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Thread: Fillet Question

  1. #1
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Fillet Question

    I'm designing a small enclosure for a headset matching adaptor. It's a small bracket that holds the 1/4" jack and the matching transformer, and an exterior cover slides over it.

    The bracket features a shelf where the transformer attaches (flanges on the end of the transformer go into the little holes in the shelf and are bent over to hold it), and a hole in the end for a 1/4" jack.



    When 3-D printing this, I've encountered a structural issue at the point where the shelf meets the main structure. I'd like to add a fillet to the area pointed out by the yellow arrow. Yet I can't get SW to understand what I want to do.

    Any advice? I could make the shell go all the way the end, but that would complicate installation of the electronics.

    Ron Wanttaja

  2. #2
    cwilliamrose's Avatar
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    I wish I had seen this while I was still at the shop. But just looking at it I don't see why it's not a straight forward fillet. You should be able to select the intersecting line and create the fillet. Sometimes SWx gets fussy about the fillet radius but this doesn't look to be that type of a problem. In any case once the intersecting line is selected you can play with changing the radius (start small). Also, try just one fillet at a time until you get something that is acceptable, then try adding other intersecting lines to the selection set. Sometimes SWx forces you to use multiple fillet features to get all of them you need into the model.

    Edit: This is a single body part, right?
    Last edited by cwilliamrose; 12-06-2019 at 04:17 PM.

  3. #3
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cwilliamrose View Post
    I wish I had seen this while I was still at the shop. But just looking at it I don't see why it's not a straight forward fillet. You should be able to select the intersecting line and create the fillet. Sometimes SWx gets fussy about the fillet radius but this doesn't look to be that type of a problem. In any case once the intersecting line is selected you can play with changing the radius (start small). Also, try just one fillet at a time until you get something that is acceptable, then try adding other intersecting lines to the selection set. Sometimes SWx forces you to use multiple fillet features to get all of them you need into the model.
    Sigh (and slap my head).

    I'd been selecting the aft face of the oval area, AND the side of the table area, or the vertical line AND the aft face of the oval area. Never considered just clicking the vertical line only.

    And yes, that did the trick. Thanks!

    Just got done printing the fillet-less version on the 3D printer. If it breaks coming off AGAIN, I'll do the filleted version.

    Ron Wanttaja

  4. #4
    gmatejcek's Avatar
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    Or, one COULD do like the old kits, and use a plastic 35mm film canister... um... nevermind!

  5. #5
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gmatejcek View Post
    Or, one COULD do like the old kits, and use a plastic 35mm film canister... um... nevermind!
    Yeah, they're getting kind of thin on the ground. The very first headset adaptor I made used a 35mm film canister.

    I'm tickled with idea that I can make custom enclosures, though, using SW and my 3D printer. Not only can size them right, but I can build in compartments to hold components like the transformer. This unit worked (tested it in the airplane this afternoon) but it's still bigger and clunkier than I want. Working on the follow-on.

    Ron Wanttaja

  6. #6
    cwilliamrose's Avatar
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    Did you need those fillets Ron?

  7. #7
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cwilliamrose View Post
    Did you need those fillets Ron?
    I was able to extract the piece from the 3D printer bed without them, but obviously, I'll want to include fillets on any future tries. Thanks for kicking me in the head, on this one.

    The next iteration will be a fairly different design. I've drawn both types of transformers in SW, and am working in the assembly mode to get used to putting things together. Takes a bit of practice....

    Ron Wanttaja

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    cwilliamrose's Avatar
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    Yeah, mates can be confounding sometimes. I use a 3D mouse so it's easy to move a part into a nearly correct location before applying the mates.

  9. #9
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    And...as can be seen, I learned my lesson...both literally and liberally:

    This is a different design from the earlier posting.

    The blue item is a low-detail 1/4" headset plug, red thing is the matching transformer, and the gold bit is the 1/4" headset jack. The transformer is shown "tabs up" because that's the end of the transformer where the wires come out. I'm intending to pot the thing is place with epoxy. A tubular outer shell will be slid into place, and when the unit is done, it'll match the impedance for my ANL aircraft headset to my 8-ohm radio.

    The plug is a standard unit; I unscrewed the black plastic covering over the connections, measured the threads, and reproduced them on the unit using the SW hole function. Screws right in. Probably will epoxy it to be on the safe side.

    As expected, my 3D printer had problems with this....it doesn't like to print unsupported shelves like the transformer support and the end piece with the headset jack. I've generated a new version where the end piece is separate, and will just epoxy it in place.

    The ironic thing here is that I laid out the components on my desk and measured what the total length would have to be: 2 1/4 inch. But when I put it into SW and built the assembly, 2 1/4" was too short... stuff didn't fit. Didn't believe it...but did a 2 1/2" version anyway. Everything (barely) fits, just like Solidworks shows.

    I know there are lots of guys doing things far more complex, but this is turning out to be a good learning experience. Now to see if I can renew my SW license....

    Ron Wanttaja
    Last edited by rwanttaja; 12-15-2019 at 04:54 PM.

  10. #10
    cwilliamrose's Avatar
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    Looks good Ron. One thing I see is the tabs on the transformer being red on the outside face. You could make those separate bodies in the model so they could be silver/gray on all sides. Or you could take a .0005" cut on the outside faces so there's a separate face to match colors with. This is only important if the details of the artwork need to be accurate.

    Almost looks like the headset jack couldn't be assembled if the housing was all one part......

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