3D printed fun

[Rick Iverson]

Deleted

[hdsporty1988]

Made a set of steering rack locks for setting toe. Certainly not an original idea but I added small tabs to make them easier to remove, or possibly to safety wire a larger "remove before flight" flag.

Mike, Have you considered offering these for sale from Gyrodynamics?

[Rick Kirchner]

An update on my Fusion problems. This is long, but if you want an idea of what the e-****tification of the economy in search of ever higher earnings looks like on the ground, here you go, read on.

BLUF: Be extremely careful when its time to renew your subscription.

I've been unable to access Fusion since early November. I got a Fusion update and a MacOS update simultaneously, and it broke Fusion, it wouldn't launch.

First I tried a de-install/re-install. If you have the latest version it actually has a repair function, but mine did not. This install might have actually worked, but something else went wrong. When launched, my license was shown as "expired". Now this may have been correct, because looking at old e-mails my license tends to expire around the end of the year, but then something else went very wrong behind the scenes at Autodesk.

I hit the "expired" tab and it took me to the part of Autodesk that allows you to re-establish your license. Went through all of that and got a message that I was flagged for export control issues - which was odd. I established my Fusion license in 2017 when working for the USMC. There should be no export control issue.

You should know that if you have a free personal license, your ability to get support is extremely constrained. You have to start with their AI Chatbot - which is pretty stupid - and if it can't solve your problem then it starts a case where you will get support via email. They say in 48 hours, but in practice it takes about a week.

The first guy that contacted me actually arranged a call and with a great amount of trepidation I shared my machine and allowed him to control it. He decided that I had a problem with multiple licenses and the authenticator was confused. The problem should clear up in a couple of weeks when the second license expired. It did not.

I tried to find some help on the Fusion subreddit, and I have to tell you that the folks there are the worlds biggest *******s. A bunch of guys that have their licenses paid for by their employers, or lone ranger consultants that get a tax write-off for it decided I was both a technological idiot that didn't know what I was doing and besides, I don't deserve any support for a free product.

Back to the Fusion Bot, another de-install/re-install, and another case. This time a guy decided that there was too much info missing from my profile and that caused the export review. Added all new info, declared the problem solved, and it was not.

All this time I kept getting e-mails from Autodesk sales trying to get me to buy a subscription, from a woman who turns out had helped me solve a similar problem two years ago. But she could not help this time, don't know if it was an internal policy issue or what.

Another two de-installs and re-installs, another two cases, another run through the export control issue. I copied and pasted all the FusionBot suggestions into a document so I could refer to them later and found another interesting problem. For one, all the things the bot told me to do were to be done in the Account section of the Autodesk website, and none of them, absolutely none of them, existed. I'm guessing that this was because the AI pulled results from the support forums that was for earlier versions of their website. And, if I did a search on Google, found a topic in the Support Forums, and tried to access it, as soon as the page loaded it would send me back to the forum home page. Trying to scroll down to click on Fusion forums resulted in the page immediately hopping back to the top, and if I was quick enough to click on the link, as soon as the page loaded it re-loaded back at the home page. This page also didn't recognize that I was logged in. Most of the Reddit *******s thought this was some settings issue on my machine, yet the fact that I have browsed literally hundreds of thousands of web pages and never encountered this issues seemed to be lost on them.

Next I tried the Fusion Facebook Group. In comparison to Reddit, a helpful bunch of guys. One of them, a professor at a university in Florida that has a full commercial license, did a zoom with me sharing my screen. We walked through all the Fusion Bot Suggestions, explored the Forum problems and he was gobsmacked at both the fact that none of these support issues were capable and the interesting problem with the Forums. It was obvious to him that I wasn't some wanker that didn't know what he was doing.

So next, I pulled the pin on the grenade. Wrote sales again, with this:

"I’m now three months without access. I have a racing season coming up, and NOTHING I need for that operation has been accomplished.

It's obvious that nothing traditional is going to get my account to work again. I have 300 designs being held hostage.

So here’s my request. I plan on writing Elizabeth Zornes directly - snail mail, because there’s no direct line to Customer Service. She probably knows what a **** show her side of this enterprise had turned into, but she needs to hear directly from someone who has been badly treated here. I know it will get intercepted by some underling, and might go right to the trash, or it might generate an actual helpful response.

