3d printed scales with patterns/textures

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Josh Crutchley
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3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#1

Post by Josh Crutchley »

After seeing Gtscotty's scales here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=89676&start=40 I decided to try my hand at it. I'm not sure how he did it but the way I went about it was very convoluted so I don't think I can explain easily. Here's pictures of both still in fusion because I wanted feedback on how the looked before printing them. I'm not sure about the ring around the countersink on the first one.
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texturemule2.png
texturedmuletest.png
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Fireman
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#2

Post by Fireman »

Snowflakes or giraffes… I like them both.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#3

Post by Bolster »

Wow, those are great mockups. The top one can be for fragile college-indoctrinated adult children (aka snoflakes) and the bottom one for animal lovers. They both look nice n grippy. Difference in height between hill and valley? What, .020? More? I would likely buy the bottom, the giraffe. Though the fade of "cube" into "snoflake" is very nifty.

Regards the countersink "ring," I can see how it's necessary for that pattern; you can't necessarily adjust a polygon to avoid hitting a border, as you can with giraffe. With the giraffe, you COULD adjust your pattern so the holes don't intersect any of the webbing.

Very cool work, man. Wish I could play in this playground.
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bbturbodad
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#4

Post by bbturbodad »

I like the bottom one. What type of hardware is needed to attach them?
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Josh Crutchley
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#5

Post by Josh Crutchley »

Fireman wrote:
Sun Jun 27, 2021 5:43 pm
Snowflakes or giraffes… I like them both.
The snowflakes look like wireframe cubes when you see the whole pattern. Now that you say it that's all I can see.
Bolster wrote:
Sun Jun 27, 2021 7:15 pm
Wow, those are great mockups. The top one can be for fragile college-indoctrinated adult children (aka snoflakes) and the bottom one for animal lovers. They both look nice n grippy. Difference in height between hill and valley? What, .020? More? I would likely buy the bottom, the giraffe. Though the fade of "cube" into "snoflake" is very nifty.

Regards the countersink "ring," I can see how it's necessary for that pattern; you can't necessarily adjust a polygon to avoid hitting a border, as you can with giraffe. With the giraffe, you COULD adjust your pattern so the holes don't intersect any of the webbing.

Very cool work, man. Wish I could play in this playground.
The pattern is 1mm deep for now but it can be adjusted easily.
bbturbodad wrote: I like the bottom one. What type of hardware is needed to attach them?
No idea as I'm still working out how to do pattern around the screws.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#6

Post by Josh Crutchley »

Here's a few more but I added color to some to get a better idea of what it could look like. If anyone wants any of the files just pm me. I can adjust the mounting holes for whatever hardware you want to use. I have an Ender 3 FDM printer on the way so I have to wait till then to print some.
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holemule.png
holemule2.png
redblackmule.png
greymule.png
greenmule.png
Gtscotty
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#7

Post by Gtscotty »

Good looking patterns, especially the first two.

I'd like to hear how you did the texturing in Fusion 360. I couldn't get the Emboss feature to work on mine because the complex curved surface couldn't be made 2d without distortion, which is apparently required.

I wound up creating an offset plane above my handle then used the rectangular pattern function to replicate the hex pattern. After that I had to delete all portions of the pattern outside of the outline of the handle, and trim any shapes that overlapped the outline. After all that I selected the pattern and extruded, with the option checked to extrude starting from the handle body surface. Kind of time intensive, so I'd like to hear how you did yours?
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Josh Crutchley
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#8

Post by Josh Crutchley »

Gtscotty wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:19 pm
Good looking patterns, especially the first two.

I'd like to hear how you did the texturing in Fusion 360. I couldn't get the Emboss feature to work on mine because the complex curved surface couldn't be made 2d without distortion, which is apparently required.

I wound up creating an offset plane above my handle then used the rectangular pattern function to replicate the hex pattern. After that I had to delete all portions of the pattern outside of the outline of the handle, and trim any shapes that overlapped the outline. After all that I selected the pattern and extruded, with the option checked to extrude starting from the handle body surface. Kind of time intensive, so I'd like to hear how you did yours?
Hope this explanation helps sounds close to yours. I couldn't get emboss to work either and found nothing on youtube or google to help.

