Creating sloppy parts to ensure perfect fit - 3D design for 3D printing

[@Mate2Frio]

If you can't have precision you use adjustability.

[@JBMetalShop]

And use adjustability to archive precision

[@TestTest-eb8jr]

Precision is hopelessly overrated....

[@Piccyman1]

@@TestTest-eb8jr not really, sometimes there is no room for adjustability

[@FasutonemuMyoji]

Adjustability also adds to installation / finishing time. This is absolutely an excellent tradeoff for prototyping or single use solutions. It just doesn't scale well unless you have a factory full of people to assemble lots of parts 24/7 and then a quality control department to check that everything is adjusted in spec. So it's great, but just shifts costs from iteration and design time, to installation and final alignment.

[@smorrow]

@@TestTest-eb8jr Are you saying lego is overrated

[@automaticprojects]

Great tips and clever designs.

[@marcusone1]

Tip: use variables for your "gaps/slop" offsets. That way if isn't quite right, its very easy to change quickly, especially if you have a few spots you have used the same value.

[@bermchasin]

I design a lot in openscad, and a classic variable at the top of all my files is the "bufferdim", It lets me raise or lower a part by a thou or so, negligable, but it helps with the quick render. Then I have another "gapdim", which is for clearence fits. With complex parts though sometimes I need to create special params for certain parts, and then it gets complicated, with bufferdim2 or bufferdim_toppart etc.... im not good with keeping my naming conventions.

[@kpatrickm]

Nice DIY on the "possible" Miniature Goat guillotine.

[@lensman5762]

3D prinitng is great for prototyping before a design is finalised and the parts are then produced by proper tooling. As a one off project it works great. Right now I am finalising the printing of a 5X7 large format field camera ( not my design ) using my CR10S pro which is working at its limits. Very impressed so far. Its great of you to show how a 3D printer can be made good use of for practical projects rather than just printing useless toys.

[@soggynode]

Something I've found helpful in my designs is a part I printed with several holes that get progressively larger. It looks similar to a drill bit size template. It's printed on the printer I use most often for practical prints with the nozzle and resolution I typically use. I use the printed template to select a hole size in my design based on the screw size and the clearance I need. Since it was printed on the printer with the nozzle and settings I use, I know that's the hole I'm going to get. Not very scientific but it works for me.

[@FasutonemuMyoji]

Be careful when modifying or updating any slicer settings, the way it treats holes can vary even more than the printer, "lost in tech" has a video on why holes are never exactly what the stl file expects and how to fix it. (It has to do with how walls are built by the slicer, and which way it averages the extruder line width which is a squished tube and not a line)

[@yru2501]

Hi, when printing templates you can turn off top/bottom layers and just leave 2-3 layers of "grid" infill around 20-30%. Works very well.

[@lucafrix9687]

Fantastic idea, I’ll definitely be using this

[@UndCon]

Great as usual! I add "slop" or margins due to shrinking, Especially on DIY solutions which are the best and gives most satisfaction reward. Recently I was printing a 1 meter long tube to make a lamp in my office. the shapes was trial and error for a telescopic fit without slop and the parts are printed in vase-mode. A great RGB-LED strip powered by WLED and an NodeMCU. DIy projects at the finest. Now a tablet holder for my motorcycle and ADV-buttons for navigation. Makers do what makers do.

[@1_HighDuke]

Hi Michael, great tips as usual. For the wire/string of the door, I recommend printing and attaching a small spiral spooler to the motor that will ensure the wire spools the same way every time. We use this a lot in building greenhouses.

[@darrennew8211]

1) Get a metal calipers (like the one in the link), not all-plastic (like the one in the video). The difference in price is well worth the frustration of the 100%-plastic ones being crap. 2) Another way to make it work if you're trying to snug-fit two printed parts that are big enough (say, anything over 15mm diameter) is to make one of them as much as a couple mm smaller, then use teflon tape around it to get a nice friction fit.

[@sail4life]

Another great installment in the best 3d printing design tutorial series on the 'net! Thank you for putting out this excellent content. You are a great teacher.

[@aschreiber]

Onshape has a nice Hole tool that will do the counterbore for you using standard sized hardware. It also makes adjustment easier since the last thing you want is to update the diameter but not the counterbore. Also helpful for doing drawings. I'd also mention you want to be very cautious about print orientation for things like this - you ideally want the part your clamping around to be going along the z axis of your bed when you print (this is a place where a picture is 1000 words...)

