DIY tube rings

[John78]

So I can't get my 130P into balance due to it being from an AltAz goto mount originally (£30 from astroboot) the tiny dovetail puts the tube in the wrong place with a camera fitted and the wrong rotation also.

I acquired a £147 3D printer kit from eBay a week or so ago, and honestly it's required far less fettling than I thought it would to get acceptable prints so within a day or so of it arriving it's producing prints with correct dimensions.

So this weekend I printed out some tube rings, designed on onshape - which is a proper CAD package for free and cloud based can't recommend it enough - it's like solidworks.  It's even usable on your tablet.

I've also printed a baht mask although it was a right pig to get off the heated bed...

Anyway happy days, next project will be a 3D printed tracker for SLR and lens I think so I can have a portable grab and go setup for the unexpected imaging windows.

 

[Uplooker]

Well done, that's impressive. And all from a sub £150 printer - ? 

[ChrisLX200]

Good thinking to plit the ring into 3 parts to make it fit the table!

ChrisH

[mackem54]

its a longshot but john 78 you wouldnt happen to still have the stl file so i could print these rings im desperate cant find a print file anywhere on the net,

cheers

[Rusted]

Very tasty! What's the weight limit of these printed rings? Or does it depend on the printing material?

Skywatcher and others had better increase its range of tube rings if they are not to lose out to home printing!

I can never find rings for my odd sized, DIY tubes. So I end up with hugely oversized rings with plywood inserts.

I tried various camping mattress, foam packing but the OTA just slides through as it nears the vertical.

Somebody should be offering rings printed to order but not at the usual ridiculous prices of "CNC'd" designer jewellery!

Orion UK's "made to measure" rolled rings only look safe carrying a finder! I wouldn't trust them with a whole 40lb OTA!

[Demonperformer]

Nice going. I keep thinking about buying one of these beasts. Currently trying to learn sketchup - no point spending out on a printer before I can produce the templates for what I need!

[John78]

On 23/06/2018 at 23:13, mackem54 said:

its a longshot but john 78 you wouldnt happen to still have the stl file so i could print these rings im desperate cant find a print file anywhere on the net,

cheers

What size ID do you need?

 

edit : https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b3ca32c49f683181ced7b9c2/w/19a8c116ef8133bc74aad3f1/e/e6c74e997361be5499a91b39

The rings to that design are in part studio 2, Its probably not too robust to dimension changes - need to make a parametric model of it really.

Edited July 5, 2018 by John78

[John78]

On 24/06/2018 at 07:35, Demonperformer said:

Nice going. I keep thinking about buying one of these beasts. Currently trying to learn sketchup - no point spending out on a printer before I can produce the templates for what I need!

Dont even bother with sketchup, its a pretty picture tool not an engineering tool.  Learn onshape, it will be much faster and more satisfying.

[Demonperformer]

Well, yes, but at $1500 per user per year for the standard version, one would want it to be fairly satisfying ...

[Gina]

I've used SketchUp for several years to produce designs for 3D printing but it has its difficulties.  I'd be interested in trying other CAD software so I'll look at OnShape - thank you .

A we bit later...  OUCH!!  Can't afford that ?

[Gina]

"OAP needs free software for designing 3D printed parts preferably running under Linux"

[Gina]

Actually, I wouldn't mind spending up to £100 for decent 3D CAD software.

[John78]

Its free for hobbyists - the only catch is what you design is viewable by the public domain, just name your files with random strings of numbers and letters and no-one can ever find it.

It's certainly as good as solidworks 2007 and its cloud based so works on any device or OS.

[LeoLion]

Please could you provide information on the 3D printer you purchased on Ebay . Technical specification listed by Manuf/Supplier etc .  Trying to resist the urge to splurge but worth a punt at that price. Hoping you can help. Ta

[Dr_Ju_ju]

If you buy a 'new' printer at a low price, you may be sorely disappointed, especially if it will be you first printer.

Try to find a second hand machine, from a 'known' manufacturer, e.g. Wanhao\Creality\Tronxy, who create workable machines & with some enhancements can produce excellent results.

