SRB Free Styling

[Dadio]

Looks awesome Dadio.
Your work has inspired me to design a roll cage to fit the interior pan in the rally car.
Unfortunately, since I don't have a printer, I'll make it from some 3/16" diameter ABS rod material.
Anyway, great work on the SRB.

That's a very nice piece of design , I'm just not up to that standard yet .
I sorted out a few minor errors in the frame today , just a few minor measurement issues that only showed up when i started assembling the pieces virtually , i never made any measurement when i made the metal frame its all freehand and measuring it accurately is tricky but i think i'm there now ish !

[Basher67]

This build is awesome! I love the attention to detail. Fantastic job!

[Dadio]

Today i finally solved one of my gripes with this car , i love the Rough Rider front tires but they are 1.7" and only fit the grey Tamiya wheels , i really want the Super Champ type rear tires but they are 1.5" and only fit the white Tamiiya wheels so today i model'd up the 3 part front wheel and now i can print white wheels for the Rough Rider front tires , I'll post the file up on Thingiverse tomorrow , i just did a little tweaking of the design and need to run another set off to check them

[Dadio]

The file works Its going on Thingiverse now .

[XLR8]

The file works Its going on Thingiverse now .

The wheels look great!

Man, Dadio, you're getting good at this 3d design/printing thing.

[Dadio]

Thanks but its really just copying and doing a few minor tweaks to make them print right

[stulec52]

this has been a great build to follow along with !
all so well presented too, not just the actual work, but all the write ups.
top work fella !

[XLR8]

I agree!

So Dadio, I have a 3d printing related question for you.
The 3D Warehouse contains many thousands of models like this Camero that are free to download.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/954e91323b045c38159f339e63a68ac1/1972-Chevy-Camaro

Would it be possible (or practical) to break this model into individual panels (hood, fender, door, roof, quarter panel, deck lid, etc.), add some connecting and support structure similar to the real car's panels, print the panels and fasten them together to make this body? I understand there would be a lot of post-printing work to fill and smooth the surfaces. What sort of problems do you think I would encounter if I were to try this?
I think it would be sorta cool to scratch build a 1/8 or 1/4 scale RC Camero and a project like this could finally motivate me to buy a printer. Thanks!

[Dadio]

WOW that's a bit of an essay question but I'll give it a go .
Firstly there are many types of 3d file you can download , many are basically for on screen graphics only because they comprise of surfaces without any depth , this works on screen but if you want to print them you need to be able to make them into a solid 3d part so you either need to look for an STL file or other 3d file or export the file to a programme like MeshMixer where you can try to convert them to a solid form and scale it correctly , scale is a big factor because virtual on screen objects often don't have any kind of real world measurement . Once you have that part done then once again in MeshMixer you can cut up the model into the discreet parts , after that you have to decide weather you want to rebuild it in a regular modelling manner or draw up a design for a chassis of some sort .
Although i have an intellectual understanding of how to do it its not something I've ever done and you might get half way and decide you might be better using all the stuff you just had to learn to just design one from scratch in the way you wanted it rather than trying to modify someone else's model in a way they never planned for , I've been looking for a Metro 6R4 rally car model file but i can't find one , plenty of files for they that are from rally games but none that are readily 3d printable .
What might have some legs is to 3d scan a full size car and work from that , it should be relatively easy to do that way , way easier than converting a graphics file to a 3d file .
I just tried to download and open the file , nothing i have likes it at all !

[XLR8]

Thank you Dadio, I think you've answered my question.

Although it appears like a dimension-less graphics image, the example Camero model is actually a 1:1 scale 3d vector surface model. I wouldn't be surprised if the model was actually created by someone who has scanned an actual car; it's very detailed and appears to be dimensionally accurate. Anyway, I understand that, as it is, it couldn't be printed because the surfaces don't have thickness, the body shell would need to be made into a solid before it could be printed. This can be achieved by extruding the shell inward some distance or by offsetting the surface then adding sides to form a solid. This is something that's commonly done within surface modelers and can be achieved using a combination of native and extension tools. I can do that no problem. I've seen many examples posted online where surface models have been made into 3d prints. It's not nearly as straightforward as it would be using a solid modeler but it is being done. With a solid modeler, every feature is automatically a solid.

So, taking the door as an example and assuming it's made into a printable solid, do you think it would be best to print it standing upright or laying flat? Also can you recommend a printer and material that would be appropriate for this type of work? I'm guessing the one you've used to print your SRB body would be suitable? By the way, how thick is your SRB body shell?

I'm going to see if a Metro 6R4 rally car model is available. If it is, I'll try to make it a printable solid and offer it to you to try out.

Thanks for your help Dadio. I apologize for drifting off topic.

[Dadio]

The printer I'm primarily using is a Creality Ender 5 with the Creality upgrade control board , a Bltouch auto bed levelling sensor and a Bondtech BMG extruder , you can get the same results with the Ender 3 and thge same upogrades but its slightly slower and the build volume is lower , only the upgraded extruder really makes much quality difference and you can pick up a clone BMG extruder for £15 so its hardly expensive , you can pick up an ender 3 for £150 so its not expensive either .
The body panels are 1.5mm at the thinnest points but much thicker in other places but most of the thicker sections are virtually hollow with a skin of only 1.5mm .

[XLR8]

Thank you again Dadio. I'm going shopping for a printer.

[Dadio]

It's hard to make printer recommendations but what I'd look for now would be
1 all metal hot end so you can run high temp plastics
2 easy to enclose to keep heat in as some plastics warp unless in an enclosure
3 auto bed levelling ,it just makes it less faff
4 removable bed
5 dual drive extruder , they just don't slip and give more consistent results
6 32 Bit board
you just wont find a printer that has all those features out of the box unless your spending thousands , as with all things its good to get something with good parts , upgrades and community support and that is where the Creality Ender 3 really shines , the base machine is fairly good but the after market and community is huge .

[XLR8]

Hey Dadio, I've downloaded this very cool Metro rally car from the warehouse.
If you want, I can reduce the scale, make it a solid (1.5mm min wall thickness), export as an STL file so you could import the file into Fusion and determine if it could be printed. Just the body of course. Let me know??

[Dadio]

That's a very kind offer but I can't ask you to do it as I have no idea when I'll have a chance to try it , I've kind of got things wracked up on my to do list ,I really do appreciate it though .