Laser cut dividers

With solid works, create a drawing that is 1:1 scale on a blank sheet. Then you can save it as a PDF file, and open it in illustrator.

That’s a nice offer, but I’ve got it uploaded to OnShape now. This way the accuracy can be maintained.

The file uploaded without a hitch. OnShape even accepted the assembly file by itself (no “pack and go” required) and didn’t complain about the parts being saved inside the assembly (as opposed to each part being saved as individual files).
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/bf4c09b0bd88912109a973d5

Unfortunately, the mates didn’t transfer, but I was able to add them. It works like it should, but occasionally it hangs up. I suspect calculating the tangent mates takes a fair amount of processing power. Or maybe if I added the mates in a different order it would work better. I find grabbing the outline of the rightmost pin-hole allows it to be moved the smoothest.

Fusion 360, on the other hand, is apparently incapable of opening an assembly file by itself (throws an error during the upload process that says “Please select required reference parts and sub-assemblies”).

So, reluctantly, I saved all the parts as individual files, but it seems Fusion 360 can’t open SolidWorks 2016 files at all. It’s funny that OnShape had no issue.

So I saved the three parts as STEP files, which imported just fine into Fusion 360. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Fusion 360 has the necessary mates (or “joints” as they call them) to make this divider functional. Also, it’s not clear whether my personal email address will be shared if I make the project public, so I’m not going to do that. Autodesk also REQUIRES both a first and last name to be entered into the profile and doesn’t seem to offer any provision to conceal that information. Gee Autodesk, ever heard of a little thing called privacy? Why not just get it over-with and require sharing a scan of our driver’s license?

My version of Rhino couldn’t open the SolidWorks 2016 file either, but since it’s nearly 5 years old (version 4.0) I can hardly blame it. 2015 files worked though, IIRC. It did open the STEP files just fine though (I love Rhino!) and exported a very nice looking ai file that opened just fine in the latest version of Illustrator. I’m going to attach that file.
Dividers 06.AI (54.2 KB)

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This is what I love about the forums and what I hope to see more of once we get our Glowforges. People coming together to solve a problem. Someone has an idea and the community helps solve it, we get to see and support the process and sometimes people are nice enough to share the project files. Great work everyone and I wish I could have participated more. I look forward to making a set of these!

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I missed this part of the original post until today. I’ve now read that other thread and it seems like the inspiration for this tool may not have been very sophisticated.

The whole time I was working on this I assumed we were trying to recreate something that the Greeks probably made hundreds of years ago, but after doing some googling, I couldn’t find a photo of a similar looking tool.

Did we just crowd-invent this thing?

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If I recall, an antique tool was the inspiration.

That seems to be the case, but since @madebynick didn’t include the curved slots in the first iteration I was guessing they weren’t present in the real tool.

After randomly typing keywords into Google Image searches for, like, an hour, the closest real tool I could find are “golden mean calipers” (which look quite similar at first glance).

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Nice digging there.
Not just antique, but ancient. Wonder if it is as accurate as yours?

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Thanks! I bet it’s perfect, but the pointer doesn’t actually point to the center. Instead it always divides the total distance into two parts that form the golden ratio (AKA the “divine proportion”, a ratio said to be found in many places in nature).

Hey, I’m thinking the case for that was laser-cut… wwwweeeeird.

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I have not found anything like this type of dividers, but my experience with drafting tools is limited. Any machinists or architects here know of anything like this?

Haha I looked around for a while as well and didnt find much close to the median calipers. I did find some funny stuff though:



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As an student of landscape architecture I have never used / heard of such a tool but instantly see its value

My wife has told me that she wants a pair of these for her bookbinding.
Apparently it is a tool used to find centerlines on book spines (or something).

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I’ve got a set of Hirudin’s dividers 3D printing out now.

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at first glance it looks like a weld gage.

http://www.galgage.com/Weld_Profile_Gauge.pdf

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I used this opportunity to upgrade my Silhouette Cameo software to designer edition just to import the SVG. Finally getting around to trying it out. Used some cardstock to make it. Very rough. No rivets or pin clasps so I just laid it on some screws. Can’t wait to try it on some acrylic with a Glowforge.

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Sickness!

Hmmm… maybe I should give printing one a try too. I have been lamenting how I never use my 3D printer. Prolly wouldn’t be a bad idea to bump it up to 158.75% scale, so the pin holes go up to 1/8" and the other parts get thickened.

I used 200% scale and found that 6-32 screws fit the holes at that scale pretty well. Shoulder bolts would be better, but I don’t have any in that size.


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Very good, Nice work.

Looks good! Does it work right?

Mine’s printing right now, but it’s a Form1+ so I’m… not holding my breath for results that good. Flat objects aren’t it’s forte. Also, it’ll be another 10 hours or so. :confused:

… and my resin is expired. LOL

It pretty much works as intended, though I did add some small printed washers between some parts to keep the parts lined up. It’s a bit rough, but I did almost no finishing and a bit of emery cloth in the slots would help. Then too, the 6-32 screw threads aren’t conducive to smooth action at the joints - shoulder bolts or sleeves/bushing might help there. Very nice job, btw! No problem at all slicing or printing it.

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