3D Models & Prints

Cosmetic AIAIAI Headphone Attachments

Realizing that the holes on my headphones would make for a good place to add attachments to the headphones I set out to make some. Since adding any lights or anything like that was beyond the initial scope of the idea I started with some simple antenna adjacent looking attachments to go for a retro look. These little old phone looking things ended up working out far better than anticipated as it was as simple as printing them out and pushing them into place. delighted by this simplicity I did something very me and made it exponentially harder when I decided to make the next attachments, modifying the attachment to be on either side of the driver housing and adding space for a micro controller and LEDs. The inclusion of a microcontroller meant the inclusion of wires spanning the distance of the headphone band and the necessity of a battery to power all of it, leading to a battery housing and wire clips to be designed and printed.

Product and Design Issues

Batter Pack + Wire Clips

After getting the wire clips and batter pack printed and figured out I realized this was still not the bottom of the rabbit hole as the battery pack then requires a way to charge the battery once the battery is depleted. This could definitely be achieved by placing a battery charging module of a sort into the opposite ear attachment piece to the microcontroller side but this would require redesigning and printing of another piece which proved to be difficult enough with it made to house the microcontroller. Much was learned already from producing them as cosmetic attachment and am happy with the knowledge accrued.

Restricted Adjustability

Using the holes on the headphone band had inherit design issues that were recognized from the start being that it takes away the ability to adjust the headphones past a certain point, or as it is with the circle attachments, at all. The holes in the headphone band are also not something that is standard amongst headphones and so this design would only be applicable to these headphones. There are ways of getting around this with a simple velcro strap but this is far from as satisfying as the clip in mechanic that these attachments work with. The battery pack and wire clips snap into place on the band but this is again based on the specific size of this headband.

Print Post Processing

These headphones attachment mark my first try at doing extensive post processing of 3D prints including a body filler primer paint layer, 2 coats of body filler paint, and 2 coats of gloss black paint. With the intent to find a groove with post processing so that it would not take hours on end I tried to employ the use of my rotary tool to expedite the sanding process to get a smooth surface upon the finish painting process. Though the rotary tool made quick work of major imperfections I learned that it is not the best tool for such intricate details. I learned from this why a lot of 3D prints come in many separate pieces as it makes post processing a lot less tedious and stressful as you only have to work on one part at a time.

HDD Book Enclosure Version 2

Pressed for time with final projects and exams in college I wanted to put together a basic HDD book enclosure but also wanted to add some flair to the aesthetic design. Forgoing the docking requirement for the enclosure I focused on creating an interesting design for the front back and spine.

The front design was an attempted to use seemingly incorrect geometry to result in an interesting 3D printed look which I feel I succeeded at. The front also has notches running up the spine edge, the notches correspond to the binary representation of the year that the HDD's data is related to. The spine of the enclosure has a more clear depiction of that time range inlaid in the design with gold leaf cemented in and around it. The back design was to be a text description of the general contents of the HDD but due to a printing error it was unreadable.

Juul Pod Dispenser

2020

As a gift to a then Juul user in my life I decided to try to make a Juul pod holder in some capacity as a birthday gift. Initially thinking to make a cigarette case style holder, I found measurements for the Juul device and pods and created a 3D model of them as close to specifications as possible.

While creating the Juul case I started thinking about a Nut Cracker bottle opener idea I had had and decided to go in a different direction with this design. Drawing from the Pez Dispenser design I decided to go with a Juul pod dispenser rather than a case to hold them.

In line with a smoking theme I designed the overall shape of the dispenser to resemble an oversized lighter. A platform forced up by a spring holds the Juul pods in the body of the print and then dispenses them when the top is turned. The top has a nub that pushes the Juul pod out towards the user without letting it fly out at them.

The max capacity of the dispenser is 6 Juul pods and has differing failure rates to dispense a pod depending on the number of pods currently being held by it. The spring at max natural extension fails to lift the last pod high enough to be pushed out by the top but can be taken out by hand. At max capacity two pods would make their way out of the dispenser at once on some tries.

Sci-Fi Style Face Mask with Replaceable Filter

As the covid-19 pandemic picked up and quarantines were put in place it seemed like as good a time as any to try to make a printed face mask. Having Experience with creating prop replica helmets from videogames, I had an idea of where the difficulties would be along the process and how to try to avoid as many headaches as possible.

My main concerns during the modeling process was getting the fit to be correct and allowing for an amount of adjustability. Getting the mask to fit correctly came down to a lot of measurements and using a human head model as reference during the modelling process. Creating a mechanism to allow for adjustability was a whole other challenge for the project. I knew I wanted the side straps to be where the adjustability happened but finding a reliable way to connect them and still allow for movement proved difficult. As a result of time constraints between adjusting to covid and classes I wasn't able to find a successful connection method for the side straps. A compromise that I came to was using an elastic band that would thread through the side straps from the back to the front that could be tightened via knobs on the backplate.

Air would travel through an air filter and into the air paths in the backplate and then travel through tubes to the face piece. The tubes would be held in place by loops in the side straps and some slack left in the air path of the backplate so adjusting the tightness wouldn't disrupt air flow. Cut outs were places in the side straps and face piece for LED's to be wired up to an Arduino that would be housed in the backplate. padding was to be added to the mask overall to allow for a snug and air tight fit where needed.

Custom Door Topper

As a Christmas gift for my dad I wanted to give him a sentimental gift related to the paving company he has run for decades and that I worked for as a teen. Initially setting out to build a dollhouse style thing that I would give to my niece, I decided on a door topper as I had seen in gift shops in notable locations.

Going from a dollhouse to a door topper was mostly cutting the front off the structure and then squishing it forward till it had about the width of door trim. After getting a successful print I used acrylic paints to get as close to the reference picture colors as I could.

HDD Book Enclosure and Docking Station

As the concern for privacy continues to rise and users decide what they want on the cloud and what they don't, the desire to safely store and archive that data on a physical drive grows. This in mind I went about making an HDD enclosure that resembled a book that could be placed on a bookshelf.

The main concern was the fit and security of the drive in the enclosure, I definitely wanted it to look good in the end but it wouldn't matter unless it worked. My next priority was creating a docking station that the drive could plug into without having to take it out of the enclosure.

After many trails and errors with getting the enclosure and docking station to fit just right I finished out the designs of both and confirmed that they fit. The docking station was made to fit the enclosure with a high enough precision that it wouldn't be too far left or right, a guide was added to the docking station that accounted for any other insertion error.

The adapter used for the docking station and enclosure was realized to be implemented poorly and so though the functionality worked between the two it was decided that the entirety of the adapter would be housed in the docking station in the future. though this increases risk to damaging the read/write functionality of the drive itself, this also brings down costs for making the drive enclosures.

Key Assembly and Lube Station

2021

A commission for a custom keyboard enthusiast friend of mine, this print is what is referred to as a lube station which helps expedite the process of lubing and assembly individual keys for a keyboard. This overall was a straight forward print that I was able to find online, felt pads were added to the bottom of the lube station to keep it from slipping along the top of a desk while being used.