Using a 3D printer to make the building 'Shell'

[Rick]

Jim, that's looking very good.

[Jim Donovan]

Jim, that's looking very good.

Thank you Rick. I need to start being betteer at keepint the model 'clean' I tend to get stuff dirty then have to go back and clean it all up again. in this case the interior.

Jim

[Jim Donovan]

I am going to share a side journey I took today on the pickle factory. The factory needs barrels and wooden tanks, lots of both. So, I have been doing the research on how wooden tanks for pickles were made, much like water tanks it turned out. I won't bore you with all the neat stuff AI helped me find in an hour, just that things were a lot more structured in 1910 then I ever thought. Engineering groups had laid out standards and recommendations for type, size, method of construction, and so on. 

So my big question was what type of band was used to hold the wood boards (turns out on a water tank they are called staves). The band (called a hoop) was normally an iron round band with its ends threaded. Each end was slid through a device called a cinch with a double washer on each side and a nut of proper size put in place to tightened and 'cinch' the hoop tight to the boards. So here is a photo a friend gave me of one:



I thought wow I will just bang this out on Tinkercad and away I go!..... THREE hours later I got it done. On both ends not seen are .5mm round openings to thread EZ line through. I will have the heavy version wrapping around the tank stretched so it holds everything tight. The threads ends go into each side of the cinch, with the underneath side being hollow a dab of CA glue holds everything together. You can see the 'bottom' and the top of the CAD design below:



I had learned the two usual sizes for these was 6 inches and 8 inches. I dropped the design into the 3D printer after converting it and printed both sizes, 20 of each. Of the twenty 6 inch I was unable to get the heavy EZ line through both sides. I could get one or the other, not both and as they are fragile 20 samples and a couple hours later I said OK won't work. I know I'm a little stubborn. The 8 inch size worked first time. I wrapped the band around my test tank and we have a cinched hoop!



So after the better part of a day I had success! Oh wait, the above photo was taken 3 inches from the cinch. Here is that same shot from 18 inches:



OK so it is small, tiny, some might call it a speck and certainly it is a classic example of technology having improved way beyond  what my eyes can see. But I am going to have the coolest pickle tanks around! Now I just need to find a single thread that is elastic so you don't see the multiple strands that make up EZ line when you are taking pictures from 3 inches away!

[deemery]

Nice work!   What made this shape so challenging to capture?

dave

[Jim Donovan]

Mostly me. Tinkercad added a couple of advance shape making tools and I got caught up in trying to figure them out and before I knew it and hour and half had slipped away.

Jim

[deemery]

Mostly me. Tinkercad added a couple of advance shape making tools and I got caught up in trying to figure them out and before I knew it and hour and half had slipped away.

Jim

"Look, a shiny new toy!"     

dave