Rob R's Scattergun Workbench

[michael mott]

Nice, the line about not worrying about it made me chuckle, I am still amazed at what the 3D world of drawing can accomplish. I’m afraid for me it’s a flat template and cross slide and files on the lathe.
Michael

 

[Rob R]

The saga of the GNR open 3d print rumbles on.
Printing at any sort of an angle caused some distortion of the headstock at the "top end" (next to the plate) and no matter what I did with supports, extra blocks etc it wouldn't go.
So, I went back to an earlier version with no floor and printed it upside down, with a small sacraficial ridge to be sanded off afterwards and put it flat on the bed. I had to use some supports to raise it off the bed as they just shattered when being prised off.
Being flat I can fit 3 at a time (only 15' over headstocks).
The first triple test print is just off the press, it was a bit of a struggle to get it off the plate but it went in the end.

 

[Rob R]

For some time now (18 months?) I have been having issues with the GNR Open print where the headstocks tend to splay out, no matter what orientation etc.
Today I was having a play to try and get a "negative" profile to make a block for placing outside the print to balance the surface area and lo and behold the problem is there in plain sight.
The headstock 'aint fixed to anything else (negative profile in yellow).
A bit of tinkering is required tonight if work is quiet and yet more test prints.

Moral:- Always expect the unexpected (and the bleedin' obvious!)

 

[Rob Pulham]

Rob,

When I have finished a design, I always tend to combine all the bodies to see if they will actually combine. If they are not in close enough proximity/attached they won't.

I undo it again afterwards so that I can create stl's of individual parts but it's a useful sanity check.

Edited to add, that's using Fusion 360.

 

[Rob R]

Tinkercad isn't that clever.
Time to move on to a big boys CAD package, time and finances (upgraded pc) permitting.

 

[Rob Pulham]

You may not need to upgrade your pc. Until a couple of weeks ago I was running Fusion on a laptop bought in 2014. Running win 10 with an i5 processor and 8gb ram.
I did find it ran better if I only had Fusion open but I am sure that it was due to limited graphics capability rather than processor or ram.

 

[Rob R]

Rob,
Pc is Win 7 which does just fine for 99% of what I want it to do, it is just Fusion that doesn't allow me to install.
There are other options, I am starting to play with RS Design Spark Mechanical which is a freebie and runs ok on the pc.
Whether it does everything I need it to is yet to be determined.
If it can do boiler fittings and bits with lots of rivets/beading on a curved surface (think smokeboxes or tumbleholme on coaches) then it will suffice.