3D Printed Balsa Tools

[Joker 53150]

Here's where paying attention to detail pays off... I just finished printing and testing the plane Willsonman showed, and it's the same as the second one I made! I never noticed the little holes for screws along the edge of the blade and the details on Thingiverse didn't show screws in those holes! This may have just been the printer's fault, but I did notice that the one I printed turned out better than the one I just made from a different file. The details on top were a little smoother using the same printer settings, so either the different people who posted the designs had slight differences in their files or my printer isn't working as well today as it did a few days ago.

 

[rockyboy]

I'm loving this little razor plane!

A little too thick on the depth for the first cut..


Getting thinner..


And wow - now we're making shavings!!

 

[SlingShot]

You guys probably know this, but the double edge, safety razor blades are extremely thin. They shave balsa very nicely.

 

[rockyboy]

You guys probably know this, but the double edge, safety razor blades are extremely thin. They shave balsa very nicely.

I always buy the single edge ones to use by hand, so I sort of forgot about the double edge ones... they might work even better in this situation ... thanks for the reminder!

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Great thread!

 

[Joker 53150]

Regarding double or single edge razor blades, it's obvious the single edge have the extra piece of metal folded over the "safe" side. The razor plane being discussed here does include a small recess for that extra metal to sit in so the actual blade itself is able to stay flat against the body of the plane. That extra metal also helps to strengthen the blade so it's less prone to bending.

For the two screws that allow for blade adjustment, I had to add a couple small washers for the blade to rest against, as the screw heads were a little too small to reach the blade. I'm finding that adjusting the blade is fairly easy, although I've got very short screws in there right now and will have to use slightly longer ones so I can really fine-tune the cutter. It's working very well for a home-made tool, although I find the original Master Airscrew a little better when making wider cuts. This one is a bit nicer for fine detail work.

 

[rockyboy]

For the two screws that allow for blade adjustment, I had to add a couple small washers for the blade to rest against, as the screw heads were a little too small to reach the blade. I'm finding that adjusting the blade is fairly easy, although I've got very short screws in there right now and will have to use slightly longer ones so I can really fine-tune the cutter.

Same here on the washers - the junk drawer of pieces I reached into had some stubby little screws that I think came from holding servo control horns in place, and some small nylon washers that fit well since the heads were small.

 

[Joker 53150]

Here's another tool that I've been looking at for a while, and finally printed - a "Triangular Balsa Cutter" (LINK). If you do any scratch building you'll eventually need some triangular sticks, and quite honestly they're a bit of a pain to cut from square stock. Here's the answer!

The main cutter itself is a utility blade clamped in a jig. The design comes with two different size inserts that allow you to cut three different size square sticks into triangles. Note that you can also cut a stick, hold the pieces together and run them through the cutter again after turning them 90 degrees to get smaller triangles as well.

My first cut was with a very hard balsa, and it was fairly tough to get through the cutter. Additional tests were done with "typical" stock which worked much better. It does NOT give you a perfect cut as the grain of the wood will force it to wander a bit as it goes through the blade, but if you need the pieces for internal reinforcements it's perfect. The most accurate cuts are with the biggest piece shown below that doesn't need a die for cutting. I compare this tool to my Milwaukee Sawzall - it won't get used often, but when it's needed there is nothing better!

 

[DarkFire]

Usually there are local companies that have banks of 3D printers, and you can upload a file for an object online. Then you can either go pick it up or ship it to your destination of choice.

Hope this helps,
Dark


EDIT: This reply was intended for YooperJon, but I didn't realize there was 3 pages in the thread instead of 1 page

 

[Joker 53150]

I'm spending a bit of time printing various tools lately, some are for me and others are for Christmas stocking-stuffers for my dad who also likes to scratch-build. Here's one that took a total of about 18 hours to print, the "Miter Razor" found HERE on Thingiverse. This is basically a guillotine style cutter, not really suited for thicker balsa as it'll tend to crush it. But if you're stick-building and using 1/4" or smaller sticks it can come in VERY handy. The design also includes a 45 degree piece for quick cuts and a couple hold-down legs that can be used to hold wood or the angle finder.

What I like about this design is that you can mark the wood sticks with a fine pen and then line that cut up directly with the blade. The blade is easily visible from the left side (for right handed cutting, I guess) so even odd angles are quick to cut. The design of the base is very solid, probably more solid than it really needs to be, so it used a lot of filament and time to print.

