3D Printing and Design

In July of 2018 I graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Biomedical Sciences (well technically Cell and Systems Biology but that doesn't really mean anything to anybody... or me for that matter). I love to try and understand, improve and make things. I use the word "things" for a good reason. Over the years I have learnt many skills and tried many sports and hobbies. These skills and hobbies often seem unrelated and I never spend too much time on any one of them so I would never say I was amazing at them but I achieved a good level of understanding/skill for most. Over the years I have tried bookbinding, model aeroplane flying, lock picking, knife making, forgery, card magic, video editing and 3D printing. These last 2 are probably what you are going to read about most. Back in 2014 my Dad really wanted a 3D printer, so he bought me one for my birthday. After a couple of days of assembly we had a (sort of) functioning printer. Small desktop 3D printers bac...

The blinds which go over my Velux window in my room have a very strong spring. A couple of days ago I unhooked them to roll them up but in my haste only one side had unhooked and I let the blinds go. The end of the blind went crashing into the bracket attatching it to the window frame and promptly fell down... on to my head. Both brackets were broken but I was confident I could design and 3D print a new and better bracket. After taking all of the measurements (from a very awkward place) I started designing a new bracket (in Autodesk Inventor) which wedged in between the frame, window and exitsting bit of plastic. I got the correct fit on the 3rd test print from my Reprap Ormerod 1 and so the fourth one I printed out the full bracket. One side of the bracket just simply push fits into blinds but the other side needs to lock on to a bit of metal which tightens the spring. The brackets are mirrors of each other so I made a new part derived from the first one but mirrored...