Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

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LHC
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Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:21 pm
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Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

Post by LHC »

Not much of a project but FreeCad was involved so figured I'd post it up. I have a towel warmer that's getting installed in a bathroom and has to be mounted precisely due to a hard wired electrical feed and 4 square tubes that go over mounting blocks that are fastened to the wall. The electrical is fixed and can't be changed, and therefore the 4 mounting points have to be perfectly located or it becomes a real mess.... I've been to movies like this in the past.

I came up with this marking fixture - little 3d printed cubes with two holes - one used for mounting to the towel warmer and the other for threading a little "point". The plan is to locate the towel warmer on the wall by hand - fix the electrical in place, make sure it's level, and then push the whole assembly against the wall and make small indents where the mounting screws will go.

I drilled and tapped the holes after printing and made sure to size the holes small enough to "post process" them.
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Beaver
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Re: Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

Post by Beaver »

Looks like a good approach, hopefully we can see the final mounted towel warmer once you've used this fixturing tool.
LHC wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:54 pmI drilled and tapped the holes after printing and made sure to size the holes small enough to "post process" them.
You can also print threads, which obviates the need to tap the holes. Although you do have to give the threads looser than 1B clearance, especially with small threads such as M3 × 0.5. I had been doing that in my projects with a spiral cut, but I'm curious as to whether some of the fastener workbenches might have tools for doing that.
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Shalmeneser
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Re: Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

Post by Shalmeneser »

PartDesign_Hole :
Model Thread: if checked a real thread is modeled. This consumes much computing power and is usually not used for models, except for display purposes or sometimes for 3D prints. If it is used, it is advised to check it as one of the last actions done to the model, because recomputes increase significantly. (introduced in version 0.20)
Fastener wb can do it also.
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M4x
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Re: Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

Post by M4x »

Cool idea, I'm looking for more!
LHC
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Location: Canadian Coffee Shop

Re: Freecad and a tiny practical 3d print

Post by LHC »

I'll post up the final installation when it's done but it will not be for awhile as there is quite a bit more work before I get to the fixtures in this bathroom. Thanks for the comments !
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