 

[Joker 53150]

Switching gears from printing tools to actually designing a couple of them now. Well, not "tools", but close. I wanted to print a glue caddy for my CA glue and for the epoxy bottles, but nobody made quite what I wanted, so I went online and found a free design program. It took a little playing around as I'm fumbling my way around learning to use it, but right now I'm printing a caddy that will hold my thick, medium, and thin CA as well as the debonder and accelerator. For the epoxy I designed one that'll hold the small bottles of 3 different speeds. Pics and reviews of my own design to follow, and if they work I'll put them on Thingiverse in case anybody else wants in on some of this sweet action!

 

[willsonman]

Yeah, gotta get my CG machine going

 

[Joker 53150]

Well, here it is, my first attempt at designing my own product for 3D printing. If I'm being critical, the fit could be slightly tighter on the CA bottles, but it's really meant only to organize my glues. In hindsight I should have added a spot for foam-safe CA, but I don't own any. I may re-design it to either take up a little less room, or to combine it with my epoxy holder and add room for the Tite Bond and Gorilla glue to make a mega-sized glue caddy!

 

[Joker 53150]

Version 1 of my epoxy caddy is no done. It's designed around the small bottles, which is typically what I use. When I run low I re-fill the small bottles from larger bottles. It was designed to hold 3 pairs of bottles, slow/medium/fast, although I don't have any of the fast 5-minute epoxy currently. The side walls are a bit taller than for the CA holder, so these taller bottles are less likely to tip over.






After making Version 1 I saw a picture of a holder designed to keep the bottle inverted, which is a great idea when your bottle is starting to get low. I made a quick test piece to see if the pieces would be the right size, and the bottle's nozzle fit through perfectly on the first try. I'm currently printing Version 2 which will hold all 6 bottles inverted, or you could put them in rightside-up if you like. It'll have a base with 4 legs to hold it all up as well. If my measurements are good, the cap should just be touching the base (with the bottle inverted) which will hopefully help keep the cap from accidentally coming off.

 

[agentkbl]

You know, I could use a 3d printer, you'd better stop convincing me right now... Man, it's a good thing I've got college to save for, or I'd have like three right now.

 

[Michael9865]

Here's another tool that I've been looking at for a while, and finally printed - a "Triangular Balsa Cutter" (LINK). If you do any scratch building you'll eventually need some triangular sticks, and quite honestly they're a bit of a pain to cut from square stock. Here's the answer!

The main cutter itself is a utility blade clamped in a jig. The design comes with two different size inserts that allow you to cut three different size square sticks into triangles. Note that you can also cut a stick, hold the pieces together and run them through the cutter again after turning them 90 degrees to get smaller triangles as well.

My first cut was with a very hard balsa, and it was fairly tough to get through the cutter. Additional tests were done with "typical" stock which worked much better. It does NOT give you a perfect cut as the grain of the wood will force it to wander a bit as it goes through the blade, but if you need the pieces for internal reinforcements it's perfect. The most accurate cuts are with the biggest piece shown below that doesn't need a die for cutting. I compare this tool to my Milwaukee Sawzall - it won't get used often, but when it's needed there is nothing better!

View attachment 98489

This on my must make list. I will also re-work it to cut balsa dowels in half. Thank you for sharing

 

[Joker 53150]

This on my must make list. I will also re-work it to cut balsa dowels in half. Thank you for sharing

Now that I've actually figured out how to make simple parts I'm also going to rework it a bit. The inserts made to handle smaller stock work, but I think they'll work better if they were longer and held the stock closer to the cutting blade.

 

[Joker 53150]

My epoxy holder designs are pretty much done now. The first version (on the left) holds bottles right-side-up and the second version holds them upside-down. A few small changes will be made before I publish them. Version 1 doesn't need walls quite as tall as they are, so I'll bump them down about 1/4". Version 2 is good, but I didn't notice the 4 legs had warped outward a bit after the part cooled, so they're not lined up properly at the top. Not a big deal, and it could have been avoided by clamping the parts while the glue cured. I've ordered some 5 minute epoxy to round out my epoxy options.

Since it'll be fairly easy to do now that the bulk of the design work is complete, I may also make 2 and 4 bottle versions of these holders as well for those who don't need 6.




On Version 2 I added a small lip all around the base, just in case a cap comes off or leaks. It's not enough to hold an entire bottle worth of epoxy, but hopefully it's never tested to that extent! The caps on each bottle just barely rest on the base so that should help accidentally losing a cap.

 

[Joker 53150]

For anybody interested, I've published my CA holder in various styles. Anything from 5 bottles + kicker down to a simple 3 bottle design.

The link to Thingiverse is HERE.

 

[Joker 53150]

And the epoxy stand is now published HERE.

I made different versions to hold 2, 4, or 6 bottles in the upright or upside-down manner.