B9A tube right angle mounts

[ruffrecords]

COOL!!! Perhaps you are now on your way to 3D-printing your own versions of the ETTINGER "Threaded Mounting Cubes"!!!

View attachment 141861

And.....in order to help you get started on your way, here is a "10mm M3 Threaded Cube Standoff" as an -- STL -- file:

snip

Any comments? Ideas?? Suggestions???

/

Thank you very much for doing that. I have no idea if threads work in 3D printed plastic parts. I will print one of yours and let you know. I will try making one in PLA and one in PETG (which is apparently stronger than PLA).

I was wondering if a viable alternative would be to have a plain hole as you suggest but add a hexagonal cavity the shape and depth of an M3 nut on the four faces? I have seen this on the 3 DIN 41612 connectors I use to plug the PCB into the mixer backplane PCB.

Cheers

Ian

 

[ruffrecords]

I finally caved and purchased a 3d Printer yesterday, it is supposed to arrive this Monday. I am looking forward to seeing what it can do for me.

Which one did you go for?

Cheers

Ian

 

[abbey road d enfer]

That will work fine for plain text .stl files but probably not for binary ones.

Cheers

Ian

Don't know. Probably. Never had to change extension on a binary file.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

snip



Thank you very much for doing that. I have no idea if threads work in 3D printed plastic parts. I will print one of yours and let you know. I will try making one in PLA and one in PETG (which is apparently stronger than PLA).

I was wondering if a viable alternative would be to have a plain hole as you suggest but add a hexagonal cavity the shape and depth of an M3 nut on the four faces? I have seen this on the 3 DIN 41612 connectors I use to plug the PCB into the mixer backplane PCB.

Cheers

Ian

[add a hexagonal cavity the shape and depth of an M3 nut on the four faces?] -- Like this???.....



[on the four faces?] -- Aren't there -- SIX -- faces? That's what I count. Or, are there two-faces that don't get the hex's?

>> I certainly realize that this is all purely experimental in nature, but.....at least based upon the M3 hex-nut that I used for obtaining my dimensions, I had to enlarge the cube to -- 12mm -- due to the amount of material eaten away by the depth of the nut. In other words, should this become a "reality" for actual use, you would need to provide me with the actual dimensions of the cube itself, along with a datasheet of your metric hardware, so I could create an accurate 3D CAD-model based upon the "real" parts that you would be using. Meaning.....maybe your UK metric hardware is possibly smaller than my US metric hardware (outside dimensions, of course). I don't know.




Here's the datasheet information that I used to create the -- hex-extrusions -- in this 12mm M3 Mounting Block:



In order to allow some tolerance for easy insertion of the hex=nut, I added 0.020" (0.508mm) to both the width (now: 6.5mm) and the depth/height (now: 3.3mm). Of course, additional latitudes will also probably need to be taken into account due to the nature of the 3D-printing process and for the specific type(s) of material used. In other words.....>> GAME ON!!! <<




Now what???.....

/

 

[MidnightArrakis]

That will work fine for plain text .stl files but probably not for binary ones.

Cheers

Ian

[but probably not for binary ones] -- To the actual files, they themselves don't much care what their extensions are called, as long as you don't try to import them and/or use them with the new extension names. I frequently will rename my binary-coded schematic and PCB-design files from their original program filename extensions (DSN for schematics and MAX for PCBs) and then rename them to "PDF" or something for security reasons. From there, I even ZIP everything up and then rename the ZIP file to "PDF". So, if someone is snooping around and copies my files and tries to either: A) Open them up as a PDF file, they'll get an error message stating that the file is corrupt, incompatible, unrecognized or something nasty. B) The same goes for the ZIP file as a PDF file. They can't unZIP the ZIP-file as long as its named as being a PDF file!!! They would have to KNOW that the PDF file is actually a ZIP-file and then rename it back to being a ZIP-file!!!

/

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I have no idea if threads work in 3D printed plastic parts.

They don't realy, for small sizes. As you could see, dimensional tolerance is close to thread size, so you end up with either too large outer diameter or threads walking into each other.

