To be honest most of the parts I print are called something like: "bracket" "holder" "mount" "adapter" "..." and I designed each of them for one very specific purpouse around my house.
I'm in the same boat, almost all the prints I make at functional. My 3D printer has become my 'go to' solution for brackets, mounts, adapters, clips and holders. I love the process of designing for printing and the results have been very satisfying.
It's always good to see 3D printing used for something other than fantasy models or skull heads! Modelling your own engineered parts is great fun and failure teaches you a lot about real-world problems.
When measuring hole centres, you're better off measuring inside and outside dimensions with the inside and outside anvils of the calipers, adding them together and dividing by 2. This works even if the holes are different sizes! You can then check if it's made in the USA and see if that rounds to an inch fraction or metric size. If it's really close, use the rounded size because it's almost certainly going to be what the size is.
Does anyone have trouble Precisely locating holes, even when triangulating and being as patient and cautious as seems reasonable? Even double triangulate at times and still struggle to hit existing hole dimensions “Perfectly” when 3D printing. Are there any technics to improve that factor when Not doing orthogonally aligned or patterned existing holes? Struggle to hit those accurately no matter the effort expended it seems...then when you add the Z axis into the equation it’s exponentially more difficult to hit those accurately on the first try, and always find manually adjusting them, for me, is almost always required.
@@101rotarypower Well, you can always take a photo (or use a scanner bed), import the image into your CAD program on a plane and trace the geometry stuff on top. There are also some good tutorials how to create a part from a technical drawing (MangoJelly did a few about that on his RU-vid channel, e.g. the one where he designs an airplane from front + top + side view in FreeCAD)
Brackets and electronic housing is basically what I use my printer for the most, it’s extremely useful and convenient. You could have used a 45° chamfer over the bolt holes instead of fillets to save the need to use support material.
OMG is that a TEAC 2A mixer I spy on the top rail? I still have mine. It was the first bit of kit I ever bought back in 1983 and it still works to this day! Never seen another one till now.
a really useful trick when measuring things is to try both metric and inches, to see if one of them is close to a round number. most products will have regular dimensions so it's likely that e.g. 76.21mm is actually 5 inches and the item was designed using imperial units. this can make figuring out dimensions a lot simpler (and of course you can convert all the units back to metric afterwards)
In recent times I've made a soap holder, a towel rack (Did use a wood dowel for the roller though) and the most recent thing was a shower caddy for a shower chair (I'm disabled) For that I did 0 top and 0 bottom layers and let the infill show through to give me drainage holes. 3D printing and designing in CAD has been everything I dreamed of growing up. I always had ideas but, not the ability to make them a reality. Going back to music, I also designed a holder for the Boss WL-20 wireless unit. So, 3D printing has been an absolute blast once I dialed everything in. Channels like yours have been an absolutely invaluable tool in learning about printing and all the things related to it. I am extremely grateful for all these tips and guides you give. Thank you.
The people that say that you can only print trinkets and such are the same people that have zero creativity. I use my 3D printer for all sorts of stuff. I made a new thumb pushbutton for my neighbors screen door, cup holders, microphone mounts. All sorts of things that just simply couldn't exist otherwise. Great project you have shown here. Thanks for another great video explanation. Cheers!
Angus, I've been watching and enjoying you videos for quite a while. This is an example of why I like 3D modeling & printing, the ability to design and and fabricate something that can't be purchased. There is so much satisfaction in the results!
Nice work as usual Angus! One of my favorite 3d printing projects ever was designing custom pegboard mounts for all my tools and printing them. This reminds me of that process
Awesome tutorial! I really loved the elephant's foot tip with chamfering the bottom edges, I'm currently in a great deal of pain dealing with my Ender 3 max over this issue. I've tried all the tips I could find, and I need some precise parts printed out soon.
Aside from clamps and brackets for whatever needs mounting, I also use it to replace broken plastic parts, like broken knobs, lids and covers. Repairing stuff like a drying rack that's falling apart with some handy clamps works too. And you know that weird little corner on the stairs that you can't get to when vacuuming? There's probably already a custom nozzle for it you can just download and print. Finally, custom boxes and drawer compartments specifically made to fit stuff make everything much cleaner looking.
Nice design, and good tips! I work with a non-profit. In their building, one of their exhaust fans died. The unit was so old, there were no replacement parts for it. The problem was in the motor bushings, which had disintegrated over the years. So like you, I took measurements and then designed and 3D-printed replacements, saving the original fan and saving the group a few hundred bucks. The tech still amazes me.
