I'm already brainstorming ideas for next season. I have a vinyl victorian picket fence that has 20 1 3/4" pickets between the larger 4x4 posts in 8 ft sections. I'd like to string C9 sockets along the length of the fence and I could perhaps create a plastic square ring that goes around the picket with something extending inward that can house a C9 socket.
Is this something that could be feasibly done? If I want to get started in 3D printing, any recommendations to get something similar to the feel of the all-in-one clips that have a little spring-i-ness to it where I can punch in a socket.
I could do something to try to insert an existing C9 socket clip into a slot on the plastic jig that goes around the picket. Of course the perfect option would be something all one piece that goes over pickets, but can't seem to find anything resembling that online.
Any ideas?
First, if you can think of it, you can print it. All my lights are mounted on
3/4" 1/2" pvc and I've printed hinged clips to hang them on my garage ceiling in the off season. I've printed many things from remote control holders, cases for things like the raspberry pi and Beagle bones that control my lights and various other useful items. I'm not home so I can add pictures later. Just check out
www.thingiverse.com to see what people are creating.
3d printing is another hobby in itself. Prusa printers are some of the best, but super expensive. If you are looking to try 3d printing, I would recommend the Creality Ender 3. Relatively cheap, yet very capable printer. I have the CR-10 and I am extremely happy with it. The only reason to get the CR-10 over the Ender 3 is bed size. The larger the bed size, the larger the prints you can make. The filament comes in many make ups, PLA, PETG, ABS, others. For outdoor use, you would probably have to use PETG. PLA is the cheapest and easiest to work with, probably what you'll start with, but tends to be more brittle and less flexible before breaking. Stay away from ABS due to, you need a temperature controlled enclosure and venting. ABS produces some toxic odors. Each material is printed with different settings. So, when you get good at PLA, you'll have to figure out the best settings for the other materials. It will take you a while to figure out the settings and technique of 3d printing, so you won't have your clips this year.
As far as the creating your items, I use FreeCAD. #1, it's free. #2, there are many tutorials on youtube to get you started. I mostly stick to what they call constraints. But, I've been able to make some great items. It certainly helps if you have some coding experience or at least understanding. Not that you have to code anything, but the concept of variables is variable calculation help a lot. Setting a variable for something like a box width or height allows you to change a size and have it recalculate through the entire object.
Then after creating your 3d item you need to "slice" your object. For this, I use Cura. That is what slices your object into the individual layers for the 3d printer to print.
And... just like this light hobby, there are better front end controllers that manage the print while printing. Raspberry Pi running Octoprint.
The hardest part, I think, is the actual printing. You need to level the bed and make sure the print head is consistently equidistant from the print bed. Then there's the temperature settings of the print head, print bed and the multitude of settings, such as print speed, retraction distance...
Then there's the time for the print. I've created a box and holds 4 drawers for my electronics components. Printing the box, which is about 10"x8"x6" took about 36hrs to print. The 4 drawers take about 13hrs each.
To sum up, I recommend:
FreeCAD
Creality Ender 3
Cura Slicer
Raspberry Pi w/ Octoprint
