First TinkerCAD 3D Printing Project Is Here!

This is the start of a series on practical prints for your 3D printer. Lots of individuals have actually seen 3D printers in action, however much of the prints are what can best be called novelty prints. They're action figures or statues of video gaming minis. Practical prints like brackets and fundamental indications are shown far less often (probably because they're not as photogenic).

Which 3D printer is right for your business? We've evaluated the offerings of leading printers, all efficient in developing 3D items, however with a wide-range of qualities. If you're in the marketplace for a 3D printer, you'll discover one here that fits your requirements.

I find 3D printing tremendously useful in solving practical problems. Whether it's including assistance to an organizational system to free up desperately needed area, a way to ensure our mail carrier picks up the mail, or a system for remembering what was last fed to the dog when both people take care of him, 3D printing has actually concerned the rescue.

Most of the time, specifically for quick-fix tasks, I utilize a totally free 3D modeling tool called TinkerCAD. It's exceptionally basic and easy to use. I also utilize Fusion 360 for more complex models and SketchUp for woodworking jobs. In cases of hybrid jobs, I'll often use more than one tool.

In this post and its accompanying video, we're going to use TinkerCAD. Let's get going.

THE PROBLEM WE'RE SOLVING


The issue declaration for this job is really basic. My partner and I desired our mail carrier to get our mail when we put something outbound in the mail box. That wasn't occurring. When I called my local post office, they stated we needed a flag on our mail box for the mail carrier to choose up our mail.

The service was 3D printing. Today, I'll reveal you how to make a very easy magnetic flag for your mail box. You can apply this to all sorts of things, however in our case, I made it for the mail box cover.

MODIFYING IN TINKERCAD


The job includes a couple of fundamental objects. As the video shows, we're going to start by drawing out a box. I'm able to pull on a corner and make it bigger. I'm going to change its height and as you can see in the video, there are handles. There are corner deals with, there are center handles. By pulling and pushing on the manages, we're able to develop a long rectangle that will form the foundation of the flag.

The entire design consists, then, of one long rectangle. That rectangle is duplicated and shortened. That makes the flag. Then a square is developed that's the size of the flag, rotated 45 degrees, and utilized to cut out the triangle part of the flag. I know it's a bit complicated, but the video reveals it all really plainly.

Previously, I created a shape that's generally a brief cylinder. I called it "workshop magnet" since it's exactly the size of one magnet in a set of 100 magnets I purchased a couple of years back.

The concept of the predefined shape is that anywhere I put it, TinkerCAD will hollow out an area for the magnet to fit. As soon as space is hollowed out of the long rectangular shape for two magnets, we're done. We have a 3D design that we can turn into a practical print.

SENDING IT TO THE PRINTER


That's the whole 3D style for this job. All we need to do is pick it, export it as an STL file, and send it into Cura to be sliced for printing. I sent it to the Ultimaker to print.

And that's it.


There you go, an extremely simple mail flag for our mailbox. As you can see, it's simply a simple set of TinkerCAD primitives linked and printed out. The result: Our mail is being picked up.

Make sure to check out TinkerCAD. It's simplified but it's surprisingly effective at the same time. Stay tuned for more practical prints.

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