Just started designing a couple days ago. TinkerCad was super easy to learn, within a couple days of signing up, I fully designed a mount to hold my power-tool batteries. I corrected all issues after the first prototype as you mentioned. Then I began to trim the fat to make them cheaper/quicker to print(I'm new, and I underestimated the strength of PETG). Designing this has been the most fun part of 3D Printing since I got my printer.
Angus, I have made Polaris snowmobile parts machinist ad tools and repaired my Mr Coffee espresso machine! My Ender 3 is maxed out I don't know how to Pi it but I am good with a Beagle. Thanks to you and others I have printed your castle and given it to kids and now they bug their parents for a 3d printer. Inspiring man really thanks for making the day.
A few years ago, my partner bought a Prusa and designated it as a gift for the family for Xmas (way to bypass permission from "significant other" I suspect!). We printed lots of little stuff amazed at what it could do. I then started watching a lot of your videos and realised I could actually make useful things and use different filaments. I play a musical instrument and decided one day to design a little tool to help me achieve some maintenance on it. Fast forward to today and that little tool I designed is now being sold in 7 different countries as there is no other little tool like it on the market! Family needs another 3D printer as a result 🤣 Keep up the great videos!
My 3d printer has been the most useful organisational tool in my home, I've built do many hyper specific mounts for things like a wall mount for my Saturn v model or clips to hold sick bags. So useful
Thank you for sharing this, Angus. You are a very talented young man. It's been many years since I subscribed to your channel, and you never disappointed me. 😍
Attaching things to other things is my favourite part about 3D printing, I have both my interface and a little breakout box for my VR headset both mounted under my desk, so clean!
I'm a metal worker by trade and I'm also a synth head with a home studio setup. Well I do use a lot of steel and wood wherever I can I've been using a 3D printer for years to make all sorts of strong lightweight parts to modify my setup and just optimize my workspace. Two things I always keep in mind is cost of material and weight. 3D printed parts over something I could have made out of steel but still come up with the same end result takes care of the cost factor as well as the weight factor. I also use my 3D printer to make custom knobs and volume faders across my entire setup. If you got a home studio and a little bit of engineered intuition a 3D printer is a must to have around.
I just got done designing and printing brackets to mount a bunch stuff to the underside of my desk. Was a fun learning experience and my desk is much cleaner and easier to use now :)
I love making custom mounts for stuff, most of my recent printing has been making custom mounts for stuff to hang on my french cleat system or attach audio devices to my desk. Its super satisfying when everything has a well fitting place to go.
Great Job, love your confidence and willingness to share! Once I get my enter 3 pro settled and ready I will joyfully steal that interlocking joint! Thanks Mr Muse!
I have used this exact set of guidelines to make a 3d printed prototype brake brackets. The usual ones I've done are calipers from one car fitted to another car, but the craziest one I've done includes calipers, hand brake system and parts from 3 different cars. Sent the cad file to a machinist and he made the prototype out of aluminium. Living in the future!!!
Is the best solution ever. In my flat I have parts designed and printed specifically for what I need from a mirror holder up to a DIY CNC router. Is the best if you are creative and really cheap. NICE EVERYONE COULD DO IT.
You've outlined the exact reason I recently purchased a 3D printer - to make functional parts. Now I'm just trying to learn Fusion 360. I njoy and learn a lot from your content!
100% this. 3D printing excels in one-off brackets and enclosures for mismatched parts. For example, I'm currently designing a holder for a Zigbee button to control a shop vacuum on a Zigbee outlet. The button will velcro onto the holder (so that it can move between holders mounted on tools), and the holder will be clamped onto the vacuum hose by velcro straps. This makes it really easy to turn on /off the vacuum while using my handheld CNC and sander. I'll also superglue a holder to my table saw. This combination of parts is wholly unique to my setup, and finding a commercial solution would be impossible. It's why I love being able to design and print my own parts
This is what I use 3d printer for also; brackets, holders and adapters. Thanks for the triangulation tip, that part always drive me nuts. What I usually do for complex parts is take a reference picture and import it as a scaled canvas. But the caliper trick will come in very handy for smaller parts!
