What's in the workshop? A 3D printer!

[MikkiJayne]

I've been making parts for the manual swap so I thought I'd show how to go from concept to physical part.

The original footrest has to change to make room for the clutch pedal, and rather than mucking around with the original I thought I'd just print a new one.

I started by tracing the outline of one edge of the original footrest on to a piece of A4, and then scanned it in as a tiff image:



Next, I used an online service to convert the tiff image from a bitmap to a DXF vector drawing. This is effectively a point cloud so not that useful yet.



I made the DXF in to a background layer in Autocad and then drew the shape over the top of it. This time its a nice CAD drawing using lines and arcs.



I imported the drawing in to Fusion360 and extruded it. Now we're getting somewhere



After a few hours of measuring the original and making some changes as I went along I got to this



Added the final detail and the 3D model is done



This would actually fit on my printer in one piece, but because of the angles it would need a lot of support structure. That takes a long time to print, and also adds a lot of risk as the support is very weak and its easy for the print head to knock it over resulting in a failed print. To avoid that, I cut it in half





Loaded the first half in to Cura for slicing. 20 hours to print...



First print done





Second print done



Glued together and next to the original



Installed. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, although I'll make some changes to the next one to speed up printing and improve strength.

[steamship]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

I imported the drawing in to Fusion360 and extruded it. Now we're getting somewhere



After a few hours of measuring the original and making some changes as I went along I got to this

You make it all sound so easy. I'm amazed at how you got from that first sketch to the extruded and 'some changes' later version.

[MikkiJayne]

It was about four hours from the extrusion to the first model, then another hour to add the final detail and cut it in half.

[awolfinsheepsclothes]

I didn't understand a word of that! are you sure it is english? and I've spent a couple of hours on sketchup, and Tinkered and watched hours of tutorials on youtube trying to get myself unto speed to buy a printer.
great work as usual MJ.
Dave

[tc4332]

It is English . . .well sort of geek.
I have purchased the same model as MJ and it is a cracking bit of gear and so much cheaper than these things were a few years back.
I'm OK on the theory but I am lucky in that my 36 year old son is also dead keen. He is playing on Autocad at the moment designing something for my model tramway. Just hoping that it all comes together.

[awolfinsheepsclothes]

I still don’t understand but I like it! good job you put plenty of pictures up! You went from a curve extruded too a masterpiece! Amazing I’ve done the tutorials and and that was fine so I went onto drawing what I wanted to make and nothing I had learnt applied to what I wanted to draw with double curvatures.
Respect!
Dave

[Dezzy]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

It was about four hours from the extrusion to the first model, then another hour to add the final detail and cut it in half.

Depending on what version of AutoCad you're using you can import PDF's straight in and scale them to suit

[MikkiJayne]

Fusion 360 can import an image as a background and then you can sketch over the top of it, but I find old Autocad much faster to draw with in 2D, then just pull the DXF in to Fusion and go from there

[PsYcHe]

My oldest is doing a product design course at Uni, and uses Solidworks a lot for his prototyping.

[RS6]

MikkiJayne this is amazing!! can you make the black control knob for the menu system the one you twist, i reckon you would sell out of these fast lol they are always cracking and breaking mine barely works, i know HP is the same