It's black plastic and shiny. Double whammy.
I tried coating it with flour and using the Makerbot digitizer again, after it failed with just a big glob the first time.
While the Makerbot digitizer produced something which looks similar to half of the original part, correcting the imperfections is still a large job.
Does anyone know of a service which can handle this job?
Mods: if this is the wrong place for this post, please move it.
What is it/can we see a pic?
Developer spray is normally the best thing to use for coating an object
It is a tray for my refrigerator ice/water dispenser. I'll post the pix when I get home.Quote:
Originally Posted by JSenior
Attachment 5600Attachment 5601
Man you're better off designing it yourself. Seriously.
Put it on a sheet of paper with 5mm squares, trace the outline and measure a dozen points. These will serve you as a reference for a spline. The inside groove is probably just as simple to design.
I'm guessing it won't take more than 30 minutes.
well if you have to learn a cad package first - could take a bit longer than 30 mins. But yeah looking at it.
that's the route I'd go.
bit trickier in openscad, but easily doable.
Just put a sketch with a few measurements.
IME, your estimate is wildly over-optimistic. I've already spent more than 30 min and I have the rough shape from the Makerbot digitizer.Quote:
Originally Posted by LambdaFF
I'm using Sketchup, which does not seem to have a spline curve tool.
Doesn't anyone here know of a service which can scan this?
Take a pic of the item import into sketchup and trace it with the follow me tool.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've only used "follow me" to make a sphere (from a circle and a curve). It's not clear to me exactly how to use it as you describe.Quote:
Originally Posted by beerdart
Put here a sketch with key dimensions, I'll design it for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by robosmith
Thanks for your offer, but I have imported a photo into sketchup, scaled it to the major dimensions, and attempted to trace the outlines.Quote:
Originally Posted by LambdaFF
I spent 3+ hours on it, including the enhancement pieces, and printed out the base part. Unfortunately the photo did not scale exactly and some of the features I missed were critical, so I'll be investing more time to get it right.
I was hoping to avoid this by getting a dimensionally accurate scan, but I guess that's hard to come by.
... Probably not that hard but definitely expensive.
My company has several such scanners and the handlers have become "experts" with time and experiments : they get requests from the Group to do things on a steady basis. It would be hard / costly for a small company to keep that kind of expertise.
As above, there's plenty of companies that can do it, but I'm not sure it's going to be cost effective assuming it's just for a personal project (you're talking an hours work using $100k of specialised equipment and software.)
Saying that: if you want to send in to Britain (and don't need me to return it :) ) then I'll do it for beer tokens.
Ok, getting the outer shape is easy, you're making this way to hard on your self. Do the same steps as above, but when you take your photo, put a ruler in the pic, say a 20mm length. Then when you import the photo into SU, draw a 20mm line, and scale the photo to match that line. Bingo, 100% scaling. Then use the arc tool to make the arcs, tracing the picture. If it's a number of arcs with different radii, then make multiple arcs, but only half the item. Then copy/rotate the half arc into a bigger one.
As mentioned. 30 minutes.
But to be honest, I'm guessing every dimension is not critical. There are probably some parts that are open to the air, so design a new one to fit the attachment points, and the rest just needs to be close.
Works too. Splines are cleaner. :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marm
Yep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marm
You need a reference point, to know how long your scan/photo is.
Thanks for your offer J. If I can find the part for purchase in the UK, I'll have it shipped to you. So far, I've only found it in the US. It's a drip tray for a Frigidaire refrigerator water dispenser.
http://www.searspartsdirect.com/part...FUWVfgodLGcA7g
No Problem.
I can't see anywhere in the UK that does it (we don't really have fridge freezers.) There are plenty of places that will ship to the UK but want $25 or so for postage.
Hmm... at that cost, the time spent making one may not be worth it! That said, I'm still intrigued by reverse engineering it. A set of calipers should do you fine, and it looks like, to my eye, there only 3 radii to deal with , so you might be able to get it into SU, and use the arc tool to semi-easily create those radii. Oh well....
Yeah, I'm well past the major radii. I spent a few more hours on it last night and am almost there. The key was those two tabs in the corners which hold it in place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marm
Of course the 5 hours I've already spent include the enhancements, not just the original part.
Seems like there may be a major market developing for inexpensive scanners that really work reliably.
You know, I probably should have used a 2D scanner instead of a photo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marm
And there's the rub.Quote:
Originally Posted by robosmith
Yeah, When recreating bulkheads for my boat (Which have a lot of radii in them, I gave up trying), I used a flatbed scanner, that way it gave me the exact edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by robosmith
Well, I think I've finally got a part that's close enough fit.
One surface that looked flat is actually sloped. My first cut had a same sized edge overhang all the way around, but the actual part varies continuously with a couple of notches.
All told I spent a good 5 hours and 3 prints. Would be nice if there were a good scanning service.