3D dust caps.

[Chaz2b]

Printed off some more dust caps for the barrel ends, my milkman has yet to deliver replacements! These are off Thingiverse and are a bit tight! Will use a dremel and sander to buff up the interiors. You will notice some stringing on the insides, not a problem as they will come off with the dremel.

anet et4: PLA+ filament.

chaz

[Gasman]

Designed and printed some of these for a few of my microscope lenses. Have you tried the freebie 'Designspark mechanic' cad software Chas? Absolute doddle to design things like this!

Steve

[Chaz2b]

Must admit I’ve not heard of that site so will have a look, I use tinkercad but not that use to it yet, room for improvement.

The Thingiverse item is very tight, so will go back and resize it, even after using the dremel sanding drum!

chaz

[Dr_Ju_ju]

If you're after accurate, design software, have a look at OpenScad (https://openscad.org/) ....  like everything else, it takes a bit of getting to know, but will soon be able to knock up small items in OpenScad, which can then be imported into Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/) for further manipulation etc.

[Len1257]

Tinkercad plenty good enough for simple designs. Use it all the time. To adjust the fit, just as easy to do it in Cura as you will need to go through this step anyway. Would imagine this would apply to whatever slicer you use. Design accuracy is not always matched with printing accuracy, at least on my Ender 3.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Len1257

[barbulo]

I use Onshape (all platforms supported) for my own designs. Free and quite easy. 

[Chaz2b]

Wow! Lots of suggested cads to use, but I’ll stick with tinkercad for now, I do have a friend who uses it more and acts as a mentor to me. Although I started using cads back in 1995 printing out on a dot matrix printer!! It’s still a bit daunting at times, mostly due to all the cads available that each require a lot of tutorial time to even get to grips with, let alone master.

here’s to more 3D.

clear skies

chaz

[JamesF]

Not that I'd want to try to persuade the OP to change to a different CAD package, but just for reference for anyone reading this thread at a later date...

I started out creating parts for 3d printing (and in fact getting together the basic layout of my observatory) using OpenSCAD and found it worked very well for simpler designs, but as my ambitions became more complex I found it becoming harder to get it to do exactly what I wanted.  In the end I decided to make the move to FreeCAD.  It hasn't all been plain sailing, perhaps partially because I have no significant experience of CAD packages, but I'm now finding it much easier to design more complex parts.  It does have it's own little foibles, but if you're considering a change of software then I'd suggest that it's worth a look.

James

[Chaz2b]

That’s one of the problems for the likes of me, so much choice!

Anyway here’s an internal plug..1.25”.. printed with the same stuff.

chaz

[PeterW]

Unless you have flexible filament (which can be a royal pain depending on the printer design) you can snug the fit by deliberately making the fit a little loose and adding a few small strips of duct tape to take up the gap. 0.6mm or so should be fine. 
Sometimes a quick print of a reduced part can help establish critical dimensions… i print blocks with holes when I need a good fit for small holes.

Peter

[Chaz2b]

Ha! My mate suggested putting it into hot water then placing a strip of insulating tape around the barrel end, it wrecked the cap, misshapen and shrunk!

TPU and TPE is the choice for flexible though I’ve not used either, I also have some PETG, but it’s not a good quality filament, you get what you pay!

where’s Gina when I need her?

chaz

Edited June 4, 2021 by Chaz2b

[wookie1965]

I would love one of these making for my missing one. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by wookie1965

[PeterW]

Measure up the hole and post some numbers, should be easy. I’m helping a colleague with a threaded spa plug.

 

peter

[adyj1]

There's an Eq6 one on thingiverse that I've printed - I'll check it in my EQ5 later... 

[adyj1]

Yup, this fits my Eq6 and eq5 perfectly - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:681408

[JamesF]

Which reminds me... I must design a polar scope cover for my EQ3-2.

James

[wookie1965]

How much for one of those please. That would be perfect. 

[Gasman]

On 04/06/2021 at 21:51, PeterW said:

Measure up the hole and post some numbers, should be easy. I’m helping a colleague with a threaded spa plug.

 

peter

Are threads straight forward to design/ print Peter? Not tried threads yet

Steve

[tooth_dr]

26 minutes ago, Gasman said:

Are threads straight forward to design/ print Peter? Not tried threads yet

Steve

Yes and no. Some of the astro threads are not included as a standard thread in the cad packages so have to be manually added.  Sometimes threads are bit tight and can be hard to get started. However I do print lots of threaded covers and they work fine.

I use Fusion 360 which is free, and IMO excellent for even the most complex projects. Little caps like the OP has described can be drawn up in 60 seconds.  I started out using Thingiverse for my first few projects, then just decided I had enough of being limited in choice and restricted in editing of STLs. Now I design everything from scratch and it’s much more rewarding. Four months of practice has got me pretty well on with Fusion 360.

Edited June 6, 2021 by tooth_dr

[PeterW]

I only trust coarse big threads printed directly. You can tap the plastic if you have long enough sections it can work OK, but nothing like making them in metal. The current one has a 3mm pitch and 2mm high thread… should be fine!

Peter

[Dr_Ju_ju]

To generate nuts & bolts, both metric, imperial, BSF etc., I use the OpenScad library (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:965737) which can then be imported into the cad package for further manipulation...

[adyj1]

On 04/06/2021 at 21:37, wookie1965 said:

I would love one of these making for my missing one. 

Pm sent

[bendiddley]

How long does it take to 3D print something, excluding designing it, the actual print time. For example a simple end cap like the one in the first photo?

[tooth_dr]

13 minutes ago, bendiddley said:

How long does it take to 3D print something, excluding designing it, the actual print time. For example a simple end cap like the one in the first photo?

Under half an hour, depending on nozzle size and how nice you want the finish

[Len1257]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Under half an hour, depending on nozzle size and how nice you want the finish

Just checked one of mine and hour and quarter. Obviously gone for fine finish LOL!

I always take the long view. It takes what it takes, plan ahead and get on with other things. Some of my prints have taken two days +.