Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT 3rd time's a charm with a 3 car workshop

With the cold it changed up our plans today, so moved the final assy steps inside for comfort and easier assistance with the energizer bunny "assistant" who is super cute but not overly helpful yet...


Starting to hook up wires and do cable mangt

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Actually watching the video for new users prior to booting it up

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Calibrating.... so far so good

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Jumping ahead a couple hours of frustration dialing in z axis heightand actually have something working!

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Bottle opener which was one of the preloaded part files, the "handle" portion is shaped oddly as its actually a likeness of the founder of the company who makes the printer. A penny is stuck in for the "blade" to lift the cap

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Before I popped it off the print bed, easier to see the face, hint he's wearing glasses

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Glad you got it going! How's it work(the bottle opener)?

OutlawDrifter said:

Glad you got it going! How's it work(the bottle opener)?

Click to expand...

I'll admit I haven't tried it yet. It came off the printer at 10:10 pm and decided I would wait till Friday night to see how it works.

Hoping that today I can get some tool organizers for the new Wall Control metal pegboard going on it for the first garage related prints off it.

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Sweet! Great pics and good on you for forging ahead under the weather, idk if I'd be able to do the same. Thanksgiving was probably a bit different for most people this year... hope it was good anyways. The printer looks like it will be a fun toy!

nicholam77 said:

Sweet! Great pics and good on you for forging ahead under the weather, idk if I'd be able to do the same. Thanksgiving was probably a bit different for most people this year... hope it was good anyways. The printer looks like it will be a fun toy!

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With the wonders of modern pharmacology I was feeling better...thanks DayQuill/Nyquill! It was going to be a bit different, one side of my family normally has a large gathering of between 30-60 people depending on the year(my Mom was one of 64 1st cousins at the largest point) and this was going to be our first time attending in 3 or 4 years but it, like many other gatherings was called off. So instead was just going to be our household and 2 other family members but we ended up staying home. Wife and I were talking last night about how many times in the past we wouldn't think twice about going somewhere with "just a cold" and wonder how long that change in mindset that we, along with millions(billions??) of others have had may last???

But I digress...

As this isn't just about showing success but also the experiences you gained on that path...here is more of how things progressed:

After a bunch of time trying to dial in the Z axis height off the bed, got to this as 1st layer prints for the bottle opener:

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It's at least "something"...but not what we needed:

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Here is the first one, notice the easily discernable lines...no bueno. Z height is close enough to get it to print into a shape, but still too high as the lines should be touching each other and flattened out on the top and bottom...so let's try again with more Z axis adjustment

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Ok that's better. It started with the perimeter walls, then did that middle strip where you can see some light(but better), I adjusted the Z axis while printing and it then did that top portion of the fill, then jumped down and did below that starting portion. Not exactly sure why that upper part didn't stick which is why I stopped this print, I cleaned the bed after this came off and decided it looked close enough to the pictures to try one more with those settings to see if I could get a good part off it...which was successful with the opener of last night.

So that gave me enough confidence in it working to try my hand at the "slicer". For a quick primer, to get something from concept to printer you generally need:

1-CAD File/Model: You can do your own, download from various sources including Thingiverse, GitHub and even direct from catalogs/manufacturers such as McMaster Carr. I haven't modeled anything of my own yet, that'll come later after the backlog of existing models I want dwindles down

2-Slicer: This program imports the CAD model and then outputs the programming code(gcode) to the printer to control the X,Y,Z axis as well as temp settings(both the print bed and the extruder nozzle are heated), the extruder motor and a few other things. You can also do things such as insert pauses to insert items into a printed cavity(for example magnets) or to enable manual color changes for multi color prints. There are multiple slicer programs out there, I'm currently using the standard PrusaSlicer program but will probably experiment with the Cura program as well as it's reported to have some additional functionality on supports that the Prusa doesn't.

I got introduced to Wall Control metal pegboard here, but wasn't super impressed with their hooks and had been thinking of some type of modular 3D printed tool storage for it would be pretty sweet. Then one of the frequent "spenders of my money" sent me this link which was pretty much what I was envisioning...and it was already modeled:

https://github.com/aderusha/DDD-Printable-Wall-Control-System

Dug in a bit more and liked what I saw and thought it should be pretty easy to create my own tool holders and use their "sidepieces" so when I decided to pull the trigger on the printer thought this would be some of the first personal items off it.

Felt well enough this morning I got up before the rest of the house with the goal of getting something printed before breakfast was over....probably a bold goal when breakfast normally is mine to make but hey give it a shot.

Got the PrusaSlicer program downloaded and the files imported/extracted from GitHub, don't have a screenshot of that file but here is the next one which is the "sidepieces" or the hooks/supports for the screwdriver holder that's finishing up now:

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Don't have much experience with the slicer so far(20 minutes???) but at least for these first several files pretty straight forward. Import the files, position how I want, adjust the machine settings for the type of filament I'm running(in this case PETG), click Slice to generate the code and save it...which brings up the biggest challenge so far today....getting the files to the printer

This particular printer accepts SD Memory Cards, direct USB connection and has "add on" functionality for Wifi/video monitoring via a Rasberry Pi add on that's on the Xmas List. But my primary laptop(which is works) I can't put the slicer on to hook up direct to the printer...don't want to move it to the office yet where the personal desktop is and haven't yet found our memory card reader adapter from the move...hum.....

