3D Print Design SINS that need to STOP on Thingiverse, Printables, Cults3D etc.

have you ever searched for 3D models online only to find that many of them contain design flaws diminishing the quality of the otherwise great part in one way or another it happens to me quite a lot and I find it actually pretty sad since the fix would often be remarkably simple so let's Dive Right In welcome back Factory owners this video is not about finger pointing I'm really grateful that so many community members take the time to upload their Creations I have uploaded quite a few designs over the years my myself even some waron upgrade Parts but I find myself redesigning something I saw online because of needless design flaws more often than I'd like to admit so in this video I'm not just showcasing those flaws I'm also demonstrating how easy it is to fix them kudos to all model creators uploading an additional Source or step file making adjustments easier and supporting the very essence of Open Source so let's start with the least severe design set a lot of models are designed with unnecessarily thick walls I'm talking about sections that cover any kind of empty space not solid blocks in a model like for example with this power strip holder I found on thingy verse while I totally get the intent behind over Engineering in reality it leads either to weaker prints or wasted material you know the old saying the road to suboptimal prints is paved with good intentions in both cases you'll get longer print times assuming you don't just turn the infill off and hope for the best for optimal results a narrow wall should not have any gaps in between the two sides having gaps means you get less impact resistance for both walls since they can't reinforce each other because of the Gap in between infill doesn't really help in this situation unless you turn it up to something over 50% which is seldom a sensible approach to mitigate that we need to turn up the perimeter count but that leads to a lot of wasted material after all we're talking about a power strip holder the forces involved are rather insubstantial so please don't overdue wall thicknesses my goto wall thickness is usually 2 mm which coincidentally is exactly four perimeters on a standard 0.4 mm nozzle it also neatly matches two inner perimeters of 0.6 mm and two 0.4 mm outer perimeters if you're the type of guy adjusting those parameters which I certainly am Parts designed that way are strong enough for a lot of applications in many cases even that is still over engineered but it's better to be safe than sorry now onto something more consequent itial there are many ways in which geometry can be hard to print having 90° overhangs for example but those are at least printable with some added support material and sometimes the use case even dictates those overhangs what really grinds my gears though is something way harder to recover from without changing the model the floor in question is curved geometry facing the build plate the reason being that the first few layers have such a steep angle that there's no material beneath them this makes those layers sack down while Printing and causes a chain reaction so that subsequent layers also have no material beneath them until the overhang angles get shallow again and the print starts to recover the result then looks like this often that's just a matter of replacing rounded Corners with 45° chamfers while round corners are aesthetically pleasing in a digital design file they're not so pleasant anymore after a messed up print attempt I'll take a Flawless chamfer over around corners any day there are also cases where people simply mimic existing designs optimized for injection molding like with this cloth rack from what we can see on the picture it was probably printed oriented like this and with added support material not only does that result in a few print artifacts it also makes the end Stu weak because of its layer lines I prepared two ways how we can fix the model by daring to deviate just a little bit from its original design the first one is by simply creating at least one flat surface we can print a part on this will make the part A Bit Stronger but it also introduces a steep overhang inside the tube's top which might need some postprocessing later not a big deal if you have a workshop with a round file but not suited for everyone the second approach I came up with is simply introducing a flat area where you can print apart at an angle ideally this would be directly accounted for in a design file with large enough surface area changing the original design a bit to fit our manufacturing process doesn't make it less appealing in my opinion if you're desperate you could also do a poorman's attempt directly in your slicer by cutting off just a tiny little bit and add a large enough brim to prevent it from falling off the bed before I show you my personal Nemesis a quick word to this video sponsor you see even as a small Channel I already got sponsor requests lining up but I really want to keep this Channel free from third party advertisements as you can imagine it's not cheap to create high quality videos but instead of relying on ads or platforms like patreon I want to deliver things of extraordinary value to you that's why I created the fusion 360 fundamentals for 3D printing online course you don't need any prior experience and it goes really in-depth in a concise way that simply doesn't work well on YouTube watch the first chapter for free with the link in the description and a very special Thanks goes out to everyone joining in the last two weeks you you truly are the real MVP to me in case 3D modeling holds no interest to you please share in the comments which topic being covered in great detail would Delight you and thanks for applying Some solid info to the like button while you added now on to the greatest design sin of all in 3D printing the layer orientation is one of the most if not the most important design consideration you have to make when creating anything it makes all the difference in the world between Parts holding strong for years and those snapping off immediately under minimum load a good example is this key hanger I found it's another one of those examples where a familiar shape was turned into a 3D model completely ignoring the production process not only does it need support material to be printed it also has its weakest spot right at the base of the hook if you print it flat on its back the round hooks turning out horrible even with support material it's just the icing on Decay if you'd absolutely insist on printing it the way it is you could turn it on its shortest side adding a brim and waste a lot of support material this ain't pretty but it would get a job done by now you can probably guess that I have some suggestions at hand how to design this more efficiently and above all else extremely strong the most simple variant would be to alter the front of the hooks having them print at an angle of 45 to 60° while this doesn't make the hook stronger it makes them at least easily printable without support material with this variant they can even keep their round shape with no loss and print quality for additional strength I would introduce a straight section which I would reinforce with a metal screw added from behind with threats added directly to the model and additional metal reinforcement the hook becomes virtually impossible to break off at its base I even used that approach when I printed a cosplay helmet for front for perfect print results those antennas needed to be printed standing up which also makes them incredibly Weak by adding a threaded rot they became virtually indestructible and he was very happy with the result in many cases adding metal hardware is completely overkilled though the quickest and cheapest way to make that key hanger really strong is printing the hook separately lying flat on their sides instead of making them cylindrical we designed them rectangular and add a chamfer this also makes for a better fit in the square holes of the base since 3D printers can't do sharp 90° turns there's always a bit of rounding in the printed part another advantage of this approach is that we can now print the base with its front lying flat on the print bed which always looks great if you have a textured build plate ideally you set the hook dimensions for a perfect press fit into the base holes but that involves either precise knowledge of your printer tolerances or some trial and error Prints but there's also nothing wrong with a bit of postprocessing using sandpaper I personally would make the hooks a tad bit smaller and fit them in place using super glue the glue only pre prents the hooks from falling out of the hole and doesn't have to bear any load if you like design challenges you could also add a recess to the base hole and a flexing up to the hooks to make them snap in place in any case you'll end up with a really sturdy and longlasting design I hope this video was helpful and if you want to see more you can subscribe over here or watch another one over there see you in the next [Music] one he

Channel: Small Batch Factory

Views: 123,600

Keywords: 3d printing, diy, fusion 360, CAD, woodworking, metalworking, maker, makerspace, workshop

Id: A1d8aFPtQ8c

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024