3D Printing vs. Store Run: Putty Knife Cost
A 3D printed PETG putty knife cost 20 cents and 7 minutes of effort. The store run would have cost $58 counting mileage and time. The math and the free file.
Shop Stories
Photogrammetry Fuse Model: Fixing Label Textures
A clean photogrammetry workflow: Zephyr scan, low-poly Blender remodel aligned and re-textured in Zephyr, then baked. Plus how a heat sink blew a 60 amp fuse.
Start/Stop Combo Button
A bandsaw start/stop button in Blender: baking a hi-poly diffuse map onto a low-poly mesh, why sharp corners lost their color, and the Photoshop fix.
Photogrammetry for Reverse Engineering Machines
Why a photo scan comes first when reverse engineering old equipment, the tape measure mistake that taught the lesson, and a scanned Size 315 fluid drive.
Platform Truck
Back to Blender modeling after a break: a hardware-store platform truck, now on CGTrader.
Residential Oil Tank
A low-poly 275 gallon Granby vertical oil tank modeled in Blender 2.9, with notes on the fill, vent and gauge ports. On CGTrader.
Dirty Plastic Bottle
A grimy hydraulic oil jug from the machine shop, photo-scanned in Zephyr, shrink-wrapped to a low-poly mesh in Blender and texture-painted. On CGTrader.
Air Pressure Regulator
An air pressure regulator for an industrial brake: modeled in SolidWorks, retopologized over the STL in Blender, with diffuse, metal, roughness and normal maps.
Bayonet Adapters
Thermocouple bayonet adapters modeled in SolidWorks 2017 from the AutomationDirect drawing, in every available length. Free SolidWorks, STL and OBJ on GrabCAD.
Art Station Portfolio
A 13.5 inch Kingsbury-style tilting pad thrust bearing, the first ArtStation post, with load, oil flow and power loss at 1,800 and 3,600 RPM. On CGTrader.