Finally, a solution to one of those problems that literally everyone encounters at some stage or another: how to store all those juggling clubs that are cluttering up the place. One of our members’ first CAD design and 3D printing projects.
After a few (literal!) back-of-an-envelope sketches, all the design was in FreeCAD, an open source and free-as-in-beer CAD package that’s under very active development. It’s not the friendliest software in the world, as the developers’ stated aim is to prioritise power over simplicity. Especially for someone completely new to the conventions and metaphors of CAD, it’s not always obvious whether difficulties you’re having are due to not knowing how to use the tools in front of you, not having found the right tool in an unexpected place or, because it’s a relatively new package, the right tool not having been built yet. However, there are plenty of excellent tutorial videos for FreeCAD floating around, and a thorough description of problems on the support forum was met with very fast and helpful responses. Definitely worth a look.
After a pretty steep learning curve, the model was built:
…and then sliced, infilled and printed on our trusty Mendel 90:
Not the best print in the world — there’s some scorching thanks to a gungy print nozzle — but close enough, and pretty good for a first try without any sanding or other finishing.
And, happily, the juggling club handles click nicely into the holders. Success!
A simple little project, but for that member it was a nice introduction to designing precision parts in CAD software, running one of our 3D printers, and having a flat without juggling clubs rolling around underfoot all the damn time.