I finally finished the structural portion of our new bridge. I figured out how to print the cross members all flat to save a lot of plastic. It will require more epoxy to hold everything in place, so that is the next step. The main cross members are 0.25 inch aluminum rod. I used four 36 inch rods, but I had to trim 1.125 inches off of each one. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I still want to primer and paint, and then I'm going to try airplane heat shrink covering film to make sponsor banners on each side. There is only one sensor mounted in the photo, but I have 4 mounts ready to go.
I love the technical aspect to the design! Very cool designing solution to use rods for the main gantry win infill with the tertiary support/bracing, also serves to keep it all squared up. Does the plastic bond well to the aluminum?
I’ve designed a detailed to scale high sign structure similar to yours and shared on FB. I haven’t shared the images here yet, more steps in the process... Would love to get some feedback on feedback on design/fabrication. I priced via commercial print services and it’s cost prohibitive via commercial services. They have a 400%+/- markup.
I love the technical aspect to the design! Very cool designing solution to use rods for the main gantry win infill with the tertiary support/bracing, also serves to keep it all squared up. Does the plastic bond well to the aluminum?
I’ve designed a detailed to scale high sign structure similar to yours and shared on FB. I haven’t shared the images here yet, more steps in the process... Would love to get some feedback on feedback on design/fabrication. I priced via commercial print services and it’s cost prohibitive via commercial services. They have a 400%+/- markup.
I hope the plastic bonds to the aluminum. That will be the next step. Right now it is all held in place by friction. It is a bit of a house of cards. I have had good luck with epoxy in the past with PLA and steel.
I looked at your design and it looks good. I agree that getting that printed somewhere like Shapeways is crazy expensive. It is too bad because commercial printers can handle some of that void much better, and can do much larger prints. You are limited much more by print bed size for home printers. You would need to use something else for structure or have the parts click together for the horizontal span, and probably the vertical towers as well. That is the main reason I used aluminum rod. I thought I could blend it in to my printed tubular design asthetic. I imagine you could buy a decent home printer for what you ended up paying to print yours. That said, I have already used $20 of aluminum and a little over $45 of plastic, so it is not free even if you have access to the equipement. Although I had some design prototypes and a couble failed prints that wasted a lot. I am also using a MakerBot printer that seems very expensive for what it is, and the plastic is also very expensive.
I will try to get some photos on here later that show how I've pieced some things together. Not sure if it is the best way, just what I've figured out.
I went thru 95% of the design for the highway bridge structure and ran into a brick wall. That wall being cost. 3d printing at a commercial level just isn't cheap enough to do things like this yet. I've shopped the design around and the cost estimates varied between $400-600 which is simply untenable when Sleekun and I collaborated on a design that costs a fraction of that. A tiny, miniscule fraction of that. As much as I want to see it built, just not in the cards until someone with the equipment and time is willing to collaborate on the build and design tweaking for constructability. I'm happy to share my design files provided it's not later claimed by others unless substantially changed. I admit I'd be a little upset if someone took shared STL files then claim the work as their own. It's a thing now with everyone asking for free STL design files.
Sleekun nad I collaborated on a 3d printable bridge design that is both simple to assemble, easy to adjust and provides a professional level of finish. I've covered much of that on my racing club's FB page.
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