• What did you build and why?

I build a 3D printed guitar capo and some guitar picks to go along with it! I recently started re-learning the ukulele and realized a capo would be very useful.

 

Although I could go out and buy one, why not challenge myself to create something with a moving mechanism? The picks would allow me to get a sense of how flexible PLA is, especially when printed thin, which might come as useful information for a future project..

 

 

 

• What did you learn during the process? What were some of the challenges? What were some of the learning moments?

The design process itself was challenging, but not difficult. I looked at  a couple 3D model websites to get a sense of what has worked for other people, but designed the capo itself on my own. I learned a lot about manipulating shapes in Inventor – getting those smooth bends was not as easy as it seemed.

In addition, I got to play around with the Assembly feature, which lets you see how multiple parts fit together.

My first big problem occurred when I came back to my first print in the Maker Space, only to find it was a jumble of plastic instead of a solid object. Out of embarrassment, I only took a picture of this plastic cloud once I got home. I realized this was because the initial layer of plastic did not adhere to the printer bed, so I figured out how to add an adhesion layer in the slicer and was able to fix the problem.

When the time came to put everything together, I realized I had a slight design flaw relating to how I would attach a spring to the capo. Nevertheless, with some gorilla glue and playing cards to hold everything up, I managed to get a pen spring glued to both sides of the capo, which made it functional!

 

 

I did need to wrap a bit of tape around the “screw” to make it fit perfectly, but once I did that, it held everything together as planned.

The picks came with no real challenges, other than getting a couple of burn marks on them. I learned that with a thinner print, it would probably be best to lower the nozzle temperature.

 

• If you could do it all again, what would change? What could be improved?

Rather than having extruded circles for where the spring would be attached, I should have done it the opposite way and had a place for it to be snugly inserted as to avoid the mess that gorilla glue is. Another idea would be to use the flexibility of the thin printed plastic and create a built-in spring. This would take some effort to design, but would be something I’d be interested in attempting.