So I ask, is there any specific person I can get an e-mail address for that would hear my plea? I would of course, make no connection to you, although I acknowledge that there are digital footprints here."

Elizabeth Zornes is the VP of "Customer Experience" at Autodesk. This "experience" of mine is essentially her fault. There's no way to e-mail these people, I even tried LinkedIn, so snail mail was going to have to do.

Sent that at 10:52 AM yesterday. At 11:31 I got an e-mail from someone who was an "Escalation Specialist":

"Thank you for contacting Autodesk.
I am an Escalation Specialist at Autodesk. I apologize for the inconvenience, I understand that you have not been able to access your Fusion program for several months.
I don't want to get ahead of myself but I may have resolved your issue, I could see there were some inconsistencies on your backend profile that I have reconciled. Can you try and open Fusion now?
If you are still getting an error can you please send me a screenshot of the error you are getting when trying to access the program? The more of the screen you can include the better as this will provide context for troubleshooting.
If you would like to be contacted by phone, I can call you this afternoon, please provide your phone number."


I launched Fusion, and yup, it was fixed. When I asked what was wrong, here was her reply:


"I am so happy it worked! Yes! I saw the several attempts to resolve your issue. I looked through your case history before I reached out because I wanted to make sure I had the full picture.

The reason it took us a longer to figure out was that there were multiple issues, you had an export block on your account AND there were a few things missing from your backend profile. You've had an Autodesk Account since 2012 so there is a bit more data on your profile than most people.

I fixed your backend profile and had to reissue you a new license because your old license was based on the messed up backend profile.

This is NOT something you could have fixed on your own and you did not cause the issue.

I just reached out to our forums team so they can re-sync your profile because the old messed up backend data could be interfering with your ability to access forums. I will update you as soon as I hear back from them. "

All of that, just because the 2nd, third, and 4th support guys couldn't be bothered to listen, and a completely flawed support concept in the first place.

And, for all you fusion guys, here's a tidbit that the Florida Fusion guy taught me. You can launch the web based version of fusion and go in and select a design, and then it will allow you to export it in formats you are not allowed to use in the free license. You can even export in Inventor format, which some other CAD programs can use, although IGES and other full-featured exports are not available. This was my ultimate backup plan - to go through my designs, pick the most important ones, and export in inventor and then jump to Freecad or another program. It sends you an e-mail with the file attached.

[Mike B]

Mike, Have you considered offering these for sale from Gyrodynamics?

I hadn't, mostly because the postage is considerably more than the actual cost to make the parts but send me a few bucks and I'll throw a pair in an envelope and send them your way.

[Mike B]

Mike, Have you considered offering these for sale from Gyrodynamics?

There was enough offline interest that I added them to the Gyrodynamics website with a nominal price. Or just find me at the track.
https://www.gyrodynamics.net/product...ing-rack-lock/

[Rick Iverson]

Sweet.

So I had a leak in a radiator. Pulled it apart to fix and found the rear end of the radiator was sitting on the frame.

The original fiberglass radiator tray had been trimmed for some reason and lacked original support so it collapsed.

So as an experiement I decided to make my own. This prototype is in PLA but I plan to print one in black PETG once I get it all right.

It's in 3 pieces because of my printer's limit (8.5) so I keyed it together.
Screws hold the front and back so the middle section is just wedged in.

Will it stay together? I think so. But with about $30 in material for a bunch of prototypes and est $10 for the final, I may just print a stare.
If it doesn't work right I'll print a mold !

[Rick Kirchner]

Covers for the exhaust and water pump. Bosses are the same thickness as the flanges so you can use the same bolts.

Working on intake covers, but man, that thing is a bitch. I've printed at least 4 versions, plus a couple of failed prints and lining up the holes has become trial and error.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Sweet.

Thanks. The final version is in the car (in Black PETG) with a rubber insulation layer.
Has trouble printing ASA with my current printer setup. Also still learning CAD.

I'll see how it survives next week end !

Also going on the car for next weekend:
2 mounts for the Flagtronic FT-RD (display mount and antenna mount).
Rain light mount.

I'll post some pictures probably Monday and then again after the weekend to see the durability...