Starting with just the outline I make a long curve across the scale so I can use the plane along a path function.
1st.png
After extrusion and making the new plane I sketch the needed curve for the scale surface. In order to use most functions you need a closed in shape, doesn't matter what just needs closed in. That shape lets you use the sweep function along with the long curve from the beginning to make the base scale.
plane2.png
Then I made an offset plane about 15mm above the first sketch and put the pattern there.
planev1.png
Extrude the pattern.
mulebox.png
I just used a large circle around the scale so I could select that space and use extrude to cut away extra material.
mulecircle.png
mulebox2.png
Back to the same sweep but I offset the sketch outline by how thick I want the texture.
muledone.png
I left out a few of the finishing touches but I'm sure you can figure the rest out.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#9

Post by sal »

You guys are amazing!

sal
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Josh Crutchley
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#10

Post by Josh Crutchley »

sal wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:59 pm
You guys are amazing!

sal
Thank you that means so much! Gtscotty's design is way more complex and his scales are the main reason I made mine. You of course laid the groundwork with the amazing mule design and gave use something to build off of.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#11

Post by Bolster »

I don't understand it, but I like it.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#12

Post by defenestrate »

That's pretty slick. I almost feel like I could learn it despite my low level of ability with visual arts. That explanation seems very helpful, will have to see whether I can dabble sometime (planning to get a 3D printer pretty soon so I guess I'll learn or try to learn how to do some of this).
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#13

Post by Gtscotty »

Joshcrutchley1 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:14 am
Gtscotty wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:19 pm
Good looking patterns, especially the first two.

I'd like to hear how you did the texturing in Fusion 360. I couldn't get the Emboss feature to work on mine because the complex curved surface couldn't be made 2d without distortion, which is apparently required.

I wound up creating an offset plane above my handle then used the rectangular pattern function to replicate the hex pattern. After that I had to delete all portions of the pattern outside of the outline of the handle, and trim any shapes that overlapped the outline. After all that I selected the pattern and extruded, with the option checked to extrude starting from the handle body surface. Kind of time intensive, so I'd like to hear how you did yours?
Hope this explanation helps sounds close to yours. I couldn't get emboss to work either and found nothing on youtube or google to help.

Starting with just the outline I make a long curve across the scale so I can use the plane along a path function.1st.png

After extrusion and making the new plane I sketch the needed curve for the scale surface. In order to use most functions you need a closed in shape, doesn't matter what just needs closed in. That shape lets you use the sweep function along with the long curve from the beginning to make the base scale.
plane2.png

Then I made an offset plane about 15mm above the first sketch and put the pattern there.
planev1.png
Extrude the pattern.
mulebox.png
I just used a large circle around the scale so I could select that space and use extrude to cut away extra material.
mulecircle.png
mulebox2.png
Back to the same sweep but I offset the sketch outline by how thick I want the texture.
muledone.png

I left out a few of the finishing touches but I'm sure you can figure the rest out.
Ok, thanks yeah I think we did pretty much the same thing, maybe with a few steps in different orders.

I sketched the outline and got it sized correctly, and the holes placed, then extruded the handle outward, and then swept a cutting shape along a sweep line like you did (texture shows in the picture but was added later).

Image

Then I applied all the chamfers to the edges to make the smooth texture handle version. Since I added textures after everything else was finished, I had to add the geometry on an offset plane and manually trim wherever a hex crossed the edge of the main surface. the extrude function wouldn't resolve if I tried to select the chamfered surfaces as well, and if any portion of the hex shape crossed the edge of the main surface, none of that hex shape would extrude.

Image

Then I selected all the hex geometries and set the extrude function to extrude 0.02" with the starting point set as the selected face.

