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Chuck Hull
Fourty years ago, a man named Chuck Hull was employed at a business that made table coatings with ultraviolent lamps. He was experimenting with UV technology until, one night, he made a great discovery. Chuck noticed that it is extremely efficient to create objects by applying one layer of material at a time. He used a heated liquid that became solid when extruded, and this became the basis for 3D printing. Over time, materials and chemistry has improved, but Chuck's contributions bridged the gap between CAD designs and manufacturing.
View Cube
In Fusion 360, in the top right corner of the screen, there is an object called the "View Cube." The view cube allows you to easily rotate around the design without using the orbit tool. With the view cube, there are several ways to changing your viewpoint. First, you can click and drag on the cube to rotate. Second, you can click on a face, corner, or edge to orient yourself to it (and if you are oriented towards a face, you can use arrows that appear to rotate along the Z axis). Lastly, you can click the home button on the top left to return to the original orientation.
Design
For the Plane & Simple project, there were three items I designed: a lego brick, a book holder, and a toy slug.
First, I designed the lego brick. After creating a new document, I adjusted the document properties to where millimeters are used instead of inches. I started out with a sketch of the base in a component I created.
Then, I extruded the base to create a body.
Afterwards, I sketched a circle on top of the rectangular prism and extruded it.
Then, I used the rectangular pattern tool to repeat the cylinder around the top of the rectangle.
Then, so that the lego brick could attach to other bricks, I used the shell tool to hollow out the bottom, and sketched the cylinders on the bottom. I used the project feature to ensure it was several millimeters bigger than the original stubs.
Finally, I added fillets to smooth out the edges and intruded my name into the side of the brick.
Along the way, I made great use of the "timeline" feature to go back to previous steps and modify/improve them.
Next, I designed the book holder. I started out by following a tutorial explaining out to sketch the desired shape.
Then, similar to the lego brick, I extruded the sketch.
I filleted the newly-made body and extruded my name onto it (using the hole as the "O" in "STONE").
To 3D print this design, I exported it as an "STL" file from Fusion 360, imported it into PrusaSlicer, selected the desired detail and filament, sliced the file into gcode, exported the gcode, uploaded it to the 3D printer, and began the print. Then, I went to the 3D printer, cleaned it off with alcohol, and waited for it to heat up. When it heated up, it oriented itself and began the print. I waited through the first layer to ensure there were no problems, and returned when the print was over to take my book holder. Pictures of the final result are below.
For the last part of the project, I imported a design of a slug from Thingiverse. Then, I added two eyes to it by sketching on a constructed, offset plane and extruding it through the head, selecting "join" in the extrude dialogue.
Differences Between Physical and Virtual Designs
The only differences between my virtual and physical designs were the colors. The filament set up on the 3D printers did not match my color settings in Fusion 360, but this change made no difference to the project.
Workflow
Export the design from whichever CAD software you are using into a “STL” or “OBJ” file
Import the STL/OBJ file into Prusa Slicer
Select the printer you will be using in Prusa Slicer
Select the filament (usually PLA)
Select the print settings (quality) -> more detail = longer print
Click “Slice”
Review information to see if you selected the desired settings
Click “Export G-Code”
Save the “gcode” on your computer with the default filename but add your name as well
Navigate to the list of 3D-printer links
Every 3D-printer has a raspberry pi which is acting as a server; click the link/go to the URL of the 3D-printer you will be using
Login in with “.\engineering” and “Fablab19” and check “Remember Me”
Go to the 3D printer and make sure it is clear and not printing, and clean it with the alcohol
Click “Upload”
Select the “gcode” file you downloaded before (you should now see a camera)
Click “print” and wait to make sure the bottom layers work; do not leave printer without speaking to the teacher
NC State/Cayde The Dog Article Reflection
In 2019, a dog named Cayde was taken to the NC State Veterinary Hospital because he had a deformed hind leg. The doctor used a 3D modeling software to "fix" a virtual representation of Cayde's leg, and he 3D printed the result. This allows the doctor to have a reference while preforming surgery, leading to a more successful and safe procedure. Today, Cayde is still in recovery, but 3D printing and CAD design changed his life forever. Cayde's story reinforces the tremendous applications and benefits of 3D printing.
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