Chapter 3: 3D Printing!
- Rakshan Bathri
- Jul 12, 2024
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 17, 2024
Chapter 3.1: What is 3D Printing?
woah what's that?
Welcome back❗❗
I think you guys know me by now so let's get straight to the topic. (I need to upload this soon...) So what is 3D printing❓ 3D printing is a type of additive manufacturing🔨 and, if you want to start 3D printing, all you have to do is download a software💻 like Fusion360 and design something you want to make, then, print it using another software like CURA❗
Q: "What's additive manufacturing❓"
A: Well, to explain that, I first need to explain what subtractive manufacturing is. Do you know that famous statue🗿 that Michelangelo made❓ (no not the ninja turtle) He made that statue by carving out of a big piece of marble; in other words, he "subtracted" what he didn't need from the marble to create that statue. That's subtractive manufacturing. So, Additive manufacturing is just making something from scratch. (this actually saves A LOT of materials and time too)
Do you want to know something I find REALLY cool? (you have to anyway)
You see that ball on the left❓ That's actually a 3D printed BASKETBALL❗❗ When I first saw this, I was surprised! It's made by Wilson and it's called an Airless Basketball. How is this possible❓ Well, through 3D printing of course❗ This ball is made out of a special type of filament that allows the ball to have the same weight and bounce as any other basketball. (cool right?)
How does 3D Printing Work? You see that GIF on the right? That's the most common method used in 3D printing❗ It's called Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). FDM is an additive manufacturing method (remember what I said above?) and it uses a material like PolyLactic Acid (PLA)❗❗
Q: "What does this method do with the PLA❓"
A: In this method, the PLA is melted just past its Glass Transition Temperature🔥 (you should probably search this up) and then, the printer extrudes this PLA in a pattern, next to or on top of other extrusions❗ This then creates the object that YOU designed❗ Sounds simple enough right? No?? Ok, let me summarise. Simply said, a standard FDM 3D printer melts a filament by squeezing it through a hot end and depositing the melted material in layers on the print surface. Over the course of the print, these layers are fused together and eventually come together to form the ✨finished or desired product✨
Chapter 3.2: Toy Carpark Gantry?
a what?
Whatever you're feeling now is how I was feeling too.
Based on how this blog is going, I'm sure you can infer what I need to do. If you don't, it's okay. (I understand) So basically, I was assigned to 3D Design a random task. In this case, It was a toy car park gantry for a toy garage... But that's not all! This gantry actually has to be functional❗
Q: "How is it going to be functional❓"
A: There's a motor called an SG90 Servo Motor. (this word haunts me now). This motor is small enough to fit into any small box (or gantry). I think you can see where I'm going with this. So, what I first had to do was take the measurements📏 of this Motor so that I could create a housing/gantry for this Motor to be inside of❗❗
Here are some of the measurements I took❗ (whoever took the photo really needs some photography skills) (it was me...)
Chapter 3.3.1: Planning of the Gantry Head!
time for the hard part :(
The Gantry Head
This was by far the hardest part of the planning but mostly because of how IRREGULAR😭 the motor is. At first, I thought that the circular thing on top of the motor was a perfect circle, but nope❌ That's not all. There's also two mounting tabs for these motors so it's not even a perfect rectangle. Don't forget the wire too😡 So yeah that's why I hated designing this and I also had to take so many measurements❗❗ But, it's done so let me guide you through what I did to first design the Gantry Head. (You can look at the sketches below at your own risk...)
(sorry if you had to see that...I can't draw)
Let's start with the top-down view first. I first CLICKED Create Sketch then CLICKED the TOP plane.
Then, I made a 33mm x 23mm rectangle by CLICKING Create --> 2-Point Rectangle. After that, I CLICKED and used the OFFSET function on the left, bottom and right rectangle walls with an offset of 2mm.
After that, I CLICKED the Line function to join up the 2 unconnected ends on top then, I CLICKED Create --> 2-Point Rectangle with dimensions 2mm x 4.5mm as shown below. I then removed everything in between these 2 rectangles using the TRIM function and cleaned up some lines.
