LowRider2 CNC Y-plate dovetail remix also compatible with Fusion 360

thingiverse

Credit to Ryan at https://www.v1engineering.com/ for creating great DIY CNC options, and to braingame26 for the idea on how to split this piece into three printable sized parts using dovetails found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3518326 I leveraged braingame26's DesignSpark Mechanical project file to export as a dxf file to then import into Fusion 360 where I extruded the sketch to 12.7mm (1/2") thickness. I also extended the dovetail all the way through the joints. I saw that braingame26 had split the design symmetrically with the dovetails. In my case, a side piece can either physically flip over, or one end can be mirrored in the slicer if desired, to fit on either side of the middle section. I only included one stl file for a side since it can be printed twice. When I printed, I did mirror one of the side pieces for each Y plate in the slicer so that the surface finishes matched across the three pieces of the Y plate. Mirroring the side is possible in this particular case because I extended the dovetails all the way through the parts. It looks like braingame26 had also designed in approximately a 0.25mm tolerance on the joint which I did not modify. This goes together tightly with minimal sanding which is great. I have printed these and put one joint together with no sanding at all and the other with light sanding using an emory board and triangle file for sharpening the inner corners. The joints are very tight. I got the joints started by hand then used my own body weight to step on the pieces rocking back and forth to press them together completely. For the white piece, I had to resort to putting a piece of cardboard over the joint and then using a hammer to lightly tap the dovetail joints together completely once I had them started. The joints are very solid and I didn't apply glue yet! They are not coming apart at this point so I think I'll let some superglue run down the joints and call it good. It seems reasonable that the dovetail joints can also later be additionally strengthened if necessary by gluing additional plates on the surface over the dovetail joints, assuming such plated won't interfere with the other parts bolted onto the plate. I believe braingame26 had indicated his was based on the 25.4mm dxf file from V1 Engineering. I compared this against another version of this plate apparently based on 25mm dxf file; this one in particular: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4789218 and see no significant difference which gives me confidence these Y plates are as they should be. I have not checked against any other versions. I believe someone could use this to make a printed part or alternatively scale this down in the Z axis to make a template for those of us not yet CNC enabled. The best solution may be to simply acquire all the flat parts you need at the link below: https://shop.v1engineering.com/collections/lowrider-parts/products/lowrider-cnc-flat-parts I printed with a 0.4mm nozzle at 0.28 layer height and 40% infill at 80mm/s with 8 walls and 8 top and 8 bottom layers using eSun PLA+ (Pink and Warm white...) These plastic ones look like they are going to work to me but once I have the ability to CNC better ones, I will route them out of plywood and replace them at a later time). Each middle section took 13 hours to print and uses approximately 200g of filament each. Each of the side pieces took 4 hours and used about 57g worth of filament each. For a set of Y plates you would need two middle pieces and four side pieces. It took me about 42 hours of total print time (which I split across two printers). Total filament usage estimation from Cura slicer is approximately 628g for the two Y plates out of eSun PLA+. I weighed my pieces and found that the assembled pink y-plate really weighs 302g and the assembled white y-plate weighs 316g for a total of 618g in reality. The printer that I printed the pink one on is slightly better tuned than the printer used to print the white one. I will share some pics shortly. Good Luck!