The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • HQ Sixteen: Padded Table Shims

    The HQ Sixteen has been running at higher speeds as Mary practices using its stitch regulator and the vibrations shook several of the table shims (blocks, whatever) onto the floor. I hope a layer of EVA foam provides enough compliance to keep them in place:

    HQ Sixteen - padded table shim - installed
    HQ Sixteen – padded table shim – installed

    The foam is 2 mm thick, so subtracting that from the nominal thickness makes the new blocks come out right.

    A short module extracts the footprint for export as an SVG image to laser-cut both the foam and the adhesive sheet required to stick it in place:

    module ShimPad(Thickness = PadThick) {
    
        if (Thickness)
            linear_extrude(height=Thickness)
                projection(cut=true)
                    ShimBlock();
        else
            projection(cut=true)
                ShimBlock();
    
    }
    

    It turns out linear_extrude() chokes on a zero height.

    When handed a nonzero Thickness, the code generates a simulated foam sheet:

    HQ Sixteen - table shims - solid model - padded
    HQ Sixteen – table shims – solid model – padded

    The footprint looks about like you’d expect:

    HQ Sixteen - table shims - solid model - pad outline
    HQ Sixteen – padded table shim – installed

    Import into LightBurn, duplicate it sufficiently, set the speed & power & kerf for EVA foam, then cut ’em out:

    HQ Sixteen - table shims - padding cuts
    HQ Sixteen – table shims – padding cuts

    Ditto for the adhesive, stick together, and upgrade the fleet.

    If these shake loose, snippets of adhesive film will stick them firmly to the underside of the table panels.

    Update: Yeah, they needed sticky snippets. Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on with that machine!