3D printable filter attachment

[marcosscriven]

Hi all

What with all the negative press regarding 3D printable guns, I just wanted to spread the word on positive things one can do with 3D printers.

http://www.fabfabbers.com/models/id/127/telescope-by-marcosscriven

I needed a way to secure (obviously extremely well!) some Bader solar filter film - this worked really well as it enabled me to easily keep the film absolutely flat, which I struggled to do with a cardboard attachment. It's also much more robust than a cardboard sleeve.

The only downside is the pink colour! I had expected to need to go through more iterations than I actually needed, so had intended to 'use up' the pink colour on the intermediate designs...

If you happen to have a 3D printer, you can customise the diameter for your telescope, and download it.

Marcos

[Uplooker]

When using solar film, it is best not to have the film flat / taut. It actually work better if there are a few wringles in it.

Ian

[marcosscriven]

When using solar film, it is best not to have the film flat / taut. It actually work better if there are a few wringles in it.

Ian

What's the reasoning for that Ian?

I was following the safey instructions here:

http://www.baader-planetarium.com/sofifolie/bauanleitung_e.htm

"The film must be mounted flat and free of any tension - Only this will provide first class Solar images. The quality of this patent pending material is so high that any wrinkles or strain on the film will lead to a very noticeable deterioriation of optical quality."

[Schorhr]

That's awesome!

:-)

I've made one for 102mm telescopes, but nothing as customizable as this, great!

Isn't it sad that 3D printing is in the news because of all this weird stuff at the moment? :-/

[marcosscriven]

That's awesome!

:-)

I've made one for 102mm telescopes, but nothing as customizable as this, great!

Isn't it sad that 3D printing is in the news because of all this weird stuff at the moment? :-/

Darn it - I was sure I'd looked on Thingiverse before I started - maybe I made a typo in the search. Could have saved myself some effort!

Re the negative stuff in the press, not only is it sad, but it really worries me that some people in government will just read this at face value, and all of a sudden we have draconian controls brought in for something that's essentially a positive development.

[Schorhr]

Happened to me too once in a while :-)

Maybe I should have added some tags, feel free to do so. Sometimes my English vocabulary isn't good enough when it comes to technical stuff.

But as your's is a scad file it's not limited to one telescope size like mine is, so it was definitely worth it.

Indeed. Next thing you know is that you have to take a test and get a printer license

Hopefully I have my astronomy projects finished until then :-)

[Cath]

That's cool

Which 3D printer did you use to make it I wonder?

[marcosscriven]

That's cool

Which 3D printer did you use to make it I wonder?

Not sure if you know much about 3D printer models, but it's 'RepRap' variation known as Mendel90.

I blogged building it here in case you're interested: http://marcos.scriven.org/2012/12/building-mendel90.html

Tooks me about 24 hours total to make, but it's a lot cheaper than buying something like the Makerbots (and a lot more fun)

Are you thinking of getting one?

[Schorhr]

Everyone should have one :-)

They're practically giving them away. You know, in exchange for money

Amazing times. New smaller Printrbot beta-kits sold for $250. It's difficult to self-source a 3D printer for that amount of money...

Will be interesting to see what else is going to happen this year.

Nice blog! (just browsed through it, will do in detail later).

[Cath]

Not sure if you know much about 3D printer models, but it's 'RepRap' variation known as Mendel90.

I blogged building it here in case you're interested: http://marcos.scrive...g-mendel90.html

Tooks me about 24 hours total to make, but it's a lot cheaper than buying something like the Makerbots (and a lot more fun)

Are you thinking of getting one?

HI Marcos

It would be a very useful item to have for all sorts of things. If I had £500 to spare then I would certainly buy one tomorrow (or now even).

Just reading your blog now

[Schorhr]

http://makezine.com/3d-printer-guide/

Great and relatively objectively beginner's guide.

The UP mini seems very beginner friendly, as it should compare to my bigger UP...

The printrbot is probably a good compromise (Price, build time and skill level).

For 500gbp you could buy two (of the new model) :-)

My appreciation to anyone who builds one from scratch, I have attended a build course of a reprap derivate from scratch, and it took over a week to get it to (somewhat) work. But of course the standard models (Prusa and others...) are usual well documented, that build however, wasn't.

