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Filament Tolerance Samples

Zach avatarZach

December 23, 2022

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Description

I usually design 3D prints that I intend to sand, paint, add to - or otherwise post-process, so the specific colors and finishes of filaments aren't particularly important to me.

What IS important to me and my design work are the thermal and mechanical properties of the filament - both when being printed, and in-use. So I wanted to make a different type of filament sample - one focused on demonstrating the expansion/retraction tolerances of each of my filaments - so that I could configure my designs for tolerance based on the material selected!

The guiding principles for my design are based on my most common design-print-iteration step: measuring the size of an element (hole, slot, peg, outline, etc.) and determining how far off it is from the intended measurement. The key calibration elements and their intended dimensions I want to have on each sample are:

  • Rectangular Hole: 10mm x 10mm
  • Rectangular Peg: 10mm x 10mm
  • Circular Hole: 10mm x 10mm
  • Circular Peg: 10mm x 10mm

These should cover the VAST majority of my common measurement fixes while designing something to be printed, as they'll allow you to compare expansion/contraction along both x and y directions, which can also help account for tolerance differences in the printer.

The model of the samples will have no fixes to account for expansion/contraction so that measuring the samples will provide the raw data needed to account for it for the material!

 

Update 1: 

  • Rough vector design done
  • Gave sufficient space so that measuring each element with calipers is easy
  • Added in an area for a label, and axis indicator, layer height, and temperature

 

Update 2

  • Modified the design to make the text more reliably printable/readable
  • Prepared Blend file for upload
  • Note: Model is not yet optimized for file size/poly count

Update 3:

  • Improved legibility of lettering
  • Simplified Blender model for customization