Fortunately one of the older personal laptops that I hadn't used in a couple years has a built in SD slot and after finding the charger it booted right up without issues! So went ahead and moved that downstairs to make this easier for the next couple of days:

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Getting the perimeters of the holes in:

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Couple layers in on building the base:

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And about 4.5 hours later, starting to put the top on it...think this was with around 20 minutes left on a just over 5 hour print:

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Next up is the support brackets that were shown in the Slicer screenshot which is saying around a 3 hour print time...so maybe before supper I could have my small Wiha screwdriver and torx drivers up on the wall?

Oh yeah, the dog has been rather mournfully laying in the kitchen today...like she could smell the ham bone up on the counter and knew it was hers so she should be content in the yard for the next couple of hours!

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3D printing is such a valuable skill/ability to have. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous.

Someday, I plan on adding it to my repertoire, but I gotta knock down my project list first.

Great work. I’m sure the learning curve on something like that is pretty high, but once you get a couple of projects under your belt I’m sure your speed will increase rapidly.

PileDriver said:

3D printing is such a valuable skill/ability to have. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous.

Someday, I plan on adding it to my repertoire, but I gotta knock down my project list first.

Click to expand...

Well call it even as I'm jealous of your place and not having neighbors so close! Don't get me wrong I'm really happy with my neighborhood...and it's the right call with a young family...but I miss my acreage

If you want to learn something new during inside "downtime" that could potentially help down the road, learn how to model parts in 3D so when you're ready you have the CAD skills. The printer is useless without files to print, and you can only go so far on other folk's parts before you're thinking "if I only knew how to design this"...

There are a couple ways you can go when starting to learn CAD from my perspective:

Sketchup: This seems to be one of the most common programs I hear people mention when they're new to CAD. Huge existing file library of items other have modeled can really help as well if you're going to do something like model your garage as practice

Engineering Targeted Programs: SolidWorks, Fusion360, SolidEdge, Catia are the most common professional level programs targeted at part modeling and are most likely going to be dramatic overkill for the average 3D home printer. SolidWorks and Fusion360 both have cost effective "home/personal use" license programs for us folks not ready to shell out the $3k+ for a license. Fusion360 personal usage program is here: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

Solidworks has a deal with EAA found here that gets it with an EAA annual membership, other similar programs may exist

https://www.eaa.org/eaa/eaa-membership/eaa-member-benefits/solidworks-resource-center

Personally, I can't stand Sketchup but millions of people use it and love it so it's all personal preference. I learned 3D Modeling on ProE and the basic process flow of sketch/extrude/cut etc has been baked into me and been consistent with all the various flavors I've used in the last 15-ish years. I'm currently using the personal use license of Fusion360 but not loving it and will be joining EAA and getting Solidworks instead.

Unruh said:

Great work. I’m sure the learning curve on something like that is pretty high, but once you get a couple of projects under your belt I’m sure your speed will increase rapidly.

Click to expand...

I'll be honest....the learning curve has been easy on the printer. I'm VERY glad I bought the kit as putting it together was great education on how it goes together, how it works, and what could go wrong....but also they liberally use 3D printed parts and seeing some of their design elements, such as creating "zip tie chases" for the zip ties to run in for cable mangt really made me start to think differently about designing parts for additive manufacturing vs old school ways.

As I get into more advanced prints, I'll be able to learn some new things about support structure and figuring out how to effectively design for 3D printing, but so far for pretty "standard" stuff it's very easy.

Once I got the printer assembled....I think it was 2 or 3 hours or Z Axis adjustment which should've been way less...but i've run it almost 50 hours and half a spool of material and just had my first "bad" part come off it last night which was more me, not the machine.

Others I talk with and see online struggling getting frequently have a common thread of being on cheap machines. I don't see or hear that much on Prusa machines. Yes it's 2.5x the price of many of the Ender machines, but it also has lots of features and options the Ender's don't and it is just more reliable. I bought the printer to support/enable/enhance my other hobbies, not to be a new hobby in itself so I was willing to pay for ease of use and to literally be able to set it and forget it.

So couple of quick 3D printer updates...

The first print was the precision screwdriver holder....here it is up on the wall:

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Now to figure out where the rest of my Wiha's are....

I had intended to not design anything new until after the holiday's thinking I could wait...yeah that was foolish to even consider. As part of the summer purge of large, often heavy things that weren't overly hard to replace my big(5' wide, 30" deep, 56" tall) Vidmar toolbox was sold distributing my hand tools across a combination of boxes. It was ok though as I had a 40" Craftsman rolling chest that I had kept in the basement of the old house for those more common house tools and with an attached garage now I thought I could downsize a bit...but my pliers drawer is a mess so wanting to start getting some of the more commonly used ones up and visual for both me as well as my wife or father in law who may be back in the near future and enjoys the garage time as well.

So starting with vice grips, quickly modeled the center "tool holder" plate up in CAD based on a couple of those I had printed already and about 40 minutes later confirmed what I had suspected:

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(3) pairs in a 3" wide space was too tight, and needed to also make the slots deeper....so quick update to the model and also made (2) other sizes so I had (3) parts to print, each one holding (2) vice grips based on the size of their adjustment screw and got them sent to the printer in time to get them up on the garage wall prior to picking up the kiddo at daycare:

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Initial feedback...should work. They don't stay at the "back" of the slot as well as I'd like so may consider designing some new end brackets to put a roughly 5 degree slope backwards on them to aid in things not getting knocked off when I'm careless with my reach.

