SOLIDWORKS, Part 11

Hello again everyone!

Today we have made a pocket knife by assembling a pivoting blade and handle which houses the blade. In order for us to have made this knife. We started off by making the body of the handle as so..

The sketch was not yet fully defined in this image, but always make sure to fully define your sketched to satisfy your design intent. A good way to fully define splines is to use the Fix relation for the spline handles.We then extruded this 2D drawing and added a few more features to finish the front piece of the handle.

As you can see, we basically made another sketch on top of the front face and used Extrude Cut in order to add square like holes for gripping and aesthetic purposes. Now for the back piece of the handle. 

We made a new sketch on a plane offset about 1/10 an inch from the back of the front face to create the back part of the handle. The bottom of the handle is identical in symmetry to the front so we use Convert Entities on the Sketch Toolbar to replicate the bottom geometry, then we subsequently use a splines to construct the top. Notice how we changed the view to 'Hidden Lines Removed' in order to better sketch on top of our front section. Once we have played with our spline to satisfy the shape we want, we use Extrude Boss/Base to create the solid. Here it is..

Next we use Extrude Cut to cut more features into the back of our handle. We also use Fillets to smooth out the outer edges of the handle. Once complete we came up with this..

Now lets add a nice cosmetic piece to the round hole in our handle. 

As you may have already guessed, we easily created this by sketching a circle on the bottom face of the top piece of the handle, and proceeded to extrude it outwards using the Draft feature to add a slight taper. Now we dome the top for a nice rounded face. 

Now lets add the finishing touches. Here we make this sketch by making a new plane slightly above the domed round piece. 

Finally, we used Extrude Cut and Fillet to smooth out the edges.

Once we have completed this pocket knife handle. We construct the blade. 

With our blade constructed and our handle finished we finally assemble the two parts. There is a hole that get drills through the blade that allows it to pivot across a pin that transverses the handle and blade. This is done later in the assembly drawing using New Part in your assembly drawing. Where you can make a part within the assembly, in this case the pin. Sometimes it is useful to make new parts within your assembly because they allow you to gauge your design intent while being able to keep the other components in mind. This is useful if you are winging a part and don't have exact measurements and dimensions to design off of, as in the case of this knife. 

And now for a full open blade. 

In order to assemble the three parts (remember we made a pin in the assembly drawing), we use what are called Mates. More will be covered on Mates later on. Finally we assign material to the blade and handle and do a final render. 

Thanks guys. Hope you like it. Remember, always work with the blade away from your body. 

SOLIDWORKS, Part 10

Greetings everybody!

It's been awhile since I've posted but today I have a new part. I basically took my micrometer, calipers, and scale and measured out my favorite flash light in order to accurately model it in SolidWorks. Here we have a Rayovac LED 2AA 'Indestructible Flashlight' as they call it. One of their best and affordable rugged models.

Some of the key aspects in modeling this particular Rayovac flashlight is making accurate measurements and determining how to effectively translate them into your model using some of our primary SolidWorks features.

The top cap that is removed to insert the batteries is not included in this drawing because it is a separate part that needs to be added onto the final assembly. The model was started from the very top with the threaded end that accepts the cap to be screwed on. The main features used were Extrude, Revolve, and Extrude Cut. 

 As you can see from this close-up angle. Some cosmetic features were added to smooth out the edges, such as Fillets. The brand name 'Rayovac' was sketched onto a construction line which lied on a plane adjacent to the handle, and then subsequently scribed onto the handle using the Wrap feature.

Once all the fillets were completed, the final touches came into play. Textured rubber was assigned to the flashlight head which houses the bulb, and a nice black powder coated finish was applied to the aluminum-titanium alloy which makes up the base of the flashlight. A transparent yellow glass finish was used for the bulb cover to simulate yellow light. 

Here are the flashlight specifications. I would recommend this flashlight to anybody, it's fantastic. 

