Week 3 - Journal

Ideation

The assignment was to design or create a table pen/pencil holder and fabricate it using a 3D printer.

I was inspired by two things to reach this final design the the first was my (Hands on activity) design and the other was the (Three tomoe sharingan eye) from "Naruto".

The design is simple, can holder Three pens (could hold more this will be discussed in Overcoming Challenges section.

Final Design

The Hands on Activity design.

The Three Tomoe Sharingan Eye from "Naruto"

Tool Chain

I used/will be using:

For designing the 3D Pen holder: Fusion360
For slicing and setting the printer parameters: Ultimaker Cura 4.10.0:

The Slicing Parameters:

The material used: Generic PLA

Layer height: 0.3mm (to not exceed the time limit)
Infill: 5%
No support (as the design has a big flat base)
no adhesion

For Fabrication: PRUSA i3 MK2 3D printer.

The design will take about 87min and its mass will be 19 grams.

Fusion 360

Ultimaker Cura 4.10.0

PRUSA i3 MK2 3D Printer

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to print the design in the lab so I asked my friend Mostafa Abdelmonem to print the design using his own made printer.

For slicing and setting the printer parameters: Prusa slicer 2.3.0:

The Slicing Parameters:

The material used: PLA plus Magneta

Layer height: 0.2mm
Infill: 7%
No support (as the design has a big flat base)
no adhesion

For Fabrication: the printer in the pic below

Fusion 360

PrusaSlicer 2.3.0

Design/Preparation Process

The design process requirements:

The model is a result of using at least two 3D design features in Fusion 360 (Revolve, Sweep, and Loft), in addition to the sub-features. An "Extrude only" model will NOT be accepted.
The model is customized using the appearance features (Color, material...etc)
The model is exported in an *.STL format and file(s) is included.

vlc-record-2021-08-09-20h51m44s-bandicam 2021-08-09 17-35-28-188.mp4-.mp4

The Design Process

I started with sketching the canvas but it didn't work (explain in Challenges ) so I took a portion of it and drew it on the offset plane created after this sketch.

Creating an Offset plane to sketch the following and then use LOFT.

Used Extrude to cut the Tomoe shaped holes

Sketching the holder column on a perpendicular plane and then revolve it to shape a cylinder.

Used Shell feature after slicing this in to two bodies (the column and the base) to prevent the shelling to spread to the base as well.

vlc-record-2021-08-09-20h51m44s-bandicam 2021-08-09 17-35-28-188.mp4-.mp4

Assembly and Joints

Finally After finishing the Assembly we can change the appearance of the parts or components or bodies by clicking a right click on them and the choose Appearance then choose paint the choose whatever colour and theme of the colour you like.

The holder ring

Now to Getting the files:

Exporting the base first as STL file (as if you export the whole file and then import it to Ultimaker Cura it will act as if the two parts are one object).
Exporting the ring as STL file
Import the STL files one after another to Ultimaker Cura 4.10.0 in one project to get the G.code file.

THE FILES WILL BE FOUND IN THE ASSINGMENT FILES SECTION

Exporting the file as STL

Getting the G.code file

Getting the G.code file using PrusaSlicer 2.3.0

Development/Implementation Process

As mentioned before in the Tool chain section that I used my friend's 3D printer to fabricate my design.

After getting the g code file we upload the file to the 3D printer and start the printing process....

Community of Learning

(1) The ideas to improve the inspiring design, these ideas came from the Monday zoom meeting and the start of week 3:

I implanted Muhammad Ehab idea of making the ring apart from the holder so thanks to him and all those who suggested great ideas.

Muhammad Abdulfattah suggested that I design some supports and bridges to hold the ring but these supports to work would need more supports and that would make the finishing process quite hard.

Shaymaa Nasser suggested a quite simple design and that is to extrude the holed base to let's say 3-4cm to hold the pens, when I reached a hard end to make my own design i turned to that design but it was not original and passed the time limit.

Marwa Sobhi suggested to build a surrounding wall but I didn't want to go there as it was like building a vase or a cup.

