Magnifier Lamp – Printing the head
The main part of the magnifier lamp is the head, after a few variants of design I ended up with something I was happy to print.
I loaded the 25x140x160mm model into Automaker and selected the fine option. 36 minutes and 24 seconds, that’s a bit precise I thought before realising it was actually measuring in hours. I swapped over to normal and the duration went down, I swapped it to fill with the 0.8mm nozzle and selected a 60% fill. Finally I cranked up the layer height to 0.3mm. That did the trick and brought the print time down to 6 hours. I checked that the first few layers were sticking and left it going. I still find it hard not to watch it printing as it’s fascinating to watch, I spotted that the 3D print algorithm was adding an extra swirl where the filler met the side walls and also noticed that when bridging over the screw hole it printed perpendicular to the hole even though the rest was longitudinal. This should result in a strong print.
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- Head Print in Progress 1
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- Head Print in Progress 2
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- Head Print in Progress 3
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- Head Print in Progress 4
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- Head Print in Progress 5
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- Head Print Finished Top
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- Head Print Finished Underneath
After 6hrs 45 minutes I had a print. It’s not perfect but it will work nicely for my lamp. Some of the holes need reeming to size and I miscalculated on the lens hole size so need to sand that back to fit the lens in place. There’s a few print defects but as the lamp is for the workshop, I was more concerned that it was strong rather than pretty. There was also some lifting of the handle so those have ended up slightly asymmetrical. The base also yellowed slightly where it was on the heater for nearly 7hrs. I sanded that back and it looks fine. Finally the design of LED holes are a lot deeper than they need to be. I hope this won’t be an issue as they are very bright and the holes are reflective. Otherwise I’ll need to counter bore the holes or sand the flange off the LED so they can be positioned nearer the bottom surface. I deliberately printed with a very thick wall so that I could fine tune the holes without breaking through.
To hold the lens in place my wife suggested silicone sealant, I might use that or perhaps just hot glue or even Sugru as I have some spare packets of that.
My plan for the LEDs is to drill through 3 of the holes into a wooden block to form a jig that I can use for soldering up the connections.
Posted in: 3dPrinting, Magnifier Lamp
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[…] magnifying glass, the head and thumbscrews were 3D printed and the LEDs are standard white 5mm. Magnifier Lamp – Printing the head – Workshopshed Andy from Workshopshed "Making and repairing things in a shed at the bottom of the […]