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Hi.

Ive just purchased a 3d printer to make some putter heads for a friend mini golf business the same as here http://www.sgdgolf.com/putters/putter-heads/putter-heads.html

I have a few questions if anyone could assist.

1. How is the easiest way to turn this image into a design. I am a graphics designer making buisness logos etc in illustrator and photo shop if that helps.

2. What would people recommend to try for the filament, the mini golf is only a small course that requires no hard hitting.

3, is it possible in the design to include an inserted metal square rod to strengthen it a bit more.

Thanks for the help and excited to join this 3d world.

Cheers Stu

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1. I use Autodesk’s Fusion 360. It’s free and very flexible. You can easily extrude the shape you want.

2. I would suggest PETG. It’s easier to print that ABS, and more durable than PLA.

3. It’s very possible, take a look at my hub picture of the inserted part. It’s a plastic insert but could easily be a metal insert. You basically print to the top of the hole where the insert goes, pause the print and insert the part, then continue printing. You could do some different designs with logos and/or characters for the design of the putter. I use Simplify3D software.

Also, you wouldn’t need the holes in the face of the putter that the picture shows, they are there because of the injection molding process that was used to make those.

Good luck

Jeff

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Stuart,

Start with tinkercad.com. There are many tutorials, and you can probably create putters in no time.

Or, since you have a 3d printer, you might want to learn some more powerful modeling. Autodesk fusion 360 is the next step up, and very powerful, with lots of tutorials.

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Jeff:

Nice job on that part!

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Hi Stuart!

For modeling software, you have a couple options. As a disclaimer, I’d like to make the distinction between the two main types of 3D modeling software, one being parametric/solid modeling and the other being mesh modeling. Solid modeling (Solidworks, AutoDesk, OnShape, SketchUp, etc.) is what is most commonly used by engineers to design and make functional parts. Mesh modeling (Blender, 3DS Max, Maya, etc.) is what artists use to make models for video games and movies. Each has it’s dedicated purpose, and trying to use the wrong type of software to create a particular model is unnecessarily difficult (using mesh modeling for solid models, solid modeling for mesh models) and often won’t produce as nice results. It is very important to make this distinction now because models created in solid modeling software tend to not play nicely with mesh models and vice versa.

A putter will fall under the category of an object you want to use solid modeling for. For starters, you could use Tinkercad if you don’t have any plans to do more complex modeling work in the future. I would suggest instead using either OnShape or Autodesk Fusion 360. These are both very powerful programs, and will allow for you to really utilize your 3D printer for just about anything you want. Both have great tutorials and a very strong community to help get you started and moving forward.

Following up with what Jeff said, PET is definitely a great choice for this part. ABS is not fun to print (it stinks, it warps and is all around unpleasant), and PET prints just like PLA.

Also just like Jeff said, the easiest way to add an insert is to just pause the print a certain part of the way through, pop in the insert and continue printing. Here’s a simple visualization of the process: http://www.instructables.com/id/Embedding-hardware-into-3d-Print/step3/Slicing-and-Printing/

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Thanks. It was a design from the local college, we did a moldflow on the part, I decided to 3D print some for the presentation. The yellow part would be a metal stamping. They asked more questions about the 3d printed part than the moldflow!