3D Printed Ford Battery Case Help

[kiwi nz]

Hi Warbirdphotog, earlier in this post I saw you mention Tinkercad, have you been working on this project from the start using Tinkercad?

I am impressed by what you have produced, as a result of watching your progress I have purchased a Creality K1 Max printer and have been teaching myself Tinkercad.

I can only dream of a project such as this at present.

Great work indeed
Geoff

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by Seth Swoboda

Any progress lately?

Yes and no, I've been a bit busy with some airshows/aviation events. The biggest hurdle was trying to figure out how to get the star texture to curve over the sides of the long side panels. That took way way longer to figure out than it should. I finally got it (it's a much longer process than you might think because of the complexity of the star texture mesh) for the first part, now I need to do it to the other two parts, then the design is finished!

Here's how it looks in tinkercad, the first part done on top. The two other flat areas still need it done.



I actually have to use a combination of four programs to get this... Fushion360 to get the star texture from a height map I made in Photoshop, then into Blender (see below) to get the star texture to 'curve' onto the side panel, and then into MeshLab to reduce the insane amount of vertices so I can then bring it into Tinkercad to add to the main model.



So it's a process! The good news is that once I finish this side, the other long side (with the Ford logo) can use the same panel, just slightly tweaked. So I'm just waiting till I have some more time to sit down and finish the last two sections of star texture, then I can send the side walls to print... and all the 3d printing will be DONE! Then it's just some slight sanding, gluing the side walls together, painting the side walls and the bottom tray with flat black, and painting the Ford logo gold. Then it's finished!

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by kiwi nz

Hi Warbirdphotog, earlier in this post I saw you mention Tinkercad, have you been working on this project from the start using Tinkercad?

I am impressed by what you have produced, as a result of watching your progress I have purchased a Creality K1 Max printer and have been teaching myself Tinkercad.

I can only dream of a project such as this at present.

Great work indeed
Geoff

Thank you! Yes, I love Tinkercad. It can't do really complex things, which in the case of the star texture is complex... so I have to use other programs for that. But the basis of the entire model has been built in tinkercad. Takes some getting used to, but you can create an awful lot in little time with it!

[WarbirdPhotog]

This project has slowed to a crawl as I figure out the best ways to handle the long walls. I've had to forgo tinkercad as these walls are much wider and have a lot more texture to them along with the curved sides. As mentioned in the last update, I finally figured out how to curve the Star texture. Not an easy task. Took me a few weeks to figure that out.



Once I felt I had that down, I rebuilt the entire long side wall to make sure the star texture is the same on all three sections. The mistake I made was the remesh the star texture when joining it on to the basic sidewall that I had created in tinkercad. This created star texture sections with an insane amount of 3d geometry... How big you might ask? Well just this one side wall clocks in at about 3.9 gigabytes and file size! That's insane.



So now I'm trying to work on reducing the amount of detail in order to bring that way down. But the problem is, there's so much detail now it's overloading blender, the 3D program I'm using, and making it crash. So I may have to start back over with the star textures. Ugh. I'm very ready for this project to be finished! It's been over a month that I've been working on just this sidewall.

Good news is when I lined it up with the shorter sidewalks I'd already created and printed, they match up perfectly.



Hopefully I can get this model reduced in size so I can start printing it!

[38 coupe]

Thank you for the update. Isn't 3D modeling fun?
I have never tried to use Blender for design, I have always gotten lucky and had access to a commerical 3D design software when making a fixture or other 3D design. Recently I downloaded FreeCAD but I have not experimented with it yet.

[tubman]

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That looks terrific! I really don't know exactly what an original case looks like, but if they were as nice as this, I'd be impressed.

What are your plans for this? Do you have any plans to make them available to the public? I know I'd sure like to have one, but I don't know if I could afford it. From my experience with my "trash can" condensers, I know how the costs can escalate and the labor to escalate explosively.

Anyway, you are doing a great job.

[Anteek29]

Really blows me away how you guys can flawlessly do all that!

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by 38 coupe

Thank you for the update. Isn't 3D modeling fun?
I have never tried to use Blender for design, I have always gotten lucky and had access to a commerical 3D design software when making a fixture or other 3D design. Recently I downloaded FreeCAD but I have not experimented with it yet.

