3D printed Rigs and parts

[Joelage]

Hi all (First time making a topic! yikes)

Has anyone had a chance to try out, or has opinions on 3D printing camera rigs?

I had a go at using a model from Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects and printed a gopro camera 'two hand' grip type frame... with reasonable results - I still prefer to shoot video with a GoPole (single handed).
I'm no expert in 3d Printing, but I do know that the quality can vary depending on the plastics used/quality of printer etc.

What I found was that in large solid printed parts, there are air pockets created, due to the tubular extrusions of the plastic. Water fills up in them as you knock/move the item around. It is a bit tricky to remove the access water when you are back on dry land, where you will find yourself, constantly flicking out the water to dry it off.

I haven't used the rig enough to see how much is degrades in salt water, and I have been leaving in the sun to see what effect that is having (not much yet)

Does anyone have any files that they are willing to share of parts?

** I probably caution the use of 3d printed parts until you have tested them for yourself, to see what kind of stresses it can take.

** I have tested a hose connector clip in the past which has had some reasonable results - I use a modified occy mouth piece clip which needed some modification as I felt a part of the original design could get lodged into the mouth piece and cause a blockage in an emergency, should it be yanked out quickly and snaps.

 

[tech_diver]

Excellent topic! Keep us posted on your results.

You mention voids (air pockets) in the parts. Have you had any experiences with voids in the printed parts (not open to ambient) reacting to increased pressure of depth?

Also, generally what type of printer are you dealing with? a big expensive high tech unit or something sitting on a table top on a garage?

 

[KeithG]

i have a wet lens flip up adapter that (i have been told) was produced on a 3d printer.

construction is solid with no issues. it is now more than 5 years old with no signs of degradation or wear.

 

[Joelage]

Excellent topic! Keep us posted on your results.

You mention voids (air pockets) in the parts. Have you had any experiences with voids in the printed parts (not open to ambient) reacting to increased pressure of depth?

Also, generally what type of printer are you dealing with? a big expensive high tech unit or something sitting on a table top on a garage?

An interesting consideration....

I have not seen this in action, however, I have a feeling that, depending on the printer, water may be pulled through the 'solid' areas, and eventually fill up the void. If it were thin panels, say 1mm thick, (say, to make a box) I have a feeling like it may get crushed.

I am just using a basic consumer grade printer

 

[3D diver]

Subscribed:

I've been keeping an eye on 3D printing for several years now, but have yet to come up with an application compelling enough to buy one. This topic is certainly pertinent.

As for voids, it seems the simple solution would be to design drainage into the part, where possible.

 

[Joelage]

Subscribed:

I've been keeping an eye on 3D printing for several years now, but have yet to come up with an application compelling enough to buy one. This topic is certainly pertinent.

As for voids, it seems the simple solution would be to design drainage into the part, where possible.

What are you currently using, or have seen? (in terms of software?)

I've been using Rhino3D - at the moment the MAC version is free (beta testing)

And have been trying out some free ones by Autodesk (like 123d design)

 

[kelemvor]

Friend of mine put together an ultimaker a few years ago. I've printed a few gopro mask strap mounts from thingiverse at his place. In the end, the mask strap mounts just seemed to be a bad idea. The strap was too loose and floppy to get good video results. I didn't use the heck out of the mounts

As for the stuff we drew ourselves, we used google sketchup to draw the parts. He bought a copy of netfabb pro which optimized the gcode and greatly improved print quality and speed as a result. Shaved hours off of some print times. You can get a free copy of netfabb but it's missing many features. It was worth the $300 considering what the whole printer setup cost.

In the end, the best thing we ever printed was a self designed adapter that would allow us to mount our cell phones securely to my steel dslr tripod. Actually it really attached the cell phone to a quickshoe which locks into the tripod head. At the time, the phones had far better video capabilities than dslr's. Now days I have a d7100 and get better results with that than a cell phone or gopro.


He has never had good results printing ABS in the ultimaker. We never had any noticeable breakdown of PLA printed parts.

The heated print bed is a must.



Tech_diver: ultimaker is in the "table top sitting in a garage" category

As for voids, in order to reduce print times and save material we never print on "100% fill" this results in more of a "mesh" based piece of plastic that water can move through fairly easily. The parts we've printed were still plenty strong.


I think the only thing we printed that was 100% solid was a yoda head! That was really just a test print, too.

 

[krbailey]

For anyone interested in having models created for use in 3D printing, they can contact me @ Barratuna Drafting & Design - HOME.