[@transatlant1c]

As in, you want the direction of stress (I think this is tensile?) to be coplanar with the layer lines right? Im not an engineer :)

[@aschreiber]

@@transatlant1c I think you got it. Or less fancy words - you want it to flex along continuous deposits of filament instead of across layers because the layer bonding is almost always weaker.

[@transatlant1c]

@@aschreiber yep that’s what I meant haha. Not sure why I worded it that way. Utilise the strength of the material not the strength of the layer adhesion 👍

[@daarshg]

This is a great series and an excellent episode for an amateur , hobby designer like me where I make functional stuff for personal use.

[@sd4dfg2]

You see box with adjustable motor mount. I see future home for bees. As a noob to both 3d printing and design in general I'm really unsure of how tolerances are handled. Thanks for the tips!

[@TeachingTech]

I am thinking about a blanking plate that holds a short length of PTFE tube for the line to run through, but otherwise float in the bottom on the enclosure to seal it off.

[@zen123w]

I would love to see you print a gear assembly to increase the lifting force of your motor.

[@Graham_Wideman]

The motor he's using is already a gear motor. Gear motors are available in many combinations of motor torque, voltage vs speed, and gear ratio, so you can pretty much order what you want, and not fuss around with designing your own gears.

[@kimmotoivanen]

Or counter weight to make the motor work less :)

[@ClokworkGremlin]

Item #1 came out looking very nice and professional. The astute observer will note that the drumhead mounts of the set were actually designed the same way, with an open gap that uses a bolt to close it up and provide tension to keep the part in place.

[@MarcelRobitaille]

9:30 in onshape, you can make slots like that just by drawing a line then clicking it with the slot tool. The slot tool is hidden under outline by default.

[@lcjnsb]

Great video, I agree with designing slop into 3D printed parts. The only suggestion I could make is MORE GOATS 😃

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic, Michael! Thanks a bunch for all the tips! 😃 And as a Brazilian, thanks for the t-shirt! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@louis-ericsimard7659]

As always great content very well taught. Aside: you'd get much easier designs (and a stronger bolt catch) by using square bolts. The longer moment in the shape allows the plastic to resist torsion better.

[@kleincrossi]

This is the first Video where I see some really useful things instead of a dump ship or anything

[@reverse_engineered]

These are all excellent recommendations! This simple clamp can be very strong even with little pressure on the bolts. The surface area and roughness of the clamp is what allows a little bit of pressure to give a lot of holding force. It's sufficient to even make powerful CNC mills, like the MPCNC. One thing to watch for is not to tighten the bolts very much. It only takes enough to provide friction between the clamp and the tubing. The clamping forces are concentrated where the bolt is, so over tightening will break the clamp there. Tighten it just enough that you get a snug fit of the clamp on the tube. If you can see the ends of the clamp flexing, you're going too far. Slots and oversized holes with washers are also a universally good trick. It can be difficult to keep things square this way, but it gives a lot of freedom for adapting to imperfect dimensions. Look closely at manufactured parts and you'll see these kinds of approaches used all over the place, especially on cheaper parts. Precision is expensive; we can avoid it with flexibility.

[@gizmobowen]

88 was the first year I started watching F1. Ya, I know it's kind of late, but I'm in the US and F1 was a foreign sport. Fell in love with the McLaren team and the 15 out of 16 season of Prost and Senna. Your shirt brought back good memories. Don't think McLaren will have that kind of season this year, but hope Oscar does well.

[@TeachingTech]

I just finished watching Bahrain. Oscar looked ok until his car broke, and Lando looked quick in between his million pit stops.

[@gizmobowen]

@@TeachingTech Ya, I knew they hadn't reached all their design targets, but I didn't think they'd have reliability issues. At least Pat O'ward had a good day in IndyCar.

[@zpinacz]

Very inspirational ! Would be great to see some tutorials on the electronics side of such projects.Thank you for the top class content !

[@RomanoPRODUCTION]

I feel so sloppy now so I feel more flexible. Thanks Michael.

[@kurogawa]

This is so cool! Color me INSPIRED!

[@lesumsi]

Really Like the idea of the 2-layer drilling template!

