Bumblebee 3D

[JD770]

Made of black steel 3mm, size approx. 250 x 200, laser cut

401082245_276098215410673_8872146481641831376_n1.jpg

[SegoMan DeSigns]

BeeUtiful Muse (er I mean Bee)..

[kellytwedt]

Adorable little stunner!

[adbuch]

Very nicely done! Was this a purchased file or something you drew up yourself?
Thanks,
David

[JD770]

I bought the model and converted it to dxf

[weldguy]

Very nicely done! Would be cool to have a bunch of those made up but it looks little time consuming with all the pieces and the painting.

[adbuch]

I bought the model and converted it to dxf

Was that a solid model you purchased? If so, would you mind sharing the source where you purchased it? It looks very interesting and I would be interested to see what other models they offer.

Or when you say model, was it one of those plastic models that you paint and glue together? Either way, I am interested to find out more.

Thanks,


David

[JD770]

https://assemblishop.com/

[adbuch]

https://assemblishop.com/

Thanks for that link! I took a look and may order one of the humming birds to try out using your technique. I

I will need to figure out how to do a multi-color paint job like the one shown. It seems to me that Doug showed a large butterfly or similar that he made for the yard/garden and had good success using spray cans of translucent colors. I'll have to try to find his post.

David

humming bird.jpg

[adbuch]

401082245_276098215410673_8872146481641831376_n1.jpg

Made of black steel 3mm, size approx. 250 x 200, laser cut
401082245_276098215410673_8872146481641831376_n1.jpg

Nice work! How did you attach the pieces together after you painted them?

Also - do you have a website or Facebook page where you show your work?

Thanks,
David

[tinspark]

https://assemblishop.com/

Thanks for that link! I took a look and may order one of the humming birds to try out using your technique. I

I will need to figure out how to do a multi-color paint job like the one shown. It seems to me that Doug showed a large butterfly or similar that he made for the yard/garden and had good success using spray cans of translucent colors. I'll have to try to find his post.

David
humming bird.jpg

It took a little bit of digging, but I found it. Lol.

[tinspark]

https://assemblishop.com/

Thanks for that link! I took a look and may order one of the humming birds to try out using your technique. I

I will need to figure out how to do a multi-color paint job like the one shown. It seems to me that Doug showed a large butterfly or similar that he made for the yard/garden and had good success using spray cans of translucent colors. I'll have to try to find his post.

David
humming bird.jpg

David, It took a little bit of digging, but I found it.
They have faded out a bunch since these were taken, so I will likely reshoot them and this time throw a clear coat on them as an experiment, (rattle can clear Rustoleum likely) . I do not powder coat anything here, but that might be an option for some if that is available to them. Also, this butterfly is 304 stainless steel, because I figured then (1-1/2 years ago) when it was built that the metal cast paints would have rusted through. I would have been right, because it is almost bare stainless at this point.
I am not sure if its the hot sun or acid rain from all of the fires that we have been getting here in California. Also, we get up to 110 deg. F. here in Central CA, so that likely does not help the Metal Cast paint either, which you can literally fry an egg on the sidewalk at that temp, and has been demonstrated on our local news channel on those extreme heat days. So I figure this thing gets hot in the summer heat as well, which may deteriorate metal cast, but IDK. Regular Rustoleum brand type of paint holds up pretty good herehowever. But I didnt want that on this piece. Just their clear coat next time over the transluscent paints

[adbuch]

Thanks Doug! That will help me very much.
David

[tinspark]

Thanks Doug! That will help me very much.
David

Post up a picture of what you came up with when “U getter done” as quoted from the historically famous US poet
- Larry The Cable Guy HAAH!

[adbuch]

Doug - the humming bird order has finally arrived in the mail. Now all I have to do is to open the package, scan in the pieces, cnc plasma cut them, assemble the pieces, and paint it. I'll get on it along with the shaper trace project as soon as I get some of my other "jobs" finished.

David

[tinspark]

Doug - the humming bird order has finally arrived in the mail. Now all I have to do is to open the package, scan in the pieces, cnc plasma cut them, assemble the pieces, and paint it. I'll get on it along with the shaper trace project as soon as I get some of my other "jobs" finished.

David

Sounds like ypu are up to your eyeballs in stuff to do. Love it!

