Inspired by Slats - Sub-Driver Cradle

[trout]

When John posted this picture with his stand, it inspired me to make one for myself. I saw the value of caring for my WTC and got tired of it rolling on the table.

I have been playing with a 3D printer. I drew up a quick design, it is really only two parts, a base and a support.

After drawing it out it goes through a slicer that builds the instructions for the printer.

Then the instructions are sent to the printer, and if everything is in alignment your design comes out.

Here it is.

It fit perfectly together, but as it is (printing orientation and infill or solidness will need to change) it will not last long. However, I now have a pattern I can cast or use as a pattern to cut out of wood.

I kind of like the tech looking black stand.

Now I can make one for my other WTCs.

[Slats]

Wow!!!
you get an A+ for high tech.
That is simply incredible.

J

[Subculture]

Rise of the machines!

[alad61]

Impressive... Most impressive indeed!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Rise of the machines!

Heralding the fall of humanity.

We are headed for a fall, people. When the machines stop some day (and they will, be it EMP, solar flare, chip eating virus, etc.) there will be no back-stop, no Craftsman to save the day.

We don't even teach shop courses in the schools anymore -- such vital hands-on training (wood-shop, machine-shop, drafting-shop, etc.) has been replaced by black-history and diversity training classes.

Welcome back to the Caves, where those touchy-feely courses will serve you not at all.

M

[Kazzer]

Oh! Dear!

I guess it's my turn to be the damp squib here. I have a $60 Harborfreight Jigsaw that could churn that out from a bit of scrap plywood in 10 minutes.

Actually, on thinking more (always dangerous) I like the idea of having a paper template and cutting the shapes from triple ply cardboard and soaking them in lacquer.

[trout]

Thanks guys!

Mike, No damp squib here. You're not crushing any youthful enthusiasm or silly "look what I can do" attitude, I did this as a fun thing to do. Inspired by John and then looking at the 3d printer (you could have seen the light bulb above my head). I have a scroll saw as well, but I will say drawing it out in a program allowed me to make my mistakes electronically (no wasting of wood - I am such a tree hugging, tie dye wearing, Birkenstock sandal kind of guy cough, cough :-) ) and still learning the ins and outs of the 3d printer. We will have a CAD class here next year where I work and we wanted to be able to use rapid prototyping for the projects the students will create. There is a lot to learn to get a decent print.

David, I argue your point a lot that shop must be brought back to schools. We are denying students a real opportunity to find their gifting or talents when they are not even allowed to explore those skills. I do not agree that we will fall back into the caves, we will suffer then adapt, a certain thinning of the gene pool, but we do weaken our society by not having the hand and eye skills to build like we use to. That being said we cannot bemoan how horrible technology is when we are all right now staring at a screen or the fact that we use non-foot powered scroll saws (after all how would you make your sub-driver if you did not have resin or polycarbonate tubes? - technology is everywhere). Using electronics is just another avenue to bring people into our hobby, it is a different tool. We can collaborate with people from around the world and that is great. I will use technology until that EMP or solar flare wipes us out.

And I save my most mature response for last ....Phfffffft.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Foot powered machine-tools we can understand and make. Micro-processor dependant machine-tools we do not.

Failing to teach the BASICS (thos hand and foot operated tools), leaves us tit's up when the ball falls.

David

[Slats]

Foot powered machine-tools we can understand and make. Micro-processor dependant machine-tools we do not.

Failing to teach the BASICS (thos hand and foot operated tools), leaves us tit's up when the ball falls.

David

Indeed...I thank God every day for the blessing I have in my wife, whom not only allows but encourages both our kids of both sexes, to go into Dad's shop and under supervision learn how to build stuff. We need not only more shop lessons in schools, we need them at home too. There is no PlayStation in my home, no cable TV, but life goes on, amongst a model railway layout, technical lego, and boats and subs. Only downside is I can't work my mobile phone!

Its something special when your 8 year old daughter wants to take a sub to school as her science project.

[Scott T]

Nice job trout.
It's not the smart kids fault!

[Slats]

David, I argue your point a lot that shop must be brought back to schools. We are denying students a real opportunity to find their gifting or talents when they are not even allowed to explore those skills. I do not agree that we will fall back into the caves, we will suffer then adapt, a certain thinning of the gene pool, but we do weaken our society by not having the hand and eye skills to build like we use to. That being said we cannot bemoan how horrible technology is when we are all right now staring at a screen or the fact that we use non-foot powered scroll saws (after all how would you make your sub-driver if you did not have resin or polycarbonate tubes? - technology is everywhere). Using electronics is just another avenue to bring people into our hobby, it is a different tool. We can collaborate with people from around the world and that is great. I will use technology until that EMP or solar flare wipes us out.

And I save my most mature response for last ....Phfffffft.

Well said.

[Subculture]

Something to think about with 3D printing a cradle. instead of modelling it as a solid object, think about making the inner part of each saddle with a honeycomb structure, with just a thin closing plate on each end. This will give the same rigidity as the solid piece, but will weigh a fraction of the weight, and more importantly it will take a fraction of the time and material to print. The long pieces could have multiple tubes modelled inside (think of the way plants stems are structured) to get the same strength and similar advantages to the saddles honeycomb structure.

If you use wood to make a cradle, to a certain extent you are getting this built in by mother nature, Frank Costin called it 'Gods first plastic'.

Who is Frank Costin? Well he was chief aerodynamist at Dehavilland's and also did a lot of work for a certain Colin Chapman, designing chassis and bodystyles (including the beautiful Lotus Elite- 50's version). He was heavily involved with the design of the Mosquito aeroplane, which used wooden construction.Hhe later went on to co-found Marcos cars, which some of you may have heard of, the name being a combination of the two founders surnames Jem Marsh and Frank Costin. Like the Mosquito, their first cars featured wooden chassis, which enabled them to get power to weight ratios unheard of at the time and they were extremely torsionally rigid.

Frank's younger brother was Mike Costin, he also worked with Colin Chapman in chassis design, and later went on to form Cosworth, with Keith Duckworth. Bit of trivia for you to bore people down the pub!

[trout]

Subculture, you are one smart cookie! The infill on the cradle is 20% for all the reasons you posted. Printing it with 100% infill would make it a solid block, but as you mentioned, it could be weaker and certainly wasteful since you do not gain structural strength.