How do I turn this:
into this:
Without using solid tools?
You can push the rectangular face through from the other side. Push it beyond the tabs a bit. Then select all, run Intersect Faces>With Selection, erase the unneeded geometry and correct any reversed faces.
Upload the SKP file and I’ll make a demo.
here it is:
Upload.skp (1.3 MB)
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Sorry for any weird state I might have left that in, I just stepped back (undo) till I got to a place where it looked about like my screenshot. Real world I suspect the easiest way would be to do what you’re saying before any center cutout was made, if I understood how to do it.
Thanks
Here you go.
ctrl with Push/Pull to make it extrude through, then intersect faces and remove the excess.
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Oh wow guys, thanks!
I’m guessing control allows you to push through where it would normally stop you?
The move/copy thing is pretty slick too.
I wish I wasn’t on my laptop now/had a separate mouse, I want to try this/play with it.
Thanks
Ctrl makes Push/Pull leave the original face.
I just wanted to thank all of you for your help. I tried it both ways (and then used both to add features) and then designed some more complicated parts using the same (stuff for a 3D printer, they printed out nicely 
).
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Cool!
Great! I’m really tempted to get myself a printer when I see stuff like this.
I got myself one about three years ago, a good one for its time, in kit form, involving hours of assembly, and later calibration. I made a few things from it, quite successful, but slightly rough looking. It was a good way of getting my feet wet in the technology though.
I regret now that the only material it will print is PLA, which isn’t ideal - it seems to warp over time or delaminate in come cases. In theory, it’s adaptable to ABS, but it’s too complicated for me to think it’s worth doing.
Still looking for a project that would justify a replacement printer, preferably preassembled, capable of printing at least ABS, perhaps nylon too, and with a similarly large bed (my current one is 8" x 8" x 8" or 200 x 200 x 200 mm).
Thorleyian, This one is built. It started as an Anet A8 kit (Prusa M3 clone) which, to be honest, was kind of junk- I had a few pieces fall apart right out of the box (not even electronics, frame pieces) and posted to one of the A8 support forums and I got a bunch of “I got a decent pile of parts to use for other stuff for $160…” answers. Comparing it to a friend’s older kit it required MUCH more work to get something functional, they’ve gotten worse.
To me, the control board and the idea of how this all goes together were honestly worth more than the cost of the kit, and in my case and easily since it was given to me.
I ended up gluing together the broken pieces, had a friend that had one print a brace I needed to make that work and got it printing so I could print a bunch of replacements, renforcements, upgrades… With those printed parts and a bunch of parts that I’d scavenged from various printers, scanners, automotive projects… I took it back apart, rebuilt the chassis, rewired it, took the extruder apart and re-machined a bunch of the parts to fit together correctly and work correctly.
I’ve owned it for 3 weeks now, most of the frame has been replaced or reinforced, the extruder has been completely reworked and it’s been re-wired with new drivers added for a bunch of the circuits 
At this point, I have something that can provide good quality prints and have learned a lot of what I wanted to know about building CNC equipment, all in a 3week crash course. I would recommend this approach to anyone that really wanted to learn these things and has the machining/building experience, if not I’d suggest spending >3x as much and just get something that will work out of the box.
I’m wondering if some of that is the technology at the time. Long term durability wise ABS has a slight edge, but it appears that in many cases PLA wins out now.
My setup can supposedly do ABS but in open air the head bed struggles to get to 70*C so I have my doubts about getting up to ABS temps without some further upgrades in addition to the housing that I’m pretty sure I would need.
I honestly would build another in a second, especially knowing what I know I need and want this time. I’m not sure about building from a kit since I’m not sure that I’ll find a kit with the quality parts and specs that I want, but it still might be cheaper to buy a kit for the big box of parts that you get and then add the stuff you want to it.
I’ve already run into instances where it would have been nice to have another printer running to get more stuff made faster, but in the end I’ll likely use what I’ve figured out to build a CNC router next (what I always figured would be my first foray into CNC, I’m glad it wasn’t after this).
This is it a few days ago, since then I’ve added more reinforcement, designed and printed some LED light rail mounts, a complete new printed bed leveling system, I want to replace the large rear-reinforcement that my friend printed for me (, you can’t really see it here, it’s mostly under the bed and sitting on a brown towel in the dark, he only had brown PLA at the time, I’m going to modify it slightly and print it in the same silver I’ve been using for a bunch of stuff), and redo the front/bottom frame for more rigidity and easier adjustability. Then I want to add cases for all the electronics and beef up the power source and see if that helps heating (my LEDs dim significantly when either heating element kicks in).
Comments like that, and other reviews are part of the reason I don’t own one, I’m not in fear of tinkering but you just don’t know what you’re getting. You could spend more and get a “good” one, but would it be justified as a first printer?
The other reason is, how do I hide the thing from my wife and how to justify the purchase when she inevitably finds it.
I’d been looking at a few budget printers lately and this one caught my eye, the reviews seem pretty good and it seems to fit your criteria. Maybe worth a look.
Yea, that’s the reason I bothered writing the longer reply.
The DIY kits apparently are getting worse, not better (every time I ran into a problem I sent a pic of mine to my buddy with one and he’d send me back a pic that was completely different totally explaining why he didn’t have the problem), and honestly I think that most people are pretty disappointed with their results if they get a working printer at all. The learning curve is steep and not well documented either- there’s a lot of people that get one that just want to print stuff and they get to a point where they have it working OK and don’t really know how they did it, so the responses you get on the forums/groups end up being red herrings, you end up chasing your tail with problems till you basically spend the time figuring it out yourself (I’ve been doing a lot of looking at the Prusa documentation and lots of youtube and then figuring out what to try to make things better/worse, LITERALLY every day I’ve figured out new stuff that has significantly changed my results).
At this point I’m getting better results then most of the examples that I see on thingiverse and even on a lot of videos of people using $$$ setups, but I’m still not satisfied that I’ve got this figured out, I’m sure it could be better. Once you have a working machine a lot of the success/failure is from your slicer settings and even though there’s a bit of info on youtube about it, it’s not consistent, and the few times I’ve tried posting questions I got literally no useful responses (a few “how did you do that?” and “will you share your model,” making me assume that I’m having better results then they are even though I’m dissatisfied and trying to fix it)
As far as hiding it from your wife… well good luck, in my case it’s very common for me to build something this complex from nothing/dumpster dives, so it’s no big deal for me to suddenly have something crazy working.
Since I’ve been somewhat negative about this thing how about something positive before I let this thread die?
At many points in my life, I’ve said things like “how cool would it be to just be able to come up with an idea and make it?” Over the years I’ve accumulated many machine tools, welders, woodworking tools… but there’s just something really cool about this 3D printer.
I had no plan for the eclipse today but got to looking at a welding helmet that I’ve always hated and my camera and BAM!
I modeled it in less than 20 minutes, printed it in 1:27, and spent 5min making sure that it fit like I wanted it and was taking pictures of the morning sun
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Duct tape would be cheaper and faster yet!