Hi from Hamburg, Germany

@poppa

Hi Ronald, welcome aboard!  You have joined the right forum to complement your interests.  You'll find many members anxious to help you with your questions.  And remember, the only stupid question is the unasked question.

I too have gotten into 3D printing.  Just put together a Prusa MK3S+ to replace my original ANET A8+.  What a difference!  I think I've already printed more things on the Prusa in the few short weeks I've had it than I printed on the ANET in the two years I have had it.

Learning Fusion 360 and just made a "template" to locate the holes and cutout on the front panel of a project box to hold the linear power supply from Bill's video.  Now to do one for the back panel cutout.

Again, welcome to the forum.

Posted by: @poppa

Hi all. My name is Ronald. I am a mechanical engineer who professionally designed laboratory equipment for the tobacco Industrie for the last 30 years. Before my studies, I served an apprenticeship as a flight engine mechanic with Lufthansa. But as you might have guessed: This is more than 40 years ago. I always worked on engines and mechanics, repaired cars, bicycles, lawn mower, household appliances, ... You name it.

I always had a hang towards electronics and micro computers. I have played around with arduinos, raspis and ESP32 the past years, got into 3D printing and so on. I copied some electronic projects from youtube. But always ran into trouble when they did not work as expected. I definitely need to sharpen my trouble shooting skills and I will probably come up with a few stupid questions in the future.

I have got a general understanding of electronics but will neither be able to design schematics of electronic circuits myself nor calculate or choose the right size of a component.

As I will retire next year I would like to widen my horizon towards electronics and micro computers to build some fun projects wich spin in my head.

Greetings from the sunny city of Hamburg,
Ronald

Hi Ronald,

Welcome, you will find many members here that will be a good source of advice and help.

Your comment about testing is perhaps something we can all do better!

Enjoy your final year of work and it's good that you are looking forward.

Regards

Ron B

@poppa @codecage

Posted by: @codecage

I too have gotten into 3D printing.  Just put together a Prusa MK3S+ to replace my original ANET A8+.  What a difference!  I think I've already printed more things on the Prusa in the few short weeks I've had it than I printed on the ANET in the two years I have had it.

Learning Fusion 360 and just made a "template" to locate the holes and cutout on the front panel of a project box to hold the linear power supply from Bill's video.  Now to do one for the back panel cutout.

Welcome to the OP, and very cool @codecage!

Please share some pics of your progress and success!

Cheers

@frogandtoad & @poppa

Here are a couple of shots of my templates.  And the 'circle' of holes surrounding the single hole was how I easily located the postion of the 'anti-rotation' hole for the 4-pole switch.  I'll be drilling just the center hole for the shaft and the hole between 3 and 6 o'clock for the 'anti-rotation' pin.  Both templates have a raised lip on the back left side and across the top that are used to help hold the template tight against the edges of the project box when marking the hole patterns.

And the holes in my template for the power connector don't line up perfectly, so I'll just use the holes in the power connector itself to get those holes correctly located once I have the rectangular cutout nibbled out.

@codecage WOW, that is so cool. I would love to be able to do that but I can't understand CAD things like Fusion360 to save my life, I am CAD handicapped.

@zander

This following YouTube link was my documentation of a homework assignment, which I took the liberty to do just a little bit differently, from a lesson on a Paul McWhorter series of using Fusion 360 and 3D printing.  It was just a bit more complex than making the templates.

CodeCage's Homework Assignment

@codecage Yes, it's fairly easy and automatic once you have a CAD drawing, I have tried a few of them and can never get the hang of it. The parametric style for a fairly simple box I can manage, but without examples of corners for screws (which I have) and I like little standoffs to place the perf board on I am screwed. Cutouts are what my drill does easily. I thought I found a really good parametric tool but can't find it anymore, and I don't mean the one you write code for, I mean the one I fil in Length, Width, Height as a starter then maybe check boxes for corner fillets for screws. The search goes on.

Posted by: @zander

I thought I found a really good parametric tool but can't find it anymore, and I don't mean the one you write code for, I mean the one I fil in Length, Width, Height as a starter then maybe check boxes for corner fillets for screws. The search goes on.

Is this the one you were looking for ?

@will No, I have that one but it's code. There are words in there I don't understand either at all, or in context. I do understand LENGTH, WIDTH, HEIGHT, WALL_THICKNESS

I am 100% CAD challenged.

I am sure I had a box maker that was just fill in the blanks but I must have gotten rid of it since a 3D printer can't fit into my lifestyle at the moment.

@codecage

Posted by: @codecage

@frogandtoad & @poppa

Here are a couple of shots of my templates.  And the 'circle' of holes surrounding the single hole was how I easily located the postion of the 'anti-rotation' hole for the 4-pole switch.  I'll be drilling just the center hole for the shaft and the hole between 3 and 6 o'clock for the 'anti-rotation' pin.  Both templates have a raised lip on the back left side and across the top that are used to help hold the template tight against the edges of the project box when marking the hole patterns.

And the holes in my template for the power connector don't line up perfectly, so I'll just use the holes in the power connector itself to get those holes correctly located once I have the rectangular cutout nibbled out.

Thanks, the parts look very impressive!

I really need to get myself a 3D printer soon, and start creating and printing some Blender and CAD models!

Cheers

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@codecage WOW, that is so cool. I would love to be able to do that but I can't understand CAD things like Fusion360 to save my life, I am CAD handicapped.

Fusion 360 is a fantastic Autodesk product, and some of the best tutorials you will find online come from:

Lars Christensen

...Lars is an absolutely great teacher IMHO (especially for beginners), and if you can't learn from him, then you got no hope 😀

If interested, you can start here:

Fusion 360 Tutorial for Absolute Beginners— Part 1

Cheers

@frogandtoad 

Blender has issues creating good STL files used for 3D printing.

@codecage

Posted by: @codecage

@frogandtoad 

Blender has issues creating good STL files used for 3D printing.

Thanks for the heads up... I'll check that out to see if there has been any improvements made in the latest versions and let you know what I find out.

Cheers

@will I've been using TinkerCad for cad drawings, and circuit deign..

It's fairly easy to use, and most of all, it's free software...

for those of us Cad impaired....lol

regards,

LouisR