[HN Gopher] How to make (almost) anything (2020)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       How to make (almost) anything (2020)
        
       Author : akeck
       Score  : 172 points
       Date   : 2022-03-07 15:45 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fab.cba.mit.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fab.cba.mit.edu)
        
       | DoingIsLearning wrote:
       | All the videos linked in the class show me a message "video is
       | not rated", saying I am unable to watch?
        
         | ksdnjweusdnkl21 wrote:
         | I wonder how one should host their educational videos to have
         | them be available without ads or other nonsense like this. Any
         | affordable solutions?
        
         | lupire wrote:
         | What do you mean?
        
           | DoingIsLearning wrote:
           | As in the video is not porn/violence rated and I am too
           | anonymous for Vimeo to know if I am an inocent unsupervised
           | child on the internet.
        
       | nomemory wrote:
       | If i am allowed to joke, I was expecting to read an article on
       | Rust.
        
         | bogwog wrote:
         | I think you misread the title as "how to remake (almost)
         | anything"
        
       | chasd00 wrote:
       | Next weekend can't come soon enough :)
       | 
       | I'm in the high power rocketry hobby and got a Prusa i3 mk3 for
       | myself for Christmas. It's pretty amazing to sketch a bit while
       | on conference calls, then after work model my sketch in
       | Fusion360, export the mesh, import to Prusa slicr, export gcode
       | to an sdcard, start the printer and goto bed. Next morning,
       | there's my part waiting for me.
       | 
       | Electronics is the next bridge to cross and i really hope this
       | class helps with that. I know a guy in the hobby who went from
       | nothing to selling a custom designed altimeter for rockets on his
       | website in about 6 months which was pretty impressive to me.
       | https://flightsketch.com/store/catalog/flightsketch-mini_1/
        
         | andi999 wrote:
         | What annoyed me was that the slicer does not mantain hole
         | diameters, somehow holes are smaller. In my case I was planning
         | to prototype cnc milled stuff (which is kind of expensive), but
         | this killed to use case.
        
           | joshvm wrote:
           | This is, I think, partly due to how the slicer routes the
           | filament paths. I've had this problem moving between nozzle
           | diameters and the only reason I could think of was that it
           | wasn't possible for the slicer to maintain both accurate hole
           | diameters and the correct placement of filament relative to
           | previous extrusions. The STL was identical, but the parts
           | printed with a 0.8 mm nozzle were undersized and _only_ the
           | holes. My experience of this was with Cura and an Ultimaker
           | S5. Generally you should always start printing loose holes
           | and tightening them up as you go to see where the limit is.
           | 
           | The simplest dimension to control is the perimeter. That can,
           | for most parts, be perfectly accurate because there are no
           | constraints on where the nozzle needs to avoid. However if
           | you print a hole close to the edge of a part then the printer
           | somehow has to lay down both an accurate edge to the hole
           | while maintaining suitable separation from previously printed
           | stuff. Essentially your design is quantised by the nozzle
           | diameter within the perimeter of the part (I may be wrong
           | here, but this seems like a simple explanation). You may have
           | better results if you tune your part to the printer/nozzle
           | you're using so that the slicer doesn't have to worry about
           | leaving/filling gaps that are non-integer multiples of the
           | nozzle size. In theory this shouldn't matter, because the
           | hole perimeter can also be printed first, as it's an
           | "outside" edge, but it doesn't always seem to work that way.
        
           | chasd00 wrote:
           | i've noticed things shrink a bit when the cool off ( at least
           | with PLA ). What i do is print, test fit, adjust dimensions,
           | then print again. It usually only takes one or two iterations
           | to get it just right. I built a deck once, designed it,
           | spec'd out all the materials i would need, optimized for
           | minimal wastage, the whole 9 yards. I learned the hard way
           | that in the real world dimensions are a matter of degree and
           | what's on the label may or may not be what you get (to a
           | ridiculous degree when it comes to lumber).
           | 
           | I'm use to software where it either compiles or it doesn't,
           | it either works or it doesn't. In the real world with
           | physical objects it's much more a matter of "is it close
           | enough or not".
        
           | dekhn wrote:
           | Holes with interior dimensions close to the width of the
           | nozzle are hard and need to be calibrated if you absolutely
           | need to print them to size. Basically, the plastic is
           | "spreading" a bit wider than the nozzle tip.
           | 
           | better solutions, rather than making exactly sized holes, is
           | to increase the number of vertical walls, make the hole size
           | slightly under, and use a precision drill and reamer to get
           | to the target size. Also, make sure you're setting your
           | scaling right (for example, I need to set my object size to
           | be 100.6% of its designed size, because PLA shrinks when it
           | cools).
        
           | maxioatic wrote:
           | Yeah this is just a thing you have to design around while
           | using FDM printers, as others have mentioned. I really like
           | melting in threaded inserts if you need threads, otherwise
           | use a drill bit or reamer. If you need super tight tolerances
           | (like CNC level tight) then a consumer grade 3D printer
           | likely won't get you there though.
        
             | 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
             | Prusa uses 3D printed parts and I'm a bit surprised just
             | how good the prints are.
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | The slicer does maintain hole diameters, but just like CNC
           | milling HDPE, you should expect dimensions to change a little
           | after printing. If you need to have a tight tolerance fit on
           | something, expect to run a drill or chucking reamer through
           | it after printing. If it's really tight tolerances, it's easy
           | enough to melt or press a drill bushing or threaded insert
           | into an oversized hole to get fits tighter than you're likely
           | able to hit with a mill.
           | 
           | Your expensive parts likely go through many steps before and
           | after manufacturing already that involve things like
           | fixturing the material in place, rotating it and reacquiring
           | datums, running taps through by hand, deburring sharp edges,
           | etc; you should not expect 3D printing to be as easy as
           | sending the STEP file to the machine and getting a complete
           | part out. Sanding, acetone vapor polish, drilling, reaming,
           | tapping, etc. are normal parts of the manufacturing and
           | prototyping process.
        