Designing simple solutions to daily annoyances is, imho, one of the most approachable aspects of 3D printing. My first designed piece was a replacement button for a broken gamepad, and my most recent one is a much simpler (compared to the default and for my case way too bulky gooseneck) mount to attach the pop shield to my mic. Also, since this was a problem for me for the longest time: If you can't get accurate measurements (or your measurements lead to slightly over-/undersized objects), obviously you have to accommodate for the peculiarities of your printer, like elephant's foot compensation etc, but before you reprint the whole thing, don't forget you don't need 100% accuracy; paper/ cardboard shims or a layer or two of duct tape can compensate for oversized holes, and unless you're taking off a _lot_ of material, sanding or drilling out undersized ones is a perfectly viable "good enough" solution. Sure, it's not perfect, but is perfection worth reprinting that +12h doodad that's not even meant to look particularly good? There's no generally right answer, but just ask yourself that question, y'know ;)
great video.. was making something for an outdoor pole and used your video to design. Although in my case, the diagonal cut on non-bolt side was weak. If too much force is applied to that fixed joint part it wil force the 2 parts to separate as one part rides along that diagonal cut line and will separate. I ended up using an inverted "J" shape (slightly offset from centre) in there which held really well.
Exactly. Because of these kind of special use cases, I've been trying my hand at CAD software to make custom solutions. Since they are mostly static objects with no moving parts, it's been a real accessible entry into design and CAD.
They call it functional print. And it's really the most fun I had with my 3D printer. Making a part from "nothing" to serve an actual purpose is quite nice. I even managed to help other people solve their problems.
This is most of what I use my printer for and why I got one, it's very convenient and cost effective just being able to print up a fixture or enclosure when you need one. Even little consumable things that are usually made from nylon and come in bags of 100 like nail washers for holding down carpet and adhesive backed square wire tie anchors work really well printed in PETG, and only use a few cents worth of filament.
Nice idea on the "hinge" design, makes it much easier to print this type of thing. When making parts like this I typically oversize the large hole that goes over the pipe by around 2-3mm, and then glue or place some thin cork sheet (or linoleum or similar material) into the hole for more friction, gives a much more snug fit.
I've been really using my 3d printer to mount my VR system in a rented place using existing holes and bars to avoid drilling holes to skip repair payments when we move to a different place. First things I 3d printed were not benchys and calibration cubes but rather adapters for my vr headset and charging station for my vr controllers. I've made my own curtain holders for my chroma key cloth to fit existing bar too. 3d printer is a great tool for me. Despite I didn't learn any CAD, I was able to get "good enough" results in blender to share them and even get some likes. 3d printer for me is a tool of the same level as screwdriver or a hammer. Very handy when I need something done around the house. Only after 2 years of owning one I started printing decorative stuff and dnd minis
This couldn't come at a better time! I'm trying to automate a label machine we have at work. Need a clamp just like this to raise and lower the arm the initiates the label feed cycle. I'm going to attach a clamp like this onto the round arm, but make it slightly larger. I'll attach it to the bed of a linear slide but the lowering of the labeler arm is a slight arc, so the clamp will have to be able to move. Can't wait to try it- your design tips are spot on!!
I find that using the "thin extrude" function can combine the surface/split/remove material steps you have to take with a sketch surface. Thin extrude is in the extrude tool and the second option, you can select a line and choose a thickness. Add that I have been doing CAD and 3D printing for 10 years or so now and never thought to just use triangulation and always tried to estaimte the grid of holes, great tip thanks!
Thank you for sharing this video! I found it incredibly useful, funny, and interesting to watch. It's great to come across content that can both entertain and educate. Keep up the great work!
I love being able to design parts that hold one thing to another thing, couple of weeks ago I created a new handle for a neighbour's umbrella, the original is tiny so I created a decent size handle which clips round the original handle and looks like it was always meant to be. Also there are now thousands of racing / freestyle type drones out there with 3D prints of my designs on because I figured out a whole new way of holding antennas & receiver boards like nothing else before them, using folding TPU designs.
This kind of stuff is so brilliant to use with 3D printers... and for spare parts for old devices... my dishwasher works pretty well but is also pretty old... the wheels of the basket broken apart, so I designed them in Fusion360 and printed them with PETG. They work perfectly.
My number one use for 3D printing is custom enclosures. Instead of cramming my projects into an off-the-shelf project box now I can make something custom fit.
