(The ring was going to be used act as manual indicator on how much to index the dowl. But that didn’t work out as planned. I have another idea- But I wanted to press forward)
Time to pull out the bed and check the fit. I used the cutoffs from the roller assembly to act as spacers for the cardboard to make sure that it was straight.
As a sidenote. Pretty cool I didn’t have to 3D Print or machine anything out for this test to work. I absolutely love when a machine is able to make parts for itself.
I love the idea of making them out of acrylic - I was going to 3D print a couple, but with these, anyone can make them once they get their machines…great design!
If you were able to completely surround the part you could use a spring loaded indexer with a detent ring to get exact locations. If you aren’t able to completely surround the part, perhaps a ring with a detent and a matching pin inserted into one of the supports. Then when you rotate the rod, it will “click” into place.
I love this. I really want to carve/etch some round things in the GlowForge, but had given up due to the tight announced workspace (a half inch) and the closed software. I’m glad to see there’s room for a rod to rotate in the GlowForge.
One thought around precision of rotation - what if the ‘ring’ is an octagon (for example), with some guides so the rod can only be rotated to the flat sides, and can’t move up/down (along axis of rotation)? With some math, it should be possible to take any pattern and render it into a bunch of images that fit together (e.g. each one covers 1/8th of the diameter of the rod). Then all sorts of round things get possible. Admittedly a minor hassle having to run 8 jobs to make one thing, but still quite cool.
I am blown away by the clever design and use of available materials. I’ve been playing with some existing rollers and stuff from a copier and a scanner: forget that!. The simplicity of your design is so creative. And that it is a manual jig that gives repeatable results. This just jumped the conversation into a whole new dimension.
Awesome job @karaelena!
A product inspired by the weird fidgeting craze…(?)
On the indexing side, sounds like you have a plan but a soft gear would work. A more exciting prospect for me would be an automated rotary adapter but I don’t think GF 1 is designed for anything but small radius objects. Software would need to be modified but that can be done.
Change of change of plans. I recently bought a NEJE 1000 mw (I don’t know why they don’t just call it a 1W) laser. Since at this time I’m only interested in engraving the handcrafted pens that I make I thought it would be a better solution than the Glowforge. Then last week a fellow in Australia came out with a rubber band drive to turn the pen barrel on the NEJE. That worked great and I was thinking of canceling my Glowforge order. This changes the whole picture for me and I’m back in the fold.
That’s incredible for a “first attempt”. I can’t wait to see what you end up with as you continue to refine this design. I hope it ends up in the design catalog.
I love it when folks come up with real practical solutions, not just complaints & suppositions.