[JamesF]

I don't have a problem with pink

Very nicely done though. I am going to have to look into this 3d printing stuff in more detail at some point.

James

[marcosscriven]

I don't have a problem with pink

Very nicely done though. I am going to have to look into this 3d printing stuff in more detail at some point.

James

Well it's Cherry Blossom if you ever do get a printer http://www.faberdashery.co.uk/products-page/print-materials/cherry-blossom-pink/

[marcosscriven]

Just wondered if anyone had other ideas for astronomy based things they'd like that would benefit from the customisation possible with a 3D printer?

[Schorhr]

This probably has similarities to the discussion about a Lathe / CNC going on in another thread right now.

I think as soon as even the cheaper 3D printers can be used by less experienced users to produce quality parts, it will change a lot of things.

The closest to consumer-friendly so far is the UP in my humble opinion, but still, 3D/CAD is not learned within a day or so. Along with clever people like you, who not only share their 3D designs but make them customizable via parametric scripts, even beginners can benefit from a 3D printer.

So far I used the 3D printer for tasks that I would have payed a lot of money for otherwise (1€ camera adapter instead of 20/30€) or created parts not commercially available that would have required me to ask somebody with a workshop and buy a bunch of band-aids :-)

The biggest advantage of a 3D printer is that it's a compact, home-friendly machine, that spits out complex parts that a lathe/mill/cnc may not produce in one piece. But the weakness is the strength of the parts (especially when thin) and precision when it comes to threads or so.

But it's a technology that still progresses, and more and more people will get into it and figure out clever solutions to 3D print.

I just browsed over an article where young kids used 3D printer, and those come up with very neat stuff, as the only things that limits us is our imagination... and those young inventors have a lot of imagination.

To get to a bit of practical examples, next to the sun filter, and stuff I saw at thingiverse (camera tracker, focuser) a few simple things would be handy. Caps and Twist-Cases for eyepieces, as they are either expensive with shipping or not the right size, and also a colimation cap / sighttube /Chesire would be cool (I made a design but I have to re-model some of it's dimensions, sadly, not parametric).

Also I am working on a 3d printed mini dobsonian, folding into a little box that fits into a pocket, and turns into a 60/450mm or 76/300mm telescope. (Cheap mirrors I have here, 20€ table dobsonian and 13€ astromedia mirror).

And a simple flashlight case could be cool. With slots/holders to easy assemble components, perhaps solder free. Those red light flashlights cost up to 50€, insane! All it needs is two red LEDs, a resistor and perhaps a Poti-resistor to dim it down, and a battery holder...

Another Idea I had was a cellphone holder to hold my old android phone, and directly mount it on-top of the finder-scope mounting plate, to use as a push-to telescope via software.

Lots of ideas, little time, and probably nothing for the masses.

[marcosscriven]

Hi Marcus

Some interesting ideas there. By the way, where did you read that article on kids using 3D printers?

3D printed dobson sounds cool! Have you got a link/blog? Do you keep designs in a repo like GitHub?

I like the idea of a torch - it reminded me of an idea I had to have a smartphone cover with a red filter, that could could just slide over.

Marcos

[Schorhr]

Hello Marcos,

only on thingiverse at the moment :-)

I don't know where I read it, either make blog or 3ders.org blog. As I'm studying education, that's a field that interests me.

The 3D printed micro dobsonian is a idea I have for quite some time, and the 13-20€ mirrors are ideal for it. My original design was a bit similar to the lite-scope, it's a bit more like a truss dobsonian now. Still not printable though.

http://ringohr.de/tmp5/telescopeMicro2Dobson345678675.png (not the most recent version of the design, but you get the idea. A bit like my 10" travel dobsonian)

I usualy upload my stuff to thingiverse, though I haven't done much lately there. Lots of projects to upload though.

A lot of nonsense, but once in a while I publish something usefull there :-)

Yeah, I like the red-filter phone Idea. I also printed a openMoko case once (well, at Shapeways, before owning a 3D printer).

Also I have red foil laying around, as I did some experiments with anaglyph 3D glasses.

Ciao!