Then, I CLICKED Finish Sketch and proceeded to use the EXTRUDE Function. I extruded the L-shaped walls 15mm and the centre ceiling thingy 2mm but with an offset of 13mm.
After this, I CLICKED Create Sketch again but this time, I selected the back surface of the body. I marked out 9 circles evenly across the back so that I could make 1mm x 1mm x 2mm holes by using the EXTRUDE function's cut ability.
I needed to make 9 holes so that I could attach the back lid that I'd make later to close up the opening.
Simple enough right❓ (It took me too long to think of this). In case you're wondering why 4.5mm, well the plan is, I'm going to insert the Motor from behind the gantry housing (you'll understand later) These walls will then stop⛔ the Motor from going all the way through because of the 5mm mounting tabs found on the sides of the motor. Hence, only the Servo Motor arm can pass through the opening, to later add the gantry pole.
Chapter 3.3.2: Planning of the Gantry Body!
time for the not-so-hard part that's a little hard
The Gantry Body
Honestly, this gantry "body" is not really a body. It's more like a stand, so it was quite easy✨✨ to design this. I decided to make the stand like how it is and not something skinnier because it would probably be hard to balance without adding ANOTHER support base below the stand.
Now, let me tell you how I made the Gantry Body.
Let's start with the top-down view again. I first CLICKED Create Sketch then CLICKED the TOP plane.
Then, I made another 33mm x 23mm rectangle by CLICKING Create --> 2-Point Rectangle. After that, I CLICKED and used the OFFSET function everywhere this time, with an offset of 2mm.
After that, I CLICKED Finish Sketch and proceeded to use the EXTRUDE Function. I extruded the walls 15mm and the centre ceiling thingy again by 2mm with the same offset above of 13mm.
I then CLICKED Create Sketch again and added some sketches for 2 holes on top of this hollow box 2mm away from the edge and 4mm away from the back surface. The dimensions of the holes are 13mm x 4.50mm. I also used the FILLET function to make the edges smoother. The fillet I used was 1mm.
I then CLICKED Finish Sketch and used the EXTRUDE Function's cut ability to well, cut these holes of course.
But...I realised that I needed holes for the wire to go out of, so I had to Create a Sketch on both sides of the Gantry Body. But, instead of the same old boring rectangular hole, I want to do something unique. So I made an Arch Instead❗ The arch height was 3mm and the length is 6mm.
After that, I used the EXTRUDE function again to cut these holes.
That's all❗ I know there's A LOT of steps to designing this gantry thing but it really is quite easy when you get the hang of it. At this point, my hopes were starting to lift up again. I really did hate 3D designing at first but when I started feeling "professional" it actually was lowkey fun❗❗
Chapter 3.3.3: Planning of the Back Lid!
final stretch-ish
The Back Lid
Remember that opening at the back of the Gantry Head❓ Well, we need to close that. So, I decided to come up with a quick and simple way to do it! A rectangle with 9 pegs. Yippee❗ (I just felt like saying yippee) Ok, let's just get to how I made the back lid. (I honestly was doing this one on the spot without any plan so there's no sketches for this)
Let's start with the top-down view again. I first CLICKED Create Sketch then CLICKED the TOP plane.
Then, I made another 33mm x 13mm rectangle by CLICKING Create --> 2-Point Rectangle. After that, I CLICKED and used the OFFSET function on the left, top and right rectangle walls with an offset of 2mm.
After that, I CLICKED the Line function to join up the 2 unconnected ends at the bottom, then, I marked out 9 circles evenly across the back so that I could make 1mm x 1mm x 2mm pegs by using the EXTRUDE function. (This is similar to how I made the holes on the gantry head back surface) The whole back lid is extruded 2mm and the pegs are extruded another 2mm.