[adbuch]

Doug - I put in a few hours this evening on the humming bird project. I'm still experimenting with the Shaper Trace frame and flat bed scanner to see what sort of results I can achieve.

David

hummingbird started 1.jpg

hummingbird started 2.jpg

[tinspark]

Nice work on the hummingbird David. How much extra space are you giving the slots, and what gauge are you going to burn?

Also, I may have use for a larger shaper tracer, not so much the smaller version.
But I was not sure how accurate it would be for tracing larger Mechanical parts, and slots and holes and such that need lore accuracy. .
So I have been waiting on pulling the trigger on one to see what everyone comes up with and have enough projects brewing where it is not a priority on my end. But I have trolled YouTube to see what everyone has been doing with theirs.
It looks like, based on your results mentioned above, that actual parts may get more skewed based on their thickness and what the picture picks up.
I wonder if you would have traced them onto a flat surface with a mechanical pencil, or even a ball point pen (thin dark lines) then scanned the parts, if they would have come out better. My hunch is better not good enough for consistent slot accuracy.... ??
I think most of my questions are actually answered about the ShaperTrace.
But I am still interested in what projects that you may use it for.
I imagine your digitizer board would be more useful if more accuracy were needed, especially if time were a factor and you were having to account for time that needs to be charged to a customer. (ie. the need to charge a customer based on employee hours spent cleaning up a file) or needing to recoup costs to account for actual hours spent on a project. Unlike us home hobby guys..

[adbuch]

Doug - my feeling (and expectation) is that the Shaper Trace at a larger size should work just fine for tracing larger mechanical parts - as long as they are thin, flat, and a dark color compared to the white background. For best results - I would indeed use a sharpie and trace the shape of the part onto the white paper and put the larger trace frame around/on top of the trace.

The problem for me was that the parts were small, and pretty thick in comparison to the overall dimensions of each part.

I intend to print (print on paper, not 3D print) larger frames for testing. These will be a black frame with the white dots. I have already printed and tested a smaller version and it works fine.

For me, it would be faster to draw/manual trace a template onto a large piece of paper and use the Shaper Trace (large frame version) to simply take a picture and let the Trace software do the actual auto trace and convert it to svg.

When using the Calcomp Digitizer board with software - it can be quite a bit of work to manually trace a part - lots of interaction with the program while you are tracing the part. And not all of it is "tracing", some of it is using the program to fit shapes to the trace. Then after saving as dxf, these is always lots of addition editing to do to achieve a good file for cutting. Stan Kern makes it look easy.

Also - the cost of the Calcomp board with software is around $3600 (last time I checked). The cost of the Shaper Trace is $99 plus the cost of printing the larger frames. So even if the additional larger trace frame costs an extra $50 or so - still a very good bargain compared to the alternatives.

David

[adbuch]

Nice work on the hummingbird David. How much extra space are you giving the slots, and what gauge are you going to burn?

Also, I may have use for a larger shaper tracer, not so much the smaller version.
But I was not sure how accurate it would be for tracing larger Mechanical parts, and slots and holes and such that need lore accuracy. .

Doug - I am still thinking about the slot width. I will probably cut some text parts to see what it needs to be.

What sort of accuracy do you want (or need) for a larger mechanical part? Let's say the part is around 24" x 36" in size. Do you need accuracy to 0.010", 0.100", or ??

David

[adbuch]

Nice work on the hummingbird David. How much extra space are you giving the slots, and what gauge are you going to burn?

Also, I may have use for a larger shaper tracer, not so much the smaller version.
But I was not sure how accurate it would be for tracing larger Mechanical parts, and slots and holes and such that need lore accuracy. .

Doug - I did a few tests this evening using my Mega Trace frame - it is scaled up by a factor of 2. So this means that the trace result will also need to be scaled up by a factor of 2.

I used it on a cardboard template first. This might be a template for some particular part I would want to cnc plasma cut. It has some curves and holes, so it would not be that easy to simply measure it and draw from scratch.

Mega Trace template trace 1.jpg

Mega Trace template trace 2.jpg

Mega trace template trace results.jpg

I am quite pleased with the results of this 2x Trace Frame, and expect that increasing the Trace Frame to a 3x size should work just fine. Also - although I am using a 3D printed frame for this test - my previous experience using flat paper frames leads me to believe that I would get identical results with a paper frame.