Image

I think adding the texture like you did before doing all the chamfers would probably make the extrude function work better all the way to the edge and save a lot of time having to trim all of those little hexes so that they didn't cross the face perimeter.
Last edited by Gtscotty on Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#14

Post by Gtscotty »

Whups, double post.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#15

Post by Sharp Guy »

Well done guys! Fusion 360 really is an incredibly powerful CAD tool for CNC and 3D Printing. I've learned quite a lot a couple years ago and I've used that knowledge to make some pretty cool things. I've pretty busy with some of those projects lately but I think it's time to start expanding my Fusion 360 knowledge. I'd really like to do more with free form shapes

I'm really looking forward to see how some of these scale designs turn out when you print them. I've considered doing some myself but I think a table top CNC would be better for that. It'd be a blast to learn but there's so many incredible scale makers out there already. I don't think it's something I'll pursue
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#16

Post by bbturbodad »

Joshcrutchley1 wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:39 am
...If anyone wants any of the files just pm me. I can adjust the mounting holes for whatever hardware you want to use. I have an Ender 3 FDM printer on the way so I have to wait till then to print some.
I'd like to play around with the top one. I should have that fresh liter of clear resin tomorrow so after I get these Manix scales printed for you I can also print up a set of these if you want.

I'm curious to hear how you like the Ender 3, I've been starting to eye FDM printers so I can print stuff without getting in my wife's way.

Manix scales supported and ready to go!
Image
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Josh Crutchley
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#17

Post by Josh Crutchley »

bbturbodad wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:20 pm
Joshcrutchley1 wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:39 am
...If anyone wants any of the files just pm me. I can adjust the mounting holes for whatever hardware you want to use. I have an Ender 3 FDM printer on the way so I have to wait till then to print some.
I'd like to play around with the top one. I should have that fresh liter of clear resin tomorrow so after I get these Manix scales printed for you I can also print up a set of these if you want.

I'm curious to hear how you like the Ender 3, I've been starting to eye FDM printers so I can print stuff without getting in my wife's way.

Manix scales supported and ready to go!
You should really try the way I suggested with the scale flat on the build plate. It will make them clearer and cut the time down to less then an hour instead of almost 11hr.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#18

Post by bbturbodad »

When I print them directly on the build platform the printer compresses the first few layers and the prints come out .5mm shorter than designed. They're also really tough to remove from the build platform without damaging the prints. I did a test print the other day using gray resin and a similar orientation and it came out perfect. I'm using tiny support touch points so the model peels right off the supports. I don't mind the print time since I'll be sleeping while it prints.

I don't know how well it comes through in the photo but the clear one was printed directly on the platform and aside from being dimensionally incorrect and warped the holes are misshaped.
Image
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Josh Crutchley
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#19

Post by Josh Crutchley »

bbturbodad wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:29 pm
When I print them directly on the build platform the printer compresses the first few layers and the prints come out .5mm shorter than designed. They're also really tough to remove from the build platform without damaging the prints. I did a test print the other day using gray resin and a similar orientation and it came out perfect. I'm using tiny support touch points so the model peels right off the supports. I don't mind the print time since I'll be sleeping while it prints.

I don't know how well it comes through in the photo but the clear one was printed directly on the platform and aside from being dimensionally incorrect and warped the holes are misshaped.
Wow that looks amazing! I guess it should considering the cost of the printer. That's weird that it distorts the holes so much. I never had that issue printing on the build plate.

Edit: I was curious about your printer and looked in to it some. It seems yours uses a uv laser instead of a lcd and uv led like mine. What I thought was interesting is the time it takes mine to print is based on layer count but yours is still like a fdm printer and tied to print volume.
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Re: 3d printed scales with patterns/textures

#20

Post by Josh Crutchley »

Newest revisions that use Halpern hardware and one has a hidden lanyard tube but that will be added to all eventually. These haven't been tested so I'm waiting till that to upload to Thingiverse. If you want one before then just PM me and let me know which one and if your using different hardware.
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screenShot_mulecircleswlanyard.png
screenShot_mulecube.png
muleblobs.png
screenShot_mulecircrev.png
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