BR TIMKEN Axle cap

[Philip MajorParticipant @philipmajor52482]

Hi just starting out in 3d printing. Anyone got an SDL File for aBR TIMKEN axle cover. I have tried thingyverse, but unsuccessful

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Hello Philip,

Sorry to see that you have no-one respond to your request.  As you are just starting out on your 3D printing journey, it would be advisable to become “au fait” with a CAD program so that you can produce your own designs, rather than having to rely on those of others, which won’t necessarily be exactly to your needs.  I have no knowledge of the article which you require, but a Google image search threw up a number of different designs, none of which would be too arduous to produce a CAD file for.  I would be willing to do that for you if you can post a picture of the specific design that you want along with basic dimensions.

I am a relative newcomer to 3D printing myself, but have never used a file in SDL format.  Again, Mr. Google come to my rescue and suggests that this file format is almost exclusively used for model rendering.  I use STEP files for my prints and they always come out well.

John

 

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

See here:

https://modeleng.proboards.com/thread/7950/timken-axle-box-covers

[John Hinkley]

On John Hinkley Said:

I use STEP files for my prints and they always come out well.

John, out of curiosity, what slicer do you use to convert STEP files to Gcode for the printer. Cura which I use doesn’t accept STEP files as far as I am aware.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Peter,

I have a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon printer, so I use the bundled Bambu slicer, although Orca slicer which is based on the Bambu slicer will also accept STEP (STP) files.  I prefer not to use Orca slicer as it has many, many, more adjustable tweaks than Bambu slicer, most of which are a complete mystery to me at the moment.

Bambu, and by implication Orca, support imports of file types stl, 3mf, stp, step, svg, amf and obj.

John

 

[Peter Cook 6Participant @petercook6]

Thanks.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Philip,

As you haven’t replied, I assume that you’ve found a suitable source file.  However, being at a loose end this afternoon, I’ve had a little play around with Alibre Atom and produced this:

I think it approximates to the picture that DC1 referenced, above.  The overall diameter is 90mm, the mounting holes are 4mmØ and the counterbores are 10mmØ.  I have saved the file as both STL and STEP, too. The STEP file will print at full size on my printer in under 45 minutes, according to the slicer software with unmodified settings and can obviously be scaled up or down, if necessary.

John

[Philip MajorParticipant @philipmajor52482]

Hi, John sorry for late reply, I am one of those folks with signing on difficulties. Now hopefully overcome. You are correct, I should have said STL file! This is the part I spoke of. Is an axle box cover.   What do you think?

[Philip MajorParticipant @philipmajor52482]

Hi John, this is fantastic, scale for my 5 inch loco doesn’t quite fit?  At 90cm  seems big even for a full size loco. But we’ll done can you scale it down? As per my last message the ones I need are 24mm in dia

Cheers Philip

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Philip,

I only chose to draw it at 90mm diameter as an arbitrary size, just to get some idea if I could replicate it.  I’ll try to scale it later and report back.  What is the diameter of the recessed area on the back?  PM me the answer with your email address and I can send you the resulting files when they’re done.

My CAD – Alibre Atom – doesn’t allow me to emboss onto a curved surface, I’d need to upgrade to the Professional edition for that.  I could try to model it in Fusion 360, but I’m not so handy with that, so it’ll take a bit longer.

Watch this space,

John

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

John a i t is shuch a flat curve you can probably get away with a straight extrusion but make it longer than needed. Then do a revolved cut with a curve slightly larger diameter than the solid which will cut the excess off the letters so they stick out the same amount.

Philip, your printer’s slicer software should be able to scale the file.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Jason,

I originally did it that way, but the diameter is so small that it all got rather cramped.  I’ve redone it using Fusion 360 and saved the stl and step files.  When loaded into the slicer, the “made in England” text doesn’t appear!  Haven’t got time to investigate now, but I might have time to test print one tomorrow.

John

 

[Philip MajorParticipant @philipmajor52482]

Thanks for this, much appreciated.  Recess is 20mm dia. My email is …………………………

Many thanks again Philip

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Philip,

Got that. Thanks.  Not a good idea to broadcast your mail address to all and sundry, though.  That’s why we communicate via PMs. Perhaps a moderator can remove it, please?

I’ii try to get the files to you in the next day or so.

John

 

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

To round off this thread, I’ve redrawn the whole thing entirely in Atom to attempt to get the very small embossed text to print.  After fiddling with numerous fonts and extrusions, this is what printed out with the “MADE IN ENGLAND” text at 2mm high in Arial Black font, extruded 1.6mm from the face.  Even with a layer height of 0.12mm, the result is disappointing in my opinion.  I guess some hand fettling would improve matters, but will take more time than I’m prepared to invest at the moment. Maybe using standard Arial font would make it less chunky?

Anyway, I’ve sent the files to Philip.

John

 

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