For another test - mainly to check for squareness and overall scale of the resulting trace - I drew a 10" x 16" rectangle using the fine tip marker that came with the Shaper Trace. I have purchased a few extra of these fine tip markers on Amazon at a much cheaper price than the ones Shaper sells.

mega trace rectangle trace 1.jpg

mega trace rectangle trace 2.jpg

Mega trace template trace results 1.jpg

The trace results (using the Centerline trace mode) gave what I think are excellent results. The overall results are within .030" or so (worst case) and considering that the rectangle I drew does have some line width (width of fine tip marker) I think this is a very acceptable result.

David

[tinspark]

Nice work on the hummingbird David. How much extra space are you giving the slots, and what gauge are you going to burn?

Also, I may have use for a larger shaper tracer, not so much the smaller version.
But I was not sure how accurate it would be for tracing larger Mechanical parts, and slots and holes and such that need lore accuracy. .

Doug - I am still thinking about the slot width. I will probably cut some text parts to see what it needs to be.

What sort of accuracy do you want (or need) for a larger mechanical part? Let's say the part is around 24" x 36" in size. Do you need accuracy to 0.010", 0.100", or ??

David

DAvid,
At work we shot for about .030- ish and if it came out to as far off as 1/16" noone really complains. But I am shooting for about 1/32" accuracy. I am a sheet metal worker not a machinist. Building Tradesman! SO that makes it a lot less pressure to get it perfect. Our field guys have less strict tolerances. !/8" or even greater

[tinspark]

David, when I drew some of the slots for the Eiffel tower, I dew a generic female and rotated and copied and pasted it in DesignEdge, which made it pretty easy to do. Then used the trim tool to zoom in to take care of the overlaps and such.

[adbuch]

David,
At work we shot for about .030- ish and if it came out to as far off as 1/16" noone really complains. But I am shooting for about 1/32" accuracy. I am a sheet metal worker not a machinist. Building Tradesman! SO that makes it a lot less pressure to get it perfect. Our field guys have less strict tolerances. !/8" or even greater

Doug - I assume you are shooting for that ".030- ish" tolerance on your finished sheet metal parts. So for a specified dimension of 20", your acceptable finished dimension on the part would be 19.970 (low side) to 20.030 (high side) if you want an accuracy to the drawing of +/- 0.030".

How are these parts produced? cnc laser, cnc plasma, or??

Tool like the Calcomp digitizer board, Shaper Trace, etc. I think are more intended for quickly and conveniently capturing the shape of a part with complex curves and interior features. Much faster than trying to measure everything out or "manual digitizing" using a grid table or similar.

The width of a Sharpie marker can easily exceed 1/32" - so tracing and digitizing a cardboard template will have some inherent inaccuracies. If a reference dimension (or several reference dimensions) are included with the template - then some minor scaling of the vector file can allow for correction of any inaccuracies of the "trace to vector" result.

Similar to adjusting specified kerf width with cnc plasma cutting, or adjusting tool offsets for cnc machining.

David

[tinspark]

David,
At work we shot for about .030- ish and if it came out to as far off as 1/16" noone really complains. But I am shooting for about 1/32" accuracy. I am a sheet metal worker not a machinist. Building Tradesman! SO that makes it a lot less pressure to get it perfect. Our field guys have less strict tolerances. !/8" or even greater

Doug - I assume you are shooting for that ".030- ish" tolerance on your finished sheet metal parts. So for a specified dimension of 20", your acceptable finished dimension on the part would be 19.970 (low side) to 20.030 (high side) if you want an accuracy to the drawing of +/- 0.030".

How are these parts produced? cnc laser, cnc plasma, or??

Tool like the Calcomp digitizer board, Shaper Trace, etc. I think are more intended for quickly and conveniently capturing the shape of a part with complex curves and interior features. Much faster than trying to measure everything out or "manual digitizing" using a grid table or similar.

The width of a Sharpie marker can easily exceed 1/32" - so tracing and digitizing a cardboard template will have some inherent inaccuracies. If a reference dimension (or several reference dimensions) are included with the template - then some minor scaling of the vector file can allow for correction of any inaccuracies of the "trace to vector" result.

Similar to adjusting specified kerf width with cnc plasma cutting, or adjusting tool offsets for cnc machining.

David