3D printed soft jaws

Hi All,

I have spent some time looking for soft jaws for the 100 mm chucks
that are supplied on mini lathes.
Seems that no one makes them.

I decided to have a bash at 3D printing some jaws, which worked out quite well.

Facing 16mm dia brass washers to 1.5 mm. thick, holding on 1 mm.

800 rpm, depth of cut 0.25 mm. feedrate = very carefully !

The prints slip tightly over the front of the hard jaws, held in place with a M4 screw, which
is screwed into a 6 mm dia brass tube, super-glued into the plastic body.

Good thing about 3D printers is that they can print holes !

Rough and ready video > https://youtu.be/WPengSICgBk

Neat.

Andrew

very

Hi, I would have liked blue one's myself . All joking aside, a very good idea.

Regards Nick.

Great idea, just got a new 3d printer at work, that we are calibrating ( read learning how to use it ). So I think a quick CAD session tomorrow morning and print set off.

Dave

Excellent, I see a 3D printed bed stop as well!

Neil

Very good idea, but don't let the work piece get too hot!

looks good and I wouldnt mind some for my machine if you can go into production but why so much material on the outside of the jaw?

Very nice

If I had a 3D printer I could stop in bed as well.

;0)

Ha Ha !

Yes this saddle stop was a previous 3D printed design, It went through a few iterations to get it correct,

Now it is 20 mm thick water-jet cut aluminium plate, powder coated.

I registered the design, and now it is currently selling as a kit for Mini- Lathes on Ebay.

dave

I am considering making these kits from solid aluminium plate..or a casting !

There is only 10 mm thickness either side of the chuck jaws, and 10 mm over the end of the jaw to hold the

clamping screw, but as the chuck jaw is hidden it makes it all look disproportionately large !

Not having a 3D printer (yet!!!!) I had to make my soft jaws, which clamp onto the outside chuck jaws, using conventional machining methods. Further details are here:

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/soft-jaws.html

Mike

Top Idea! Well done that man!

I've been printing some prototypes in PLA for accessories which clamp onto digital caliper jaws, if you print the holes tapping size and ensure your wall thickness is plenty for the thread depth then M3 grub screws tighten holding the short end of the hex key to the point of finger pain without give or damage to tapped threads.

- Nick

.

Hi Nick,

I use hips filament mainly, ( High impact poly styrene ) I find this material gives the best crisp and strong prints.

It is also possible to print threads directly into the 3D print, depending on your cad software.

I use Solidworks, put threads in the holes, and the printer prints threads !

Just run a new hss tap down the threads to clean it up, eg. M4 makes a surprisingly strong thread in the plastic.

Don't have to mess about fitting steel nuts inside casings, etc.

dave

.

Dave,

Silly SolidWorks question - how do you model the thread? Is it a triangle swept on a multi turn helix or is there something in the hole wizard I've missed? Just trying to find the quickest way of doing it.

Regards,

Richard

SW models the threads by default, assuming you use the standard thread wizard. Fusion 360 (and Onshape? I forget) allow you to save computing power by turning "cosmetic" threads off - in many situations, modelled threads serve no purpose even if they look pretty on the screen. Arguably, as long as they are called out on the drawing they don't need to be fully modelled in the CAD. But if you are planning to print them out / save as STL, clearly you want them to be modelled.

Murray

Sorry - to answer your question, you will find the thread wizard if you click the pull down under the hole wizard in the std ribbon. You need a circular feature to point it at eg an existing hole or a sketch, then it has all the data for std metric, imperial etc threads.

Edited By Muzzer on 28/06/2017 13:40:46

Cosmetic Threads are often simply axially patterned circumferential ridges, not a true helix. This reduces load on the computer, but is not of any use for screwing things together. Check carefully before attempting to print.

About the printed jaws - did you change the settings to increase the density, rather than the default 20% or so fill? Normally the slicer s/w will allow to change the density of the honeycombing. Depending on the size of the part and the machining forces anticipated, it is a tradeoff between the time and cost of printing vs the strength of the jaws.

Murray