3D Printing

[Bob D.]

SketchUp can not 'drive' a 3D printer. You can create the 3D models that can be taken into the slicer software which will in turn generate the gcode to run the printer.

So you need to learn to use the slicer software too which is not difficult but there are a number of tricks you pick up as you print.

I have the whole Adobe Creative Suite, cost thousands many years ago. When they went to the subscription model and I could no longer get updates for the software I had purchased I stopped using it.

The subscription model is taking over on everything. Microsoft went to hat with Office a couple years ago, and you will see more of it as time goes by. And not that you ever did but you won't 'own' software any more, it will all be subscribed to. I predict PCs will go away and we will be back to mainframe type computing in a decade or two. You will own a terminal, not a PC, and it will be nothing more than a window into the mainframe. You will subscribe for however much computing power, memory, and storage you need along with all the apps you need. On the plus side you will be able to walk up to any terminal anywhere and log on to 'your computer'. You'll have all your apps and it will be just like you were home except on a different terminal. Wait, it's coming, you heard it here first.

I read recently that some features on new cars will be present but they won't be 'turned on' until you pay the subscription for that option. Things like heated seats will cost you $99 a year or whatever the price is is ridiculous to me. You know they are not sending that car out of the factory with hardware installed that you are not already paying for, then you get to pay for it every year in the subscription.

The 'sell' will be that when you buy the car, just like with SiriusXM, you so many months or years 'free'. It's a gift from the dealer to you for being a loyal customer, that's what they will tell you. And then when you've had a couple Winters of warm butts it will stop working and you'll be ready to pay anything to get it back. And there will be packages that group various options together like heated seats and steering wheel, various camera packages, and so on. But all that hardware will already be in the car and you'll pay for it with the car even though you can't access it until you pay the ransom.

[CWSmith]

Bob,

Thanks, I'm slowly learning what the actual needs will be. Earlier this week I got an offer to subscribe to Sketchup Pro for $299 a year. Certainly a lot cheaper than buying the program! So combined with the cost of the Prusa, I'd be looking at around $1,100 plus the "slicer software and of course build-materials. Does that sound about right and do I need to also buy options for the Prusa to have it work with the precision I see in in your examples, whatever they might be? Also, what are the environmental requirements, my shed has the room but it gets about 90-degrees in there on some of these hot days?

Question in my head, is this another interest that I'd be venturing into only to find I don't have the time to do. Seems to be my history since retirement.

Thanks,

CWS

[Bob D.]

The slicer software Prusa is free, and very good. Even if you don't get a Prusa it will work with many popular printers.
If you get the smaller printer you can save a 3 or 4 hundred. If you get another brand printer you can get one with as big a build area for 1/4 the price, but you will have to play with it to get it running true. My Prusa worked perfectly out of the box. But out of the box is just a pile of parts. Unless you pay another $250 (maybe more now) to get an assembled one. If you do that your order will be over the $800 limit and be subject to extra duty which will jack up the price some more.

It's not hard to put together and the instructions are good. You should go download them now and give them a look over. And something you'll like you can provide feedback to improve the manual. The assembly manual is a live document that is updated all the time. You should be able to build it in a day.

Aside from filament you won't need much else. When I bought mine I got two spools of filament included and a second print bed so those 3 items saved me over $75.

My question (to me) is why did I wait so darn long to get this thing. I print stuff all the time that I 'need'. Mostly I print stuff that I am too lazy to go out and purchase or I can make way cheaper and plastic is good enough for what I am using it for.

Today I needed a couple 1/4-20 x 1" thumbscrews. Dug around in my parts cabinet and didn't turn up any so I just sat down a drew one up real quick in SU and sent it to the printer. 54 minutes later I had two of them in my hand ready to go with perfect threads.

[Bob D.]

Here's where I used those thumbscrews.
I made a set of stair gauges for my framing square, but here I am showing it used on a speed square.

In the second photo you will see a thumbscrew I made using a 1/4" bolt and a knurled cap I made to fit the head of the bolt. This works fine except like the old style stair gauges the screw is metal and will mung up the face of the square and eventually obliterate some markings. No need for that, the plastic thumbscrews provide all the clamping pressure needed for an application like this. And no damage to your square AND they don't rust. :-)

You can find the Stair Gauge files and many of my designs that are free for non-commercial use on Thingiverse,com or Printables.com

https://www.thingiverse.com/bob-d/designs

https://www.printables.com/social/199938-bob-d/models







I also made a metric version for a M6 nut.

[Bob D.]

Made a hand grip for my Makita compact router and another one for the DeWalt cordless router I have.
The DeWalt version has my plunge lockout device built in.




https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AKPJLPOFcCo

[CWSmith]

Thanks Bob,

Your description of the 'thumb screws' is about the kind of things I would be using it for, more practical needs and of course just the curiosity of having such a tool. I don't have much interest in making toys or artististic figures, etc.

You had mentioned earlier that SU doesn't produce direct-to-printer objects, so I presume that once you design something like the thumb-screws, you then had to transfer it to the Prusa slicer software which then handles the actual printing? (I'm trying to grasp the actual steps/procedure.) When I worked with one of the guys over on the Sawdust forum to produce the SMT slides, we had do something similar; I did the drawing in SU and them moved it to AutoCad's 123Design for the final image file which I sent him to drive the 3D printer he was using... that seemed to work okay, although the final pieces, though workable, were rather rough looking.

I'll download the Prusa instructions this weekend and see where I go from there. I'm also give my grandson a call and find out if he has any interest or knowledge. Perhaps it might be something that brings him around once in a while and that would be invaluable all by itself.

