I am looking if anyone can re work this STL so the slot part is 42mm ID and 7mm thick and 50mm tall.
thanks in \advance
thanks in \advance
- Thread starter ukracer
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Agroshield
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Why is the non-holed side of the angle so wide? If the Dickson holder drops over the T, the base does not need to be wider than that. Saves on filament. It looks like something that someone has fabricated out of metal angle and then 3D modelled rather than something that has been designed.
A chamfer on the top to aid/guide the holder into place might be a useful addition (subtraction). Lose the two countersunk holes at the sides and put them vertically above each other through the T itself. Then the whole thing sticks out less from whatever it is screwed to (and the screws are going through thicker plastic). Less material again for no loss of function. As the holders themselves are dovetailed, could the 3D print not also be dovetailed? AIUI, that might give more options for orienting it when printing - you can print an overhanging slope but an overhanging vertical surface is harder.
Edit:
This is how it could be simplified:-
It is 30 lines of OpenSCAD with all dimensions customisable.
A chamfer on the top to aid/guide the holder into place might be a useful addition (subtraction). Lose the two countersunk holes at the sides and put them vertically above each other through the T itself. Then the whole thing sticks out less from whatever it is screwed to (and the screws are going through thicker plastic). Less material again for no loss of function. As the holders themselves are dovetailed, could the 3D print not also be dovetailed? AIUI, that might give more options for orienting it when printing - you can print an overhanging slope but an overhanging vertical surface is harder.
Edit:
This is how it could be simplified:-
It is 30 lines of OpenSCAD with all dimensions customisable.
Last edited:
That will do for me. Cheers.
I went into the garage today and decided to mount the tool holders as I used the lathe a lot last week and kept loosing them in the mess........but could find nothing on thingiverse so sulked for a few hours.
Spoke to a mortgage advisor which made be agitated and angry.
So gave up and finished revamping my trailer.
At least I got something done today.
Its printing now. 1 hour 20 at fast speed. 3 hours at posh speed.
No mate. Not mounted yet. Lol.Do you have a photo of all your tool holders now mounted?
I recently got a few Dickson T3 toolholders and I like your 3D printing idea.
Don't have a 3D printer mind
Printed out 7 but got side tracked.
These wont fit T3 but if you measure yours and speak nicely to @Agroshield I will print some for you.
its a script which is fully customizable. Not that i understand it. Lol
Everything takes longer than anticipated...lol
Did you ever get your lathe refurbed?
Still. Not mounted.Do you have a photo of all your tool holders now mounted?
I recently got a few Dickson T3 toolholders and I like your 3D printing idea.
Don't have a 3D printer mind
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That will do for me. Cheers.
I went into the garage today and decided to mount the tool holders as I used the lathe a lot last week and kept loosing them in the mess........but could find nothing on thingiverse so sulked for a few hours.
Spoke to a mortgage advisor which made be agitated and angry.
So gave up and finished revamping my trailer.
At least I got something done today.
You just gotta stay positive, especially nowadays with so much doom and gloom about.
I am getting rid of one of my cutters. Best price on ebay is 800 up to 1500 so offered it for 800 but wanted to test it first to make sure it plotted as good as it cuts.
I am really struggling to get winplot to cope with the large files they need plotting.
So I went on an old forum i used to go on. And ended up reading war and peace.
Life moves on (ish)!!
Sooooo, I’ve not been about much of late and I’ve been meaning to say something for a while!
I’ll keep it fairly brief, but those of you that know me well will know that still means a badly edited version of War & Peace!!
2023 was pretty catasrophic for me, business-wise.
2021 and 2022 were two bumper years, they saw turnover increase 40%, saw the workspace double.. creating two proper fitting bays and the workshop looking really sharp; subbies helping maybe 8-10 working days a month, more work than I could manage properly! After 16-17 yrs of hard slog it all seemed to have finally come together!! Almost 80% of our work was now vehicles… I guess a result of all the bounceback loans etc.
2023 started off well, leading up to my family holiday in June I did about 4 weeks work in the space of two – allowing for the fact we’d be closed for ten days, and merrily went on my hols… absolutely shattered! Upon returning, the first week or two was busy but I realised it was just mopping up the left-overs and pre-booked stuff. The phone wasn’t ringing, email enquiries were dry.. I even called BT to check averything was ok.. all fine..
The wife begins to panic, and me being me, say meh, there’s £30K+ in the various bank accounts, no worries, it’ll pick up.. By late september I was beginning to worry too, and there was even talk from the wife about me getting a ‘real job’.. a shiver ran down my spine! We’ll be good I said… there’s still £20k in the bank… £15 she says, we just paid the vat.. ok, that’s cool.. Mid october we get a flurry of enquiries and some prety good work booked in, but it didn’t make much of a dent and several big ticket jobs kept getting postponed… We’ll be good I say! Mid november I start ringing around the dealerships who I’d throw a a drink to for every client that came my way with a card, they were pooping themselves as they gone from selling 600 vans a month in the group in July, to just 80 in october,
I’m still thinking things will be ok, we had a £10k warehouse job coming up in Jan, and before that in december, an £8k wallcovering job in an IT Tech building over several floors.. but, the deposits still hadn’t landed and now, mid december, a few days before the xmas break, I called the client to chase the deposit, explaiing that if they wanted this done over the xmas period, I needed hat deposit today. The lady was really concerned as this was her baby, she’d signed off everything and had no idea why I’d got no deposit. An hour later she calls back and tells me that her queries to the top floor resulted in a call from the MD… a large corporate architechts in London had just gone bust, 60 days after taking delivery and installation of £130k worth of IT, and 30 days before the invoice was due to be paid. Not only had they lost the £130k but the £18k a month retainer fee for support etc… the wallcovering job was cancelled. F@#k. not good and only a couple of grand left on the £5k overdraft, where the hell does £30k go?
