I've been eagerly awaiting this series. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! Your explanations for everything you do is amazing and greatly appreciated. I have learned a lot from your videos, so I hope you continue to make more. 👍😃
I'm glad you find it useful, that's why I do it 😀 I have in the works right now a super-condensed "just the bullet points" version as well as a "how to choose the right LEDs" video as well. Soon™
Great tutorial!!!! I already made a couple of lightboxes following your method and even made a step by step written procedure to keep track of things. Had to figure out how to make the retaining tabs on curved faces but finally got it. Also, where can I find the template files you mentioned?
Do all Bambu Printers with a 0.4mm nozzle do the same line thickness (ie is it always 0.38mm as you found), or can you share the STL to do test prints for individual machines (referenced at 33:18)? I assume line thickness doesn't change between rolls, correct?
Most consumer-market printers (Bambu included) typically ship with 0.4mm nozzles installed. They can be changed, but generally this is accepted as the best middle-size for both detail and speed. The slicer ultimately controls the dimensions of the printed lines, which vary depending on the type of line being printed, and you can control them. For example in Bambu Studio, the default outer wall line is 0.42mm while the default inner wall is 0.45mm. Typically I simply assign 0.42mm to all line widths (the exception being first layers on light boxes), and once you incorporate the wall overlap and such a 0.42mm line is actually 0.38mm (I think actually 0.384something) wide. I just use this number as it works well for me and with the profiles I've saved and used. If you want to play with it some to see how your settings can impact such things, I did upload a sample model to play with, which you can find here - makerworld.com/en/models/580955
Oh, as a quick side-note - the general rule for printed line width is +/-20% of a nozzle's diameter. You can generally push a 0.4mm nozzle for example from 0.32 to 0.48mm, with varying degrees of success based on other factors (layer height, temp, speed, etc). More advanced slicers will control overall printing speed through a metric called Max Volumetric Speed ("MVS"), that looks at the volume of material (cubic mm per second, or mm³/s) instead of linear speed (mm/s). This ensures that no matter how thick or thin a line is it's printed up to the speed at which your extruder can keep up, but not so fast as to fail due to underextrusion. Big, thick lines should print significantly slower than thin, narrow lines when looked at in linear speed, however the actual amount of plastic deposited over time (MVS) should remain roughly the same.
@@RevHazlett Thank you for the quick replies. Very new to 3d printing and tried my hand at creating a custom lightbox for my kids. I was using dimensions in multiples of 5mm for the offsets. Ended up with some whisps of black in the colours and gaps between lines (i.e no printed material, just straight light passing through, in both an offset I added as well as other lines within the original image). I was looking at your tutorials to see where I may have messed up and was thinking I need to adjust my line thicknesses as well as adjust print profile settings in the Bambu Studio based on your recommendations/samples (which I'm currently looking into). Things like order of colours (using an AMS), print speeds, etc. have also been changed now. Really appreciate your tutorials and suggestions!
Thanks for the great tutorial, now I need to try and do something like this in freeCAD, btw "Fillet" is pronounced "Fill it" as in fill it in for adding material, and "Fill ay" for removing material
@@TheDrunkenAlcoholic I'm glad it was useful for you! Also... yeah... I corrected myself a few times on filet/filet but my brain is set in its ways and when I see the word I mentally go back to cleaning fish 🤣
Thank you for the video. RE lightbox lids, have you considered incorporating magnets or some kind of fixture so the contents can be modified repaired etc?
I thought about that last year when I focused on GeneriBox, the boring rectangle that you could simply add art to. Magnets add bulk (which can cast shadows), cost, and complexity of making holes that fit every time... and they're not necessary. The little retaining tabs that I modeled in hold the faces firmly in place with no issues. Near the end of Pt 3 I shake this one violently and the face stays locked right in. I've used the same geometry for the tabs on many prints - flat and round, whatever. I also use it to lock together non-lightbox prints like electronics boxes and such. Never had it fail me.
@@RevHazlett Many thanks for the reply. I'm still very much still a novice, I was happy after I successfully printed my first box with a lip and it seated perfectly and then after all that couldn't think of a way to close it without gluing it permanently! I will look at the retaining tabs, thank you.
@@ScottBGKY I thought I had published it somewhere but cannot find it. What I have currently needs some rework to be less of a cluttery mess. I'll see if I can find some time soon ™️ to put out a clean version.
