![]() ![]() Despite my best efforts, I still find the last ball in the queue occasionally getting stuck. Take your time and make sure that you test it by lowering a ball VERY slowly behind your finger or a tool to make sure that there are no flat spots or bumps that will cause the ball to get stuck. ![]() If you don’t do this, balls may occasionally get stuck on the ramp. Once you’ve printed all of the parts and cleaned them up, you may want to take some time to sand the ramp on the base and make it as smooth as possible. I used PrusaSlicer’s adaptive printing layers feature and that worked well for me.Īll of the other parts can be printed using PLA with normal settings (perhaps 20% infill with 3 perimeters but really anything will probably do the trick.) WARNING! You will probably want to print the motor housing shell and back and the mounting hub in PETG (or ABS) because the small Nema 8 motor can run hot and I’ve had these motors get hot enough to deform PLA.Īlso, when you print the clock base (which can be printed in PLA), you are going to want to print at least the layers that make up the ramp using as low a layer hight as possible (for example 0.12mm) because if the ramp isn’t perfectly smooth, the little balls will occasionally get stuck on the ramp. I recommend printing on glass, particularly for the lift wheel, because you want the surface to be as flat and smooth as possible. Your build plate needs to be very level because too much skew in the prints can prevent the clock from working. None of these models should be printed with supports but it’s pretty important that your printer be reasonably well dialed in. * (Optional) JST connectors for the motor and the power leads. * (Optional) Mounting sockets for the Arduino and the stepper driver. * 1x 12v power supply with 2.1mm x 5.5mm plug (or equivalent) * 1x 5.5mm x 2.1mm DC power supply jack (or equivalent) * 1x Nema 8 (20x20x38mm) stepper motor (the shorter one lacks the necessary torque) * 1x DRV8825 stepper motor (or equivalent) This version has only a handful of models that need to be printed (all without supports) and the final assembly is pretty easy. I’ve seen and taken inspiration from other ball clocks (particularly 3Dadicto’s clock: ) but they all seemed larger and more complex than what I was going for. ![]() My goal was to create a ball clock that could be 3d printed relatively easily on an Ender 3 class 3d printer and assembled without too much fuss. (I put “simple” in quotes because designing this thing and perfecting it has been anything but simple.) So to sum it up, you could do what you want for about $400.00.This is a “simple” 3d printed ball clock that uses 3/8” diameter steel bearings to count the time. This is the program that many of the grade schools use to teach 3D printing. Its free, easy to use, and will do just about anything you need. If you search on the internet, you will find many free drawing programs. This is a very expensive program and I would suggest not using it because of the expense. To make a pinion or wheel, I draw them out on the computer and then send them to the printer. It helps to reproduce a part if it has a lot of detail. I have printed about 25 parts on my spool and it still is over half full. Lots of parts can be made off of one spool. The wooden filament is about $50.00 a spool. All the printers come with all the software you need to print almost anything a clock repair person would need. I would suggest something in the $300.00 range. You can buy one for as little as $100.00. The cost of 3D printers are coming down in price dramatically over the past year. I will try to answer it the best I can, the easiest part first. It really depends on what your trying to do. Those tend to not hold the plaster of paris very well during the hot metal casting step and you often end up with a partial hole which is harder to finish than doing a compete drilling after the cast has cooled and been separated from the plaster. If the finished part needs small holes or cut out it is best to drill or cut them in after the casting rather than trying to 3D print the holes and small cut out. This works better with thinner parts, but with practice you can cast fairly complicated parts and get a good metal casting without voids. Let it cool slowly in an oven as with lost wax casting, break off the plaster of paris and do the finish filing and polishing. Drill or cut in the ports to pour in the liquid metal and the vent holes and the corn starch melts quickly as it is displaced by the metal. ![]() You can 3D print your part in the corn starch medium, then coat it with plaster of paris like they do with lost wax casting. It also melts at a fairly low temperature. If you use the corn based 3D printing material it is quite inexpensive. ![]()
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