Post by petek on Mar 9, 2021 7:06:15 GMT
Tonight, my 13 year old son and I raced, a "maker-off", if you will, to see who could make a prototype key fob lock/unlock button for my car the quickest. From 3d model to handing over the part.
Power Route, cutting aluminum
Phrozen3D Sonic Mini, printing in Black
Here's what we started off from the same Fusion 360 model. I exported it as .STL & emailed it to him, let him know, and the clock started.
He arranged his model in the Chitubox software for the machine, and I went into Fusion360 Manufacturing environment, and started creating a setup, coordinate system, choosing stock size, datum point, etc. you know.
In 5 or 10 minutes, my son was taking a USB key down into the garage to the 3d printer. He had to clean up the 3d printer from it's last use, then get it started.
I worked feverishly setting up manufacturing programming strategies, changing my mind on which tool to use. Of course I selected a part that was made up almost entirely of splines, so there's almost no flat edges or planes on the thing. So I had to create construction planes a project the part onto them, to have something to select when doing the inevitable 2d contour (because it can do tabs, lol). I also had to make sure that my end mills weren't going to hit my vice, so of course more fiddling. I ended up with the least amount of machining steps, one part reposition (flip it), and only one tool change.
I get down stairs, grab the extension cord & the circular saw w/a metal cutting blade, and cut a piece of 1/4" thick, 1" wide aluminum bar. I hear my son walk into the garage.. "Ready to get beat dad!?" lol.. dang it.. I know he has to throw his plastic part into the ultrasonic + UV curing station..
Hook up my laptop, start UGS, tell the PowerRoute to Home, while I find parallels & get the bar stock loaded up in my vice, against a stop I recently made. I load the first end mill, and G53 y-500 & x-500 rapid it to the space above the vice, bring it down close to start locating part 0 (default is G54 offset always in Fusion).. My son comes up to me w/ button, "Dad, I beat you.. like always!" Arrggh! hahaha.. I hand him the air compressor line w/out looking. Blow your plastic part off son. a second later he's done. and I'm ignore him while i jog z down 0.1 mm @ a time until light disappears under the ball end mill. G10 L20 z0 goes into the USG console.
Ok, so no big surprise he handed me my ass in terms of time. He literally played video games while I madly set up the machining strategies. Here's our times:
Phrozen3d Sonic Mini (UV-cured liquid resin based 3d printer)
1) Setup5-10 minute setup. He said it was the quickest & easiest setup he remembers.
2) clean up messy station (last time it was use) - 5 min
3) 3d Print - 45 minutes
4) clean up, UV curing, - 10 min or so.
PowerRoute
1) 59 minutes setting up Machining Strategies & exporting G-Code ("post-processing)- in Fusion 360
2) 45 min or so, cutting stock, setup, and cut both sides. (I did not have time to optimize settings, or try push the tooling hard, I couldn't afford to break a end mill in this race,I only had (1) 1/8 ball end mill, so i used settings I knew to be safe).
3) clean up part, cut out tabs, clean up on bench grinder (5 min)
Total:
3dPrinter: 65-70 minutes
PowerRoute: 110 minutes
3d printer & my son are the winner! Good job!
That said, I'm going to use an aluminum button, because it looks cooler than plastic. Although I'll change the design first, both of these are kind of ugly. lol
Final pictures:
FYI: I used a 0.3mm stepover on top surface, fyi. sand paper & a polishing wheel could be done for a smooth polished finish. However these are just prototypes. My son asked to do the race again with an update design, and this time the winner gets an ice cream cone.
smart boy! (Although, all of my machine tool paths are now created, so that will save me like 50 minutes next time around, and he doesn't realize that . They will auto update when I update the design for the most part. I will probably have to reselect some lines or faces, but that will be very quick.
Anyway, that was a fun Monday evening!
Power Route, cutting aluminum
Phrozen3D Sonic Mini, printing in Black
Here's what we started off from the same Fusion 360 model. I exported it as .STL & emailed it to him, let him know, and the clock started.
He arranged his model in the Chitubox software for the machine, and I went into Fusion360 Manufacturing environment, and started creating a setup, coordinate system, choosing stock size, datum point, etc. you know.
In 5 or 10 minutes, my son was taking a USB key down into the garage to the 3d printer. He had to clean up the 3d printer from it's last use, then get it started.
I worked feverishly setting up manufacturing programming strategies, changing my mind on which tool to use. Of course I selected a part that was made up almost entirely of splines, so there's almost no flat edges or planes on the thing. So I had to create construction planes a project the part onto them, to have something to select when doing the inevitable 2d contour (because it can do tabs, lol). I also had to make sure that my end mills weren't going to hit my vice, so of course more fiddling. I ended up with the least amount of machining steps, one part reposition (flip it), and only one tool change.
I get down stairs, grab the extension cord & the circular saw w/a metal cutting blade, and cut a piece of 1/4" thick, 1" wide aluminum bar. I hear my son walk into the garage.. "Ready to get beat dad!?" lol.. dang it.. I know he has to throw his plastic part into the ultrasonic + UV curing station..
Hook up my laptop, start UGS, tell the PowerRoute to Home, while I find parallels & get the bar stock loaded up in my vice, against a stop I recently made. I load the first end mill, and G53 y-500 & x-500 rapid it to the space above the vice, bring it down close to start locating part 0 (default is G54 offset always in Fusion).. My son comes up to me w/ button, "Dad, I beat you.. like always!" Arrggh! hahaha.. I hand him the air compressor line w/out looking. Blow your plastic part off son. a second later he's done. and I'm ignore him while i jog z down 0.1 mm @ a time until light disappears under the ball end mill. G10 L20 z0 goes into the USG console.
Ok, so no big surprise he handed me my ass in terms of time. He literally played video games while I madly set up the machining strategies. Here's our times:
Phrozen3d Sonic Mini (UV-cured liquid resin based 3d printer)
1) Setup5-10 minute setup. He said it was the quickest & easiest setup he remembers.
2) clean up messy station (last time it was use) - 5 min
3) 3d Print - 45 minutes
4) clean up, UV curing, - 10 min or so.
PowerRoute
1) 59 minutes setting up Machining Strategies & exporting G-Code ("post-processing)- in Fusion 360
2) 45 min or so, cutting stock, setup, and cut both sides. (I did not have time to optimize settings, or try push the tooling hard, I couldn't afford to break a end mill in this race,I only had (1) 1/8 ball end mill, so i used settings I knew to be safe).
3) clean up part, cut out tabs, clean up on bench grinder (5 min)
Total:
3dPrinter: 65-70 minutes
PowerRoute: 110 minutes
3d printer & my son are the winner! Good job!
That said, I'm going to use an aluminum button, because it looks cooler than plastic. Although I'll change the design first, both of these are kind of ugly. lol
Final pictures:
FYI: I used a 0.3mm stepover on top surface, fyi. sand paper & a polishing wheel could be done for a smooth polished finish. However these are just prototypes. My son asked to do the race again with an update design, and this time the winner gets an ice cream cone.
smart boy! (Although, all of my machine tool paths are now created, so that will save me like 50 minutes next time around, and he doesn't realize that . They will auto update when I update the design for the most part. I will probably have to reselect some lines or faces, but that will be very quick.Anyway, that was a fun Monday evening!
