3D printed waveguides

[TN Allen]

I tend to understate the obvious.

[augerpro]

Making fast progress with Autodesk Fusion 360 for having no prior CAD experience. Very nice software. Currently I'm trying to focus not just on how to do things, but efficient methods and making the design amenable to later changes. Here is the 5"x1" guide for the SB tweeter. BTW if anyone wants to play with these designs I can send the CAD file.

[Pete Schumacher]

I came across this photo(which I tried in several ways to reduce in size) on this website: http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/05...akers-new.html

It might be interesting to try something similar with a 3D printed guide. Given what the price appears to be for the product in the photo, it certainly would be less expensive.

I'm wondering if there would be an advantage in this configuration for maintaining the drivers in the same plane, other than a possible advantage, there are probably many disadvantages.

The disadvantages are readily apparent when you actually sit and listen to those.

[augerpro]

I also think some anti-reflection geometries in the throat area could serve useful as well - and that is completely possible with 3D printing.

Dan[/FONT][/COLOR]

What specifically are you thinking here?

[ani_101]

Making fast progress with Autodesk Fusion 360 for having no prior CAD experience. Very nice software. Currently I'm trying to focus not just on how to do things, but efficient methods and making the design amenable to later changes. Here is the 5"x1" guide for the SB tweeter. BTW if anyone wants to play with these designs I can send the CAD file.

Fusion 360 seems to be the premier free software there, except that everytime you start it wants to download some upgrade. (Free for now.... don't know when they will change that). If you can send the files, it'll be great... this is for the sb26adc-c000-4? I'll pm you my email id.

Thanks and regards
Ani

[rpb]

One issue I had with guides, was getting a good seal between the tweeter, and the guide. The pressure variations in the box caused by the woofer tended to make squeaky noises when air forced its way past. If you could make a cup to seal the backside, that might be worthwhile.

[Face]

I use Felt Diffraction Rings between the tweeter and waveguide flanges to prevent leaks. They're $2 each at Madi.

[Pete Schumacher]

I use Felt Diffraction Rings between the tweeter and waveguide flanges to prevent leaks. They're $2 each at Madi.

A thin bead of speaker caulk (asphalt) also works really well

[augerpro]

Well the library won't work. They had to print at a lower resolution and it still took 4 hours. They adjust resolution to keep it under 2 hours if possible. The quality is not very good. I'm looking to get estimates from some online places.

[Face]

https://i.materialise.com/ Pricing appears to be better than the other companies I've researched. As far as quality goes, I can let you know in a week or so. Staples offers the service online and in some stores, but was much more expensive.

[augerpro]

Bummer results...

UPS >$200
Red Rocks printing >$200
lowest vendor on 3yourmind (including i.materialise.com) $117
ITEAD Studio $80

And that was without the 9"x9" thin mounting flange I had planned on adding so they could be used in my test baffle.

[DanP]

Are you looking for prices to have prototypes made for testing or are you interested in the community being able to purchase these once they're developed? If you're just looking for testing samples, I can help you with that, and they'll be 10x the quality of a makerbot and 2x the quality of anything else 3D printed on the planet.

Dan

[augerpro]

Yeah just prototypes for testing. That would be awesome Dan! PM me your email and I'll send you file to print to see if there are any issues.

[TN Allen]

Dan, I'm curious about the printer you'll use? It would also be interesting to know how long printing the file requires.

[DanP]

The "printer" I'll use is an EOS P760 laser sintering machine. The company I work for is called Synergeering Group (www.synergeering.com). We have been making glass-filled nylon prototypes for 15 years and the parts are completely functional in any environment that an injection molded plastic part would be subjected to.

I wouldn't really talk about a print time, because the parts will be built in a large chamber with other parts all at once, but I could build hundreds of waveguides in a couple days with one of these machines (depending on the size of the wg) and we have 2 of them. This process doesn't really compare with other technologies available. That's why it wouldn't be practical for people to purchase WGs from this process once they're developed, but I can offer some "samples" for a community development project as I have in the past.

Dan