Now if I can get about 2 dozen other tool holders designed to print during the day I may make some more tangible progress....but I am excited about how nice it is to be able to send prints to the printer and it run overnight and during the day so the limited shop time is able to feel a bit more productive as I'm assembling things and making faster visual progress which was one of the goals with this toy I mean tool

Looks like a good solution!

I like where this is going! I have some wall control in my laundry room, and I too am totally underwhelmed by the official holders. They don't fit very well.

Even though they usually take more work, I think custom solutions are often better. Seems like a great first project for the printer.

OutlawDrifter said:

Looks like a good solution!

Click to expand...

Thanks for swinging by! So far I'm pretty happy with it....now to just get back in the swing of CAD modeling as I'm a bit out of practice so I can get faster on the designing of custom holders.

nicholam77 said:

I like where this is going! I have some wall control in my laundry room, and I too am totally underwhelmed by the official holders. They don't fit very well.

Even though they usually take more work, I think custom solutions are often better. Seems like a great first project for the printer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for returning Nick! I think the biggest thing I'm excited about for the custom holders is the easy of remaking for additional ones/tweaks etc. As long as I keep a good file library, making duplicates is a couple of minutes of actual time then I walk away while it does it's thing. Had it not been for this printer and finding the "pre-designed" modular solution for the Wall Control I probably would be going down the french cleat path(with a lot of custom tool holders on cleats!.

It a quick update....not much happened in the garage this week as work has me slammed. Though the various delivery drivers that have us on what seems like a daily route stop did leave some fun stuff:

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(2) new rolls of white filament via Amazon to try and see what I think, different brands and also cheaper than the Prusa branded I started with

(1) new pocket hole jig, I like Kreg stuff but it's gone to so much plastic I wasn't impressed and this one got some nice reviews here, in addition to being clued into a sale was enough for it to show up!

(1) new set of (4) side mount casters, thanks to @Duker I believe on the Amazon Warehouse tool related thread. Not sure what they'll get used for but they'll save around 5" of height vs the standard undermount casters I use so they'll come in handy sooner rather than later

So random weekend of misc updates, changes and things:

Keep tripping over and moving around a bunch of 4-6' long misc things that need a better home....Go Go 3D Printer:

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First set has a 3/4" radius hook for some of the smaller items. But I have lots of items and I designed these so the max I could get on the printer bed was (3) in a single round. But could I stack them?

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In theory....yes....in my novice knowledge so far...not yet. Found lots of great videos on how to do this as it was used immensely this spring to help produce 3D printed faceshields but it wasn't working for me last night. I simplified the models removing most of the edge fillets and countersinks trying to simplify the models, but kept getting Z axis errors when I attempted to slice it. So I put it to the side and will work to learn more on this later.

Another run overnight and able to get some stuff put away in it's new home:

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Next up are hooks with 1.50" inside radius for some larger diameter items.

As to the strength vs plywood...these were printed with 15% infill and 4 perimeter layers which the bumped up perimeter counts adds strength. When holding the hooks and attempting to bend them by hand it takes a very significant amount of force to make the hook profile deflect...plenty stout enough for some paint poles and fiberglass rods.

Every once in awhile an appliance dying isn't a completely sad day:

Deep freezer has been on the fritz since we moved here and acting up, finally had a 40+ degree temp swing in 24 hours and there was the same sized new one, in stock(which has been rare) in town...so I promptly ordered it and took an extended lunch break to Best Buy for curbside pickup:

Started Thursday with:

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Friday night had this as the new one found a better home in the basement mechanical room:

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And Sunday afternoon have this after a "Handyman Special" listing on FB marketplace:

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So now to tackle this corner of the garage and the pile of wayward items that call it home...starting with that stroller.

A newer addition to the software(since I learned it in college) is the ability to insert pictures to essentially digitially "trace" over the elements....so a screenshot of that in process with my initial sketch lines outlining the rough hook shape:

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Leads to this:

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And 78 minutes later on the printer:

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And that may be as far as it gets tonight as the Chiefs have a division rivalry game against the Bronco's and I'm probably going to get engrossed in that while sticking labels on Christmas cards

Alright, I made it! I'm late, but I made it. First I have to say I was quite disappointed to find there were no pics of the pair of 5020s on the farm. Second, what model combines were those? 8120 and 9120? I spent some time one summer/fall running ProDemo with Case in (mostly) a new 8240, but many customers had 120s we were in and around.

Iowa State Alum here, not really much into sports but I'm probably required by some signed document to say "Go team". As a once Cyclone Power Puller, K State was our biggest rival. I'll have to side with your wife on that one.

That's a mighty fine woodshop you are in the process of organizing. I'm curious as to what you build in the future.

Fwiw, my friends bought a home in Utah just like yours, complete with sheetrocked, yet uninsulated garage. Theirs wasn't a demo, all the houses in their neighborhood are like that. Its just a cheap-*** contractor. I'd string him up too. Why go to all the trouble of sheetrocking and sanding and mudding and all that without sticking some insulation to the walls? The cost is minimal, the time is minimal, wth. My friends are going to have to do exactly what you did because he's putting a 65k btu heater in right now.

XJSuperman said:

Alright, I made it! I'm late, but I made it. First I have to say I was quite disappointed to find there were no pics of the pair of 5020s on the farm. Second, what model combines were those? 8120 and 9120? I spent some time one summer/fall running ProDemo with Case in (mostly) a new 8240, but many customers had 120s we were in and around.

Iowa State Alum here, not really much into sports but I'm probably required by some signed document to say "Go team". As a once Cyclone Power Puller, K State was our biggest rival. I'll have to side with your wife on that one.

