3d printed hinge jig for router

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Banzai_Joe

Soldato
Joined
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Midlands, UK
Hi all,
thinking of getting into this 3d printing malarky.
As a project (and waaay overkill) would it be possible for a 3d printer to accurately print out a rectangle say 200mm x 80mm x 12mm thick with a cutout in the centre measuring 26mm x 57mm?
Would the edges of the cutout be perfectly straight? Or would it depend on printer resolution and type of material used?
Basically i want to create some cutout templates for when i'm putting hinges and latches onto doors. They would be used as guides for my router and would sit inside a wooden frame that i'd make myself. So interchangeable 3d printed templates depending on size of latch/hinge i'm using.
I've made my own wooden ones which work fine, but i'm interested to see if it can be done and would go a way into convincing me to buy a 3d printer for other projects too.
If anyone would be willing to have a crack at doing one for me, i'd be willing to pay for it. It's the interest more than the cost (as long as its not crazy money).

Cheers
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Hi all,
thinking of getting into this 3d printing malarky.
As a project (and waaay overkill) would it be possible for a 3d printer to accurately print out a rectangle say 200mm x 80mm x 12mm thick with a cutout in the centre measuring 26mm x 57mm?
Would the edges of the cutout be perfectly straight? Or would it depend on printer resolution and type of material used?
Basically i want to create some cutout templates for when i'm putting hinges and latches onto doors. They would be used as guides for my router and would sit inside a wooden frame that i'd make myself. So interchangeable 3d printed templates depending on size of latch/hinge i'm using.
I've made my own wooden ones which work fine, but i'm interested to see if it can be done and would go a way into convincing me to buy a 3d printer for other projects too.
If anyone would be willing to have a crack at doing one for me, i'd be willing to pay for it. It's the interest more than the cost (as long as its not crazy money).

Cheers
Click to expand...


First you have to design what you want printed.
Then turn it in to a STL file.

Look on here https://www.thingiverse.com/ they may have what you want.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Hi all,
thinking of getting into this 3d printing malarky.
As a project (and waaay overkill) would it be possible for a 3d printer to accurately print out a rectangle say 200mm x 80mm x 12mm thick with a cutout in the centre measuring 26mm x 57mm?
Would the edges of the cutout be perfectly straight? Or would it depend on printer resolution and type of material used?
Basically i want to create some cutout templates for when i'm putting hinges and latches onto doors. They would be used as guides for my router and would sit inside a wooden frame that i'd make myself. So interchangeable 3d printed templates depending on size of latch/hinge i'm using.
I've made my own wooden ones which work fine, but i'm interested to see if it can be done and would go a way into convincing me to buy a 3d printer for other projects too.
If anyone would be willing to have a crack at doing one for me, i'd be willing to pay for it. It's the interest more than the cost (as long as its not crazy money).

Cheers
Click to expand...

To answer your question, yes it's totally possible to create and print the jig you describe.

I would suggest looking at https://www.tinkercad.com/ a very basic but really useful browser based CAD tool. A box can be made to the size you want and another box the size you want can be cut from it. Then that can be exported as an .STL for slicing and printing. One thing you will have to take into account is tolerance of a 3d printer I normally allow 0.2mm on the dimensions, it would be trial and error I guess.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.
I can use the free (online) version of sketchup to create the simple shapes I need and then export as an STL file.
I guess my main question is that it depends on the actual 3d printer and the filaments used as to how accurate and robust it will be?
What are your recommendations for a beginners 3d printer?
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks for the replies guys.
I can use the free (online) version of sketchup to create the simple shapes I need and then export as an STL file.
I guess my main question is that it depends on the actual 3d printer and the filaments used as to how accurate and robust it will be?
What are your recommendations for a beginners 3d printer?
Click to expand...

Printers these days are very accurate and with a lot of filament options.

The Ender 3 pro is a good starter printer, they run about £190 and I'd recommend purchasing a new motherboard/mainboard with silent drivers for about £30.
Filament is £15-25 for a kg of basic colours.

The Ender 3 can do 0.12mm accuracy.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks for the replies guys.
I can use the free (online) version of sketchup to create the simple shapes I need and then export as an STL file.
I guess my main question is that it depends on the actual 3d printer and the filaments used as to how accurate and robust it will be?
What are your recommendations for a beginners 3d printer?
Click to expand...

So accuracy is gonna be pretty much the same 0.1-0.3mm between most printers. Material wise entry level printers can print PLA and lower temp PETg, PETg being a more robust material out of the two.

