Best Way to Re-Create an Amphorphous Blob

[rwanttaja]

I need to design a part of this shape in Solidworks.
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/lewis.jpg

I drew it in Canvas, so it it dimensioned and can be output in various other formats. But I need it in Solidworks to go with other features.

[edit: PRECISE accuracy is not important...nothing attaches to the edges]

What would be the best way to implement this?

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

To answer my own question, it looks like import as DXF seems to work....

Ron Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

I guess "vote Republican" wasn't the answer you were looking for...

[rwanttaja]

Import worked fine. Biggest problem is that it's too long for the 3D printer, and I had to split it into two pieces.

Fun little quarantine project....learning a lot about Solidworks.
http://www.wanttaja.com/plate.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

[Jeffrey Meyer]

Looks great :) Problem is I have absolutely no idea what it is or what it does :eek:. One way or the other I'm sure it'll take an honorable place in the upcoming International Amorphous Blob Competition that has been, due to the COVID-19 problem, restricted to 3 participants.
Nice oak table.

[vondeliusc]

Ron-
Came out very nice. What is it and what printer and what filament-very clean print.
-Christian

[rwanttaja]

Looks great :) Problem is I have absolutely no idea what it is or what it does :eek:. One way or the other I'm sure it'll take an honorable place in the upcoming International Amorphous Blob Competition that has been, due to the COVID-19 problem, restricted to 3 participants.

Upper receiver for a WWI Lewis Gun Mark III (non-firing, of course). You aren't the ONLY one bored by COVID-19 restrictions. You can see the amorphous bit on this photo of an actual gun. The ammunition drum goes atop it.

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/303Lewis.jpg
The photo is of a Mark I Infantry Lewis; the Mark III was the final aircraft version. Curiously, more were made in WWII than in the first World War (albeit many were made from leftover parts).

For me, as ever, the fun part is the research. Learned a heck of a lot about the Lewis Gun; gave a presentation on it to my EAA Chapter. George Lucas even had Storm Troopers carrying them in the "Star Wars" movies.

Nice oak table.
Thanks! It's my computer desk; I built it from scratch, about 15 years ago. Lots of drawers, nooks, and crannies for storing things, and built-in 120 VAC power, USB network, and Ethernet. Ends up in the background on a lot of my photos of small parts and whatnot.


Ron-
Came out very nice. What is it and what printer and what filament-very clean print.
-Christian

Dremel 3D20 printer, PLA filament, sliced using the Dremel Digilab tool set to high quality (0.1 mm resolution). The printer was surprise Christmas gift from my wife in 2018; had never considered getting one (she apparently found it for about half the current price). Pretty easy to use, and compact enough that could fit it into my cluttered home office. Solidworks directly outputs the .3mf files the Dremel slicer uses... save from SW, open Digilab, load the file, then position it on the build platform. I don't have the printer connected to the network; it has the capability to read from a flash card, and I just sneakernet the files over.

Use it to build a replica of a WWII reflecting gunsight, an adjustable register control for an odd-sized heat duct in my house, a replica Air Force survival knife (to be used in designing a holder for the aircraft), and an enclosure for an impedance matcher to use an aircraft headset on my panel-mounted Icom.

Biggest issue has been support for overhanging elements of parts. Imagine printing a bolt with the head up...the underside of the head is hanging in space, and the printer has to exude the hot plastic onto the build surface. So the Digilab slicer will add light supports if desired.

However, these can be difficult to strip away afterwards. The ability to remove them is oddly variable. Printed one part, and they just cleanly broke away. Printed a very slightly modified version, and I'm scraping it with a chisel and filing it to eliminate the last bit of the supports.

The other factor is the time element when printing. The printer isn't fast! The "Amorphous blob" took, all told, about sixteen hours. Kind of a pain when it ran out of filament ~8 hours into it. I had it running overnight, and came in the next morning to see the object half-done with the printer still printing in the air an inch above it (there's no sensor that shuts it off when the filament's out).

Ron Wanttaja

[CHICAGORANDY]

"
Best Way to Re-Create an Amphorphous Blob ?"

In my case it's super easy - take a retired geezer, close all the casinos, and then quarantine him with nothing to do but watch TV, surf the interwebs and eat. Voila! blob central!

[rwanttaja]

"
Best Way to Re-Create an Amphorphous Blob ?"

In my case it's super easy - take a retired geezer, close all the casinos, and then quarantine him with nothing to do but watch TV, surf the interwebs and eat. Voila! blob central!

Cheetos are cheaper than a 3D printer.