Funny that this comes out now. I just finished a similar endeavor. I has a small web cam and a mini tripod for a go pro. The camera was not a go pro and its mount was just a bracket with a flat bottom and four holes for mounting screws. I was able to design and print an adaptor that attached to the camera bracket and fit into the mount on the tripod. One thing that I find useful is to use a spreadsheet for all of your measurements. You can then derive other measurements from those as needed for the model. If you are using a CAD program that has a built-in spreadsheet like Freecad, use that.
this was an awesome vid and I loved seeing some content around your synths Angus. I'm a printing & synth enthusiast myself. I have a Behringer Deepmind 6 which is a great little synth. May you could show us your complete setup?
This is most of my prints too, it's so useful to just mock up a quick bracket or clip that's a perfect size and send it to the printer. I mount so many things on the underside of tables or cabinets it's a great use of usually wasted space
For your bolts on the back, you could use a chamfer leading up to it instead of a fillet to 90 degree overhang and then you wouldn't need any support. It may not look as nice but you'd have a easier model to print in the end? Either way, good job!
One of my most popular useful designs, "Hoopin TPU Cable Tie", made it to the front page of the Thingplace 6 months ago, a very strong easy to print cable tie which you can create custom versions of because I included the core elements for anyone to remix. Another that made it to the front page is an inline KCD11 switch holder, also really easy to print.
Those calipers are a fav of mine! I picked one up after I saw one on the counter of a local McMaster-Carr order desk. What sold me on that particular one were the three measuring options available. millimeter, inch and fractions. Since I work mostly imperial, the fraction option was a winner. There's a tiny screw on the back to change the battery. Don't try to pry off the cap like I did. 😂
Great video, as always. There's a slightly easier way to get the dimensions right in Fusion 360. Take a picture of the part, with a caliper or ruler in the picture. Insert the picture into Fusion as a Canvas. Calibrate the canvas (I think it's on the right-click menu). It'll ask you to select two points in the image and then tell Fusion how far they are apart in physical units. Since you wisely included a ruler in the picture, you can just pick two points on the ruler. It'll scale the canvas accordingly. Then, you can easily build your sketch to match the part in the image with physically correct dimensions.
Yes! This is what draws me to 3D printing. 497 folders (projects) in my 3D Design repository. Some were downloads but most are my own designs to join something to something else. TIP: buy a good quality ABSOLUTE caliper to avoid having to tediously re-zero.
I have used 3D printing to make so much useful stuff. Lots of shop tools, car parts, etc. I often find it takes me a couple of versions to get where I need to be.
Another great video Angus! I'm wondering - have you ever done a tutorial on how to accurately measure and replicate complex shapes in CAD? Or do you know of any done by others? I've often come across items that I want to design other things to fit around, inside, or otherwise interacting with but the original piece had, for example, too many organic curves and I didn't have a good understanding of how one could measure and replicate the piece in CAD for which to use to design the adjoining piece against.
This is a great video showing an application I have used many times but I have a few things that may be helpful as additionally information. Firstly for splitting the part in fusion an extruded surface isn't needed and you can preform a split body straight from the sketch geometry, secondly with the elephant foot compensation this is definetley something that I always used to model in but now, in Prusa slicer at least, they have a built in setting for this that in my experience works well so that now it saves me the time of having to manually model chamfers in. Lastly in a model like this if you were wanting to have zero support material one way is to just have a chamfer between the horizontal surface and the cylinder which would not add to much more material/print time, although from an aesthetics perspective it would look better to have this chamfer mirrored onto the top horizonal surface also which would then add more print time/material.
A suggestion for accurate templates WITHOUT calipers or measuring. Adobe illustrator and several other programs can output svg files. Take the piece you want to make into a mounting point like your side panel, scan it on a cheap office multifunction printer and open that in illustrator. Modify it as a 2d design like looking at the top of your workplane. Export as svg and bring into any cad software and you have a perfectly shaped piece you can add depth to. I don't know cad enough to know if you can import a JPG or PNG directly but I like illustrator because it's easy to auto trace the shape and easy to make the design with the shape tools there.
Thank you for this awesome demo. it's certainly inspiring. one minor note is that it looks like this mount might have difficulties staying in place. I might suggest widening the tolerance of the part that mounts to the tube stand and using a bit of foam rubber material to increase friction and using the force of your clamp to dial the friction in to your preference - that would make it significantly less likely to rotate around the axis or slide side to side.
Just perfect !! Like yourself I have a studio and always want my synths and other equipment set up in a way I find more organic to use …sounds easy huh ? 😂 This was just what I needed ! Thanks for the vids you always have something that catches my attention 💕