The Ender 3 is a great starter printer, go for an Ender 3 Pro or Ender 3 v2, to start with don't worry about upgrades just use and see how you get on.
 
bulb66 said:
So accuracy is gonna be pretty much the same 0.1-0.3mm between most printers. Material wise entry level printers can print PLA and lower temp PETg, PETg being a more robust material out of the two.

The Ender 3 is a great starter printer, go for an Ender 3 Pro or Ender 3 v2, to start with don't worry about upgrades just use and see how you get on.
Click to expand...
is there a deal of difference between the Ender 3 Pro and the Ender 3 v2? Or were you just quoting the different names that model goes by?

edit: NVM, i found a comparison online. For the extra £80 it might be worth getting the v2? (according to the review i read).
 
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I 3d print various jigs all the time, incredibly useful.

if you want real accuracy (0.1mm or less) you just need to use the right materials mainly - ones that are advertised as being
low warp or warp free will have the least thermal expansion and then do a quick calibrate. Materials with some sort of binding agent in them (matt filaments, CF filaments etc) are generally the most stable in my experience.

Really you generally only need to do the calibrations once per material. You could do the first one for each new reel but I don't find it necessary.

First you want to calibrate the extrusion rate - so you set your extrusion width to a fixed a value (eg 0.46) and then print a single walled box, check the extrusion width and work out the percentage error - tweak the extrusion multiplier in your slicer software, done.

Next print a cube (something like 40x40 is ideal) and measure it - the difference will be the shrinkage that occurs as the material cools down after passing through the nozzle. Apply this in the X and Y axis in the slicer to any model you print that needs accuracy. For example with matt PLA etc I find it's only about 0.1-0.2% while with flexibles like ninjaflex it can be 1.5% or more.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks for the replies guys.
I can use the free (online) version of sketchup to create the simple shapes I need and then export as an STL file.
I guess my main question is that it depends on the actual 3d printer and the filaments used as to how accurate and robust it will be?
What are your recommendations for a beginners 3d printer?
Click to expand...


https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html
 
Ok, pulled the trigger on the Ender 3 v2 for £239.
So, what filament should i buy? my first project will be a flat plate of 150mm x 80mm x 12mm with a 26mm x 57mm cutout in the middle of it. This will fit into a jig for a router to route out the shape for hinges and latch.
Needs to be quite sturdy i guess.
 
What filament as in material or where to buy?

To be honest I don't see why you can use PLA at least to start with. The setting you slice with will have more of an impact that material for something like this. 3-4 walls, 4-5 top/bottom layers and say 30% infill.

For the where we take a look at 3DPrintz Ltd, 3Dfilaprint or filamentive of if you want cheap then ebay.
 
Thanks bulb66.
what design software do you use?
I've lost most of Sketchup knowledge so it won't be such a big deal to start with something different, maybe FreeCAD? and Cura as the splicer?
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks bulb66.
what design software do you use?
I've lost most of Sketchup knowledge so it won't be such a big deal to start with something different, maybe FreeCAD? and Cura as the splicer?
Click to expand...

I use both tinkercad for quick simple stuff and fusion360 for other stuff but I'm still learning how to use it really.

I would suggest PrusaSlicer.
 
There are obviously many choices out there, but I found Formfutura Apollo X to be excellent for dimensionally accurate prints. Tough stuff, too.

ED: For your use case, it doesn't seem like uber precision is needed. Some decent petg or other relatively tough material should be fine.
 
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I highly recommend 3djake matt pla - far less brittle than normal pla and incredibly stable/easy to print with... it's recently become my default material.

If higher temp resistance is required, the 3Djake nicebio is also pretty decent from the one spool I've had.
 
Uncle Petey said:
I've had a bit of a break from printing, so it's been quite a while since I used the stuff. Unfortunately, I've forgotten and I don't have the S3D profile saved any more, but I imagine it was around 240-250C.
I'm using a customised D-Bot.
Click to expand...

So an all metal hotend, I wouldn't recommend over 240°c for any length of time on an Ender like this do to the PTFE lined hotend and it breaking down and releasing harmful chemicals.

If it works at 235°c it might be ok.
 
Uncle Petey said:
Fair enough. For his purposes, I don't think this kind of filament is necessary anyway tbh.
Click to expand...

Very true, I just didn't want the OP to have to many issues on their first printer and project.

Shame all these printers come with PTFE hotends and not full metal, but I guess not everyone will want to be high temperature stuff.

Why the break from 3d printing btw?
 
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