I do plan to replace them with ASA prints when I get a new printer.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Working on intake covers, but man, that thing is a bitch. I've printed at least 4 versions, plus a couple of failed prints and lining up the holes has become trial and error.

Are you splitting it into 2 parts (1-2, 3-4) ?

[Rick Kirchner]

Are you splitting it into 2 parts (1-2, 3-4) ?

Yup. First I tried an approach by laying the gasket out on a flat sheet, tracing the bolt holes, drawing parallel lines tangent to the holes, and placing the holes as 3-tangent circles within the lines. You would think that would work, but establishing the coordinates for each line was tedious, and mistakes were made.

So I corrected those mistakes, and close, but no cigar. So taking the holes as "close" I deleted all the construction lines and constraints, and "adjusted the hole pattern by using triangulation of each hole to the next tow or three because its easily measured with calipers. Nope.

So I took the output of that, bolted them on, then eyeballed the hole placement and made adjustments by deleting all the dimensions and constraints (so I could make independent changes) and then adjusted the locations manually by a millimeter or two. Then I enlarged each hole so the slop would work to my advantage.

Printing them now.....

[BeerBudgetRacing]

When trying to get holes aligned I usually print the first few layers and cancel the print.

I'd of thought the gasket was less accurate that an actual manifold..?

Yep, rinse and repeat !

[Rick Kirchner]

aaaaand to make matters really fun, one edge detached, warped, and totally ****ed up the print. I might jut be able to cut that area off.

I've been having problems with the printer losing vertical reference by a couple 10's of a millimeter. You get a good print, make another and you get a detachment. Happened three times yesterday - and I was printing both sections at a time. Once, the warp pulled the bed sticker off, hit the extruder on the next pass, then shoved the whole mess into the back of the printer and jammed it up until it started skipping belts. Glad I was sitting right next to it for that one!

[Rick Kirchner]

If you know you. know....

Box of failed prints, test prints, stuff that was just a leeeeetle bit off. Big pile in the front are various attempts at the port covers, including the last pic, which was my last attempt at fixing the hole locations and it ended up AFU.

The flat stuff above it was from trying to get the shape of a heat blocker just right before committing to a stainless part.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but as much as 3DP is a great tool, it can be very wasteful. I used to bag this stuff by type, write the appropriate recycle symbol on it and put it in the bins, but I bet it all just goes to the landfill. Some really serious guys have grinders that re-purpose it, but I think you'd have to be running a hundred kilos of stuff a year to make something like that worthwhile.

[Chris Livengood]

It's definitely wasteful. My favorite is when I am prototyping something out and I finally get the print to work exactly like I want the real thing to work. Then I machine the real version of that really nice print, then toss the print directly in the trash.

Lately I have been using up the last of my many nearly dead spools for various parts. Why does it need to match when it's going in the bin anyways? Turns out I had a ton of parts left on 20 different nearly spent spools. Filament sensor for the win.

[Rick Kirchner]

I don't have a runout sensor, and it sucks. I've had three runouts lately, and you have to disassemble the extruder and change out the tube.

I've been thinking of dropping $3K on a new Prusia XL with two toolheads and an enclosure. I've been frustrated with my Qidi lately. Funny thing is I balked at buying a $3K bridgeport, and part of that is because I don't think I'd ever learn how to use it well. But a good $3K 3d printer.....

[Chris Livengood]

I am still rocking my Ender 3 V2. Not even remotely a good printer, but with some messing about... it's surprisingly good. I added the filament sensor, which is a Creality sensor, and the board had a plug already on it for one. I had to come up with my own mount for it since my hot end and shroud is of a different design too. It works great though. I have been printing a lot with a .8mm nozzle and it makes prints fly, but I definitely am limited by extruder feed. I am maxed out now. I extended Z to 400mm too, or about 350mm of useable space in Z. A year or so ago I installed a touch off sensor too, and with a firmware flash, it now builds out a mesh for build plate adjustment and will auto level. I can turn it on and it works without messing around for 20 minutes.

I probably should get a better printer. Bambu looks good, but I want something with a bigger build volume. I considered taking the Ender to 500mm or even 1m in Z, but the extruder being maxed has stopped me with that. Also, i can't imagine 800mm tall prints on a machine that moves the bed in Y. It just doesn't make sense mechanically, and certainly the intertia would cause issues with the tiny steppers. It kind of makes me want to build a servo driven machine.

