People new to 3D printing may not understand what supports are or why they are needed. Essentially supports are wasted material that are broken away after completion of a print. Without supports, the plastic will sag as it moves across an open area. It’s best to explain with an example. In the Figure 1,…
3D printed watch band I recently used 3D printing to replace my watch band. I was at a friend’s house and apparently his dog loves the taste of rubber. My watch was on a table and before I know it, his dog had eaten one side of the watch band. To fix the watch,…
CADdesignhelp goes on the WTFFF Podcast I’m a big podcast fan (as I am sure those of you getting this know). I recently found a podcast all about 3D printing and I reached out the hosts to see if they would like to have me on and they agreed. The show is the WTFFF podcast. WTFFF?!…
My answer to What are the most creative 3D printed objects you have made? Answer by Scott Tarcy: I have created many different products for 3D printing, but I would say my best one to date is (ironically enough), called “The Object” I’m a pretty big Led Zeppelin fan, so I recreated (from images) the…
Scott Tarcy (President of CADdesignhelp.com) is also involved in the community in Charlotte, NC, where we are based. He is also the Vice President of the INOTC (Inventors Network of the Carolina’s – INOTC.org). The group meets once a month to discuss topics related to inventing and in January 2017 he gave the presentation. The topic…
My answer to What Business Models will emerge from the 3D printing market? Answer by Scott Tarcy: 3D printing is already creating new business models. 3D printing is now being used for low volume and customized manufacturing. Let’s look at some examples. Here is a product that I sell online that is made using 3D…
I want to hear your feedback on my invention of the Selfie-Glove, please leave a comment below. You can hear my podcast where I talk all about the development of this product on my podcast page (episode 11)
My answer to Which free CAD-software do you recommend for this? Answer by Scott Tarcy: Well first of all, I don’t think you will find a free CAD program that will do stress analysis. At least not to my knowledge. For something simple like this, Solidworks is a good choice to create the model and…
My answer to What’s the best way to build prototypes for sunglasses? Answer by Scott Tarcy: What’s the best way to build prototypes for sunglasses? Examples or guides would be awesome. I’m particularly interested in how lenses are made. I imagine the first step could be cutting out films to glue over them, but how…
There are many ways. First off, are you in a Mechanical Engineering program in college? If so, there are many groups and activities you can get involved in. I went to Virginia Tech from 2002-2007 and I had options like Formula SAE (http://students.sae.org/cds/form… which is a project to develop a small Formula-style race car. Here…