But Solidworks is still free. :-)

Ron Wanttaja

[Jeffrey Meyer]

(https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjws_r0BRCwARIsAMxfDRjGv-wkHnD5U3yoDihISl1G3kO175oFwmEK8vMw7YdqQ_hijeDpjBIa AtBbEALw_wcB)


Upper receiver for a WWI Lewis Gun Mark III (non-firing, of course). You aren't the ONLY one bored by COVID-19 restrictions. You can see the amorphous bit on this photo of an actual gun. The ammunition drum goes atop it.

Of course, I should have known - I see these things lying around in the street every day on the way to the super market.


Biggest issue has been support for overhanging elements of parts. Imagine printing a bolt with the head up...the underside of the head is hanging in space, and the printer has to exude the hot plastic onto the build surface. So the Digilab slicer will add light supports if desired.

However, these can be difficult to strip away afterwards. The ability to remove them is oddly variable. Printed one part, and they just cleanly broke away. Printed a very slightly modified version, and I'm scraping it with a chisel and filing it to eliminate the last bit of the supports.

The other factor is the time element when printing. The printer isn't fast! The "Amorphous blob" took, all told, about sixteen hours. Kind of a pain when it ran out of filament ~8 hours into it. I had it running overnight, and came in the next morning to see the object half-done with the printer still printing in the air an inch above it (there's no sensor that shuts it off when the filament's out).

My son bought one of these kits (link below) - great fun to assemble at home. It has two great advantages - 1. You can print with two different filaments simultaneously (solves the problem of support removal by printing the supports with water soluble PVA), and 2. It has sensors that detect when there is no more filament, so it stops printing until you reload. Cost ex factory (Prague) about $750. IMHO one of the best 3D printers in the world.
https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjws_r0BRCwARIsAMxfDRjGv-wkHnD5U3yoDihISl1G3kO175oFwmEK8vMw7YdqQ_hijeDpjBIa AtBbEALw_wcB

[vondeliusc]

Kind of a pain when it ran out of filament ~8 hours into it. I had it running overnight, and came in the next morning to see the object half-done with the printer still printing in the air an inch above it (there's no sensor that shuts it off when the filament's out).

Ron Wanttaja
Ron-
I feel your pain:
8393
In my case the printer lost steps and happily kept printing until morning when the filament ran out :-)
Thanks for the info.
And thanks your wife for a cool printer.

-Christian

[rwanttaja]

Ron-
I feel your pain:
Argghhh! Can you coil it back up? :-)

My office (where the printer is at) shares a wall with the master bedroom, so that gives me another reason to NOT do overnight printing. My wife has commented on waking up early in the morning and hearing "music". It's the 3D printer plodding along. So I now spend my late evenings getting everything ready, and cranking up the printer in the morning.

I didn't realize *until today* that the Dremel Slicer actually does a print-time estimate. So that'll help in the future.

Did my largest single piece yesterday, took 13 and a half hours to print.

Ron Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

I'm imagining a device you can dump all your 3d print screwups into and it chews it up and extrudes out a new spool of filament.

[rwanttaja]

I'm imagining a device you can dump all your 3d print screwups into and it chews it up and extrudes out a new spool of filament.

Kinda like this famous scene from "Catch-22"....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHxI12VVgRg

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

Well, here's the "amorphous blob" integrated into the main project. This is a full-scale, non-fireable wooden/plastic replica of a WWI Lewis Gun. Picture was taken during the final fit check prior to finishing. The main receiver, the barrel, and the gas tube (below the barrel) are wood, nearly everything else was drawn in Solidworks and printed on my 3D printer. I've learned a LOT on how to run Solidworks, now, though I've still got a long way to go.
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/lewis2.jpg

BTW, a "Quaker" in armaments lingo is a dummy wooden gun. Hence the logo.

The drum is from a commercial kit sold by https://www.foxflier.com/lewis/, although I did my own handle.

Hardest part is getting a metallic sheen on the wood and plastic. In the past, I've painted it gloss black and then sprayed it with matte finish. A product called "Rub N Buff" can be used on corners to simulate wear...that's on the drum, in fact.

Ron "Odd little quarantine project" Wanttaja

[Tench745]

I'm imagining a device you can dump all your 3d print screwups into and it chews it up and extrudes out a new spool of filament.

As I understand it this has been done:
https://youtu.be/vqWwUx8l_Io

[rwanttaja]

And...project completed. Learned a lot about Solidworks this way.
8439
It's about three pounds of wood and plastic.

Ron Wanttaja