Tinkercad & SendCutSend for doing compressor mounting plate
 

Am Tinkercad’ing a mouting plate for a Sanden 508. Is going onto a stock ‘85 factory bracket. Being a total Tinkercad newb, 2 “how to” YouTubes were required to dive in.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686740583.jpg

Compressor dimensions were found online.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686740583.jpg

Default mode in Tinkercad renders cylinders with obvious facets. There’s a hack to smooth them out. See vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVQBZArIt34&t=11s . Cylinder in pic is smoothed.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686740583.jpg

Files were saved as SVG in Tinker then brought into CloudConvert to convert them to EPS (format acceptable to SendCutSend.) This conversion renders only the outline of an object. 2D is all that’s needed for water or laser cutting. I’ve rendered in 3D to get a feel for how the program works. Plan is to use Tinker downstream for CNC’ing.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686740583.jpg

Have to be a commercial for SendCutSend as I found their entire show extremely well done. Online interface, material & finishing options, order process, turnaround, pricing, progress tracking, shipping… how often does a business put it all together! Cost for 3 parts = $64.91 shipping onboard. (Metals Depot---for just the raw aluminum shipped---was close to this.) Jury remains out on delivery and what their product actually looks like.

I have used Send Cut Send in the past and been very impressed.

Nice work.

Cheers,
-Dave

Dave... if I may, what kind of project did they output for you? Finish?

I had them cut a missing tooth wheel to use in updating my FI system in the 928. It attached to the harmonic balancer. It was laser cut, so nice and clean with no additional work needed by me.

Best,
-Dave

I’ve had them cut aluminum, steel, copper, and a whole bunch of synthetics for me and never have I had a problem. They did some bending for a project as well and it was spot on perfect. I have yet to try the powder coating but I reckon it’ll be great. The free candy in the box is always a nice touch.

Thanks Dave. SendCutSend seems a bright spot amidst the shadowy companies I've encountered lately.


+ good news! Thanks Show. Couldn't figure out how their bending works so started fiddling in eMachineShop---they offer free online CAD.
.

The bending is pretty simple: in your drawing you place a colored line where you want the bend and then when you upload it and select bending you enter the degrees for that bend… sounds complicated but it’s pretty simple once you understand it.

Am going to give it a go right now. Thanks Julian.

Found it Julian. Thanks http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

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Product arrives 2 days ahead of delivery date. Vacuum packed. Aluminum is pristine. Measurements are right on. Company has no phone support. They must be emailed.

I have used them for many items. Only problems I have run into have been caused by me not following the “measure twice cut once” philosophy. Yes the candy is great.

Their services have kept me from buying a CNC cutting machine. They are coming down in price that a DIY’r could manage it. The killer is the material inventory you would have to keep in steel and aluminum would be a problem with cost and space. Send-Cut-Send solves that problem. They even cut carbon fiber and titanium. I really want to order some parts in Ti but holy crud buckets is that stuff spendy.

The combination of services like send cut send, places like Shapeways for 3D printing and online CNC providers has really democratized custom micro manufacturing such that the DIYer can really start to raise their game to professional levels without the overhead and waste that would come with owning these machines, not to mention the time it would take to learn the technology.

I’ve toyed with buying a 3D printer but ultimately never will because I’d be limited to one type of printing process where as outsourcing it I can access dozens of processes and hundreds of materials.

I’ve even replicated retail parts for less than the list price. Yes, my time costs money but I enjoy it and it helps me learn so I get faster and more proficient.

As long as you can operate cad software, the sky is the limit.

Sent SendCutSend another job. Exhaust support bracket. They got back to me the same day advising my files were "not optimal." To their credit, they referenced my AC bracket job file (below) so it was possible to see what the issue was. Too many nodes. This results in a rougher laser cut than were the shape made of minimal nodes. They emailed me my file from the AC job and one they modified...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687288970.jpg

My file. On the aluminum parts I received, edges were indeed rough on the curved cuts but not objectionable to the point where the parts were "bad." The straight edges of the AC mounting parts were noticeably much smoother. I emailed SCS asking if that aluminum had been water or laser cut. I thought it was water because of the way it looked. Was laser. So they schooled me...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687288970.jpg

Above is their adjusted file. Minimal nodes.


As a result of this node-business, am looking into Inkscape and Onshape.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1687288020.jpg

Took my node-abundant Tinker file for the exhaust support bracket into Inkscape and traced it using their vector tool. It's apparently possible to go from Inkscape to SendCutSend. Instead, I brought the Ink file into Onshape (image above) to see if & how that worked and to use Onshape. The vector points & handles from Inkscape remained workable. (Vector stuff is akin to Adobe Illustrator but the interface of both Ink and Onshape is clearly 3d modeling based.) Made adjustments in Onshape using various layers. Saved the file for SendCutSend as a DXF. Thought that was the end of it. Wasn't. Found that ALL the hidden layers were included in the DXF file. So trick here was to trash---not just hide---all unwanted layers before saving to export a "surface file" for laser cutting.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1688483827.jpg

Rough edges on curves were sanded down. Aluminum is Alodine converted. 4 countersunk screws go up into each bracket from below plate w/red lock.

Nice bracket!

Have done a few items with SendCutSend and nothing but good experiences.

Thinner stock I have found to be smooth except at the start / end points of the laser cut.

I have found that thicker parts can come with quite rough edges.

This flange base is 6061 aluminum in 0.375" / 9.5mm was very rough on the outer edges (not the holes/center hole though). This is after quite a bit of sanding and wire wheeling. Sufficient for my needs but would have taken a lot more sanding and grinding to make smooth.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1688509665.jpg

Thanks Jim http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif


Beautiful weld. Is that high or low temp?

Curved edges on my aluminum...also very rough. Photo I posted is after sanding. Found out from SCS it was my uploaded file done in Tinkercad. Switched to Onshape. Below is curve they just cut into 3/16" stainless steel from Onshape vector file.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1688570639.jpg

Any recommendations on novice friendly CAD programs?

I am looking to make some mounts in the glovebox for my center console delete, and SCS or a 3D printed bracket would be ideal to keep the install clean.

Thanks,
Ian

Ian... SendCutSend has templates that can be modified so you might want to start there if the mounts you want to make are simple. Next, Tinkercad is very easy to learn the fundamentals. Problems arise when wanting to upload their file(s). There are also problems with the way Tinker renders curves---does so with many plot points. I made notes in this regard in earlier post. Onshape is more complicated to get going with but there is no problem with file uploading (to SendCutSend) or with curves being cut smoothly from an Onshape file.

I would recommend Fusion360 for beginner friendly CAD programs. The hobby license is free at it has a lot of available functionality once you are ready to go deeper. I found out a long time ago I really quickly ran into the limits of TinkerCAD when trying to edit parts I already made without breaking other parts of the model. Then again that was probably 8 years ago so they've probably made some changes since then.

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