Model: DIY2AA-B

Features and Benefits:

• High performance LEDs and 2 modes: 100 Lumens, 18 Lumens (energy saver)
• Beam distance: 149 meters, 56 meters (energy saver)
• Battery run time (alkaline batteries incl.): 15 hours, 35 hours (energy saver)
• 30 Foot Drop Test Performance!
• Rubber head and tail cap – shock absorbers; aluminum titanium alloy - toughness
• Impact resisting internal engineering; “protected” tactical tail cap switch
• Ergonomic design with thumb area built in
• Designed for maximum durability + simplicity
• IPX4 water resistant
• Lifetime guarantee
• (2) AA Rayovac alkaline batteries included

SOLIDWORKS, Part 9

Greetings again fine folks!

Here is the compressor to be housed in the turbo.

The primary features used in constructing this are the Loft, Circular Pattern, Revolve Cut, and Revolve features. As you can see the compressor fins are constructed using two rectangles offset above each other and at an angle to each other. Then a 3D Sketch is created to create the curvature along the path that intersects them. The Spline sketch tool is used to accomplish this. The bottom fin is constructed in a similar manner. Once the two fins are completed we use the Circular Pattern feature to created the circular array of fins centered across the central axis. 

Impellers are designed like this in order to suck air from the top and force them down the curvature of the fins into the turbo volute. When spooling it can achieve from anywhere to 80,000 to 200,000 rpm, creating significant amounts of pressure. 

1060 Aluminum Alloy is designated to the part and a final rendering is done. 

SOLIDWORKS, Part 8

Greetings everyone!

For this turbo housing we have used most of the features we have previously discussed, along with the Loft feature complemented with a sketch using 3D Sketch.

This turbo was made by using the Loft Feature, along a tapering cylindrical helix. I will cover more on how to accomplish this later because it can be a little daunting, especially if you are new to using the Loft Feature. 

From here the taper is clearly visible. 

Above is a section view of the turbo using the Top Plane. This main housing is used to house the turbo compressor or impeller, if you will. We have assigned '1060 Aluminum Alloy' to the turbo and used Photoview 360 to accomplish a final rendering. 

Notice how there is debossed text on the output of the turbo volute. This is useful to imprint company logos and model types. We will cover more of how this is accomplished later. 

SOLIDWORKS, Part 7

Greetings again folks!

Here is another part using most of the features we have discussed so far. 

To construct this part we have implemented most of the our basic features. An important aspect of constructing this part is the Mirror feature, which was used to construct the 'wings' which contain the handle, as it were. Using the Mirror feature saves a lot of time and hassle and is truly one of SolidWorks most indispensable features. 

To construct the handlebar that spans across the 'wings', we made a reference plane that cut through the middle of the drawing and sketched our circle. Subsequently, we used the Extrude feature to extrude it in two different directions. In the Extrude Property Manager, for both directions, we select Extrude to Surface, so that our extrusion does not overlap the material. 

Now for this specific part I decided to assign a material to it. I decided to go with Chrome Stainless Steel. You can easily assign material to any of your parts by right clicking in Materials under the Annotations folder in the Feature Manager Design Tree, and clicking Edit Material. You can choose any material from the various choices and select apply to designate it to your part. 

With the material applied, if you have the Photoview 360 add-on, you can select Final Render, from the Photoview 360 Menu found on your menu bar, to view a nice smooth final rendering of your part with applied material. 

 

SOLIDWORKS, Part 6

Hello folks!

Here is another part example with several key SolidWorks features implemented into the design.

Aside from the Rib, Extrude, and Extrude Cut features, we have also used the Linear Sketch Pattern and Circular Sketch Pattern, to sketch the holes on the base and top respectively.  Notice that we have also used another Reference Plane to construct the top portion of the part.

Here we can see it from the top view port. 

SOLIDWORKS, Part 5

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

In this example part, we have used a combination of several of the features previously covered in order to start fabricating a little more complex part.

This part was made by using the Revolve feature in order to revolve a base 2D Sketch. Once that was done we have used a Reference Plane and Extrude Thin, in order to extrude the smaller cylindrical section towards the main body at a arbitrary angle. 

We also toggled with the various options in the Extrude Property Manager, which displays once you activate the Extrude Feature, in order to extrude the body at the bottom of the cylindrical surface towards the main section of the body without extruding past the surface.