3D Printing

 3D Printing

Today, I am going to draw an object which cannot be made subtractively on Fusion360 and then 3D print the object that I have created. I have decided that I will create a door hinge. The hinge will consist of 3 parts. 2 "Leaf" and a pin. A hinge is an object that cannot be made subtractively as it consists of 3 different parts with detailed structures, Furthermore, the dimensions of each part must be precise in order for each part to fit into one another. The leaves also contain narrow holes which will be difficult to be made subtractively. 

Anatomy of a door hinge (Home Stratosphere, 2018).

The pin will be inserted through the hole of the two leaves which will act as the pivot for the leaves to rotate. I will be excluding the screw holes in my design to simplify the 3D printing process.

Designing Object on Fusion360

Firstly, I will create the leaf. I start off by creating a rectangle with dimensions of 40mm by 2.5mm. At one point in the rectangle, I drew a 2-point circle with an outer diameter of 10mm and an inner diameter of 4mm. This will be the side view of the hinge. I specified the outer diameter parameter to be 10mm and the inner diameter parameter to be 4mm to save some time later. This is the side view of one of the leaves.

Next, I extruded the rectangle by 60mm and the circle by 20mm. I did not extrude the inner circle.

Next, I use the rectangular pattern feature to add another cylinder with the hole to the other side of the hinge. The spacing between the 2 cylinders is 20mm. Since this is my first time using this feature, it took some troubleshooting before I could get it to do what I wanted. This is one of the parts of the hinge.

Now, I shall create the other leaf of the hinge. Firstly, I hid the first component that I create and extruded the previous sketch by 60mm. I "Showed" the first component and extruded spacing in between the cylinders to create another cylinder.

Lastly, I created the pin which will be inserted into the holes which will act as the pivot of the hinge,

I created a new component and extruded the circle in the sketch by 60mm. I also added an offset of 1mm on both sides so the pin will stick out of the frame by a little.

Here are all three parts assembled together to create the door hinge!

Here is the link for the .f3d and stl files for the object I designed: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mRfDA-3c7ju904KbsvfBgln-wZVfdRGm?usp=sharing

3D printing Cura Settings

These are the Cura settings I used for the 3D printing. 

Cura Settings

I used the default settings found under the "Standard Quality" profile and modified it slightly. I increased the printing speed from 50.0mm/s to 75.0 mm/s so that the 3D printing process will take a shorter amount of time. I also had to add support as my structure contained an overhang.

Images of 3D Printed Object

Object with Support Intact

Object without Support

Hero Shot with Object

Reflection

For the object design on Fusion360 activity, it was fairly simple as the previous CPDD sessions have provided me with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to complete this task. It was a fun activity as I was able to use the skills that I learnt to complete the task on my own. It was also very satisfying to be able to create an object with a more complicated design with little help as it really shows how much I have improved on my CAD skills. 

For the 3D printing activity, I was able to complete it without much trouble with the help of the friendly seniors that were also present at the lab. Since it was my first time using the Cura software and operating the 3D printer, they guide me through the settings on Cura and the procedures of operating the 3D printer. This activity is important as it has helped me familiarise myself with using the Cura software and the 3D printer. I found this activity really interesting as this is my first time seeing a 3D printer at work to bring the object I designed on Fusion360 to life. The movement of the 3D printer was very precise and how they were able to turn strings of PLA filament into an object really intrigued me. 

However, my object took a little over an hour to print which was much longer than expected. Furthermore, I had a difficult time removing the support from my object. If I were to do this activity again, I would increase the printing speed to reduce the time spend printing my object from 75mm/s to 100mm/s. I would also decrease the support density from the previous 20% to maybe around 15% to make the support easier to remove.

This activity will be extremely important to future projects in CPDD as we will be using 3D printers to print parts required for our chemical product, the soft boiled egg maker. Previously, I used to think that 3D printing is complicated and I won't be able to do it as there were a lot of settings with many different functions required when 3D printing and the procedures seemed difficult. However, now that I have understood what these settings do and how to operate the 3D printer, I am now much more confident in performing 3D printing. I hope to be able to hone my 3D printing skills especially selecting the optimal Cura settings for printing an object.

Reference

Home Stratosphere. (2018). Parts of a Door (Incl. Frame, Knob and Hinge Diagrams). [online] Available at: https://www.homestratosphere.com/door-parts/.

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