I will print one of yours and let you know. I will try making one in PLA and one in PETG (which is apparently stronger than PLA).

PETG is definitely stronger that PLA, and clearly more heat resistant.
In addition PLA is supposed to self degrade (after all it's a biodegradable material) but I don't know what time scale it implies. I've never seen it properly documented..

I was wondering if a viable alternative would be to have a plain hole as you suggest but add a hexagonal cavity the shape and depth of an M3 nut on the four faces?

I've done that when I designed brackets for affixing front panels to Eurocards.
See attached file.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

/

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Here's the datasheet information that I used to create the -- hex-extrusions -- in this 12mm M3 Mounting Block:

View attachment 141871

This is a M3.5. M3 is 5.5mm face to face.
M3.5 is not a common size, you don't find them in hardware stores. Actually, it's not in the official ISO list.

In order to allow some tolerance for easy insertion of the hex=nut, I added 0.020" (0.508mm) to both the width (now: 6.5mm) and the depth/height (now: 3.3mm).

In the part that I joined in post #166, I deliberately chose to make sizes as exact as possible, so the nuts are inserted with some force and stay there (check the geometry).

 

[abbey road d enfer]

[on the four faces?] -- Aren't there -- SIX -- faces? That's what I count.

Actually, in most cases you need only two or three.
But the problem is that, with only about 3mm engagement, you're very likely to strip the threads.

 

[ruffrecords]

@MidnightArrakis you are, of course absolutely correct that there are 6 faces. I was thinking in terms of a particular application which only needs four.

Creating a cavity on all 6 faces does lose a lot of material. For absolute generality you need all six but you can never use more than three so it might make sense to have application specific ones with just one per hole.

Talking of application specific cubes, one I am particularly interested in is the one @abbey road d enfer posted above. This looks like a replica of the expensive die cast ones judging from your picture. One thing I do want to do is create a version of this that incorporates both top and bottom front panel mountings joined together by a thin piece 2.54mm thick that acts as a spacer between the PCB and the front panel.

https://www.srs-products.co.uk/eurorack-versirak-data-sheets/

If you look on page 19 of the above URL, at the top where is says Panel Kits you can see the pice I am interested in.

Cheers

Ian

 

[13engrsapper]

Which one did you go for?

Cheers

Ian

Hey Ian - I think, like you, I have been waiting years for this technology to come to a more refined and affordable level. Especially after spending 5 grand on a laser last year.

After a bunch of mind-numbing research I went for an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra. It is an MSLA Machine, I may hate it; I sure hope not.

About half the ideas for its use were cosmetic items like Lighting lenses/bezels, meter bezels, and knobs etc (I have already researched/located inserts etc). The other half were more structural like this tube holder, rear mounts for gear we rack, and other little board holders and standoff type things etc. So it made making a decision more confusing. A local friend has a FDM type machine, so I figure for now I can just hit him up if I need anything like that - perhaps parts that need a fiber reinforced plastic etc. More likely I will end up owning both. Our humidity worried me too with the spool type FDM machines. Average humidity in the house is around 65% here on the coast of South Carolina. Storing those spools long term worried me. So for now I ordered 10 kilos of various resins to try, including some "structural" types, and a couple pounds of clear for some of my light pipe/LED holder ideas.

Amazon says my resins have shipped and arrive tomorrow, The printer still says arriving tomorrow, but has not shipped. In the meantime I have two grandkids excited and refusing to go home until the printer arrives - they love projects with "Grandpa Tony."

PS: I have a care package with transistors and some other goodies almost put together for you, things have just been chaotic.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Talking of application specific cubes, one I am particularly interested in is the one @abbey road d enfer posted above. This looks like a replica of the expensive die cast ones judging from your picture. One thing I do want to do is create a version of this that incorporates both top and bottom front panel mountings joined together by a thin piece 2.54mm thick that acts as a spacer between the PCB and the front panel.

Actually, when I designed the part, I couldn't find proper dimensions, so making two separate pieces made less constraints. If you have actual dimensions; I may be able to design the complete part.