3D Printed Hand Press Guide

[Saldog]

1 hour ago, gbyleveldt said:

If I look at mine it’s not anything special. I’m thinking any smooth steel rod would work as a pusher? Maybe a spring on top between the holder and maybe a knob?

Looking at my actual tips, it does look like they were 3d printed out of something softer than PLA, maybe teflon’ish. They’re certainly not precision tips and look a little flimsy. Which I suppose is good as a sacrificial interface to a priceless set of hands. 

Turret would be cool but wow, that’s like hitting a nail with a ten pound hammer. I personally don’t mind replaceable tips on one pusher, but then again I got the impression somewhere you were an engineer and would probably like to design something OTT 

The turret idea is coming from the Bergeon 8935, shown here:

It sells for $1,200. Too rich for my blood for sure.

And yes, I just like to design things. But only useful things. It's very rewarding when a tool you made can be used and it helps someone.

I have this next tool and it is an utter piece of crap! The tips are worthless. They were machined so poorly that they don't even want to mount. They don't stay put in the little storage holes so they are falling over every time I reach for the tool. They are difficult to align because they are too fat. It is a good idea, poorly executed, like many of the low quality imported stuff. I don't like to say Chinese stuff because it has nothing to do with being from China. It has to do with the cost cutting decisions that someone made. Plenty of good stuff comes from China, but the design, material choices, and quality control need to be overseen by someone who cares and has used the stuff they are making. That can happen anywhere and it does also happen in the good ol' USA and dare I say it, Switzerland!

 

I like that the Bergeon tool has a transparent tip so you can see better how it is aligned. I may get a hold of some clear filament to see if I can get close enough to this because I do have some other ideas that require somewhat transparent parts. The cool thing about the turret is that the tool you need is always ready. In fact, maybe a turret that simply held the same Horotec/Bergeon tools is the way to go.

As far as softness goes, you can buy pliable plastic to print with so that is possible as well. I will noodle on this idea for a while. I might not do anything with it if I can't find a good enough reason to do it. Maybe the one I made is good enough. We will see. I have other ideas I'm cooking now.

[gbyleveldt]

Yeah, I only twigged on after my post that you were thinking the Bergeon tool. $1200 is stupid, even though it looks fantastic. It would be a nice to have though, even if only for the convenience of not changing the tips.

The Horotec I have is similar to the 2nd pic you’ve shown. I actually quite like mine - I don’t have the issue with the spare tips falling out as they sit in their spare holes nice and snug. I would not say the tips are pliable (like the pliable filament I’ve seen available), they just not hard. I initially felt that they felt cheap but after thinking it through during discussions in this thread, I did grasp why they were made the way the were. I will take pics a little later.

The idea of transparent tips is something very worthwhile though. Like you said, it’s hard to see if your tip is properly aligned over the hand when pressing it down, I’d be keen on something like that!

Im loving this thread hey! I don’t have the patience to learn how to drive a new piece of CAD software (my brain is still clogged up too much by all the EDA software I had to learn in a past life), but I certainly enjoy the process of 3D printing something useful. I can put my brain in neutral and watch a piece of plastic come to life in front of my very eyes

 

[Kalanag]

On 6/17/2022 at 11:32 PM, LittleWatchShop said:

Open in microsoft word.  Select all and copy (^a ^c)

Open a blank notepad file and past in (^v).  Save as mh.uue

Open a command window in the directory where mh.uue exists.

Run the following: certutil -decode mh.uue mh.FCStd

It worked! Thank you! 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Kalanag