Andddddd WE'RE DONE❗ Now all we need to do is assemble the Gantry Head and Gantry Body together so that it won't be 3 parts in total but only 2 instead! (It really is THAT easy to 3D design guys)
Chapter 3.4: Execution Stage!
this is actually the final stretch in designing
This part is actually quite simple, we just need to use only TWO functions❗
I first used the ALIGN function for the Gantry Head and Gantry Body. I did this by selecting 2 edges that are on the same axis.
After that, I used the COMBINE function to combine those 2 bodies so that they could get printed together (and remove the ugly lines)
Lastly, we just need to align the Back Lid to the Gantry Head so that it is easier to visualise how the 3D design works!
"It's- omg. It's a surreal feeling, we did it. WE DID ITTTTT" - Jayson Tatum
Here is a 3D model of the gantry that YOU (yes you) can view❗
Ok I'm sorry, we went through 3D Designing only and not 3D printing. BUT DON'T WORRY THIS PART IS REALLY SIMPLE.
After I finished the gantry design, I still had to export the file into a .STL format. After that, I can open the file in CURA❗
Q: "What's CURA❓"
A: Cura is a slicer software and in layman's terms, it's where you choose how you want your 3D Design to look or, print like❗
The first thing I did in Cura was make the back lid lay flat so it doesn't topple over when printing.
After that, I positioned the gantry in a way that required the least amount of support. This can be seen in the picture below❗
Next thing I had to do was adjust the following 3D Printing Settings: Resolution, Infill Density and Pattern, Support Type and Build Plate Adhesion❗
For the Infill density, I chose 20% as I did not want potholes to appear from having the density too low or having the print to take too long by increasing the density too much.
For the Infill pattern, I chose the triangular grid pattern as it is a strong infill pattern which provides good support for walls.
For Resolution, I chose 0.2mm as there were no parts or space between parts that were smaller than 0.2mm. So it really wouldn't affect the print THAT much. (it saves printing time too!)
For Support Type, I chose the basic normal supports instead of tree type support as, first of all tree takes longer to print (and looks too weird imo) but since I have a long bridge in my gantry, it would be better for 'fuller' supports.
Lastly, for Build Plate Adhesion, I chose Skirt (no not the clothing) as my gantry and back lid both have a large surface area in contact with the build plate so there's no chance of it topping over.
Hence, here's how my model would look like if it was 3D printed❗
(it only takes 1h12mins too!)
Chapter 3.5: My Journey + Review
this is so unlike me
My Takeaways
To my fellow coursemates reading this, this part may be boring soooo (now's your chance HAHAHAHHA). When I first heard of this assignment, I was DREADING😭😭 to this. I didn't really have much creativity or drawing/imaginative skills. (I joined this course because I thought I wouldn't need to be so trained in these skills) It kinda also didn't help that my task was a bit...questionable. (toy car park gantry??) Initially, I felt so lost when using Fusion360 and it was the first time in a long time that I actually had a steep learning curve in something (does that make sense?) I've had multiple sketches for potential ideas of a gantry (and my teacher had to listen to it, SORRY) and after each sketch, I would be doubting my capabilities on whether I could actually design it or not😵 BUT, with some helpful YouTube videos I did manage to do it in the end. I felt a ✨huge sense of accomplishment✨ after finishing the Gantry Head and then the Body and lastly the Back Lid. Even though I did explain it to be simple, the idea of imagining one wasn't for some reason. But, in the end, I still did it. So, one thing I, or honestly anyone can really learn from this experience that I had was, even though you may not be good at something at first, there's always help somewhere and all you need to do is just adapt and persevere💪💪💪 (wise rakshan fr)
Okay that's all HHAHAHHAA see you in the next blog! BYEBYE!!
Well well. Yes indeed you did it. It was an experience myself to hear you talk about your gantry for weeks. (ง ͠ಥ_ಥ)ง
I know that you dread anything design. BUT training yourself to think creatively, out of the box is important to develop a creative mind; that is able to handle the demands of a rapidly-evolving and complex world. EEVEN if you were to say that you will never want to do anything design related in the future, this experience was meant to challenge you in ways that our other modules wouldn't.... and I hope you see the soft skills gained in doing so. („• ֊ •„)
Ms Tan