Tag: 3dprinting

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Corners for (Hot) Glass

My uncle is a pretty awesome guy, and every year or so he says to me “Hey Maker! I got something for you to make!” and then has a request that is typically some sort of home improvement project. The last one I wrote about was cutting down some fan blades. He never seems to want a MIDI controller… that’s sort of my area of expertise! Anyway, this time he wanted something to hold four pieces of glass upright to put around his fire pit. Fire what now?

I explained to him that I wasn’t really a metal fabrication guy, and said I’d think about it. I though of using some pieces of 80/20 extrusion since it has slots, and using set screws to hold the glass in place. I did one test and did not like this idea. I asked him how hot the glass gets and he said it probably wouldn’t get too hot, as it was more of a wind barrier thing than a full-on heat guard, so I figured I would 3D print them with plastic.

I designed some short test pieces in OpenSCAD, then did some full size prints once I had the pressure fit just right. Oh, I also learned quickly to wear glove when handling glass. I cut up my hands a few times at first. (Nothing bad, just little slices here and there.)

I delivered the 3D printed parts to him and showed him how to assemble things. (Telling him to wear gloves!) I also gave him a spare/fresh set of corners, since the slotting in and out of the glass may have loosened the pressure fit a bit. (There are some small “friction bumps” on the inside of the channel that will get worn down after enough slotting in and out.)

I’m interested in hearing about how they perform. I could always reprint them in PETG or maybe even ABS or ASA if needed, since those should hold up to the heat a bit better than PLA will.

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Pin Bender (or Unbender)

I often use these rotary encoders that come with right angle pin headers, but I don’t want right angle pin headers, I want straight pin headers. So I designed a small tool to fix that.

The Pin Bender (or Unbender) is useful for straightening (or “unbending”) header pins. Got some 90 degree pins you wish were 0 degree pins? We gotcha covered.

Slide the Pin Bender onto the pins, and then unbend! (Or straighten. I don’t know… you choose the terminology you like best.)

Now bend it… like somebody who bends things. (Bender!?) Now you got some straight pins. Or zero degree pins. Whatever.

Pretty cool, right? Did I mention it’s parametric? Well, it is. You want to edit the OpenSCAD file to make one for 8 pins? Go for it. 6 Pins? Okay. 13 pins. I guess so. All yours.

You can get the STL files and .scad file from Printables.com – Pin Bender. Print ’em if you need ’em!

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The (In Progress) Tool Holder

It’s been a while since I posted about The (Old) Tool Holder but I did make some progress… Twice! I worked on the holders for wire cutters and wire strippers and made some progress.

I was mostly pleased with the wire stripper holder, though I can see a few improvements to do next time…

I do like that I can reorder the tools if needed. That was one of the main ideas of using the dovetail connections…

This version lasted about a day or two. I got annoyed by the holder for the wire cutters and made a change to the model…

And then I printed another one. Oh, yeah, I did end up changing the filament so we get a nice Prusa golden color this time!

The small modification help keep the wire cutters closed and they sit better in the holder. With the old wooden version I just sort of hacked at the wood so I could jam the cutters in and they would hold in place and hold shut. With modeling something it’s a bit different, but we’re getting there!

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The (Old) Tool Holder

Tool Holder

Back in February I got sick of the tools I use most at my soldering desk just lying in a pile and decided to do something about it. I grabbed a block of wood and started drilling holes so I could place tools into it standing straight up. This would make them easy to grab and hopefully easy to put back… in the same place each time. The block of wood has worked well enough, but more than once I’ve wanted to change the order of the tools, and I can’t easily do that since each hole is customized for the tool it holds.

It was also a fun time creating the holes for the wire cutters and wire strippers since the holes are sort of oblong. I actually did pretty good for freestyle drilling on those. At the time I also imagined a modular system for this, and a month later I found a dovetail library for OpenSCAD and started messing around with it. I could not get a good dovetail joint to print though, so I gave up for a while.

Tool Holder

A few more months passed (hey, I got busy) and instead of printing the dovetails on the old Maker Select Plus I tried on the Prusa MINI+ and wow, things fit perfectly! Well, after a few tests prints to determine the exact Teeth_clearance to use. Once I had that, Bob was my uncle!

Tool Holder

Here’s the first successful attempt. The pieces fit together well. Not super-tight, but not too loose. A small strip of tape on the bottom of the blocks would work well to hold them all together as one piece, with the ability to easily take apart and reconfigure. (The first dovetail attempts required a hammer to assemble and could not be disassembled!)

I’m still considering this prototyping, and I may tweak things a bit more before the final version… When I have something final I’ll post it here. My first thought on this version is to make the blocks a little smaller so the tools are spaced together a bit tighter. This should save a bit of desk space as well.

Tool Holder

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Hygrometer Filament Roll Holder

I recently got a Sunlu Filament Dryer Box and I’ve seen a few people mention that putting a hygrometer inside of it (and another on the outside) can give you a good idea of how much it lowers the humidity. Rather than just sticking it inside the top of the clear cover I decided to make things more complicated and put the hygrometer in the center of the spool so it could spin around and I could practice reading things upside down.

Note that every roll of filament from every manufacturer may have a different spool hole diameter. In fact, even the same damn roll of filament may have different diameter holes on each side! Don’t bother printing this for a snug fit, just make it too small and add some tape either on the body of the print or on the lip to hold it to the spool. The spool is slowly spinning around so it’s not like huge forces will send it flying out into space.

You can get the STL and .scad file from Printables.com – Hygrometer Filament Roll Holder. Print it if you need it!