Hi All,
I’ve been modeling a frame that I’m planning to have 3d-printed in Titanium and I would love some feedback on the work I’ve done. I’m not formally trained in Solidworks/CAD and have just tried to learn from Youtube and online resources. I’m sure I have a lot of bad habits, so any feedback is appreciated.
Anthony
bottombracket_v3.STEP (1.9 MB)
wishbone.STEP (948.5 KB)
seattube_cluster_v2.STEP (1.3 MB)
DropoutV4.STEP (1004.3 KB)
headtube_v3.STEP (1.2 MB)
The goal is a fixed-gear frame that can:
Nice work! Especially considering you were self-taught Solidworks. I really like the dropouts, I think they are really well designed.
I think the BB could use some tweaking. It is probably unintentional, but the BB has a really solid chunk:
As drawn, the BB lug is $3000 print! I would look into the solidworks shell tool, that is probably the best way to create a hollow structure.
For titanium, I suggest around 1.5mm wall thickness. Every printer and every part is different, but I feel 1.5mm is conservative enough without testing.
What chainline are you using for the drivetrain and tire clearance?
Thanks! Yeah the BB chunk is something that I was hoping they could work out using some gyroid infill or something like that – not exactly sure how I want to go about removing material there, as I don’t want to create any weak points in the BB.
The chainline is standard track: 42mm from BB center to chainring center. I didn’t want to make the chainstays longer than 400mm, so that’s another constraint. I’m designing around a ROTOR ALDHU crankset which is also quite close to the BB. Overall, there should be around 6mm between the back of the crankset and the BB/Chainstay wall.
Very nice, well done.
If I’m going to add something, I’d suggest that you play around a bit with surfacing techniques. Looks like you’re already pretty advanced with your modeling. The modeling can get complex very quickly when using surfaces, but when you get the hang of it a bit you can create some very nice transitions.
Much nicer than just a straight fillet in my opinion.
Here’s a quick one I made of the headtube.
https://www.dropbox.com/t/KoG6F6PNxGhEVEPX
It’s the actual SW file so you get the history tree of what I’ve done. Bear in mind that this was just a quick 30 minute edit and I have not paid much attention to making the model robust by fully defining the sketches.
In case you can’t open the SW file, I’ve added a STEP file as well.
headtube_v3_new.STEP (1.9 MB)
This is exactly the kind of help I was looking for haha, thank you for this! I’ll see if I can follow along and do the same with the other fillets that I’ve used. Thanks!
Unfortunately I can’t open your future Solidworks file, I’ll try to make-do with the STEP file
