this soprano guitar would have a shorter scale length and lighter gauge strings to play a fourth or fifth above a regular guitar. After a few calculations and some calls to companies that make very, very thin guitar strings, this project morphed into a 3/4 scale guitar (a 23″ scale length, although I question that scale length being actually 3/4 scale) and a set of strings that used 0.07″ strings.

Since a soprano guitar is pretty much just like a normal guitar with more frets, this project also got an extended, 3D printed fretboard. Why? Because. The stock pick guard was modeled and printed out in PLA, removing the neck and middle pickups. Then, an ‘extended fret board adapter’ of sorts was slotted in behind the strings. This gives the guitar 38 frets, a full third of them being printed in PLA.

The burning question: does a 3D printed fret board work? Yes, kind of. If you can get your fingers in between the frets, you can absolutely play the 36th fret on this guitar. It’s not for everybody, obviously, and PLA printed frets will never be as good as polished metal frets. But it is an interesting experimental technique for stringed instruments we haven’t seen before. Check out the video below.

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A Mostly 3D Printed Speaker

April 17, 2019 by Lewin Day 2 Comments

The common magnetic loudspeaker is, fundamentally, a fairly simple machine. A static magnetic field is generated by a permanent magnet, and a membrane is mechanically connected to a coil. When a varying electrical current is passed through the coil, this causes the coil to move due to the magnetic field, vibrating the membrane and producing sound. [Mattosx] put this theory into practice with a simple 3D-printed speaker.

It’s not the first 3D-printed speaker we’ve ever seen, but it’s one of the cutest. The main body of the speaker is rectangular, and has a cavity in which three neodymium magnets are placed. The vibrating membrane is then printed separately, including an integrated spindle upon which the coil is wound. The assembly is held together with some socket-head cap screws which complement the pleasantly modern look.

The device does a good job delivering the bleeps when hooked up to an Arduino, and we could see this basic design serving well in all manner of charming 3D-printed builds. Video after the break.

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Custom Rotary Switch Takes A Motor

April 10, 2019 by Al Williams 9 Comments

There are certain challenges we all will have to face sooner or later. Changing a flat tire in the rain, trying to put on a shirt that doesn’t quite fit, or producing a 16 position rotary switch for a replica computer front panel. There was a time when something like this would be a major undertaking, but with the help of a 3D printer [Mike Gardi] was able to build good looking switches that were big enough to be motor driven.

Switches of course are old tech, and there are plenty of ways to make contacts. [Mike] settled on using 16 small magnets and reed switches. This works, but you probably wouldn’t want to use it where the switch might get close to an external magnet. It does however make for a neat assembly without a lot of mechanical work. It also resists wear compared to a brush type arrangement.

The switch is a little large, but it could probably be made smaller with proper contacts. However, you still need at least some magnets to provide the detents without making mechanical changes.

We couldn’t help but think of the homemade rotary switches from the do it yourself computer that used sewing thread spools, wires, and paper clips. It would be fun to revisit that computer with an eye to making things using a 3D printer. We liked the knob, but if you only need a reproduction knob, there are other ways to go.

Nearly Entirely 3D Printed RC Car Is 4WD Fun

April 9, 2019 by Lewin Day 16 Comments

Remote control cars can be great fun, particularly if you’ve got a spare carpark or dirt lot to hoon them around. Any good hobby store will have shelves stocked with all manner of vehicles – buggies, touring cars, prototypes – but you don’t have to settle for what’s already available. Why not 3D print the car of your dreams instead? (YouTube, embedded below.)

The build comes to us from [Engineering Nonsense], now in its third revision. The design is produced in PLA, to make it accessible as possible to printer owners the world over. Almost the entire car is 3D printable – not just the chassis. The gearbox, differentials and driveshafts, and even suspension arms and tie rods are all printed, rather than bought. This also means the car is easier to build, with everything being printed to the correct size, as opposed to using off-the-shelf adjustable parts.

Performance is impressive, with the car showing good grip thanks to its 4WD drivetrain and double wishbone suspension. Files are available on Thingiverse, so there’s nothing to stop you from printing this out and going for a spin this weekend. We’d love to see it take on the water with some 3D printed tyres, too.

[Thanks to Jotham for the tip!]

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