[Gina]

I agree with that!

[Stub Mandrel]

Or buy a quality kit.

[John78]

Well, an Anet A8 with lead screw Z axis and auto bed levelling will be perfectly fine, the kit I bought took a bit of fettling to print PLA properly and its beginning to really struggle now with using PETG - that said it is still in service today with thousands of hours of use.

Did need a new heated bed and a new hot end during its life so far though.

[jase1973]

On 05/07/2018 at 13:28, John78 said:

What size ID do you need?

 

edit : https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b3ca32c49f683181ced7b9c2/w/19a8c116ef8133bc74aad3f1/e/e6c74e997361be5499a91b39

The rings to that design are in part studio 2, Its probably not too robust to dimension changes - need to make a parametric model of it really.

Hi John, Ive taken a look as I'm intersted in some rings too. I can't see a way to download as stl.

any suggestions?

[John78]

2 minutes ago, jase1973 said:

Hi John, Ive taken a look as I'm intersted in some rings too. I can't see a way to download as stl.

any suggestions?

Sign up then in, then copy the workspace using the button at the top, the right click on the part and say export...

Then choose these options and click export, STL file of the part will download.

[jase1973]

1 minute ago, John78 said:

Sign up then in, then copy the workspace using the button at the top, the right click on the part and say export...

Then choose these options and click export, STL file of the part will download.

many thanks,

I'm just waiting for them to process my login

[jase1973]

1 hour ago, jase1973 said:

many thanks,

I'm just waiting for them to process my login

 

1 hour ago, jase1973 said:

many thanks,

I'm just waiting for them to process my login

 

1 hour ago, John78 said:

Sign up then in, then copy the workspace using the button at the top, the right click on the part and say export...

Then choose these options and click export, STL file of the part will download.

thanks for that, what was the inside diameter of the assembled ring?

[John78]

Since there seems to be some interest in tube rings - here is my version 2.0 which I've been using for a while - updated to make it user friendly and more parametric, it also closes radially round your scope - the original version is a pig to clamp up.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/9ef1f49bce695e8da6ea69b0/w/d65720e097e3158a7d97a511/e/9f8f0af085c45ad627ab450e

Hopefully the parameters should be self explanatory and where possible each sketch only contains 1 dimension to be adjusted by the astronomer!

Scope OD - change this dimesion to alter the ID of the ring

Ring Thickness - change this to make a thicker or thinner ring - I'd suggest 10mm smallest diameter < 7mm will break the model

Clamping screw diameter - the size of the axial clamping screw - currently M5 clearance

Closure and foot shouldn't need any adjustment

Clamp extrude sketches - final, no user settable parameters

Foot extrude sketch - final, no user settable parameters

Thickness of tube rings - this controls the overall thickness - I'd suggest 12mm smallest thickness

Thickness of pivot - this needs to be (0.5 * thickness) - 0.5mm

Thickness of foot ring - will auto calculate to the same as the other thickness

Thickness of foot pivot- this needs to be (0.5 * thickness) - 0.5mm

Fixing screw hole - this is currently M6, what you want to screw it down to the dovetail with

 

I print with 4 bottom layers, 4 top layers, 4 perimeters and 50% infill and its strong enough and the dovetail clamp is easily threaded with a tap to screw it down.

 

Let me know how you get on if you print it out!!

Edited July 10, 2018 by John78

[supraman54]

Very kind of you to share this.. I have drawn a blank obtaining rings from dealers and so after editing your design, I have printed out two clamps at 140mm for my scope. 

Once again thank you so much

Tomorrow I will cancel my back order on the Skywatcher rings

 

[Rhino213]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for sharing this design John. Excellent piece of work. Making it parametric was a genius move. I hope you don't mind but I pinched it and tweaked the design a little so I could put a finder anywhere I wanted on the Celestron 130SLT OTA without having to drill any holes.

Here's what I ended up with. Please everyone, feel free to borrow it if you want.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8fd80ab1bd7cb2cab9d08841/w/a997edbec0d818efa4c6657b/e/e9ac3d648a4a3dec659d6425