Trying to plan a 3D small printed mod.

[BliND123]

I like the look of side mounted tanks on mods like the Microstick, Gizmo, Kato, etc. but some of them aren't in 18650, look heavy, could be smaller, more compact. I thought I'd try my hand at designing a small box mod using parts off fasttech for 14mm tanks on an Ego board X6 3.2-4.2V VV Variable Voltage Control Module this is just as like a first try to play around with. I'm thinking of using ShapeWays but I've never 3D printed anything so not sure what to expect with any other company anyways. No plans on sub ohming on this thing, just plan on sticking an 18650 in there, stealing the battery contacts off this 1*18650 Battery Case with Connect Pins using this 510 Connection and that Ego board I mentioned above. Any problems with my plan that aren't obvious to me?

Here's the box in Fusion 360 so far, Imgur Still need to add slots for the battery contacts (or might shorten the box and just straight up tight fit against some wire) and slots for a plastic piece the 510 will be slotted into to basically make it height adjustable.

Also started to design a 22mm mech mod, Imgur plan on putting a button below where the 510 would be and trying to think of a way to get the battery in and have a sliding panel with contacts on it for connection.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

It should work....shapeways is a great source and the cheap print is pretty accurate.

 

[BliND123]

It should work....shapeways is a great source and the cheap print is pretty accurate.

I finished my last edits to my 3D model last night:

So now I've been trying to decide on where to print it and how to print it. You've used Shapeways before? 3Dprintingpricecheck.com was quoting about $17 from Shapeways, which I would be fine with, but when I went on there it was telling me $34 (actually now it's telling me $51 after it had to do some "fixes" to my lose parts) as the cheapest option. So I was looking around and found MakeXYZ which can do it in ABS (I think Clear ABS would look nice, atleast in my head I think it would look nice) for anywhere between $14-$28 depending on infill % I choose. I'm not sure how to use infill at all so haven't decided where I'm going to print it.

Edit: About my 3D model, how much clearance should I have for like the sliding door or the slots where my 510 plate will go for 3D printing? I have 0.25mm clearance on all those and 0.125mm around the button (thinking it'd help keep everything from rattling), are those measurements too tight?

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Filament printing would produce results to your liking. I use .25 as a start as the parts are not that accurate and you typically need to sand to fit.

 

[BliND123]

Filament printing would produce results to your liking. I use .25 as a start as the parts are not that accurate and you typically need to sand to fit.

Is filament printing different from ABS, PLA, and Nylon? I'm not sure what ShapeWays prints in but from what I've found ABS seems to resist more heat than PLA and isn't as brittle as PLA. And I went ahead and changed the dimensions of my button so now I have 0.25mm clearance around all moving parts. Still unsure about the infill option, from what I gathered Googling it seems infill is more for like items that have a thickness that might not need to be completely filled in besides the outside surface, but with my item having 2mm walls for the most part will infill matter much? I mean if like 5-20% is enough and anything higher wont make a difference then I'd rather save the $10-$12.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Sorry....I left out "not". Brain dead today. For the detail in your model you will want laser based printing.

 

[BliND123]

Sorry....I left out "not". Brain dead today. For the detail in your model you will want laser based printing.

Oh, I see. Well, I was also asking about infill stuff on Reddit and some guy contacted me about my print and he said he'd check it out (looks like he owns a 3D printing service) and tell me if he thought he could print it for me.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Given the size of your model and wall thickness, I would assume it should all be solid.

 

[BliND123]

Given the size of your model and wall thickness, I would assume it should all be solid.

Yeah, look like this guy is giving me a great deal, he said he'd do it with 100% infill and the clear ABS I asked for for only $16 (throwing it in with some other prints it seems so also not charging me setup fees). 100% infill was showing up as $23-$28 depending on layer height I chose (0.1mm or 0.2mm) so either way still an amazing deal.

Edit: And I'm still not sure what exactly infill does in parts with walls this thickness. Like does the printer do 0.5mm lines? So if I had chosen 5% infill would it have been about 1.5mm of almost empty space? I need this dumbed down for me...or else get a scratch off ticket so I can get my own printer and see for myself. LOL

 

[BlueridgeDog]

From my experience, infill is either built into the part or not. In your case it looks like the part is a solid and will be printed as such. Now to achieve proper infill, you would design the part with hollow areas inside of structures, but for the size of walls and other items you have, it is moot.

 

[BliND123]

Finally got my 3D print and started working on it. This definitely has more cleanup than I expected:

Hopefully I can take off all this extra crap and make everything fit right. I threw a battery in and the 510 in to see what it would look like finished:

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Looking good. A bit of a rough print.

 

[BliND123]

I got it together and it's working great, . Yeah it was pretty rough, but it was good enough that I decided to buy a 3D printer.

 

[BlueridgeDog]

Great...what printer are you getting?

 

[BliND123]

Ordered the Wanhao Duplicator i3, Duplicator I3 - Steel Frame – Wanhao USA Saw this 3D printer mentioned often in Reddit and I liked that it has a long list of materials it can handle, ordered ABS, PLA, and PETG, one of each to try out...looks sturdy as hell too, I see many others around that price range that look fragile.