That's a mighty fine woodshop you are in the process of organizing. I'm curious as to what you build in the future.

Fwiw, my friends bought a home in Utah just like yours, complete with sheetrocked, yet uninsulated garage. Theirs wasn't a demo, all the houses in their neighborhood are like that. Its just a cheap-*** contractor. I'd string him up too. Why go to all the trouble of sheetrocking and sanding and mudding and all that without sticking some insulation to the walls? The cost is minimal, the time is minimal, wth. My friends are going to have to do exactly what you did because he's putting a 65k btu heater in right now.

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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read up!

Series 9 machine is too big for most of our fields, too many terraces(at least we can farm over ours unlike most I see in Iowa) and can't keep up with hauling out from the field anyway if we had it on the flatland. 8240 and 8120, on a roughly 2 or 3 year trade in cycle...normally is good for allowing at least 1 of them to be running at a time...fingers crossed. In this instance the feeder house gearbox was causing issues that dealer didn't have resolved yet. It was end of harvest though so time wasn't critical to us so it took a bit longer to get fixed.


Never got involved with the tractor pulling team, here and there would do a bit of work for them but that's it. Worked in the Civil Engineering fab/support shop during college and the bosses of each of the various dept shops normally stayed in touch on machine capabilities etc and we'd help out if we had a machine that would do X to help out another dept. I can't fault ISU too much....it's pretty much KSU in another state with more students, especially in engineering.

And appreciate the comments on the woodshop...excited to get it a bit more functional. Father in law supposed to be here for a couple days...may see if he's interested in running some conduit as he's of a similar mindset when it comes to needing projects, his larger ones tend towards 4 wheeled vs woodworking.

When I finally decide to start a "project" vs work on the garage as "a project", first build is probably a couple sets of adirondack folding chairs. I've had a set of plans I bought(Lee Valley perhaps?) 5 years ago and were intended for my first project in Chicago garage....yeah didn't get to them....still want to give them a try so that'll likely be first.

I haven't pulled the trigger yet on a mini-split....keep hesitating...need to get that done. I put the infrastracture in for wiring when I did the run for the subpanel so that part should be easy...just have to make up my mind and order it.



Did take some time this afternoon and enjoy the 60 degrees, opened up a garage door and worked on my ugly corner and trying to clean stuff up and find homes....made some progress:

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As I worked to clean up the corner and some of the surrounding area, a number of things needed to find new homes.....

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Once the printer got done....added additional storage to the plywood cart. The mahogany brackets were made in the last garage and had intended to make more...instead used the 3D printer to make some new "L brackets" to help give similar type of items homes:

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Roller stands are always in the way...let's fix that....again go go 3D printer

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And in use:

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That and a bunch of little things here and there helped get to this:

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Still a long ways to go, and the Wall Control boards are a jumbled up, unorganized mess mostly helping trying to get things off the toolbox top and will eventually get much more organized

Great work! Now I want a 3D printer!

loganb said:

As I worked to clean up the corner and some of the surrounding area, a number of things needed to find new homes.....

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Once the printer got done....added additional storage to the plywood cart. The mahogany brackets were made in the last garage and had intended to make more...instead used the 3D printer to make some new "L brackets" to help give similar type of items homes:

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Roller stands are always in the way...let's fix that....again go go 3D printer

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And in use:

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That and a bunch of little things here and there helped get to this:

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Still a long ways to go, and the Wall Control boards are a jumbled up, unorganized mess mostly helping trying to get things off the toolbox top and will eventually get much more organized

Click to expand...

And now I have an official reason to get a printer!

Bret

What material are you using for the brackets you are printing? I need to have my brother in law print me some but he’s not sure what material would work best.


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Wow! Your 3D printed brackets are awesome! I like all of the Delta shwag too!

Unruh said:

Great work! Now I want a 3D printer!

Click to expand...

bj383ss said:

And now I have an official reason to get a printer!

Bret

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Thanks for taking time out of your shop's to visit mine! I'm really happy with how well it's working out to help with organization, and being able to design parts while being in the house helping watch the kid, and have the printer running away during work and overnight helps accelerate the obvious progress when I sneak in 30 minutes of shop time here and there! I do have a leg up on many in that I already knew the CAD side of it though

sleek98 said:

What material are you using for the brackets you are printing? I need to have my brother in law print me some but he’s not sure what material would work best.

Click to expand...

Thanks for stopping in! Everything I've posted here is printed in PETG so far for a couple reasons....but the biggest being necessity. The Prusa printer I have has removable print sheets which is a nice feature that other's may not have, the necessity comes in that the (2) most commonly used filaments, PLA and PETG need different "sheets". The printer comes with 1(you pick which one you want) and you can order the others...well I accidentally ordered 2 of the same style which is a textured sheet that PETG does great with but PLA generally doesn't like. So as a result...my 1 roll of PLA has gone unused so far, the sheet for that shows up on Monday

The reason I'm using PETG though is it's stronger and more durable than PLA which for what I'm doing right now is my primary concern. PLA will do better on things with lots of details and things where form is more important than function, but for functional garage type brackets or things that may get significant use/abuse etc PETG seems to be the best combinate of ease of use, strength and cost.

Overnight did get a couple new parts run supporting the goal of cleaning up my battery charger area:

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Thanks to Makita engineers for not including any keyhole screw hangers on their 18V chargers like Milwaukee did on the M12's...but thingiverse to the rescue with a model already out there

Got it up onto the wall and verified it still aligns

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Guess I need to clean up the cords now...