[@reverse_engineered]

One suggestion for your door lifter. Instead of precisely mounting the box, you could precisely mount an idler pulley. It would be much easier to align the pulley than the entire box. Being off a bit between the box and pulley won't cause binding nearly as much as being off at the door. You might also want to make the door less susceptible to binding by giving it some smoother slides. Some V wheels on bearings would hold the door panel nicely, similar to how it is used on cheaper CNC machines. Of course, both of these suggestions are extra complications, but they may be less complicated than trying to get perfect alignment or using brute force to overcome friction.

[@jerbear7952]

Lol. that A drum tablet holder is one of my first planned projects now that I have my printer

[@ScarfaceHR]

Love the shirt, mate!

[@Piccyman1]

The all in one drill and tap tools are very good

[@spayder26]

A pretty nice wasp nest you built for your goats fence.

[@CatGus]

Awesome series truly the only reason I can design my own parts. A video on designing Print in place mechanism would be great

[@sd4dfg2]

Oooh that would be nice.

[@LicheLordofUndead]

Hi Michael, good points, I recently designed a verse mount for my microcomputer to mount to the back of the TV, I wished I had seen this sooner, I would have saved a 1/2 roll of PETG filament

[@ulimacha]

You can add a counterweight to open the sliding panel more easily.

[@greg4367]

Informative, as always. Thank you.

[@aL3891_]

fantastic stuff, i love these kinds of projects!

[@brandonraineri]

Crush ribs are also a great way to make a sloppy model while still achieving precision during assembly.

[@nilton61]

For establishing fit i often use Onshapes Thicken feature. You design the feature to nominal dimensions and thicken (or thin, since Thicken can remove material as well) so that the fit is right. This way you only have to use nominal dimensions.

[@proxlamuz4591]

Love the shirt!

[@Walt1119]

A great video and great ideas in determining layouts and fitment! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

[@JordiSanchezF]

Great ideas, i love this format videos to learn

[@lowisoftw]

Excellent content, you rock man! :D Thank you, kind Sir!

[@conorstewart2214]

I’ve designed quite a lot of stuff but never experimented with clamping things like this, I definitely will have to now.

[@kurtlindner]

-also cutting small circles in corners for a tight press fit.

[@BBoeskov]

Simply love your videos 🙂

[@avejst]

Great projects Great walk-through of the design process Thanks for sharing your expirence with all of us 👍 😀

[@slabua]

I use the counterbore option from the hole tool and the slot tool itself for the slots

[@andyb7754]

Very in formative video, thank you.

[@itsreallytom4310]

Awesome shirt

[@xenontesla122]

As long as your parts don’t need to be air tight, adjustability is a great way to make things fit.

[@Nicole.Granzow]

Hi! Hope you are having a nice day. Could you please make a video about "knot" patterns? Or something to simulate textile patterns with TPU. Thanks a lot! 😊

[@spudnickuk]

Thank you for sharing This is a common problem many people do have when making fixable items If i make slots or holes or even cylindrical parts that need to be bigger or small than what it needs to go inside or outside without it binding. I do a test model and see how much the material shrinks or expands, this also depends on the amount of material being used/dimension's Then i just adjust to suite , without compromising the strength ,

[@tomsko863]

The Door Opener looks like a great design so far. That steel box looks awesome. My only recommendation is to carefully consider where you can add drip edges. As a rule: Don't hope water goes where you want it to go, make it go there. Question: 2:31 - I see you used a ratio of about 0.66 between the slot opening and the pipe diameter (25mm / 37mm) for the drum kit, but then changed it to 0.82 (28mm / 34mm) for the door opener (6:39). Why did you make this change?

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

For nuts, I put a very slight draft on the hole so it becomes interference at the bottom.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Could you explain the merit of this technique?

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

@@Graham_Wideman the nut won't fall out after its been 'seated' in the recess. Otherwise I've found, for some of my designs, that glue is needed to retain the nut if the bolt is ever removed.

[@Graham_Wideman]

@@OldCurmudgeon3DP Ah, that's what you meant. I was visualizing the wrong thing. I think I was thrown off by your use of "hole" rather than "recess" in which to place the nut..

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

@@Graham_Wideman proper terminology reduces confusion 👍

[@stanleyyyyyyyyyyy]

That ipad will sooner or later get a solid hit with a drum stick 😀 anyway, you did a nice job there!

