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I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

formlabs.com

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Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#11

Post by rtkwe »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #9

Ugh, what's with these obnoxious buttons? https://sr.ht/S3w1.png I'm so tired of endless barages of SUB TO OUR NEWSLETTER and LIKE US ON FB and TWEET THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PLEASE on every goddamn website.

http://imgur.com/a/O10RH

Looks fine and unobtrusive on Chrome. Seems like your browser is rendering things weird, what are you using?

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#12

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

rtkwe wrote: post #11
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #9

Ugh, what's with these obnoxious buttons? https://sr.ht/S3w1.png I'm so tired of endless barages of SUB TO OUR NEWSLETTER and LIKE US ON FB and TWEET THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PLEASE on every goddamn website.

http://imgur.com/a/O10RH Looks fine and unobtrusive on Chrome. Seems like your browser is rendering things weird, what are you using?

qutebrowser, which is based on QtWebEngine (Chrome).

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#13

Post by Animats »

ljcrabs wrote: post #10

Using physics simulation to pack parts more closely together is such a good idea. Nothing like a little shake to get things packed together.

This works well only if your manufacturing process produces an isotropic material. SLA sort of does; it's equally strong in all directions, but there is a layering axis. Filament-welding printers don't have that property. The material is much weaker in the layering axis, because the welding between layers isn't very good. Things have improved somewhat, but strength of things made from ABS filament is much lower than the same part made by injection-molding ABS.

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#14

Post by mirimir »

rtkwe wrote: post #11
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #9

Ugh, what's with these obnoxious buttons? https://sr.ht/S3w1.png I'm so tired of endless barages of SUB TO OUR NEWSLETTER and LIKE US ON FB and TWEET THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PLEASE on every goddamn website.

http://imgur.com/a/O10RH Looks fine and unobtrusive on Chrome. Seems like your browser is rendering things weird, what are you using?

In Firefox, if you allow some JS, they're quite narrow. But they're still there, on the left.

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#15

Post by jacquesm »

That part packing using a physics simulation is genius, very clever. I did some nesting of fabric long ago, never even thought about doing it using a physics simulation. Lovely stuff. Of course in nesting fabric there are a lot of constraints due to weave orientation (especially in that application, sails for boats), presumably this 3D printed stuff gives you at least a bit more freedom though I would not expect it to be equally strong in all directions. Even so, the parts they made are already challenging that because of the connectors protruding from all angles so presumably the re-orientation due to packing will not make the parts much less strong.

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#16

Post by jacquesm »

Animats wrote: post #13
ljcrabs wrote: post #10

Using physics simulation to pack parts more closely together is such a good idea. Nothing like a little shake to get things packed together.

This works well only if your manufacturing process produces an isotropic material. SLA sort of does; it's equally strong in all directions, but there is a layering axis. Filament-welding printers don't have that property. The material is much weaker in the layering axis, because the welding between layers isn't very good. Things have improved somewhat, but strength of things made from ABS filament is much lower than…

Isn't that offset in this case because those connectors have elements protruding at many angles? You'd be weakening some and strengthening others, unless they were designed with a particular print orientation in mind.

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#17

Post by donquichotte »

danwinkler wrote: post #7

I made something similar a while back! Took somewhere between 150-200 hours to print 60 connectors. I had to design the parts with a flat side so I could print them in PLA. https://danwink.com/blog/2016/06/19/dowel-structure-with-3d-...

Nice! I also loved your tool cart. https://danwink.com/blog/2016/09/17/toolcart-with-3d-printed...

Re: I printed a huge batch of connectors to make a 15ft structure out of plastic

#19

Post by dezork »

jacquesm wrote: post #15

That part packing using a physics simulation is genius, very clever. I did some nesting of fabric long ago, never even thought about doing it using a physics simulation. Lovely stuff. Of course in nesting fabric there are a lot of constraints due to weave orientation (especially in that application, sails for boats), presumably this 3D printed stuff gives you at least a bit more freedom though I would not expect it t…

SLS parts aren't substantially weaker in the Z direction like your typical FDM parts are.
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