I hurriedly called the warehouse client to say the job could be moved forward, we just needed the deposit… no answer… two days later and several emails / calls I get the email to ay the job is indefinitely postponed due to a massive budget overspend by the building contractors… double F@#k F@#k F@#k…. £4800 in the red, nothing in the in book of any substance…
Called the accountant, What can we do, help!! Don’t panic Hugh, you can do X, Y and Z… Yeah.. John, you’re missing the part where I said we’re broke… literally.. OK Hugh, you can legit fold the company and it’s only £5k, her’es there number… err John… dead ass broke..? Ah well then Hugh, you’re f@#ked … thanks for that John!
This middle bit is a little murky so we’ll just skip over. essentially I sold all the equipment to someone for its expected 23/24 accounts value and sold the van’, the funds paid all the supplier accounts, the bookkeeper, the banks’ overdraft and basically cleared the decks, except for vat and about half of the bounceback we had taken out. I’d also paid the rent up to the end of feb to give me time to sort things out and informed everyone who needed to know that we’d ceased trading.
The end of an era as I took down the signs.
I looked for work during Jan and there was nothing, or nothing I wanted at least, with the end of feb fast approaching I decided to try again, spoke to the landlord who reluctantly let me stay on as long as I paid the costs of splitting the unit – I did, and did it largely by myself during a 6 week battle with flu and pneumonia!! I rented back my old print equipment, – handy! and tried again.. Ultimately it never really picked up as well as hoped, partly me, partly useless promises from marketing people, but mainly me, I think I’d lost something inside when I closed the old business. In august I’d pretty much given up triyng and spoke with a couple of the large co’s local Both invited me in for a chat over a coffee and within two days I had two pretty reasonable job offers on the table… bugger… that wasn’t my plan!!
Anyhow, after a little negotiation and a lot of thought, I went with the company that, while offering a bit less in renumeration, was 100% the right choice as far as atmosphere and work life balance was concerned, I accepted the job and then spent the next month dis-assembling 18yrs of detritus that one accumulates in a large space, espcially when there’s a lot of roof storage space and your wife wants the outbuuilding at home for her catering business… bikes, fishing gear, kayaks, camping gear, you name it, it was all up there and had to go!
I still managed to fill an entire removals truck when I left the unit of 6years, and half the luton too! moving from 900sq ft into a small 300sq ft workshop near my home took some doing for sure, but it allows me to continue with my branded products and to still do trade-print for local guys, the odd job as and when I feel I want to do them.
So, I now work full time for Graffiti Design, a national retail signage company who’ve been around for nealry 50 years, I recall how the late owner helped me several times in my early days, both selling cut panels and offering advice to a young upstart who thought he could be a sign maker! It’s quite an interesting change and especially so to see how a larger firm operates; ust what can be done when you have the right tools, the right people and the right kind of clients. Some of the things I’m quoting for are so out of my ordinary that my mind often boggles! I think the biggest change is being around people who give a s##t, people who ask how your weekend or evening was, ask how you are, not just demanding to know why the job they only confirmed two days ago hasn’t yet been installed! They’re a really good bunch of guys and in some ways I’m glad things are now the way they are, I’d never have voluntarily given up everything I’d worked for – you know, the feast and famine, rather lonely and often stressfull existence / lifestyle of a small sign people!!! I genuinley didn’t realise how stressed out and run down I was most of the time!
Anyway, I’ll still be around, I’m still doing my own thing and taking on jobs I want to do with a small but awsome group of people to install / fit.. Anything thats too big for my little workshop can be fed through Graffiti, anything that is even remotely a conflict of interest, just gets the “sorry, we can’t help, try Graffiti” response! I can also continue offering trade print to local sign firms or help print short notice for larger firms them when their print schedules are full or machines are down.
Life, I think, is good!
Bloody hell, that was the brief version! If you’ve read this far, Please contact Phill Fenton for your free bottle of single malt scotch as a reward!!
I suppose, to summarise, things can go from “this is great” to “isn’t this just f###ing great” in a very short time, keep your eye on the ball.
If you are struggling, don’t be ashamed to ask around larger companies nearby, they’re crying out for experienced staff. I genuinely thought I’d be unemployable, but as much as I can’t build what the guys in the workshop are building, nor do drawings to the technical standard of our scribblers, I have a wider, over-all experience of the industry that not many have, and that is very valuable to other companies, they actively seek the experience that I didn’t even know I had. The feeling of receiving two decent job offers, after barely a chat over a coffee and in less than 48hrs, was a pretty big boost to my personal moral, whch I didn’t even know was so low until… you get the picture!
I only came here tonight to be nosey, and ask if anyone knew a rough ink usage per sq mtr for a 365 Latex
Btw this was back in 2023. Lol