             | theelous3 wrote:
             | Just an fyi drills are not good for tight tolerances. They
             | cut trilobular holes, not circles.
             | 
             | Reaming or boring are the route to tight tolerances.
        
             | andi999 wrote:
             | Which slicer do you use? It seems to be a known problem of
             | cura.
        
               | sokoloff wrote:
               | I use Cura. It's across FDM printing techniques and is
               | (somewhat) akin to the errors in subtractive
               | manufacturing. Subtractive errors/inaccuracies tend to be
               | of the type that remove too much material. Additive
               | errors/inaccuracies tend to add material.
               | 
               | My models for FDM often include a "hole size
               | compensation" user parameter and I tweak it to introduce
               | an offsetting bias in through-holes. (Non through holes
               | tend to get heat-set brass inserts, which are more
               | forgiving of the 0.1mm or less radial errors.)
        
               | 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
               | You can print a clearance tolerance test to see how
               | accurate your printer is. I use a Prusa mk3s and as
               | accurate as it is, at best my tolerance is 0.1mm. Enough
               | to stop your parts fitting together. I normally build in
               | a 0.2mm tolerance for close fitting parts.
        
           | 0_____0 wrote:
           | IIRC there's a param in the slicers I've used that can fine
           | tune hole sizes.
        
         | roland35 wrote:
         | Next thing you should do is get a raspberry pi with octoprint!
         | Then you can drop the gcode in from your web browser :)
        
       | sanj wrote:
       | Gershenfeld helped coordinate a bunch of folks with COVID work
       | too!
        
       | gabrielsroka wrote:
       | Here's a complete class listing
       | 
       | https://cba.mit.edu/classes
        
       | Metacelsus wrote:
       | See also "How to grow (almost) anything":
       | https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/S63.21/
        
         | forgotmyoldacc wrote:
         | Note that the title is fairly misleading, students don't
         | actually do real practical labs. A random example: https://fab.
         | cba.mit.edu/classes/S63.21/class_site/pages/micr.... Probably
         | because this class was being held during COVID times.
         | 
         | There's no hands on biology work. Homework consists of:
         | 
         | - Find a research or journal article - Propose a technology -
         | Propose a methodology
         | 
         | etc
         | 
         | The 2019 version looks a little better:
         | http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/S66.19/S66.19/
        
       | azinman2 wrote:
       | I never took this back when I was at the Media Lab and that's one
       | of my main regrets from that time. This class is very famous, but
       | I'm not sure how useful this is as an online class because as a
       | normal person you won't have access to the water jet cutters,
       | plastic mould injection machines, etc.
       | 
       | Covid aside, hacker spaces were already dying out in SF. I wish
       | there was more push for ordinary people to become makers rather
       | than just consumers.
        
         | chasd00 wrote:
         | 3dprinters are pretty accessible but you're right about other
         | tools. Also, some of the tools can be pretty dangerous (
         | looking at you lathes/mills ).
         | 
         | IMO one of the greatest things about software development is
         | you can goto walmart and get $500 laptop, sit in a coffee shop,
         | and have access to all the tools needed to build cutting edge
         | high performance software of any type. It's not so easy to do
         | that in meatspace with physical objects.
        
           | adamsmith143 wrote:
           | As someone not much into this scene, how useful are 3D
           | Printers actually? I get the sense that they're very useful
           | to hobbyists or for creating prototypes but are the plastics
           | used suitable for production use cases?
        
             | theelous3 wrote:
             | Without going in to it - there is a massive range of
             | plastics and non plastics of varying quality, expense, and
             | accessibility.
             | 
             | Yes, 3d printing is a legit method for production.
             | _Typically_ if you can have a die made for it you will be
             | better off in the long run with casting. Dies are
             | incredibly expensive however.
             | 
             | Smaller runs or highly specialised and difficult geometries
             | benefit from 3d printing.
        
             | akamoonknight wrote:
             | I think to some extent it's a frame of mind thing. For
             | instance, my friend's vacuum broke for some reason or
             | another, some plastic piece that wasn't super complicated,
             | but was required for functionality. And rather than buying
             | a new one, he was able to model and print the piece that
             | broke and the vacuum is able to work again, but mileage in
             | general probably varies.
        
           | srcreigh wrote:
           | except for video games and deep learning
        
             | baud147258 wrote:
             | depends on the video game. If you target what AAA was doing
             | 5 or 10 years ago in term of graphical quality or even
             | specific style like low polygon, pixel art, 2d art..., you
             | don't really need the cutting edge in terms of graphic
             | cards.
        
         | dannyobrien wrote:
         | Noisebridge is re-booting pretty successfully in San Francisco
         | -- a break during early Covid was either well-timed or
         | overdetermined, because they also had to move venue due to rent
         | rises, but the new space is coming together, and there's a
         | bunch of in-person events now kicking off to celebrate the
         | space's fourteenth birthday:
         | 
         | https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge
        
           | azinman2 wrote:
           | Happy to see they're back! The death of maker spaces in SF
           | has been very sad for me.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-03-07 23:00 UTC)