Hey Everybody. So tried to print out my first practical / functional item last

3D Printing
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Hey Everybody.

So tried to print out my first practical / functional item last night being a filament holder from thingiverse

Unfortunately the dove-joints have come out completely incorrect, the male part too large (there’s a complaint you don’t hear to often) and the female too small.

It doesn’t appear to be an X or Y issues (unless they are both out) as the female connector is too small, but the same size, on all 3 points of the hub piece.

I’m assuming when using multiple perimeters the outside perimeter is meant to match the measurements/dimension of the item printed? Addin perimeters isn’t changing the items external dimensions.

  • so much to still learn *

P.S. Anyone got a good link to learn the basics on OpenSCAD? Opened one, looked, closed it.

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I think that may be the design, I printed it on my CNC machine which I converted to a printer temporarily to make printer parts. The machine is very well calibrated dimensionally and I had the same problem you describe, with that same “thing”. I ended up using a file to get them close.

To really be sure you’d have to measure the ends in a cad program or something like netfabb and see what the actual dimensions are.

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http://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSCAD_User_Manual/General

That should get you started.

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Be warned, very few designs on thingiverse account for little things like clearance and the finite precision of various machines. Far too many assume that a 10mm diameter pin will turn freely in a 10mm diameter hole.

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OpenScad 12 part tutorial on the Makerbot Blog http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/01/19/openscad-basics-the-setup/