Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff

Square holes on aluminum.... how do you do it?

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beanflying:

--- Quote from: james_s on October 12, 2019, 11:16:40 pm ---I still struggle to find an example of something that is 3D printed (on a hobby level machine) that doesn't look like crap. Milling out of acrylic can be ok but laser cut ABS is even nicer for panels IMO. I tend to build a fair number of one-offs though so hand machining aluminum panels is something I do fairly often. In the time it would take to draw it up in CAD I could just make the panel and when I only need one there's no advantage to having the CAD file.

--- End quote ---

Surface finish on 3D Printing can be very good! This box picked at random came off my CR-10S over a year ago if I had needed holes added in the lid then a tweak to the Cad file and print another.  Maybe not quite up to injection molded plastics but given the customization available for a low cost it is the most affordable prototyping or small production run option available.

Time you had another look at 3D printing and where it now is not where it was 3+ years ago!

james_s:
That's quite impressive, significantly better than what my friends with 3D printers generally achieve. One of my friends has printed up a lot of toys for his kid and a few marginally useful odds & ends, but I haven't been impressed by the amount of time spent screwing with the thing vs useful objects printed. I have high hopes for the future of 3D printing but so far the hobby machines have largely failed to live up to the hype.

beanflying:
Without checking that zippy box is after 3 or 4 months of use with the printer still dead stock. It is printed on bare uber clean glass with no bed adhesive of any sort.

I actually heaped some poo on printers only six months prior to buying my first one after having a long chat to another EE. Came home watched some videos and decided they were a simple way to get a result for not to many $ and that I was wrong about them.

That said there is some jobs that are better done if you have access to them done by alternate means. Big flat slabs of fascia are a bad use for 3D Printing time so break out the Laser ;) The Ply is just a roughy and I will get a final one done in Aluminium given the proximity to heat, the other couple are actually going on the Laser with one being a 3d printed Laser hybrid.

Use what gear you have or can afford and use it to it's best abilities is the point I guess.

Bassman59:

--- Quote from: beanflying on October 13, 2019, 12:20:41 am ---
--- Quote from: james_s on October 12, 2019, 11:16:40 pm ---I still struggle to find an example of something that is 3D printed (on a hobby level machine) that doesn't look like crap. Milling out of acrylic can be ok but laser cut ABS is even nicer for panels IMO. I tend to build a fair number of one-offs though so hand machining aluminum panels is something I do fairly often. In the time it would take to draw it up in CAD I could just make the panel and when I only need one there's no advantage to having the CAD file.

--- End quote ---

Surface finish on 3D Printing can be very good! This box picked at random came off my CR-10S over a year ago if I had needed holes added in the lid then a tweak to the Cad file and print another.  Maybe not quite up to injection molded plastics but given the customization available for a low cost it is the most affordable prototyping or small production run option available.

Time you had another look at 3D printing and where it now is not where it was 3+ years ago!

--- End quote ---

For a recent project built into one of the Hammond extrusions, I 3D printed the front and back panels using the Makerbot 2 we have in the office. The print quality is "meh."

Then there's the issue of labeling the jacks and buttons and such. For my first go-round I thought: decals!  I took DXFs of the panels and added text to them and printed them out on a variety of sticker material, like all-weather shipping labels and such. It turns out that cutting out the holes with an X-Acto knife is no fun. So I bought a Cricut machine, which (despite the shitty software) does a pretty great job of printing the text and cutting out the holes on vinyl or sticky paper.

Then I discovered that nothing sticks to the 3D printer plastic. I tried prepping the surface with spray-paint primer and that helped but it's not as permanent as I'd like. I tried the 3M "90" spray adhesive and wow, that stuff is aggressive and not really easily controlled. Next up was another spray adhesive, E6000, which when combined with weighted clamping seems to be almost reasonable.

If anyone has any ideas about adhesives that stick to 3D printed plastic and that are relatively easy to handle (such as a roll-on instead of a spray), I'm all ears!

SiliconWizard:
Sanding first?

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