Nice tutorial. 👍🏼 I want to construct a lamp that doesn't have any black areas. All the colored areas should "glow", except the white ones. Have you tried this before? How thick should the white areas be and how thick should the lamp body be so that nothing shines through there either.
@@clubjackclubjack6740 yup, I've done a num er of lights where there's no black at all. Thickness will depend on the lights and material you use - you're going to need to run some samples to see. Matte and "cold white" PLAs are typically much less transmissive, so you can probably get away with them being thinner. On the face you could do a few layers of white, then print black or another dark material on top, acting as a light blocker. You could also print the base as two parts - a white outer shell and a black inner shell, again to act as a light blocker. Take a look at my Fifth Element lamp as an example on face blocking - makerworld.com/en/models/64802#profileId-68042
@@johnnieellis2456 yup! I still draw the rectangle and choose "from object" and choose the face I want the tab on. That's how I did it on this one, for example - makerworld.com/en/models/393408#profileId-294558
awesome. Ive been looking for a comprehensive dive into making lighted signs. Because I'm going to be making one soon. just waiting on parts to arrive. My sign is already designed. My question to you is why so thick? Lets say you have a 5mm thick strip of LED's Your putting on the inside. Why make the interior 40mm thick? why not 15 or 20? just curious as why these have to be so thick?
Your LEDs emit light in a conical shape - this can be as narrow as 60° or as wide as 180°, most commonly you see them advertised as saying 120-135°. Pressed right up against the face of the print this means you'll get a really bright hot spot right where the strip is, and it'll become duller the further away you go. On a circular box for example, you'd basically have a halo. Super bright on the outside, dim in the middle. That said - completely inversely - you might WANT those hot spots if you're doing RGB-IC LEDs and you want to cast unique light patterns across the face of the print. The same problem exists though - too close and it's a hard line, too far away and it blends too much. I do 40mm to give myself room for the lip interface, the translucent bias (clear) wall, the strip, and then plugs and switches. 40mm became the magic number because it roughly centers the strip vertically in the box - bias wall on one side, plugs and such on the other. Still a bit hot on the edges but with a reflective layer printed on the base it helps bounce a lot of that light around to make it more uniform. It was the decent medium for "deep enough to fit all the features" and "shallow enough to not be obnoxiously tall." Adding even more depth and putting the strip right against the bottom of the print would actually be better for light uniformity, although it might cast shadows from your wiring and such. I also generally do not care for the 5mm strips as it's just that much less adhesive material holding the strip to the print. They tend to come loose and flop around inside the box a lot more frequently than the 8-10mm strips do, having half the surface area to adhere to the print (plus soldering wires to them is a bit more tricky with the smaller pads). Any time I use 5mm strips I use my little 3d doodle pen and draw on some retaining loops over the strip periodically just to ensure it doesn't come loose three months later and anger whoever paid for it 🙂
@dnappi85 by all means I encourage you to trial and error and see if maybe you find a better glue or method that works that I haven't! Just do it at small scale first 😁 Which - for the record - I've tried butted ends, chamfered overlaps, and layer overlaps; all with thin CA glue, thick CA glue, and E6000. All were quite visible 🫥
@@RevHazlett Ive come up with a solution that should hide all of that. Components have come in today. Printing now. I have made a recess into the wall for alignment of the led's. I went with the 8mm. as you suggested.
Question about the "Lightbox Source" template file. Did you sketch the AOD4184 board yourself or get the dimensions elsewhere? I've tried to find a 3D model of that item but could not find anything online. As for the D1Mini v3...any issues with using a D1 Mini v4.0 instead, ignoring that fact that the mounting holes are completely different? I ordered a bunch of version 3's but was sent v4.0 instead.
For popular things you can find dimensioned drawings and recreate them with a few construction lines, but usually I just take my calipers to whatever new thing I've ordered and draw it out. I find it helpful to draw the whole thing even if I'm only extruding the mounting tabs so I know how big the complete component is. Lets me really pack things together, like this little bitty WLED controller for shelf lights. ludicrosity.net/3dp/showoff/shelf-controller.jpg
In the bottom center of the workspace there's a toolbar that has a few icons - one is a computer monitor. Click on that and choose a different option under "environment." I believe what I'm using in the video is "River Rubicon," but I could be wrong about that.