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Really nice work on the 3D printer I have been watching what everyone is doing with there's. I want to buy one and use it for making things like you do and for making some trim pieces for the trucks I'm working on. Thanks for explaining some of the differences in the process.

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Thank you. The organization you have done is amazing. I recently started to organize some stuff but this is a whole new level. Congrats.


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ct71rr said:

Wow! Your 3D printed brackets are awesome! I like all of the Delta shwag too!

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Thank you for the compliment and the visit! It's been fun starting to get the place in order and the printer definitely helps....now to finish running the electric so I can use that Delta shwag! Bandsaw is my first priority

harley jim said:

Really nice work on the 3D printer I have been watching what everyone is doing with there's. I want to buy one and use it for making things like you do and for making some trim pieces for the trucks I'm working on. Thanks for explaining some of the differences in the process.

Click to expand...

Appreciate the time to comment sir, really enjoyed following along in your thread! Not sure off the cuff what the "go to" material for trim pieces may be. PLA has better aesthetic properties than PETG, however not as UV stable. The UV stability on PLA can be helped/fixed if it gets painted after printing which for trim I expect may happen so this may be a moot point. If you need to do anything for the engine bay you will most likely need to be using ASA or ABS as they have significantly higher temp resistance. That comes at the price of needing full enclosures and exhaust setups to print with as they're a bit more finicky materials with wonderful smells that we and those that we share a roof with don't always appreciate if the printer is in the house or an attached garage.

sleek98 said:

Thank you. The organization you have done is amazing. I recently started to organize some stuff but this is a whole new level. Congrats.

Click to expand...

Thank you, much appreciated! It's a long way from what I have in my head as a vision....but it's starting to get there and really is nice when I can walk in, open a drawer and boom everything I need is there, where it's supposed to be

Speaking of drawers, slight change of pace for a couple hours this afternoon...first let's go back to fall of 2018.

Estate sale about a mile away from me, had advertised a Walker Turner 15" DP that I was interested in, that's documented in a prior post....get down to the basement and also find these:

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Estate was of a very meticulous, widowed electrical engineer and his basement was a fun workshop...I'm not as interested in some of the electrical endeavors so not as much of it was highly relevant to me but he had highly organized small fastener cabinets. As someone who I expect was raised by parents who survived the Great Depression...not much that he thought might be useful got tossed...but it got hella organized!

I made a deal for the Gray cabinet which was primarily wood screws and machine screws and about half or 2/3rds of the green cabinets...the rest of the green ones were all electrical components(cap's, resistors, more resistors etc) and not worth it for me when I was going to dispose of the components.

I had the cabinets somewhat usable in the last garage, but my thought for hardware storage here didn't fit with that wall mounted style, and I had them temporarily stored up on my new Unistrut shelf so when I needed something was a PITA to get the ladder over and climb up....

I had been putting off the task of transferring all the contents over to my red Schaller bins I had for my 2" deep drawers in this paper cabinet(shown mid-reassembly):

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Until I realized earlier this week that the drawer in both the green cabinets and the gray one would drop right into the existing drawers and I didn't have to transfer everything to new containers now....that could wait!

So climbed up and pulled them all down off the upper shelf and started going through, tossing stuff that would be duplicates or things I didn't think were likely to be used and made some progress

Top drawer is going to be screws. Drywall and general purpose construction screws, then into pocket screws, wood screws, non-ferrous ones and eventually sheet metal screws. For now I've been tearing the label/tab off the box/bag and trying to drop in with the screws, future project is 3D printing some label holders and then printing labels on either the computer or the Brother Label printer

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Next drawer down will be some screw overflow, along with nails, staples and concrete or drywall anchors:

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3rd down will be machine screws/bolts. The gray cabinets I bought were fairly well stocked with machine screws/nuts/washers up to around 10-32, going to have to work to clean up and organize my assortment of 1/4 to 1/2" or so and drop in some of those foreign born ones(metric)

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2 additional drawers in this cabinet not pictures, one will likely end up as additional bolts, as well as misc "hardware, not fasteners", other is going to be electrical components.

I already like that I can open a drawer and visually put my eyes on everything I've got without having to go back and forth, pulling out drawers etc and playing the memory game of which did I see that in. Hopefully it'll make things easier for the wife to find when she's doing that random project and can "self serve" without my assistance.

Haha, wow...someday I'd hope to get to that level of organization for my fasteners....good work!

New stuff is in a couple of drawers with no rhyme or reason for the location.

Used goes in coffee cans, which are separated between SAE and Metric.

Organization Eye Candy. Drool.....


Bret

Thanks Bret! To help prove that I'm mortal and far from finished....here is the top of that hardware cabinet with a mess of bins plus 3 partial projects sitting on the MFT

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So for those following along on my self paced education on 3D printing, my most recent chapter was on the concept of "bridging"...but first let's set that up. Warning: 3D printing world is exclusively in those "foreign measurements" that many of the American's(myself included) don't always think naturally in....I'm not going to convert anything here but you're welcome to(1" = 25.4 mm). And for anyone farther along in their 3D printing journey who catches something I'm incorrect on or you have different experiences with please share!

This type of 3D printing at it's core is pushing material thru a heated nozzle in fairly thin layers and repeating 10's, 100's, 1000's of times to get the desired shape. Other types using resin and powders combined with light also exist but not covering those here. That layer thickness can vary dramatically from .1mm or less to .8mm or greater depending on what you want and your printer/material capabilities. Thinner the layers, the longer the print time, the less visible the layer lines will be...never ending tradeoffs

My printer came with a .4mm nozzle as it's a good multipurpose size. The layers need to "smush" down for proper profiles/strength/adhesion so seems to be your max layer thickness is somewhere in that range of 60 to 75% of your nozzle diameter. Max layer thickness I had tried so far was .30mm which when I was loading up the print bed fairly well for an overnight print was making 12+ hr print times which didn't let me easily run again in the morning prior to starting work. With the vast majority of my prints still garage/organization focused I was more than happy with the aesthetics so far and had additional nozzles on a Christmas list a .6mm nozzle appeared in a box over the weekend so it got loaded up Sunday night intending to run a round of sample garage parts overnight.

Some of these parts were more complicated than I had run previously and I needed to learn about printing with supports and the bridging limits. As 3D printing is a series of successive layers, when you have a void or cavity, there are limits of the material in how far it can "bridge" over open space before it starts to sag and have problems. You can either design your parts or orientation on the printer so that this isn't a problem...or you can use supports.

Supports are a disposable, 3d printed "structure" that can be used to help support these "cantilevering" elements so to speak and enable them to be successfully printed without significant extra work on your end. The major software packages can automatically manage these with some support/overrides from the user and away you go. As I hadn't successfully used these yet I was curious and wanted to start to learn the limits and had found this spray can holder which I really liked the design for a couple reasons so gave it a shot.

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Loaded up on the printer software with other parts it looks like the below. The green elements shown are the "supports" the software created and placed, notice that on that spray holder they're only on half of it as I put in "blockers" on the other side as I thought it would work alright with them but wanted to see. Old Adage of "In God we Trust...all others bring data"...this was to be my data:

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So hit print with .35mm layer thickness and next morning they were done. (2) different hammer holders, (2) different bottle holders, 18v batter holder, tape roll holder and a pair of support brackets:

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Diving in specifically on that discussed bottle holder...here is the side with supports before they came off:

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And with the supports removed, doesn't take much to remove them, often doesn't take pliers or cutters just pushing with your fingers:

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And the other side that didn't have supports:

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As you can see, the side with supports does look better, though the other side started well before it had a problem in the "Center" then recovered. I'm going to try another run of that same part here this afternoon with no supports and see how it does, but it's pretty functional the way it is:

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I really like this design and will probably recreate this design in my CAD program so I have more flexibility and use this as the design for all of my bottle holders...that'll take a bit of CAD time I don't have at the moment so for now I'll see if I can be content with it for the spray cans I want on the board

Very cool. I've got to be careful reading about the 3d printer topics as I'm afraid I'll get pulled into yet another hobby, but the practical manufacturing of organizers and such is awesome to me.

The file cabinet hardware drawers are sweet. As long as you don't get bothered by bending over to get something out of the drawer then you should be all set. Super nice to have them spaced and organized in large drawers.

Haha. You are about to send me down a rabbit hole I don't have time or money for. And yes I am guilty of adjusting the pic I am taking of projects and how clean the workshop may seem. ��

Bret

XJSuperman said:

The file cabinet hardware drawers are sweet. As long as you don't get bothered by bending over to get something out of the drawer then you should be all set. Super nice to have them spaced and organized in large drawers.

Click to expand...

This right there is my biggest gripe with it so far. The top of the MFT is about 6" below the desired worksurface height and I was initially thinking I would make a riser to go under it...kinda "Paulk style" to give some additional storage between the cabinet and the MFT. After spending 2-ish hours sorting thru hardware I think I'm going to put spacers between the casters and cabinet base to get the drawers higher up as that seems to be more valuable than another space to store wayward toys I mean tools. It'll put 12" or so under the cabinet so the floor jack and probably some other things can roll under it so not totally wasted space

bj383ss said:

Haha. You are about to send me down a rabbit hole I don't have time or money for. And yes I am guilty of adjusting the pic I am taking of projects and how clean the workshop may seem. ��

Click to expand...

I try to practice "honest advertising" but yeah....I often crop the **** out

The nice thing about this rabbit hole is it can be working while you're sleeping....but I'm not going to lie it takes some time to setup, and get used to it and more time for the CAD side. I work from home when not on the road so it's pretty easy for me to spend lunch swapping things around or doing some CAD work or go start it on a run between calls....but having it do things to make my next set of QST more effective while I sleep is pretty awesome.

I’m loving the 3D prints. Excellent work!

Wow, showing no signs of slowing down! I admire your drive.

I can't believe how many little hangers and organizational doodads you've printed already.

Totally understand it takes know-how and calibration / design work up front, but I think your points of...

1) printing while you sleep
2) being able to reprint designs later with the press of a button

...seems to make it a very unique solution in my eyes. Especially the "reprintability", if you can come up with some somewhat universal designs.

I can also see it being very useful for drawer / cabinet organization. GJ forum-er Lilscorpion has done some amazing things with HDPE and a mill, but I could see you doing similar custom drawers and cabinets with the 3D printer.

Been a lurker for a while and really find the 3D printed stuff very cool. I was wondering when you are going to start taking orders? I could really use a few of the things you are printing for my pegboard....

Well I've officially joined the 3D printing club by "making spaghetti"....but first an update on yesterday's experiment of supports on the aerosol can holder.

So reprinted the aerosol can holder by itself with .3mm layers instead of .35 and removed most of the supports...turned out well enough for my garage:

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Zoomed in on one of the sides:

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Still some slight sagging there as it starts to print into that void, this could be reduced by thinner layers or using supports but for my usage in my garage...it's just fine. I did knock down the larger blobs with a deburr tool, otherwise it's good to go for me

Here is where the Wall Control board is at the moment:

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It's getting better but still lacking overall organization. The right side is fairly set for now...minus some small moves around. The left most side is adjacent to the door into the house so will probably have a few things that may more frequently want in the house. Center is really a mess but for now will probably have the most common general handtools...screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches...prybars, utility knives etc.

Next tool holders are likely screwdrivers, pliers, hammers, tape measures, utility knives....which leads me to last nights project

I'm struggling with the battle between "good enough" and "great"....I want "great" but need "good enough", to move on and to use it for awhile an iterate...which is the joys of a 3D printer in house is that fast iteration.

So in an attempt to get that first iteration, I found a model on Thingiverse I kinda liked....set things up for a 3 hour print overnight to make (2) of them, came down in the morning to:

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Zoomed in:

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So what I believe happened was I got lazy and didn't wipe the bed down prior to starting this print and the layers on the left hand part didn't stick to the bedplate, causing it to print layers in thin air. The right side one worked alright, but I ended up tossing everything in the trash and am going to rerun a slightly different model this afternoon to see what I think.

tj675 said:

I’m loving the 3D prints. Excellent work!

Click to expand...

Thanks...I'll try and keep posting here as long as the barn thread keeps getting new stuff

nicholam77 said:

Wow, showing no signs of slowing down! I admire your drive.

I can't believe how many little hangers and organizational doodads you've printed already.

Totally understand it takes know-how and calibration / design work up front, but I think your points of...

1) printing while you sleep
2) being able to reprint designs later with the press of a button

...seems to make it a very unique solution in my eyes. Especially the "reprintability", if you can come up with some somewhat universal designs.

I can also see it being very useful for drawer / cabinet organization. GJ forum-er Lilscorpion has done some amazing things with HDPE and a mill, but I could see you doing similar custom drawers and cabinets with the 3D printer.

Click to expand...

I love Lilscoprion's Organization/Reorg thread! I'd love to have a mill, have enough experience on a mill thanks to my background to be confident enough to go after it...but for now don't have the space and will adapt my ideas to my current methods with 3D printing, Laser and Woodworking. Getting that laser running again is going to shift to a higher priority soon...hasn't been plugged in yet since I moved here.

And you're spot on with the "universal" or "modular" concept...the more I can make things modular and flexible, the less overhead work I need to do in order to make it work and do what I want with as little CAD work as possible.

gearhead1960 said:

Been a lurker for a while and really find the 3D printed stuff very cool. I was wondering when you are going to start taking orders? I could really use a few of the things you are printing for my pegboard....

Click to expand...

Hit me up after the Holidays...let's get past this crazy time and get things a bit more setup but yes, I'm up for the concept once I get things "stable" so to speak. Wife is starting to get tired of it sitting on the dinette table and hearing it from the living room

loganb said:

Hit me up after the Holidays...let's get past this crazy time and get things a bit more setup but yes, I'm up for the concept once I get things "stable" so to speak. Wife is starting to get tired of it sitting on the dinette table and hearing it from the living room

Click to expand...

Will do! Happy Holidays!

Logan I'm always trying to put two things together that really dont belong together. The trim piece that Came to mind is the radio trim plate in my 70 F100 the stock radio is basically useless by todays standards so the p.o. cut it up and tried to install a modern radio and failed badly. I would like to put a modern radio in it but make it look like it belongs there.
I worked with Draftsight for several years them was learning solidworks when I was retired, now I'm learning autoCAD19 which is what my friend uses to design his plas projects.
I have heard several people talking well of Prusa printers so that is probably where I'm headed.
What machine would you purchase today would be my first question and what cad system do you prefer. That would help me focus my search.
Thank you for your time, and thanks for stopping by my thread. Jim

Radio fail

Wrong style radio and sticking out way too much.

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harley jim said:

Logan I'm always trying to put two things together that really dont belong together. The trim piece that Came to mind is the radio trim plate in my 70 F100 the stock radio is basically useless by todays standards so the p.o. cut it up and tried to install a modern radio and failed badly. I would like to put a modern radio in it but make it look like it belongs there.
I worked with Draftsight for several years them was learning solidworks when I was retired, now I'm learning autoCAD19 which is what my friend uses to design his plas projects.
I have heard several people talking well of Prusa printers so that is probably where I'm headed.
What machine would you purchase today would be my first question and what cad system do you prefer. That would help me focus my search.
Thank you for your time, and thanks for stopping by my thread. Jim

Radio fail

Wrong style radio and sticking out way too much.

Click to expand...

Warning: Not mobile friendly...text wall ahead....pictures later I promise

Jim-Super helpful, thanks the for example....here are my thoughts. Again 1st hand knowledge from actual hands on time is a month but have been around them and their application in industrial design/manufacturing for the last 15 years.

Radio trim pieces and similar ones like that I feel are perfect uses for 3D printing, the nice thing about that particular part is it should easily fit on the roughly 10" square bed of a Prusa...and could go longer if you went diagonal.

The aesthetics here matter more, so you'll probably be doing a "post processing" of some form. This generally is one of 2 categories:

1. Mechancial abrasive(sanding, blasting, deburring etc)
2. Chemical Smoothing(Vapor smoothing, direct brushing etc)

Everyone seems to have their preferred method and it really depends on the parts being printed. For smaller parts with lots of details(think figurines etc), vapor smoothing with acetone seems to be the winner. If there are larger parts with flat surfaces that need to be painted anyway, basic high build spray primer and light sanding can produce very nice results. Again also goes back to the printer settings and how well it's dialed in and the layer thickness so the lines that need to be smoothed are minimal to start.

For material type, one thing to be aware of the is temp the parts may be exposed to. PLA is probably the easiest, cheapest material to work with and can give great finish and can easily be chemically or mechanically smoothed...however it has a very low "glass point" or where it changes material states of approx 60C(140 F). It gets softer and may start to deform under load well before that and a dark piece in full sun of an enclosed vehicle cab can easily get to that surface temp where problems could occur.

Couple material choices to solve that problem could be either ABS/ASA or a newer material called HTPLA where HT stands for Heat Treatable.

ABS is the same ABS plastic we're familiar with and is common in automotive. Good material properties, can deliver nice finishes with post processing....but you know delicious smell of burning plastic??? Yeah you get that and need a very well ventilated room and probably fume collection in an enclosure.

ASA is from my very limited understanding(and those with more knowledge please educate us all) similar to ABS and will really require an enclosure around the printer for consistent temp's otherwise risk warping of the prints. Neither of these seem like a great solution for my scenario of learning with a printer I'm trying to keep in the house even with fume extraction thru charcoal filters

The final option is what I plan to order to trial in the next several weeks is Heat Treatable PLA from Protopasta. Basic heat treatment process in an oven at a pretty low temp(less than 100C) can more than double the the glass temp point, making this a potentially very viable solution for auto parts and maybe even engine bay(but not attached or super close) to the engine. Reportedly post processes similar to standard PLA, it is a premium in price(roughly 2x PLA Cost) but the benefits on the printing side vs ABS/ASA could make this very attractive for low volume needs. More details at their website below:

https://www.proto-pasta.com/collections/all/feature_heat-treatable

For CAD Programs, in my admittedly spoiled opinion you're on the right path. I've got an engineering degree and spent my first 10 years out of college in manufacturing engineering/design/the junction of the two so have always had AutoCAD(for facility layouts) and a professional 3D program on the computer till I moved to Sales and lost the 3D CAD.

Solidworks and Fusion360 are (2) of the larger CAD professional level programs out there targeted at part modeling with attractive, low cost(or free) & Legal personal use licenses. Fusion360 is free and directly from AutoCAD, Solidworks is via some group memberships, one of which is Experimental Aircraft Association(EAA).

I started on Fusion but just made the switch to Solidworks for the sole reason of greater familiarity with it. Had I known I could get Solidworks for 50/year as part of EAA I would've done that from the beginning. I don't think either will go too wrong for the conventional hobby 3D printer, note that Fusion's exporter to make .stl files which is the input for 3D printing is a cloud based converter, not a local process that happens on the machine. If one has slower or limited internet that could be a negative there. I'm also a bit leary of them possibly changing things up and removing .stl support from the personal use version...but hopefully they wouldn't do that as it would remove most any incentive for home enthusiasts to be introduced and use the platform. There are a lot of other open source and free modeling programs targeted at the 3D printing community....no experience with any of them but they do exist. Bottom line with the CAD program is picking one and learning it...they all do similar things...but their manner to accomplish it sometimes varies so getting familiar with it is key.

As for what printer...well I just bought a Prusa and so far 0 regrets there. I would say buy a major brand you see mentioned frequently, 2 most commonly I see are Creality and Prusa. Creality has substantially more models and options and as a result has a bigger spread of price points. You can also get them in stores in the US which may be of benefit.

My brother who I got started down the slope of 3D printing and who finally pulled me in with him had (2) Creality machines, a personal one and a work one. After 9 months he upgraded the personal machine for a Prusa but kept the work machine as it was. His experience using them for personal stuff as well as work related(runs a material testing lab focused on steel/concrete/fiberglass) is the Prusa prints more dimensionally consistent parts, especially in the corners....but not so much better that he's upgraded the work machine yet. He may do that in 2021 when the Prusa XL is hopefully released...in which case the current work machine will likely go to his boss's(also the owner) garage for his own projects.

Prusa has fewer options, generally more expensive but seem to have far fewer problems and from the ones I've been around are more reliable. One of the manufacturing sites I've worked at has (5) Prusa's in service for a variety of items with the oldest being almost 5 years old and have seen extensive use with very rare mechanical issues...couple have had 0 issues and these may see 80-100+ hours of run time a week. Biggest 2 complaints I see online on Prusa is the price & size capability. They are at a premium price point for the build area they offer, especially when you consider that their base $749 price for MK3S+ requires assembly by the user of 6-10 hours.

Depending on how my printing journey goes, there are some Creality models I could see owning due to the capability they offer. Main features/capabilities I don't have that I could easily see being handy are dual extruder's and larger print area. At this point I have 0 regrets on my purchase

If you made it this far...sorry there weren't more exciting pictures to break up the text wall. Hopefully it helped...and please follow up with questions where I wasn't clear or as additional questions came to mind!

That's great info and I'm happy that I was running a close path to what you said in your text. I will continue to read and watch I know I wont buy until after holidays, too many projects going to start another at this time. Only question is that I see I jumped to your shop thread, my bad, do you want to move to your 3D thread to continue. Thank you for the insight.

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