I like that idea...will try next time.

Today has been filled with figuring exact measurements for things and remodelling....it's time consuming because I make so many mistakes, then have to undo a bunch of stuff to fix what was wrong to begin with.

.....tis the learning process....sigh...

D.

One thing I’ve been experimenting with on the Bambu is to print the supports in the cheaper support material and then print the actual item. This saves time and lots of material which can add up. Thus far I’ve had pretty good luck but haven’t really pushed the boundaries that much.

I have some ASA and PC en route to print some pieces that will be heat exposed. 120c should be safe for my needs.

Keep us in the loop on the use of the cheaper support material. Bambu included a small roll of their Support PLA with my printer, the fan holder needed a lot of support, but I think it would have been inappropriate to use Support PLA as every layer required both support material as well as actual part....

Thanks

D.

Yeah the problem is that with only one nozzle you either have to print everything in one material which can be wasteful and also the support may not break free easily (learned this the hard way) or you the machine has to switch materials for each layer which will take forever….

I read about people printing the support structure first and then the actual item… it’s an option only if you don’t have super complex support structures that are interlocked with the item… so, not a panacea, but an option for simpler prints.

The support PLA that the printer comes with is really great for printing supports and nothing else…


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I also printed some large prints with supports that I just could not get off and wasted a ton of filament. PLA seems to work well with supports but Nylon etc. look pretty bad. This is why I’m holding out for a machine that has 2 (or more) extruders. Not only will it save print time but the fiilaments can be run at different temps etc. I want dissolvable supports as items like the intake tube I posted above will have hard to reach supports on the interior.



Pete

Ok, literally hot off the press....er...printer.

This will likely be the final prototype before I commit it to ABS or ASA.

There are a couple of tweaks I need to do such as move the motor housing back 3 mm to give a bit more clearance between the fan and housing, want to separate the electrical contacts a bit more and also round off the back end of the motor housing for that "aerodynamic" feel.

Very happy with this, I learned a lot about Fusion 360, lots more to learn, and also have now blooded my Bambu.

Here it is....

First pic is all the relevant parts including the Honda motor, which is at least double the diameter of the original Bosch - plus real ball bearings and such

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706409446.jpg

Motor fits in the housing perfectly, snug fit but easily placeable by hand, there are two screws in the back to retain it...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706409446.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706409446.jpg

Fan on, little too much clearance on the mount side, I moved it in 360 already, so next one will be more centred

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706409446.jpg

Final test assembly, it fits in the larger housing no issue lots of room

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706409446.jpg


To be honest with you, I am almost thinking of just leaving it in PLA.....this is all internal to the car, it will get some rain through the ventilation system, but no sun and no noxious gasoline or oils.

I may think about it.....but I want to try ABS, so I will take the night to deliberate

I am printing a sleeve for the shaft out of PET-G, basically drilling out the fan hub to 12 mm out up from 8 mm, putting a spacer that picks up the Honda's flat for fan retention. I will make it a fair press fit and then pin it by drilling a hole through the assembly and pitting a 2 mm pin through Porsche fan, spacer and right to the flat. It will be a hammer fit...may also JB weld the whole mess together. We shall see.

Successful day...more in the pipeline.

D.

PS. I really want to balance the wretched fan...anyone have a good way to do this? I was just going to print up a twin rail mount for two parallel and horizontal Olfa blades, putting a shaft in and roll it back and forth to seek balance. The fans have these little wire balance weights I can shift around, plus a few holes if needed.

Yes, that sounds pretty good. In my extremely limited experience so far, I have had to scrape the PLA supports out of nooks and crannies, I have a narrow wood chisel that picks them off, but definitely does not improve the look.

Where appearance does not matter like my fan housing, no worries, other places I might try a light sand with 600 grit or something to give a matt appearance.

For my centre console panel, I have already resigned myself to having to primer/paint it with TrimBlack which is very forgiving and not a big deal.

D.

If you want to print in ABS make sure you have an enclosure as ABS will warp if not. Works best with a heated temp controlled enclosure.

If you really want to balance the fan check out this thread for a way to do it

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1267814-How-to-dynamically-balance-EDF-unit-with-a-cell-phone

Cloggie,
Great and very impressive work. I have a question about the Fusion 360 software - are you using the 'Fusion 360 For Personal Use' (the free limited functionality version)? What are your thoughts about the associated learning curve? Does the Fusion 360 have its own slicer software or are you using additional 3rd-party software?

I have been using DesignSpark Mechanical software for design and, with only a bit of struggle, was able to design my 'ideas' successfully. Maybe the Fusion 360 is a better approach since is was developed by AutoDesk and is much better established that the DesignSpark software that I am using.

Some free alternates to Fusion 360:

TinkerCAD and OnShape are both free browser-based CAD packages. Be sure to read the licenses about who can see your stuff.

FreeCAD is out there but kinda buggy and not so easy to use.

I think that fan housing would work just fine in PETG.

Bambu has an enclosure, I am pretty sure it does bed heating but that will form the learning for today.

The balance link is really, really interesting....I am considering it and it may be the best option. Thank you so much for that!

D.