Would you be able to briefly expoand on why you are using 0.38mm on offsets for wall widths? This is the only part that got me a bit confused following the math logic you are using. Thanks!
I'll do you one better - the model linked below is a means for you to interactively see what I'm describing! The problem is - your slicer lies to you. Values like wall overlap and such actually change the dimensions of printed lines. You'd think if you made a feature 2mm wide and used 0.4mm wide lines, that you'd get five even, clean lines. Especially if you've gone to the settings and told it to use 0.4mm lines for all features. Except you don't get five even width lines. Check out the write-up on the model and if you'd like, give it a download and play with the line width settings yourself! makerworld.com/en/models/580955
@@cluna92377 no worries! A lot of folks have been using "cold" white filaments that have extra pigment in them that look horrid as light boxes, so I wanted to make sure. Use "matte plastic" in Fusion. Here's a quickie on that - th-cam.com/video/1zLie8ZlVSA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XMttxFvG-0QQ6zsA
Thank you. I use elegoo white to print with and it prints and shows great. But when I go to render all the whites in fusion I’ve used look gray in the rendering. I’ll definitely give your suggestions a try
@@CRD3D-UK once you have a material defined (name, settings, etc), right click it and there is an option to the effect of "add to my materials." Takes a while to build the library at first, but it should persist.
I've been eagerly awaiting this series. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! Your explanations for everything you do is amazing and greatly appreciated. I have learned a lot from your videos, so I hope you continue to make more. 👍😃
I'm glad you find it useful, that's why I do it 😀
I have in the works right now a super-condensed "just the bullet points" version as well as a "how to choose the right LEDs" video as well. Soon™
@@RevHazlett I look forward to those videos as well. 😁 Keep 'em coming.
Once again awesome video, cant wait for the next one to come! Great job! You´ve got a new subscriber!!!
Awesome, thank you!
Here we go.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Great tutorial!!!! I already made a couple of lightboxes following your method and even made a step by step written procedure to keep track of things. Had to figure out how to make the retaining tabs on curved faces but finally got it.
Also, where can I find the template files you mentioned?
how did you make the retainer on a curved surface. when I make one it is out in the middle of space and not on the object
@@hectorbvo thanks for the kind words! There are links in my "all about profiles" video for the profiles.
@@johnnieellis2456 when you do the extrusions, do them "from object" and select the face, not with an offset.
Awesome stuff Jon, I learn something new every time.
What a great lesson to mke the boxes .. do you have a print profile to share .. i'm new to this thanks
Sure do, shared it in a previous video!
th-cam.com/video/Yz9rzAud0vI/w-d-xo.html
Do all Bambu Printers with a 0.4mm nozzle do the same line thickness (ie is it always 0.38mm as you found), or can you share the STL to do test prints for individual machines (referenced at 33:18)? I assume line thickness doesn't change between rolls, correct?
Most consumer-market printers (Bambu included) typically ship with 0.4mm nozzles installed. They can be changed, but generally this is accepted as the best middle-size for both detail and speed.
The slicer ultimately controls the dimensions of the printed lines, which vary depending on the type of line being printed, and you can control them. For example in Bambu Studio, the default outer wall line is 0.42mm while the default inner wall is 0.45mm. Typically I simply assign 0.42mm to all line widths (the exception being first layers on light boxes), and once you incorporate the wall overlap and such a 0.42mm line is actually 0.38mm (I think actually 0.384something) wide. I just use this number as it works well for me and with the profiles I've saved and used.
If you want to play with it some to see how your settings can impact such things, I did upload a sample model to play with, which you can find here - makerworld.com/en/models/580955
Oh, as a quick side-note - the general rule for printed line width is +/-20% of a nozzle's diameter. You can generally push a 0.4mm nozzle for example from 0.32 to 0.48mm, with varying degrees of success based on other factors (layer height, temp, speed, etc).
More advanced slicers will control overall printing speed through a metric called Max Volumetric Speed ("MVS"), that looks at the volume of material (cubic mm per second, or mm³/s) instead of linear speed (mm/s). This ensures that no matter how thick or thin a line is it's printed up to the speed at which your extruder can keep up, but not so fast as to fail due to underextrusion.
Big, thick lines should print significantly slower than thin, narrow lines when looked at in linear speed, however the actual amount of plastic deposited over time (MVS) should remain roughly the same.