[@dev-debug]

Something interesting i noticed with prints when not allowing much room for fitment. Parts that fit using PLA you can reslice and print with PETG and it may not fit. I can only assume it's due to changes in viscosity when extruded. Not much of a difference but it can lead to some extra work post processing.

[@davak72]

Yeah, viscosity, but also extrusion settings. If you’re reslicing, it’s probably to change settings like extruder temperature and corresponding extrusion settings

[@jo_naash]

5:33 Bro built a goat guillotine 💀

[@Phoenixsims.02]

Love the vid

[@Phoenixsims.02]

Or at least the idea because I just got here

[@viper2788]

nice shirt!

[@ktech6778]

i would love to see more of the goats :)

[@TuttleScott]

for my chicken coop door I use a servo with a threaded rod. keeps it from being pried open by raccoons.

[@T00LF00L]

It’s not built-in slop, it’s built-in adjustment.👍🏻

[@paulgupta2454]

Why PETG instead of ABS? I'm curious how it will hold up in the sunshine in a hotbox.

[@TilTisback]

"if you cant make it precise, make it adjustable"

[@toekie3352]

dont forget to add some sort of protection to the bottom side of the metal 'guillotine' plate, you wouldnt be the first one to accidentally behead your animals if something fails. Normally a car rubber or a pvc tube or some wood would be enough. But just keeping it as is, its a potential death trap.

[@delliott777]

Would a Resin printer or additive printer be best for making boxes/cases? I want to make dedicated boxes/cases for various hand tools.

[@MechaUsagi]

Goats!

[@thejll]

Is there a way to make parts match? If I have holes in one part, I can make it subtract from another part, leaving pegs where the holes are, but I need to shave off a layer on the peg part to enable a fit. How does one shave off a layer all over a part?

[@svdworkis]

i wonder about creep with some of these clamping solutions... are you seeing much of that? i wonder if petg is less creepy?

[@lunai0076]

I wish to have time to learn fusion 360

[@AppliedMathematician]

What kind of gearing is that in the mantis clamp. That looks like an innovation of my company that is pending for patent, but could not be patented because of permanent sabotage? Where does that come form? Somebody may have stolen it to sabotage me. A pattern since Years.

[@BitSmythe]

7:59. Why do Brit’s insist on adding an extra “i” to aluminum?

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

There's more than *one* way to design a sloppy part...

[@RinoaL]

Eventually you realize everything is a prototype.

[@1z1l3m0n]

YaYeet"a! aawe!

[@dustinpoissant]

Why would you want to measure an iPad mini, cant you either a look up the official dementions from apple, or B find a model that someone else has created and design around it.

[@-martintheengineer-7465]

👍

[@116FPV]

Ahh plastic calipers!

[@Aknoxinvestimentos]

YOU RECEIVE FROM ME A HUGE COMPLIMENT ABOUT YOUR SHIRT!

[@MCsCreations]

Hello there, fellow Brazilian. 🖖😊

[@Blender3DProjects]

I hope you come bank and show us the end result of your door system

[@oljobo]

That's not "a tablet". That's an iPad 🍎 😊

[@Graham_Wideman]

Please explain how an ipad does not fit the category "tablets"?

[@MrMegaPussyPlayer]

11:34 Sometimes, due to mechanical forces (or vibrations) applied to the part, a friction fit just doesn't cut the mustard. In that case, a toothed slot can be used, along with a stopper part. Once you have it positioned the stopper(s)*, that grabs onto the teeth, reduces the slot again to a smaller size. The bolt and washer then fixes everything in place, like with that design. Only that it can't slip all over the place when friction isn't enough. *= (which can be one or two depending on where it ended up)

[@subhradeepsharma]

You have a son ? 😧 Bro you are a son. Wtf.

[@MrMegaPussyPlayer]

5:57 Sure! Not if the goat eats the battery cables. Also, it's _Chinese_ 1.5 kg. That means in reality it 15g. :p

[@skimpypockets]

I was also shocked to see you not add a larger gear plate for reduction.Or maybe you are just being sneaky and will do a sungear mod to the tiny motor output shaft eh?

[@Graham_Wideman]

I'm pretty sure that's a gear motor he's using.