I’m new to 3D printing and all the fun that comes with it. Like a lot of folks, I jumped into projects like Gridfinity and Multiboard—plus designed a few things myself. I did alright at first but soon saw that the Bambu ecosystem is so polished I didn’t have to really pay attention to how it anything works. This made me stop and focus on actually learning, not just doing.
I plan to write when I can, sharing what I learn. I am not a “watch a YouTube video and learn” sort of guy. I still like to read how-to articles, so I am hoping others do as well. If not, writing this…is still good for me.
Getting Started
For this project, I’m designing a widget to hold two very specific medicine bottles. I’m currently in a study that requires tracking when I take my medication. For that, I was given a bottle with a special cap that records data over several months. I want to keep my original pharmacy bottle together with this one—so, like any 3D printing enthusiast would, instead of just taping them together, I’ve spent hours designing, refining, and learning CAD to create a custom holder for the bottles.
I started w/ Prototype 1. Note to self…what do folks that do this for a living…call these early models? Need to learn the lingo.
Prototype 1…was purely that…a prototype. I did some quick measurements during a lunch break one day while I was at work, and just sent the result to the printer. It was only 30-35 minutes and a few grams of filament so I figured this was perfect.
I again had made some mistakes with this project, that I have found I have made on every, single thing I have designed.
- Write Your Measurements Down – I would often sit with my calipers, measuring and plugging numbers into Bambu Studio directly as I did on this prototype. This was quick, but whenever I had to tweak something or do some math on the placement of a primitive, I had to measure again. Write your measurements down. Draw the widget or whatever it is you are designing and write your measurements on it. The drawing can be crude, maybe a top profile and a side profile. Then put measurements on everything.
- Innies and Outies – No, this is not a Severance reference. Remember, when you are measuring objects there are inner diameters and there are outer diameters. For my first prototype on this project, I measured one of the bottles and then inadvertently used the bottle’s OD as the holder’s OD. The inner diameter of the void needed to be 31mm and even then…its a tight, tight fit. Don’t forget to measure your OD and…your ID.
- Version Control – I haven’t quite figured this one out yet. Using Git on my STL and 3MF files seems like overkill, but using only local copies of files, I find that I constantly overwrite old versions with new versions…losing any history or ability to revert back. I don’t have a good solution for this problem yet but for this project, I am making changes step by step on copies of primitives. I am moving the copies to new plates, when the changes are significant enough. You will see below.
Prototype 2
I started over. I should note or ask that you bear with the following plates. For some reason, I decided to work from the right to the left, instead of left to right. I have no idea why, but I did.
In the top right corner, I created three primitives; a square and two circles. I overlapped them to create the basic shape that I needed. In the top middle, you can’t see it but I added a QR code to the bottom of the holder. In the top left, I meshed all of this together into a single object.
I then repeated this same process for the circles that would become the holders for the bottles. I created a solid blank, and then added a void to create the ring. Finally, I meshed this all together to create the two rings. Step 2 of this plan is to stack the rings on the base, mesh those together and then print.
That was hours ago. Step 2…did not work. I could not get the rings to align perfectly on the base, no matter what I tried. I measured everything, double checked my numbers. Everything was right yet nothing worked. I decided to scrap this method and try something different.
Prototype 3
I started fresh by reverting back to the point where I had the blank in three parts (shown top right). I meshed them, sized the height properly, and added my QR code to the base (top middle). I finally meshed all of that to end up with a blank with the QR embedded (top left).
Now I have 12mm blank to cut out.
I was pretty happy with this process. Even though, I basically had to redo the entire project, I was able to get back to where I was very quickly. Not much time was lost, and I learned some valuable lessons.
I then realized, once I got ready to print, I hated how the entire base was a single thickness. The original prototype had a smaller connector between the two bottles. It just looked nicer. This looks too thick and too crude. The middle section contains a lot of filament that is not necessary. Back to the drawing board.
Prototype 4
As I write this…prototype 4…is on the printer. It just finished. Its probably cool enough to remove from the build plate, but no…first I must get this all written down or I won’t do it.
I’ll be brief this time. I am guessing you understand my thought process now, so just a summary. I again started with three primitives, this time I sized the cylinders up to 12mm, but kept the cube at 5mm (shown top middle), meshed into one (top left).
At the bottom right, is the same blank but I added some lettering to the side, so I could track version numbers. The bottom middle shows the blank with voids set for the bottles.
And Ta Da…on its own plate…prototype 4…ready to print.
And from the bottom, you can see the QR code on the bottom and the version number on the side.
I’ll need to post pictures tomorrow…but prototype 4…is awesome.