@@RevHazlett Thank you for the quick replies. Very new to 3d printing and tried my hand at creating a custom lightbox for my kids. I was using dimensions in multiples of 5mm for the offsets. Ended up with some whisps of black in the colours and gaps between lines (i.e no printed material, just straight light passing through, in both an offset I added as well as other lines within the original image). I was looking at your tutorials to see where I may have messed up and was thinking I need to adjust my line thicknesses as well as adjust print profile settings in the Bambu Studio based on your recommendations/samples (which I'm currently looking into). Things like order of colours (using an AMS), print speeds, etc. have also been changed now.
Really appreciate your tutorials and suggestions!
@@benjydog83 glad I can help you develop your own style!
Thanks for the great tutorial, now I need to try and do something like this in freeCAD, btw "Fillet" is pronounced "Fill it" as in fill it in for adding material, and "Fill ay" for removing material
@@TheDrunkenAlcoholic I'm glad it was useful for you!
Also... yeah... I corrected myself a few times on filet/filet but my brain is set in its ways and when I see the word I mentally go back to cleaning fish 🤣
Thank you for the video. RE lightbox lids, have you considered incorporating magnets or some kind of fixture so the contents can be modified repaired etc?
I thought about that last year when I focused on GeneriBox, the boring rectangle that you could simply add art to.
Magnets add bulk (which can cast shadows), cost, and complexity of making holes that fit every time... and they're not necessary. The little retaining tabs that I modeled in hold the faces firmly in place with no issues. Near the end of Pt 3 I shake this one violently and the face stays locked right in.
I've used the same geometry for the tabs on many prints - flat and round, whatever. I also use it to lock together non-lightbox prints like electronics boxes and such. Never had it fail me.
@@RevHazlett Many thanks for the reply. I'm still very much still a novice, I was happy after I successfully printed my first box with a lip and it seated perfectly and then after all that couldn't think of a way to close it without gluing it permanently! I will look at the retaining tabs, thank you.
@@directorski these will actually re open with a bit of squeezing and fiddling.
Any chance of sharing your light box template with the key hole and other items in it?
@@ScottBGKY I thought I had published it somewhere but cannot find it. What I have currently needs some rework to be less of a cluttery mess. I'll see if I can find some time soon ™️ to put out a clean version.
@@ScottBGKY thinking about it - the F3D files on MW for the GeneriBox probably have most of it. The latest one (the v9) in particular.
I finally got these cleaned up and shared! th-cam.com/video/13vtPfgKxbk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ILnmk5CQizgkJMdU
Nice tutorial. 👍🏼 I want to construct a lamp that doesn't have any black areas. All the colored areas should "glow", except the white ones. Have you tried this before? How thick should the white areas be and how thick should the lamp body be so that nothing shines through there either.
@@clubjackclubjack6740 yup, I've done a num er of lights where there's no black at all. Thickness will depend on the lights and material you use - you're going to need to run some samples to see.
Matte and "cold white" PLAs are typically much less transmissive, so you can probably get away with them being thinner. On the face you could do a few layers of white, then print black or another dark material on top, acting as a light blocker. You could also print the base as two parts - a white outer shell and a black inner shell, again to act as a light blocker.
Take a look at my Fifth Element lamp as an example on face blocking - makerworld.com/en/models/64802#profileId-68042
Can a retaining tab be made on a surface that isn't flat, curved, and still work for retention?
@@johnnieellis2456 yup! I still draw the rectangle and choose "from object" and choose the face I want the tab on. That's how I did it on this one, for example - makerworld.com/en/models/393408#profileId-294558
awesome. Ive been looking for a comprehensive dive into making lighted signs. Because I'm going to be making one soon. just waiting on parts to arrive. My sign is already designed. My question to you is why so thick? Lets say you have a 5mm thick strip of LED's Your putting on the inside. Why make the interior 40mm thick? why not 15 or 20? just curious as why these have to be so thick?
Your LEDs emit light in a conical shape - this can be as narrow as 60° or as wide as 180°, most commonly you see them advertised as saying 120-135°. Pressed right up against the face of the print this means you'll get a really bright hot spot right where the strip is, and it'll become duller the further away you go.
On a circular box for example, you'd basically have a halo. Super bright on the outside, dim in the middle.