[Rick Kirchner]

I probably should get a better printer. Bambu looks good, but I want something with a bigger build volume. I considered taking the Ender to 500mm or even 1m in Z, but the extruder being maxed has stopped me with that. Also, i can't imagine 800mm tall prints on a machine that moves the bed in Y. It just doesn't make sense mechanically, and certainly the intertia would cause issues with the tiny steppers. It kind of makes me want to build a servo driven machine.

I looked at Bambus yesterday. The technology is amazing if it works as described. But I hear the spool is proprietary, or at least different. I'm starting to see suppliers offer bambu compatible spools. Build volume is still a bit small, 256 cubed.

I looked at the issues with bedslingers before I bought the Qidi, which is a core XY machine. And it would be an even better machine with a decent extruder, the stock ones are trash, especially the all-metal hotends. There are a couple of hacked extruder upgrades, but frankly, I don't want to pull together a list of 30 parts, print a new carriage, install it all, and change the firmware. I'd rather just buy it from one of the inventors, but they don't want to do that.

The prusa though, being able to print with two materials at the same time, so imagine printing ABS with PLA as supports, no offsets to keep the stuff from sticking, etc. Just pop them apart when finished. Or if you're doing something really complex, using water soluable filament for the supports. And its 360x360x360

[Mike B]

I bought a used Sovol SV08 two weeks ago and after a minimal amount of tuning it has been running almost non-stop since then, cranking out fantastic prints. It has a bigger volume than my Ender 3 and is light years faster. There is a lot of aftermarket support and mods available but I plan to keep it stock for as long as I can. I want to use my printer for projects, not to BE the project.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Some of my 3d projects now installed and ready for weekend testing.

The following parts uninstalled: Rain Light Box, Flagtronics Display Mount and Antenna Mount
3dParts2.JPG
3dParts1.JPG

FT-RD display mount location and after install.
FT-RD DisplayLocation.JPG
Installs with 2 zip ties in about 2 minutes.
FT-RD DisplayMount.JPG

The antenna mount is zip tied to the frame in my RF01 just below the ID plate.
FT-RD Antenna Location.JPG
Zip tied in place
FT-RD Antenna MountInstalled.JPG
Antenna mounted. Total install time 3 minutes.
FT-RD Antenna Installed1.JPG
This leaves about 1 inch clearance for the shock cover
FT-RD Antenna Installed2.JPG

I had a radiator fail / leak last time out and found the back of the radiator was sitting on the frame and rubbed through. The original tray was fiberglass but someone chopped up the back end so it lost integrity and collapsed over time.
So I printed a new one:
RadTray1.JPG

With rubber insulating strip installed:
RadTray2.JPG

With radiator and baffling installed:
RadTray3.JPG

Last is my new rain light install:
RainLight1.JPG
RainLight2.JPG

Top view:
RainLightTop.JPG

A new design is already in the works. It'll mount to one side instead of both and better route overflow hoses.
The radiant heat from the exhaust may just kill this thing. May have to try Nylon or Nonoilen.

[Chris Livengood]

Nice work! My current big project is a wing for my father's hot rod Mini. We are printing the sparts and a two layer skin for the wing, it has an aluminum main spar. The print is in six sections and glues together. It will then get reinforced with composite wet layup, ala moldless composite sandwich method.

I am also printing the boxes for a set of low budget/high end bookshelf speakers. Should cost me around $300 out the door to build. There are a few well tested printable speaker boxes out there these days, the performance can be quite good, and it's way easier than table saws, routers, and MDF. Of course my last set of speakers was made from tongue and groove oak service floor, which was a big project. Soldering the crossover will be the hard part, and that will be fun!

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Nice work! My current big project is a wing for my father's hot rod Mini. We are printing the sparts and a two layer skin for the wing, it has an aluminum main spar. The print is in six sections and glues together. It will then get reinforced with composite wet layup, ala moldless composite sandwich method.

