3D Printing Resources

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

I’m having postage issues with some filter retaining rings that I’ve ordered from the US so figured that I would look at the possibility of having them 3D printed locally. I don’t want to have to buy my own 3D printer and would be happy to engage others that can provide this service be it here in IIS or other commercial services.

The problem is that 3D printing is still a black hole to me and I don’t know where to start on building the necessary software files or specifications to hand over to a 3D printing supplier.

The retaining rings that I am looking for are to hold Astronomik 50mm round filters into a ZWO 7 position EFW. The Astronomik filters are taller than the standard ZWO ones and sit proud of the filter carrousel so the ZWO supplied retaining rings are not suitable. The rough specifications for the retaining rings are 50mm round internal diameter, about 2-3mm thick, about 3mm tall and have three screw lugs place 120 degrees apart. The screws supplied by ZWO to keep their retaining rings in place are M2 x 4mm.

I’ve spent my entire working career in IT (now retired) and have plenty of experience in using drawing packages such as Visio etc so I won’t have any problems once I am pointed in the right direction.

So, is there anyone here on IIS that is providing a 3D Printing service and/or can someone point me in the right direction to start my research?

Clear skies,
Rodney

[sunslayr (David)]

Gumtree is usually a good place to start, lots people have home printers, all you need is to be able to export your model as a .stl file. I use fusion 360 as my design package, it's free and all you need to do is make a 2d profile and then extruded it. I assume it's not possible to just use longer screws?

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Originally Posted by sunslayr

Gumtree is usually a good place to start, lots people have home printers, all you need is to be able to export your model as a .stl file. I use fusion 360 as my design package, it's free and all you need to do is make a 2d profile and then extruded it. I assume it's not possible to just use longer screws?

Thanks David, I could almost get away with using longer screws but the supplied rings are designed to sit flat on the surface of the carrousel so it wouldn’t be ideal. The filter rings that I have ordered from the US will no doubt arrive in the fullness of time. It would be good though to have access to local resources as well.

[bojan]

Have a look at thingiverse.com, somebody may have done the design already.
Perhaps machining them from aluminium is better and faster option?

I have 3D printer and I've done many things already, but sometimes machining is faster and better... considering time it takes for design and printing.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Originally Posted by bojan

Have a look at thingiverse.com, somebody may have done the design already.

Thanks for the reference. Quite an amazing array of gadgets and adapters.

[Stefan Buda]

Hi Rodney,

I can print them for you in carbon filled PETG material, just shoot me a sketch. It can be a hand drawn sketch, or a CAD 2D contour in dxf format.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Originally Posted by Stefan Buda

Hi Rodney,

I can print them for you in carbon filled PETG material, just shoot me a sketch. It can be a hand drawn sketch, or a CAD 2D contour in dxf format.

Many thanks, as it turns out I may have a solution and I now have some on the way. I will keep this in mind though Stefan as I have a few projects that would suit 3D printing.

CS,
Rodney