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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Playing with Tinkercad for box design
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Volhout Guru  Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 6184 |
A very simple solution (that is virtually impossible with drilling) is to screw the self threading screw into a square hole. A 3D printer can create square holes easily, and it is the simplest geometrical form that allows disposal of scraped off material. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
That's a good idea. I might give that a try. The little brass inserts hardly break the bank though. About £2 for 50 M3 or 100 M2.5. The attachment for a T12 iron was about £4.60. That deals with all sizes from M2 to M6. They are a much better idea for holding case halves together. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1139 |
I didn't know about these. For bigger stuff, I've been using helical ones used in woodwork. They were sort of OK in part. I ordered a box of assorted heated ones which arrived today. They look much better & should work better assuming I can fit them properly. The 2mm ones look like fun. Thanks for that to others for their comments Brian ChopperP |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
Be careful with the inserts. There are single and double ended ones. The single ended ones are a simple tube at the end that enters the plastic and these are the ones we want. The double ended ones have knurled collars at both ends and are intended for injection moulding. I'm told that they will work but aren't as good, being difficult to insert and having less grip. I've not verified this. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1139 |
Thanks Mick The ones I got are labeled as a Hot Melt Nut Kit & are single ended with the Chevron pattern on the top section a small plain section on the bottom. They came with the insertion tool & adaptors (which will be the first things to lose) Brian ChopperP |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
Yeah... The adapters are a bit small. :) They are made so that they can roll to inaccessible places too. I bet there's a 3D printable holder for them somewhere. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1139 |
Now that's an idea. I made one for a set of wad punches many years ago so I wouldn't lose them. Now I can't find it or the punches. ChopperP |
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| wjrii Newbie  Joined: 03/10/2026 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
Hi all! Total newbie here to MMBasic, but twenty or thirty years ago I noodled around with QBasic some, and years before that Atari Basic on an XEGS. I've been playing around with Picos and 3D printing for a bit in the last couple of years. I mostly use them to make my own custom USB keyboards. For my PicoMite VGA I used a 90x70mm perfboard and designed an open-bottom case in FreeCAD for it, as well as the LM386 amplifier and 40mm speaker I used with it. I printed the whole thing upside down and set my slicer to print the "top" 4mm completely solid. This gave me plenty of material to drill into but left the infill areas nearby to sort of "absorb" the deformation from screwing the board down. For my keyboards I do generally use the heat-set inserts. You need to be quick and steady to use them on PLA, but I generally find them the best balance of simplicity and robustness. As an aside, if you can wrap your head around the "sketch->extrude->sketch->pocket" workflow in one of the more advanced MCAD suites, I think you'll fairly quickly find it's much nicer than TinkerCAD, and almost as intuitive. Still, TinkerCAD is uniquely accessible and gets the job done for the most part, especially for enclosures. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
Hi wjrii, and welcome to the shed. :) I have a sort of "enclosure kit" in Tinkercad now. Ok, it's not parametric in the least, but it gives a way of making enclosures with front and rear panels in any size that I can handle. It's way slower than parametric but Hey, I'm retired, time isn't money now! Getting rounded corners on an enclosure in Tinkercad is interesting. You can't stretch a cube without distorting the curves as the stretch is linear along the full dimension. I discovered that someone had found a way to solve it though. Little things like that, from an enormous user base, help a lot. I sort of liked FreeCAD. Unfortunately I discovered that unless you can find newbie demos that are for *exactly* the version you have loaded then they can't be followed - a very minor difference in version number sees to that. I've seen other demos now and it looks rather good, but I'd already taken it off. . Edited 2026-10-04 17:25 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1139 |
Well I couldn't resist so I designed & printed a holder to fit in my box of inserts. Had 4 goes. First was a tad small overall & I forgot that my setup prints holes about 1mm undersize. Added 1mm to all & that worked for the inserts. I had a hole for a 4mm insert so I could screw the long adaptor in & lift the lot out. That worked well. The base was only about 5mm high with 4mm deep holes & I had the adaptors the other way up, smallend up. I decided they would be better with the threaded end up so I printed the one shown which is 13mm high with about 11mm deep holes. I can screw the long adaptor into the bit I require or into the 4mm nut & lift the lot up being careful not to let any fall out. BTW, I use OpenSCAD. I can't get my head around the other types. @wjrii. Welcome to the forum. EDIT. Didn't see Micks post above Brian  Edited 2026-10-04 17:31 by Chopperp ChopperP |
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| wjrii Newbie Joined: 03/10/2026 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
If it works, it works, and the upfront investment of time to learn something new that you don't intend to become a hobby in its own right is a non-trivial factor. Interesting and very cool that you have found a way that works for you to round the box corners. Fillets and Chamfers were what finally spurred me off TinkerCAD towards a parametric solution. Speaking of, I don't actually use FreeCAD for most things, both for the reasons you mentioned and because the nature of the project means it's a bit behind in some areas and needs to be all things to all users. It was finally close enough in workflow to my normal suite (Alibre Design) that I didn't bother rebooting to windows for this relatively quick design. If you're still on Windows, Fusion360 is a good choice for as long as their free tier is usable, and it's definitely a more mature program than FreeCAD. Here is my case, and while the top doesn't look quite so bad as that (my phone thinks we want to see every single imperfection), it would get a few changes if I were to print another. My 'Mite itself is a study in how many shortcuts and cheap-outs one man can take and still have it work. I didn't have any level-shifters or Mosfets on-hand, so we'll see how long my YD-RP2040 lasts with a single diode shielding its clock pin from 5v. I also skipped the filter circuit on the audio on the assumption that my little amp board could do the job. Finally, my VGA resistors are not quite perfect, but apart from skewing half a shade towards green, all seems well. This is what happens when you let a person with a literature degree own a soldering iron.    Edited 2026-10-05 11:06 by wjrii |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