Ahmed Al Naggar suggeted to make the ring in such design that it can be fixed on the blades using T-slots I didn't use such idea as it was much complicated compared to such a simple design.

Mego ( Eng. Ahmad Khaled ) suggested to make some sticks growing from these blades and then making with rubber bands a similar design like >>>>>

bandicam 2021-08-13 02-34-03-546.mp4

(2) The amazing journey of making a suitable timed and weighted design:

I asked for a piece of advice from my instructor Eng. Maha Mortada on how to make my design suitable for the time limit we discussed some solutions from changing the infill and scale to changing the layer height which I thought it wouldn't produce a quite good finish or it would produce a noticeable texture and look.

I asked her also about the shelling limits (I tried to shell the base but the shelling inside would produce inclinde and not straight surface that would be the base of the column and the rest of the design) and the infill limits (when i tried to make the infill less than 5% it looked like I made shelling to the design).

The infill which is less than 5% like 2% looks like the body was shelled.

Overcoming Challenges

I have faced three main problems or challenges:

Not exceeding the time limit
How Ultimaker Cura deals with the design files
Shelling and painting
After printing challenges

(1) Not exceeding the time limit which is 90mins:

I tried some solutions:

Changing the design dimensions therefore changing its design a bit.
Changing the material infill to 10% to 2%(Unacceptable in reality) to 5%
Shelling and cutting material from the surface to reduce the used material and to add a fashionable look.
Changing the scale
Changing the layer Height to 0.3mm

The solution that I chose (I didn't choose it but I finally reached it ) was to go through all these solutions and end up with:

A downscaled different design from the original one with a higher layer height (0.3mm) and have some cut parts and a shelled column.

As we can see here to reduce the used material I shelled the column and used some cuts to reduce the material and add a nice touch.

The first design

The estimated time was over 6 hours and over 70 grams

Final design

The estimated time is 87 min and it would be 19 grams

(2) How Ultimaker Cura deals with the design files..

When I finished the whole design (Base and ring) in Fusion360 and it was assembled and then I exported it in STL extension then import it to Ultimaker Cura 4.10.0, it looked like that it was one body not two components that I can't regulate their positions on the bed of the machine using Cura so.......

I returned to Fusion 360 then I copied each component and paste it to a new file alone the export it as STL file then import it to Ultimaker Cura and add the other component STL file to the same project so I can print them together and control each one individually .

Ultimaker Cura deals with the two parts as a one object and that was hard to manipulate to touch the plate/bed of the machine

(3) Shelling and painting:

When I tried to (shell/paint) the column the (shelling/painting) spread across the whole pen holder base.

The solution:

I used the split feature to make the holder base into two parts the column and the base after that they appeared as two different bodies in the base holder component folder.

Shelling with out using split

As we can see in the component folder there is a folder called bodies contains the two bodies the column and the base

After painting and shelling the final design looks like that using Section analysis

(3) After printing challenges:

Problem (1):

We think that these gabs or cracks between layers happened because of the low infill as we chose to make a 7% infill.

The solution will be to increase the infill to a reasonable value could be 10% or whatever more than 8%.

Problem (2):

These black marks happened because of the unclean nozzle as its burnt particles or some dust or something like that got mixed up with the molten filament and make those black spots.

The solution is to make sure that everything is clear including the bed and the nozzle.

Problem (3):

As a result of making such low infill and using a low shelling value and not using the fillet feature to smooth the transfer between the body parts the column tip broke while moving the design as shown in the pic.

The solution is to make sure that the thickness of the part is quite reasonable considering the design using Section Analysis feature.

I think these problems happened because of the lack of experience in designing and printing which could be solved with time and practice....

Problem (1)

Problem (2)

Problem (3)

Final Project

WOW!

What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?

Title of Media

Weekly Digest [OPTIONAL]

Tell us about any other cool things that you've made this week: in the Hands-on activity, tutorial examples, exercises, or any other cool mini-project that you tried out aside from the assignment.

Title of Media

Assignment Design Files

You can find the drive link for the design files

The STL file of the base of the pen holder

The STL file of the pen holder ring

The Design G.code design

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