That said - completely inversely - you might WANT those hot spots if you're doing RGB-IC LEDs and you want to cast unique light patterns across the face of the print. The same problem exists though - too close and it's a hard line, too far away and it blends too much.
I do 40mm to give myself room for the lip interface, the translucent bias (clear) wall, the strip, and then plugs and switches. 40mm became the magic number because it roughly centers the strip vertically in the box - bias wall on one side, plugs and such on the other. Still a bit hot on the edges but with a reflective layer printed on the base it helps bounce a lot of that light around to make it more uniform. It was the decent medium for "deep enough to fit all the features" and "shallow enough to not be obnoxiously tall."
Adding even more depth and putting the strip right against the bottom of the print would actually be better for light uniformity, although it might cast shadows from your wiring and such.
I also generally do not care for the 5mm strips as it's just that much less adhesive material holding the strip to the print. They tend to come loose and flop around inside the box a lot more frequently than the 8-10mm strips do, having half the surface area to adhere to the print (plus soldering wires to them is a bit more tricky with the smaller pads). Any time I use 5mm strips I use my little 3d doodle pen and draw on some retaining loops over the strip periodically just to ensure it doesn't come loose three months later and anger whoever paid for it 🙂
@@RevHazlett Thanks for the quick response. This makes a lot of sense and saved me most likely a bunch of trial and error and material!!! subbed!
@dnappi85 by all means I encourage you to trial and error and see if maybe you find a better glue or method that works that I haven't! Just do it at small scale first 😁
Which - for the record - I've tried butted ends, chamfered overlaps, and layer overlaps; all with thin CA glue, thick CA glue, and E6000. All were quite visible 🫥
@@RevHazlett Ive come up with a solution that should hide all of that. Components have come in today. Printing now. I have made a recess into the wall for alignment of the led's. I went with the 8mm. as you suggested.
I bought 10mm leds from china but when they travel over sea's they show up as 8mm. LOL
Question about the "Lightbox Source" template file. Did you sketch the AOD4184 board yourself or get the dimensions elsewhere? I've tried to find a 3D model of that item but could not find anything online. As for the D1Mini v3...any issues with using a D1 Mini v4.0 instead, ignoring that fact that the mounting holes are completely different? I ordered a bunch of version 3's but was sent v4.0 instead.
For popular things you can find dimensioned drawings and recreate them with a few construction lines, but usually I just take my calipers to whatever new thing I've ordered and draw it out.
I find it helpful to draw the whole thing even if I'm only extruding the mounting tabs so I know how big the complete component is. Lets me really pack things together, like this little bitty WLED controller for shelf lights.
ludicrosity.net/3dp/showoff/shelf-controller.jpg
How do you get the grid background to be gray in color?
In the bottom center of the workspace there's a toolbar that has a few icons - one is a computer monitor. Click on that and choose a different option under "environment." I believe what I'm using in the video is "River Rubicon," but I could be wrong about that.
Would you be able to briefly expoand on why you are using 0.38mm on offsets for wall widths? This is the only part that got me a bit confused following the math logic you are using. Thanks!
I'll do you one better - the model linked below is a means for you to interactively see what I'm describing! The problem is - your slicer lies to you. Values like wall overlap and such actually change the dimensions of printed lines. You'd think if you made a feature 2mm wide and used 0.4mm wide lines, that you'd get five even, clean lines. Especially if you've gone to the settings and told it to use 0.4mm lines for all features.
Except you don't get five even width lines.
Check out the write-up on the model and if you'd like, give it a download and play with the line width settings yourself!
makerworld.com/en/models/580955
How did you get your white to actually look white? Everyone I have tried looks gray
As printed or as rendered?
In fusion? Sorry I should have specified.
@@cluna92377 no worries! A lot of folks have been using "cold" white filaments that have extra pigment in them that look horrid as light boxes, so I wanted to make sure.
Use "matte plastic" in Fusion. Here's a quickie on that - th-cam.com/video/1zLie8ZlVSA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XMttxFvG-0QQ6zsA
Thank you. I use elegoo white to print with and it prints and shows great. But when I go to render all the whites in fusion I’ve used look gray in the rendering. I’ll definitely give your suggestions a try
I see you have plenty of your own material in appearance. How to add them so they be there every time you create new design?
@@CRD3D-UK once you have a material defined (name, settings, etc), right click it and there is an option to the effect of "add to my materials." Takes a while to build the library at first, but it should persist.