carving out a section of a large project to fit in the printer

david_orlando · July 17

I went ahead and started designing a socket tray. While it’s not finished yet, I’d like to begin printing sections to test if the design will work. Since the printer I’m using isn’t large enough for the entire tray, I’ll need to break it into multiple parts. I'm unsure whether dowels or dovetails would be the best option for reattaching the sections after printing.

So my question is: how do I carve out sections of a larger project?

Thanks

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/45e3734efff8468796aff795/w/a77cad9979b2a592f69006b2/e/0f479218ec4163ab395b50ed

EvanReese · July 17

There are a ton of ways to do it depending on what you're after. Get creative what 3D printing opens up too, quirks and all. I've had good luck designing some joints like this which are very slightly tapered. That way when they press fit in a clamp, the layer lines actually lock them together and no glue is needed. This particular design also looks really clean on the 3 visible sides if you care about that.

I took a quick look at your model, and have some thoughts.

I wouldn't bother shelling it out for 3D printing. Just adjust the number of walls and infill % to get it hollow. That gives you a nice thick areas around whatever joints you design.
In your case, you might consider creating negative dovetails (or something dovetail inspired) on the parts, and printing a separate dovetail bowtie part to press in like these. If you do a slight (like 0.5 - 1 degree) taper, you might be able to get a good strong joint with no glue.