CWS

[Bob D.]

Close, the path is like this:

Design in SketchUp, Fusion360, r whatever your favorite CAD software is. Export the 3D model as an .stl file.
Using the slicer software, import the .stl file and apply your printing settings, then slice the model which is when the gcode is created.
You can save the gcode to a file or with some slicer software packages such as Prusa Slicer you can send the file directly o the printer or save it on a SD card and walk it over to the printer.

I use Octopi, which runs on a Raspberry Pi computer. I'm using an older Pi 3B+, current model is a 4A I think. Anyway Octopi is connected to my LAN and I can send the gcode from my PC upstairs to the Octopi which is at the printer downstairs. From there I use a browser on my PC upstairs to connect to Octopi and control just about everything having to do with printing expect for taking the finished job off the printer.

I can start/stop/pause/resume a job, view a webcam that is pointed at the printer so I can see what is happening without trucking downstairs, adjust temperatures, and do a lot more.

There are loads of videos on YT about using Prusa Slicer and Octopi. You could watch for days. CNC Kitchen, Prusa 3D by Josef Prusa, Maker's Muse, Thomas Sanladerer are just a few of the better YT channels I have subscribed to.

[CWSmith]

Thanks Bob,

You've answered some questions and definitely peaked my interest. Now I'll have to do some reading and viewing and prehaps make the decision within a few months when the weather cools.

In the picture of the thumbscrew that you "drew one up real quick" the 'threads' look like they are brass, but the drawn SU image appears that you were going to print them? So did you just print the knob to use with an existing bolt or am I seeing it wrong. If you drew the threads and printed them, did you already have those within your design library or did you draw them from scratch, perhaps with an existing design tool within the Pro version of SketchUp? I remember having to draw threads in highschool drafting and it was a PITA, not something I could come up with real quick.

I'm presently making an exploded view illustration of the HF circular saw blade sharpener, using my 2018 version of CorelDraw. It's not as easy as I thought as everything in Corel has to be done at 0 or 90 degrees to get the dimension correct and the rotate the object to 30-degrees for the isometric projection. Do-able, but it takes a lot more time than if I still had a drawing board. I asked Corel if their 'Technical' Suite encompassed that provision and they didn't have an answer. At several hundred dollars purchase price or a few hundred a year to subcribe, its not worth the venture just for my own curiosity. I can just deal with my existing version. Frankly, I've been using Corel since version 4 and for my usage I really haven't seen much in the way of improvement over the years. and so I decided that SketchUp might be a better venture, especailly if I go with a 3D printer in the near future.

CWS

[Bob D.]

Two different items. One is a cap for a hex head bolt. Stick it on with some CA glue or epoxy and you have an instant thumbscrew in whatever material, length, and thread pitch you need.

The other is completely printed in PLA. There is an extension for SU that creates threads in imperial or metric. Search the extension warehouse and you should find it. It works with SU Make 2017 and maybe older version since it's been around for a few years. Next time I am in there I will look and get the link.

You can also look at TinkerCAD or FreeCAD and there are other free apps out there. SU still has a free version. If you don't have SU Make 2017 it is the last free version that will run on your desktop. The newer free versions you run in your browser. You can still d/l SU Make 2017. It's on their website in the download section under previous versions I think it's called.

Well, I take that back. It looks like they took it down recently. That's too bad. It was there just a month ago. I did not download it because I use SU 2022 Pro.

https://help.sketchup.com/en/make-access

Also look at Inkscape and some of the CNC apps like V-carve or Carbide Create. Many of those are free and you can create some things with them. There is also an app in the Windows Store called 3D Builder and another called 3D Viewer, both are free. I have not played with them yet but did install them.

[CWSmith]

Thanks again,;

I downloaded the SketchUp make and it pretty much looks like the program I was used to. Now I just have to familiarize myself to it once again. I think I've pretty much made up my mind to buy the Prusa; discussed it with my wife this morning as she's sort of been following along and she thinks it's a great idea, will keep my mind occupied, so perhaps in September when I'm wrapping up some current projects I'll put in my order.

In the mean time, I'll do some playing with SU and of course a lot of reading of the Prusa software and instructions.

Thanks,

CWS

[Bob D.]

You might also want to look at Blender which is free. https://www.blender.org/download/

[Bob D.]

Sounds good. You can download Prusa Slicer and start getting used to it now. Don't need to wait for the printer, just go in setup and choose the printer profile for the printer you are planning to buy. You can change it at any time or have more than one printer profile available.

If the printer is running properly then the actual printing is the easy part. It's getting the model from CAD to gcode that is where experience factors in big. So the sooner you get familiar with SU and your slicer software that better.

I think you will have fun and maybe make a little beer money at the same time.

[AverageHomeowner]

... The subscription model is taking over on everything ... you can't access it until you pay the ransom.

Are you saying that one day we will go to use our cordless Ridgid Impact Wrench and it will display a message "You need to renew your monthly subscription. Meanwhile, torque is limited to 20% of max."?

[Bob D.]

I made a triangular base for the RIDGID R86044 router.



Also a Makita version.


Wouldn't you know the screw hole pattern is off by 1mm between these two routers.


Why? Because it let's you do this.

Drew Fisher makes one in his recent video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXqMxOCtDs&t=473s

I may have it on my website before long.

[Bob D.]

I put these interlocking bit trays up on Thingiverse for non-commercial use. Nothing fancy but they get the job done.

I made versions for 1/2", 1/4", and 8mm shanks and also for 1/4" hex bits plus a blank that people can use to create their own layout or hole size.



https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5458847

[cactusman]

You are having way too much fun with 3D printing!

Cactus Man