I am just using the free version, it certainly has more functionality than I can use at the moment. It limits you to 10 designs at a time, but with its versioning, it has not been an issue.
I am semi-retired, it took me basically a full week to learn the thing, between watching YouTube and also just trying it out. I made quite a few mistakes, but once you realize that you start with a part...make it into a 3D element, and then add on Sketches, extrude as needed and build up your part piece by piece, it is not all that hard.

Bambu comes with its own slicer and software, so far I just have been exporting from Fusion, importing into the Bambu Studio and then it does the magic. ABS will be the challenge as the printer comes set up for PLA, things like ABS are more challenging, but that is the next learning curve.

I did not want to invest in a printer until I proved to myself I could make a model that was workable, hence my playing around with the fan mount first....once I saw I could master F360, out came the MasterCard.

I went with F360 as I have managed companies with design groups and AutoDesk was considered the gold standard, so I figured going with the leader, if I had the braincells to operate it, was the best long term answer.

I may upgrade to one of the paid versions, but so far the pricing is pretty high for what is effectively personal hobby use. We shall see...

Thanks!

D.

PS- use the Component capability, design each part separately - lots of supports to do that in F360 and then combine at the end. My fan housing has 4 components (Ring, Motor Holder, Mounting Arms and Electrical Plug + a dummy of the motor I quickly built to help understand the fit and dimensions)

Thank you very much Tom, for uploading the STLs´to thingiverse. -and sorry for my late answer, I somehow missed your post at first.

@cloggie I vote for PETG as well. Pla can get soft just sitting in a hot car. PETG his a higher usable temp and is still relatively easy to print in terms of warping. I have been experimenting with Polymide COPA and it has been a challenge- particularly with overhangs.

Wth these parts I choose the PA because of the temps under the car as well as the lower coefficient of friction (the hose slides in the part.) The later probably doesn't really matter but... anyway. I redesigned these parts to not need supports and that made it wayyyy better.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706506093.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706506283.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706506093.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706506093.jpg



The ONLY con to having this tech is all the sudden you do stuff because you can- even if you probably dont need to.

Am I the only one that sees something "that could be better" all the time???



Pete

FreeCAD is not in the same league as Fusion360, having used both. The Bambu handles both the bed heating and the enclosed air temp easily in my experience with using high temp nylon.

Cloggie -- you don't need to export to Bambu, just use:

Utilities >> Make >> 3D Print, and point it to the Bambu Studio software the first time. You just choose the object you are printing and it puts it right into Bambu on a plate to start prepping and slicing.

You can then create a hot key combo by hovering and clicking on the ellipsis ...
(I like Command+P and go right to it).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706537736.jpg


Hot key setup:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1706537841.png

Love it...thank you!

I just printed the part in ABS - excellent finish, the supports came out easily...fits well....again, very happy with the Bambu

D.

Hey guys, been playing around with things and all going pretty well.

Fusion 360 is working for me, so that is nice.

One question about strength of parts. I was fitting my fan housing and needed to pull it apart again.

I made the mistake of putting one of the support arms in the vice, thinking it must be solid or at least pretty strong, and to my surprise it crushed quite easily.

I have been playing around with the Strength tab in Bambu Studio where it talks about Wall Loops, top shell thickness, sparse infills and to be honest it is not yet making sense to me.

Can any one give me some direction or at least aim me at the right things to strengthen individual components or even parts of components?
ideally I would want some components (e.g. the support arms) to be solid or near to solid where other parts I am happy with the thin outer shell.
I'd also like to make the plastic close to solid right around screw holes so that if you have to ream them out, you encounter solid plastic and not get into the latticework right away.

Any guidance greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

D.

For strength the first order of business is to orient the parts so that when printing the layers are along the line of strength needed. The weakest part of he print is the material between layers.

Second is number of perimeters. Bamboo might call that wall loops, Im not sure. Everyone else calls it number of perimeters. Basically how many times around the part to make the wall thickness of the part. More perimeters the thicker the wall.

Infill is not a strength member, its a way to fill the body so that upper layers have a support structure when printing. Infill is not controlled in a way that will give the part real strength. Many of the infills are more like woven cloth than hard plastic.

Material choice helps with strength. Mostly a trade between strength, flexibility and weight.

Some slicers will let you add modifiers to the STL that will change how parts of the STL are printed. As an example you could have the bottom 5mm of the part printed with 5 perimeters and then above that only 2. Prusaslicer is pretty good for this.

For bolts and screws you can undersize holes , drill and tap out. But its only plastic at the end of the day. I have not had all that much luck with threads modeleed in the STL and then printed out. Far better option is either captured nut or a brass threaded insert melted.


Any decent slicer while have a sliding bar to look at the part after it has been sliced. It will show exactly how the part is broke down and how the printer will lay down plastic.

Top layers is just that, how thick will any horizontal faces of the part be.

Thanks eflight, that is a good starter and clears up a couple of points.

I will dig further into the Bambu software, normalize their terms and then see what I can glean from all that.

...and yes, at the end of the day it is all plastic and I certainly do not have any expectation of extreme strength...

Thanks again...

D.

Best to epoxy nuts into the 3D print for anything more than a small screw like those plastic screws in toys.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2417e3c912.jpg