I am also printing the boxes for a set of low budget/high end bookshelf speakers. Should cost me around $300 out the door to build. There are a few well tested printable speaker boxes out there these days, the performance can be quite good, and it's way easier than table saws, routers, and MDF. Of course my last set of speakers was made from tongue and groove oak service floor, which was a big project. Soldering the crossover will be the hard part, and that will be fun!

I found some airfoil stls somewhere with alignment pieces and a space for a spar and was considering attempting to print a wing in sections - other projects have taken priority. But with the right material they could be functional prints right off the printer.

Speakers. Ha. A friend and I were talking about how we all used to have nice speakers - like furniture. Cool project.

[Rick Kirchner]

Paul - you said you were using PETG for your floors. What did you use to glue it? I've looked at PETG glues and $$$$, which is why I've been using ABS. But big flat ABS plates can be a PITA, they have a tendency to warp and detach.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Paul - you said you were using PETG for your floors. What did you use to glue it? I've looked at PETG glues and $$$$, which is why I've been using ABS. But big flat ABS plates can be a PITA, they have a tendency to warp and detach.

No glue. It's made in 3 interlocking pieces. The ends are bolted down and the middle is held in place by the ends.

[Chris Livengood]

I found some airfoil stls somewhere with alignment pieces and a space for a spar and was considering attempting to print a wing in sections - other projects have taken priority. But with the right material they could be functional prints right off the printer.

Speakers. Ha. A friend and I were talking about how we all used to have nice speakers - like furniture. Cool project.

The speakers are for my shop. So i'd rather have easily replaceable enclosures since they are likely to get nasty pretty quick. There's also some really neat design that 3d printing allows for speaker design that is harder to do the old fashion way.

Our Mini has a pretty low top speed, 130mph. The wing sections are on the large side since drag isn't a huge concern. 300hp, 1800lbs, street legal. It's much more reliable and lighter to go for working composite design and let traditional materials handle the load. Even the newest lightweight filaments don't come close to traditional composite layups. Especially out of an Ender 3 hahaha

[Rick Kirchner]

I seem to remember seeing pics of a UK class of off-road autocross cars that had big wings mounted up top like a sprint car.

[Mike B]

Having a larger format printer means I can print Rick Kirchner's LD200 tool in one piece (with a slight modification).
https://youtu.be/dJpWwuNZN-Y

[Rick Kirchner]

Having a larger format printer means I can print Rick Kirchner's LD200 tool in one piece (with a slight modification).
https://youtu.be/dJpWwuNZN-Y

I've ben surveying my former customers on a few parts I've made to see how they are holding up. On this item, I've had it crack between the handle and the shaft despite putting a huge bolt inside for strength, which tells me the bolt should probably be longer. Since I couldn't put a radius at the handle/shaft joint I used a 3D pen to fillet "weld" the joint there, and that is obviously insufficient.

Still thinking about getting a Prusa XL which would allow some really interesting infill options, as well as supports with zero clearance made from incompatible materials.

My LD-200 tooling was made from PETG, but I've figured out that the majority of it could be made from TPU, which would allow one to clean it with brakleen or acetone with no harm done. Need to figure out how to print the TPU at the required quality levels, because the ooze that is common with that stuff would not only goober up the part, but its extremely difficult to trim.

[jcolley]

First thing I've actually printed for the car. Might go through a few iterations to clean up the curved portion's fit, but it's good for now.

[Mike B]

I've ben surveying my former customers on a few parts I've made to see how they are holding up. On this item, I've had it crack between the handle and the shaft despite putting a huge bolt inside for strength, which tells me the bolt should probably be longer. Since I couldn't put a radius at the handle/shaft joint I used a 3D pen to fillet "weld" the joint there, and that is obviously insufficient.

I added a moderate radius at the handle to shaft transition. It passed some informal stress-testing and the first couple gear changes but time will tell.

[Mike B]

Saw this on Pintrest or Etsy and spent a few minutes in Fusion 360 to make one to fit my tool box.

[mikey]

Saw this on Pintrest or Etsy and spent a few minutes in Fusion 360 to make one to fit my tool box.

great idea. A tray spanning the width would be even better. Like a pencil tray for bits

[Mike B]

great idea. A tray spanning the width would be even better. Like a pencil tray for bits

Not 3D printed but that's what I did in my old tool box, just a bit larger than a pencil tray: