Adding fasteners to 3D printed parts

Working in the machine shop the other day, curiosity got the better of me.  I was thinking about how to add fasteners to my printed part, but with a minimal amount of work.  Fasteners can be drilled and tapped, Helicoil-ed, or ultrasonically welded into ABS parts.  If the thread is large enough, it can even be modeled on the part directly, but what about smaller fasteners? 

Typically, to create a threaded hole on a 3D printed part, we'd need to add a few operations with the mill or the drill press.   First, the part and the hole position would need to be located precisely, straight and true (“tramming and indicating”).  Second, three tools need to be used – a center drill for the pilot hole, a tap drill of a specific size, and finally a tap.  All these tools need to be used in the exact same location in order to generate an accurate screw thread profile.  This is standard operating procedure in the machine shop.  However, you're probably using a 3D printer to avoid the machine shop in the first place.  You can save a few steps by inserting the tap drill size directly into the 3D print, with impressive results.

By printing parts with the tap holes already modeled in, we can save several steps in the process, eliminate the need of using a separate machine and several extra operations.  We can hand-tap the precisely located holes. 

After tapping, the 4-40 thread felt a little loose, indicating an oversize minor diameter. To remedy that, the tap hole can be made slightly undersize.  The slop wasn't so dramatic of a concern on the larger threads (the largest here being 1/2-13).  Loose fit wasn't a problem at all with the two tapered threads, 1/8-27 NPT and 1/4-18 NPT. 


By printing the tap holes directly into the part, we avoid several steps typically needed to insert threads into 3d printed parts, only needing threading.  All of these threads were created with a hand tap, and as long as the tap goes in relatively straight, it produces quality threads without all the usual effort.


BONUS ROUND - captive nuts

Don't have any taps handy?  Well, if your printer can handle the geometry, I suggest using a "captive nut" like so. 

Measure the size of your fastener, and add a little bit of tolerance to the hole size to accommodate any dimensional error (in this case, I added .005" to the size of this nut, which I believe is #8-32).  This allows the nut to slip in and out of the recess, but without any extra slop.  You may also want to consider a small interference fit, to make sure that the nut stays put when there's no bolt attached.   Be sure to add clearance in the through-hole, as well.  Also note the boss surrounding the nut - this is to add strength to the part.   For more information on fitment and tolerancing, I HIGHLY suggest you pick up a copy of Machinery's Handbook. 

If modeled correctly, using a calibrated printer, your results will be impressive. 

Where's Waldo-the-Datasheet?

Howdy gang,

Once in a while, an interesting, random project shows up at 23b's doorstep.  This week's project-du-jour is a rotary encoder / stepper motor drive.  Without getting too bogged down in the details, what we need to do here is read the position from an encoder, and then drive a stepper motor at 110% the speed of the encoder.  This is meant for pulling extruded vinyl out of a larger machine, while keeping an appropriate tension on the extrusion. 

The focus of this post isn't the extrusion puller itself, this is more about the quest I took to find out where the Mil Spec callouts were for this particular connector, so we can hook up test leads while we develop the rest of the project.

The first step was checking the product data sheet.  A "Sick Stegman DGS25 rotary encoder" yielded ample Google results, with the proper data sheet.  Cool, that was easy. 

Another bit of googling for the connector type lead me to the Digikey and Mouser website where it has the proper connector listed (I think), and it's nearly $20.  Screw that, I'll make something here at the shop (why else do we have all these tools?)  After the 3D printer was down for most of the summer due to my dumb ass putting ancient support material through the extruder, I find myself champing at the bit for every opportunity to make a customized, one off piece for any project in the general vicinity.  The printer is an incredibly useful tool, when it works. 

After examining the case a little better, there is confirmation on the physical connector that it is nearly the same part number, calling out CR3102E18-1P-1.  The numbering convention is essentially the same, but why the CR spec instead of MS? 

After a bit more smashing my face on the keyboard, I learn that the CR and MS specifications are essentially the same scheme.  CR spec came from Cannon Electronics in the 50's, and it looks like the Mil Spec connectors were developed a decade prior.  Perhaps there's some overlap?  Perhaps it's similar to the 7400 / 5400 families of ICs.

Checking Digikey for the part number, I find myself puzzled, as the part number only seems to be for the male receptacle of the plug.  What the hell is the mating part called?   After some more face-smashing and context-grokking, I find "Oh, it's a MS/CR3106-18-1, of course that was easy to figure out".  NOT!

Different Mil Spec, different connector callout.  I guess that makes sense. Now where the hell is the blueprint? 

Just looking for the -3102 or -3106 part number didn't yield anything incredibly fruitful at first.  I did find a few diagrams showing pin location, but nothing with dimensional values.  Should be no big deal, perhaps I can figure this out.  Time to break out the calipers and Solidworks. 

After getting to know my Stratasys 3D printer over the last few months, I know that it's for the most part dimensionally accurate (maybe a hair on the small side)  Sure, I could run calibrations until I'm blue in the face, but that won't help too much.  The printer operates in open loop mode, meaning that it doesn't get any positional feedback to make on-the-fly adjustments to the print head location.  Translation - even if I program something at 1.000" exactly, it may come out a tiny bit bigger (1.003") or smaller (.997"), depending on a few factors, mostly the positional tolerance of the machine itself.  I'm satisfied I can program this part to a tolerance that will be acceptable to fit.  Usually, I give loose-fitting portions a +/- .005" tolerance (depending on direction of interference).  Tight fits usually have a single sided tolerance of .002", and we have even successfully produced accurate interference fit parts. 

There's a neat feature in Solidworks where you can superimpose an image on top of your model, so you can draft features based on an imported image.  "Sketch Picture" is the command you'd use, and here's what I did.  I opened up a sketch on the back face of the nearly-finished connector plug, resized the image, and simply drafted new lines on top of the image until they matched.  Mostly.




One thing I've learned while using Solidworks over the last few years, combined on top of my experience fabricating and machining parts, is that if something doesn't look right, it probably isn't right.  With ample training, your brain can become a finely-tuned difference engine, instantly recognizing small changes in familiar objects, without needing to intellectualize what the change is.  The warning alarm becomes a subconscious manifestation screaming into your Neocortex.

These Mil Specifications are quite good about part fitment and mating.  Something immediately struck me as odd while drafting this using my image file.  According to the superimposed image, the holes aren't precisely centered on the face, nor are they parallel, or even exactly aligned with one another.  I didn't think of this as a huge problem, hoping that the generous amount of space around the pins would more than make up for any dimensional inaccuracies of my part.  Take a close look at the centerlines of the part, versus the centerlines of the circles.  It's all wonky and offset, which is what I should have expected using a JPG as a reference. 

 

I printed the part, eagerly burning a little bit of time for the print to complete.  After realizing I am surrounded by assholes, I returned to Mr. Printer, lovingly nestled in between Mr. Coffee and Mr. Compressor.  An excited, anticipatory removal from the machine only led to my disappointment.  In this case, close enough wasn't going to cut it.  The pins were offset too far, something was wrong with my design. 

Shit, it doesn't fit all the way

Dammit.  

you can see a few of the pins barely peeking out

Back to the good ol' drawing board.

So what went wrong?  A quick glance down the holes, and you can see that the pin spacing wasn't quite accurate enough to get us a decent fitment: the plug is jamming on the pin diameter.  Since I gave up on finding the exact dimensions early on, looks like I'll have to dig around on the internet to find the exact specifications for this particular connector.  More Googling. 

As it turns out, there isn't any one specific drawing on the 3106 connector.  Rather, it lives as a subset of the byzantine MIL-STD-1651,where there's a breakdown of all variety of round connectors.  266 pages of connectors, not ordered in any specific way.  Even when searching for the term "18-1", I got close, but not close enough.  Turns out, the X in 18-X gives a variation on the part, usually a rotational value for the pins, and there's umpteen different varieties of rotation, and not even with the same pin population!  

DAMMIT, this last one is close, but rotated 90* off. 

FINALLY, after manually scanning each page of the document (really only about 20 minutes of work), I found the correct specification. 

Strange, even though the pin population is the same as the last spec (18-24), the spacing is just off enough where it wouldn't match, even with a rotation.  Time to update the model with the correct information. 

how about a googly eyed connector?

Close wasn't close enough.  The change in hole location seems to reflect the skew in my first part.  My brain processed the resulting linear offset accurately without needing a measurement.  Now if only my brain could be calibrated for more useful things, like where I leave my keys every day...

A quick revision to the hole locations, and off to the printer.  But wait, things can't be that easy, can they?  Of course not. 

One of the complications I've run across with the 3D printer is incomplete layer slicing. 

Just like reading toolpaths for CNC machines, when slicing a 3D model in Catalyst, it gives a preview of the toolpath before the print, which provides a quick and robust method to diagnose the print quality before finding out the hard way.  Look for erratic motions in the toolpath, or strange insertions of support material.  In this case, we saw both. 

STL file imported into Catalyst

The red lines indicate model material, and the white lines indicate soluble support, typically inserted if there are any overhangs to the model, building up a support network from the bottom up.  Since there weren't any programmed overhangs, why is there support here?

After slicing.  Notice the support material in the middle of the part.  This is bad, something is wrong.

Top view of the same part.  What's with the hole contours? 

Checking out the top view of the toolpath, you can see how some of the holes are artifacted and incongruous with the contours we programmed in Solidworks.  What happened? 

My first clue is the hole size, and the spacing that requires.  These features are getting pretty small, and the spacing between the holes is getting thinner and thinner.  Even though the finest level of print is .010" layers, that doesn't mean that the plastic extrusion is exactly that size.  The extrusion head prints layers that are substantially thicker than they are tall, nearly .020" wide.  This can cause problems for interpreting smaller dimensions, as well as the fill pattern between thin walls.  In this case, Catalyst changed the programmed contours of the circles to now have a bit of cutaway, probably to accommodate for the XY size of the extruded plastic.  While these changes would be minute, since we're dealing with small parts and tight tolerances in the first place, allowing these changes to be made by Catalyst would at best produce a part that doesn't fit correctly.  At worst, it may have messed up the entire print by inserting support material where none is intended - I've even seen whole layers of support inserted in the middle of a print, effectively ruining the model half-way through.

After a few revisions to the part (making the hole size slightly smaller, so the wall thickness can be larger), I was able to find some dimensional values that would happily process in Catalyst.

Much better, Aziz

Notice the holes look right, now?

 So how did the part turn out, after all this trouble?  Perfectly. 

This is a much more satisfying result.  The printed parts fit precisely, as long as they were designed precisely.  Not everything works on the first shot, but success the second time around isn't a bad consolation prize.   

LOSING FOCUS: Practical experiments in visual perception

I made a presentation at B-Sides OC on October 4th.

My topic was visual perception hacking, and how to manipulate your cognitive filters to help you use more visual data. I included several experiments and a handout.

Here are the slides and handout from the presentation.

Losing Focus Presentation Slides
Losing Focus Presentation Handout
Speaking Notes

Waterproof storage for small stuff

Spare AAA batteries kept safe until needed 

Boba straws are available in black, clear, and neon colors, up to a foot long and 1/2 inch in diameter.

They are useful to package any number of small items, including things like the following:

matchestoothpicks
sewing kit
salt or pepper
chili powder
SD cards (red=full cards, blue=blank)
ibuprofen, vitamins, or meds
AAA batteries
watch batteries
lockpicks
escape plans, one-time pads, maps, a hundred dollar bill
a tiny USB drive
a pinch of dirt from a magical castle
a small transmitter or zigbee radioan RFID tag or tiny geocache
Throwies -- UV LEDs, a battery, and a magnet inside a neon straw
spare pencil leads
jeweler's saw blades
X-acto or craft knife blades
baking soda -- used with super glue to fill gaps
hard drive screws, cable tied to the inside of the case 
sharp tools or drill bits
 
HOW TO DO IT:

- Go out for boba and swipe some extra straws , or pay $2 for dozens at your local asian market or online.

- Put aluminum foil over and under the straw to prevent it from sticking.

- Press the straw end with your heating tool, soldering iron, or whatever, moving around until the plastic fuses completely shut.

- You only need to seal once straight across, but more is better.

Improvise if no soldering iron is handy:

  - Fold the end over and insert it into a short piece of straw or a pen cap
  - Close it with the smallest size of binder clip
  - Iron it shut with a light bulb, hot butterknife, or the lid of a Zippo lighter 
  - Melt it with a clothes iron or hair curling iron
  - Heat (or burn) the end with a lighter and squash it flat under a water glass
  - When melting the end, use foil or wax paper to avoid sticking or burning.

You could get all fancy-pants with it too:

  - Make the melted tab longer, and punch a hole for an eyelet, rope, cable tie, keyring, or carabiner to pass through
  - Add a rare earth magnet and stick it to a fridge or toolbox
  - Make a laminated nametag or cable label by ironing in a strip of paper

RFID Blocking Wallet

I whipped this little project up today as a 

proof of concept for an RFID blocking wallet. 

It's simple but effective at preventing RFID reading of your valued card.

Modifying a folding lock pick set

[TLDR] I made a modification to my RCS Tools folding lock pick set to help retain the tension wrench, which could easily pop free without warning. [/TLDR]

The tension wrench can pop out of its storage slot with very little squeezing force. This is further facilitated by the extra-large nail nick, which provides an easy spot for the wrench to be squeezed while on your keys, or inside a pocket or bag. The wrench might also be released by a key or other object levering it out from inside the nail nick.   This modification provides extremely secure retention for the tension wrench, while still allowing easy removal.

 

The edge of the tension wrench is visible along the bottom of the tool.  

A small rivet (visible along the leftmost edge of the tool) was added. A desktop drill press with a #62 (.036) drill bit was used to make the hole.

(This hi-speed rotary tool was too fast by far for drilling such a tiny hole in plastic, but our floor drill press would pretzel such a tiny bit, except that carbide bits would actually shrapnel and fly across the shop, as opposed to actually pretzeling.)

I created the pin from a piece of aluminum wire by cutting it to rough length.  I used short nosed, smooth-jawed pliers to hold the wire so it was perpendicular to the edge of the plier jaw -- this helps me to not sand my pliers. I shortened the wire to just a hair too long, and squared the ends off. 

I rolled the wire between iron plates to straighten it out -- next time I'll do this step before sanding the wire down, since the wire was so short it kept going sideways. 

I used a digital micrometer to get the diameter of the wire, and selected the right bit for the Dremel press. This was maybe .001 under the diameter of the pin for a snug fit.

The pin is visible at the left end of the tension wrench, 

right inside the channel and next to the red handle.

I added the pin where it won't interfere with pick rotation or use, and it seems to have enough plastic around it to avoid breaking out.  The wire bent slightly when i tapped it down flush with a steel hammer because i didn't give it enough support in the middle, but it didn't crack or damage the case and it retains the wrench properly, so I won't rework it just for a blemish defect.

(EDIT: I ended up finding a dowel pin in my junk box and re-drilled, inserting the nice steel pin in place of the nasty old aluminum one. Happily ever after.)

The wrench is definitely retained securely and will only come out when it's needed.

Welding experiment success!

A few weeks ago, I posted to the mailing list for a Welding / Fabrication class, and we had a few people show up to try their hand in making a new addition to the shop, a custom-built shelf for our welding bench.  The old shelf is pretty sad, if you've ever had a chance to meet it. 

It's falling out of the wall

I mean, just look at the thing.  While it served its purpose without complaint for many years, it's Ikea roots definitely show through.  The shelf has perpetually had a 5° slant as long as I've known it, so it was certainly never confidence inspiring enough to do pullups on. 

We're always in a state of flux at the shop, making small improvements here and there as we see necessary.  It all adds up after a while, and people who haven't visited the shop in six months are usually stunned to see how much things have de-Seussified in the interim (in fact, that happened just now when RJ walked in, haha).  Little upgrades like this make all the difference in the world, when you were used to staring at the eyesores like this one.

Looking into the Tested videos shown on the prior posts, there is a neat video on Youtube of Jamie Hyneman's (of Mythbusters fame) workshop, specifically on the custom racks they have holding their boxes of equipment in M5 Industries.  He says, "We buy tubing by the ton".  Well, we just so happened to have a bunch of tubing scraps at the shop just begging to be put to use.  Off to Solidworks!

I quickly drew a few 3d sketches, and then used the Weldments tool to turn my sketch into a solid model.  After a grand total of maybe five minutes from concept to finished model,  then I could use to generate engineering prints, Bill of Materials, mass information like weight and volume, even simulations for deformation and drop testing if we really needed that.  While having all that strength is useful if you want it, what is most important to me is ease-of-use, and how intuitively I can learn new concepts in software.  I went through the weldments tutorial once, beyond that, this is actually my first real-life Solidworks weldments project.  

This was entirely modeled up in a virtual environment before I needed to make a single cut, so when I made a few revisions to the size of the tubes in the sketch, the rest of the model updates instantaneously (along with any other associated information, like the prints and BOM).  Not having massive experience with welding, ANSI-complete prints, nor manufacturing management, what I found this tool was most useful for, was the ability it gave me to convey the important information about this structure to my students taking the welding class.  I simply handed them a set of blueprints with a cut list, and told them "All the relevant information is on this paper." 

They delivered.  I made the first two cuts and welds, the rest was up to the new guys. 

The Noobs followed what few instructions there were, the hardest part being getting a "feel" for welding.  It's something that can't be taught out of a book, rather, it's an art that needs to be practiced.  The biggest problem we encountered was heat management, understanding what's changing in the system when you start welding, and how the molten puddle of steel needs to be manipulated through the welding process. 

Welding steel is not much different than a hot glue gun and popsicle sticks, except it's much much hotter, and it'll melt the popsicle sticks away beneath the glue. With a few basic concepts like that in mind, as long as you're considering what's happening to the heat in the weld, then your results will show a little bit of insight to the process.  Mild steel is a moderate heat conductor, it uses a mid-range heat value (between stainless and aluminum), so it's relatively simple to work with.  Stainless, while it conducts heat much less than mild steel (requiring less heat overall), also has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion, so if you don't carefully tack down your weld in several spots, a whole piece of stainless will bend and bow as you weld it along the entire length, ending up distorted and warped.  Aluminum is another beast altogether, and not recommended for beginners to fabricate with.

 

Tack welds holding everything together

This whole project was built from scrap and leftovers laying around the shop.  If you had to go to the metal supply store and source all of this material on your own, I'd be surprised if you'd be $20 deep into it.  The worst part of this whole project is dealing with that expanded metal grating.  While it's wonderful for filling in open areas like the tops and bottoms of this shelf, it's pretty nasty stuff to handle.  Even the "flattened" grades of expanded metal are covered in lots of tiny sharp edges that will cut the shit out of you the second you turn your attention away from it.  I have to find out these things the hard way.  That's why I order $100 of material at a time, so Benner Metals will deliver the order to me instead. Twenty foot lengths of steel aren't too easy to negotiate, let the flatbed deal with it. 

The mounts had to be reoriented 90° from my initial drawing, mostly due to my lack of considering how much space the grating was going to take up.  Since this part is being mounted to a block wall, I had to get some 3" sleeve anchors and a carbide tipped masonry bit to drill the pilot holes.  The mounts started life as a small leftover piece of rectangular tube from Flea's jeep bumper project, which I quartered into nice flanges and drilled a .400" hole through them.  Once tacked on, I laid a weld bead on the butt joint between the mount and the frame.  I could have filled it in better, but I think a weld of that size would probably exceed the design limits of this part.

Dykem is also known as layout fluid.  I use this all the time to mark parts based on a measurement, to see where I need to make my cuts or holes.  After measuring the parts using calipers, then I gently scribed the intersections of the horizontal and vertical midlines to find a rough center for the mount holes.  Dykem is easily washed away once you're done, using acetone.  In a pinch, Sharpie marker works fairly well, just remember that Sharpies are ruined once you put some oil on the tip, and you can pretty much count on these steel parts being slathered in a light coat of oil to prevent oxidation.  Acetone, you'll come to learn, will be your best friend when working with metal, except when you have even the slightest cut in your skin, which the acetone will seep into and light up any exposed nerve ending with a nice bright searing pain, not much different than squeezing lemon juice all over your broken cuticles. 

The end result - total amateurs (including myself) successfully made a beautiful, custom shelf for the shop.  It's way overbuilt (the way I like it), cheap, and user-servicable.  Want to add some hooks?  Weld them on.  Want more shelves?  Weld them on.  Speaking of hooks, remind me sometime to tell you the story about why this wall is red... 

The top crate weighs +60 lbs.  I'd say this is pretty solid.

My fourth attempt at 3G (vertical up) welds

the finished result - pullup tested. 

Building the LED Pixel Box Part 2: LED Selection

Because the original Tested video had no details of what was built besides what was shown/talked about in the video, I had a few questions about what exactly was used. 

One of the first questions I had when I saw the video was what size box was that and what LED strips did they use.  There are tons of different types of RGB LED strips out there of varying densities and control types, and I have played with a few of them.  So I went about figuring out what strips they used for the box 

The first step is to determine how big to make the box. Taking a look at the finished box in the video I can see the box is square, and it goes from about the armpit to mid/lower belly of the hosts.

Judging by this dimension, and estimating based on the humans I have available. I would say this about 12 inches. This sounds good to me if I am going to apply some DFM principles in this build- lots of raw materials come in multiples of 12 inches (wood, acrylic sheets, lighting diffusion paper etc) so making this box 12" square should make acquiring materials easier, and with less wasted scrap in the end.

Now, to determine what RGB LED strips to use. Adafruit sells many different options available, and sells LED strips at a decent price products are shipped from the US. They also provide very nice product pages with good information and links to good sample code. This isn't about recommending one vendor vs. another, but they are a good starting point with a good reputation, so they are worth consideration. 

The 60 LEDs per pixel and 30 LEDs per pixel "neopixel" strips look nice, but they are not something Ican use. I want to use a RaspberryPi to control these strips, and according to Adafruit's product page:

The controller chip ... protocol used is very very timing-specific and can only be controlled by microcontrollers with highly repeatable 100nS timing precision ... t it will not work with the Raspberry Pi

Well, there goes that option, so now I move on to LED strips which are controlled by external (not on LED) controllers, such as the HL1606/LPD8806/WS2801  as I see on the 32 LEDs per pixel strips. I used a strip like this on the Mobile Club tabletop and strips like these are very common and easy to find on hobbyist sites such as Sparkfun  and Adafruit, as well as ebay and alibaba/aliexpress. There are many different types of strips, but the main variations are number of LEDs per meter, and the level of addressablilty for the LEDs on the strip (each LED can be a different color, a certain amount of LEDs have to the same color, or all LEDs have to be the same color).  For this project, I will need to make sure I can address each single pixel and make it a different color.  You will see LEDs that are "3528" and "5050" The 5050's are brighter. Look for those.

I need to determine the proper LED density.  I know I want the Pixel box to be 12 inches square and be 16 LEDs by 16 LEDs. So 12 inches per 16 LEDs leads us to 12/16 = 0.75, so I know I will want a LED every 0.75 inches.

A strip with 32 LEDs per meter would be an LED every 0.03125 meters, this translates to every 1.23" this is too far apart.


A strip with 60 LEDs per meterwould be an LED every 0.01667 meters, this translates to every 0.65" this is close, but not perfect, and I would need to find a source for individually addressable

But, in looking around online I found LED strips at 52 LEDs per meter- that is an LED ever 0.0192 meters, which is about 0.75" - Perfect! These strips use the LPD8806 controller which will allow us to address each LED individually. I found these strips by search for LPD8806 LED strip and found good sources for these on both alibaba/aliexpress and ebay. In the end, I chose to purchase from an ebay seller based in the US, so I could get my LEDs delivered fast and get a start on the project by the weekend.

In comparing the ebay product shot with the strips shown in the video, they look identical (note the shot in the video is missing the silicone jacket used for waterproofing.

So, it looks like I found the strips they used in the video, and the numbers/sizing adds up, so I feel confident going forward with these parts.

The pixel box will have 256 pixels (16x16) so at 52 LEDs per meter, so we need 5 meters of this strip.

The RaspberryPi and LED strips have been ordered and I am waiting for them to be deliveryed. The next steps are to look into how deep the box should be and how to best diffuse the light.

Building the LED Pixel Box Part 1: Inspiration

Recently, tested.com posted a video of a LED Pixel box to their web page

This seemed pretty neat and up my alley in terms of skills. It uses RGB LED strips diffused trough a translucent layer of film much like we did for the glowing LED tabletop of the Mobile Club.

It also is similar to a project that uses of RGB LEDs as individual pixels - the Rave Rover:

I know there have been many different projects like this, but I think the time has come to make our own, and seeing the Tested video was the inspiration to start to build.

So, my goal over the next couple weeks is to build a Pixel Box like the one seen in the tested video.

Stay tuned for more posts as I document the build process!

First step.. I'm not sure if I like the name "Pixel Box" for this.... Does anyone have a suggestion for a better name?

Shop tip for the day - threading hard to reach bolts

Howdy y'all,

Playing around at the shop today, I had to utilize a trick which has come handy many times, but it took me many years to even come across this trick.  This may be elementary for some of us, but I still think it's pretty nifty.

 Mounting the new control box for the CNC mill today, I had a few hard-to-reach bolts on the case which needed a nut on the other side.  I didn't have room to hold it with my fingertips, and the nut would fall out of the bottom of the wrench if I couldn't get my hand in there.

A simple piece of electrical tape can help retain the nut on the wrench just enough to position it, and then let go once it's started to thread.  Take a small piece of tape and place it STICKY SIDE DOWN on the wrench.  The tape is the perfect size to take up the gaps in the flats on the wrench and gently grab hold onto the nut.

Press the nut into the tape, down into the hex flats, and your nut will be retained nicely without falling out.

And our team of talented artists (i.e. Danozano) produced this exciting combination artist's conception and circus poster:

 

23b Shop Redbull Creation 2013

Redbull Challenge 2013 - sneak preview

Our qualifier entry for the 2013 Redbull Creation contest is due in a few days! We've been soldering, machining, welding, and coding all week.

Check out these pics:

Hint: it flies, and the whole thing weighs about 50lbs.


Arclight

Custom burger tools and putting the pieces together

Here's another interesting project from this week.  We had a small business owner approach us for help building a custom burger tool for his gourmet food truck, Burger Monster.

He drew the design up in Google Sketchup, had the main piece 3D printed, and then needed to make the stainless steel parts.

We sent him over to Schorr Metals for the some scrap, food-grade stainless steel, and McFadden-Dale Industrial Hardware for the rest. After cutting out the 6" diameter burger press, TIG welding a stainless, 3/8" bolt to it, and lathe turning a 12mm-to-3/8" nylon bushing, we have this:

 

 

The Burger Monster Press, version 1.0

For reference, 1/8" stainless is easy to cut out on a horizontal band saw, then smooth out with files and grinder. This is also easy to TIG weld.

The 3D print you see here is easily within our capability range at the shop. A better model would have had less polygon artifacts, but this one works fine.


Arclight

Holy ABS plastic, Batman!

Look what showed up in the mail this morning...

I think this means we need to do more 3d printing.
Come on by May 5th at Noon, and we'll have a class on how to use this fine tool.

-C