That's really nice. Sometimes the novelty is more important than accuracy. :) I have a soft spot for the YD-RP2040. I think it's one of the cases where the clone is a definite improvement on the original from the viewpoint of the majority of users. Ok, it's not quite pin compatible but you can work around that. They've thought about the design. This is what I've really been aiming for, a nicer case for my bench PSU that can include the mains supply instead of having to have two boxes. It's still ongoing as I'd like to have some sort of secondary filter on the outgoing side but space is very tight. I may not bother.  At the moment it's in limbo until I can afford more filament. That in turn is in limbo until I can find a sensible way to store the one reel that I currently have (the cheapest one I could find, which happens to be silver - not normally used for lab equipment). . Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 6184 |
Hi Mick, I have soft spot for the original RP pico range. Compared to others the difference is the switching regulator, that is happy with anything between 1.8V and 5.5V. I have several applications running of simple 2xAA cell, and these could also be rechargeable. Even a Game*Mite with AA cells The LCD and backlight are all powered from this 3.3V switcher. But yes.. it only has 2Mbyte flash. The YD-s 16Mbyte is a pro. I am glad Peter created the 2040MIN version. This is feature restricted, and still has respectable A:/ drive of 870k. Progress is good, always going forward, but this stake in the ground is good for my health. Volhout P.S. do not diode-OR the Vsys. Use a P-FET for lower losses (especially when also powering the LCD backlight, the current drawn from the AA cells is 100-200mA, and a diode drop is loss).. Is explained how in the original pico manual. I used one of these small AO3400 series FET's. Edited 2026-10-05 17:55 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
I agree on the original Pico. That switcher is very good indeed, and something that AFAIK none of the clones have copied. I've not tried the 2040MIN version yet. So many things to play with, so little time! How did I ever find time to go to work? Alas, my PSU is a Pico-free design. It's a 12V 5A SMPS feeding a XY SK120X buck-boost regulator module. Output is just shy of 5A up to 12V then tailing off to an estimated max of 1.3A at 36V. The module has 10 memories and IR remote control, which allows me to simply type in the voltage and current limit that I want. It also means that I can put the supply anywhere that the leads will reach . :) It may all change yet though, I'm still playing. Lol Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 6184 |
Mick, If you try the MIN version, make sure it does not restrict you. There are many things removed.  It is however a good step up from 5.08.00 and 5.09.00. And (now with V7) faster. When you always work with SD card, it may not be worth using MIN. It is typical for the microcontroller applications, and suits Game*Mite. Volhout Edited 2026-10-05 20:10 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Bill7300 Senior Member  Joined: 05/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
Mick You might take a look at the 4 litre cereal containers available on Amazon. Each nicely holds a 1kg spool of filament and the lid gives an air-tight seal. https://geni.us/Trnh A good addition is a desiccant holder that fits into the lid to further control humidity. Bill Bill |
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| Bill7300 Senior Member Joined: 05/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
oops, forgot to add the link to the lid desiccant holder https://makerworld.com/com/en/models/12030978. You can also include provision for a little digital thermometer and hygrometer. Bill Bill |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
I've been looking at those, Bill, and the various mods for them. I just have to bear in mind that many of the internal fittings are of no use because I can't print anything over 120mm - and that's only direct on the bed. I'm likely to get some anyway, but not those particular ones (too expensive for me on Amazon). I also have to weigh up do I get some of those or a second reel of filament or some desiccant this month? Decisions, always decisions... Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Bowden_P Senior Member Joined: 20/03/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 176 |
Hi Mick, I've experimented with printing threads, which works fairly well, but only if vertical to the print bed.The smallest I've tried is M3. The slicer will interpret a thread by printing a stack of small circles, each one offset in a spiral as the layers go up. Other orientations are do-able by printing a hole of the tapping size, then run a tap down the hole to complete. You will need walls thick enough for the tap to cut into, and leave some plastic behind afterwards! Support material ( scaffolding ) can sometimes be a bother to remove however, for non-vertical threads. I design with Blender, which has an extension for screw threads, making this feature easy to use. 3D printing can become a hobby in itself! I treat it as a means to an end however, and enjoy the challenge of getting to make something I couldn't otherwise realise, or would be too time-consuming to make by other means. All the best with your new toy - Paul. Nothing so constant as change. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9220 |
Another way appears to be to make hexagonal holes, making the distance across the flats only slightly larger than the inner thread diameter of an ordinary machine screw. No self tappers or inserts needed. The points of the hex hole give somewhere for the displaced plastic to go. It's something else I've yet to test. Yet another, for ordinary screws, is to use a tapered hole 0.1mm bigger than the outside thread dia at the top and 0.1mm smaller than it at the bottom. Would this split? Perhaps in PLA but maybe not in PETG. I tried half an Elemento box but the clip snapped through again. Somehow I could do to find a way to print that bit with 100% fill or find another way. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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