I've actually used just about every 3D CAD software out there with this project... Tinkercad, Blender, AutoCad Fusion360, MeshLab, InstantMesh, 3D Builder, FreeCAD, 3DCoat... None of them could curve the star texture except for Blender WITH the third-party plug-in. Back in the day, I used to build and animate 3D models in Lightwave when I was interested in becoming a CG animator for movies, and I dabbled in Maya. But that knowledge is long since forgotten.

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by tubman

That looks terrific! I really don't know exactly what an original case looks like, but if they were as nice as this, I'd be impressed.

What are your plans for this? Do you have any plans to make them available to the public? I know I'd sure like to have one, but I don't know if I could afford it. From my experience with my "trash can" condensers, I know how the costs can escalate and the labor to escalate explosively.

Anyway, you are doing a great job.

Thank you! I posted some photos of a real 1940 Ford battery that I had two weeks to study was I was starting this project, and everything is made from the high-res photos/crazy measurements I made from that original battery. The photos are on page 3 here: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showp...1&postcount=42

Well, after I finish this project, I'm going to take a few weeks 'off' working on the 3D models. But I'll need to go back and do some post-work on the models to make them good enough for people to download. It's been suggested that I offer the 3D models for sale to those who want to print it out. If I do, it'll probably be just a couple of bucks.

[Keandkafu]

Are you going to offer the files for others to try and print it? I’d be interested. Thanks! Well done. Looks great

[WarbirdPhotog]

I've been way, way behind on this project. I only have to finish the large sidewalls, but ran into some issues and haven't gotten back into figuring it out. I hope to soon!

[40Bud23]

Any updates? Thanks for your efforts...

[ford38v8]

Originally Posted by 40Bud23

Any updates? Thanks for your efforts...

He just posted an update 3 days ago.
Reading all the previous posts before you post is always a good idea.

[IanFarrell]

Very impressive!

Along the same lines, does anyone have an .stl file for a blank to fit in the radio hole for a 1940 De Luxe? Our car has the original radio, but somewhere along the line someone removed it and put some scratches in the dash paint. I'd love an oversized Ford emblem or something to cover the hole. I've been thinking about desiging one, but figured this is a good thread to inquire in before I put too much effort into re-inventing the wheel.

[WarbirdPhotog]

Omg... An update! After taking many months off due to other projects and being busy, I'm finally back at it... And seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

When I last updated, I was struggling to figure out how to print the large side walls that had the star texture. Even though these little stars are simple, their geometry adds up real quick and suddenly you have thousands upon thousands of faces.

Originally, I wanted to print these long side walls as one piece. But I realized that I could not do that, the complexity of the models was too much for the Bambu Studio (the program that actually prints the 3D models). So, I decided to cut it up into three parts, right along the middle line of the Star texture. Below you can see how I decided to cut it. This should mean clean lines without seams.



So, I got to work. I could have used the super fine .2mm nozzle, but that would take forever. The quality would probably be even better, but I think the standard .4mm nozzle would do this fine. So for the last 2 days I printed the three pieces and internal supports to help them go together. Below you can see some of the supports I created along with the Ford logo. I made the logo so it will fit into the oval slot on the sidewall. This allows me to not have any seams on the Ford logo where I cut it to three parts, and also makes it easier for me to paint the top edge gold.



Anyway, so the three pieces took about 6-7 (don't you dare) hours each piece. Here's a look at the fully printed and quickly put together (with tape) sidewall. It's looking really good! There's a bit of an alignment issue with the side seams, which are actually there on the original battery. I mimiced those exactly. You'll see one of the 'deco valleys', as I call them, is white. I'm starting the sanding process on that. Basically, those three little half tube deco lines will be sanded smooth. Then it's just painting black, which will instantly bring out the star texture.



The lid fits perfectly, like a glove. The shorter side walls link up really well too. Just needs to be glued together once the other long side wall, with the Ford logo, is printed. I'll be using JB Weld plastic epoxy bonder which will essentially weld the plastic together at a chemical level.



It'll take another 2 days to print the rest of it. Once it's done, I'll report back how that side came out. But it's starting to really look like a1940 Ford battery!

[Mart]

Wow! Persistence pays off. Well done.

[Model51]

Very impressive amount of work. Congratulations!

[tubman]

That looks terrific.

[barnfind]

The complexity of the original battery case makes you wonder how the original was formed back in the day.

Awesome work !

[RB]

Yesterday meets todays technologies & beyond.