Hello, I am starting to get into 3d printing. I wanted to make a car grille badge. I have a photo (.png) of what I want it to look like. I’ve been having difficulty creating a .stl. Is a 3d print the best option for this or should I look into a cnc milling file. I also have no idea how to add a couple threaded screw holes on the back to clamp it to a car grille. Thanks for any advice given.
You could definitely get this printed from ASA or PC from someone who does 3D printed car parts often. Especially if you want the colors, it will be way easier (and cheaper) to 3d print it compared to milling it. There are converters online that will turn that PNG into a dxf, which you can then scale and modify in a CAD software to get it printed. If you want to work with me just let me know and I can at least generate the model with you
Yeah that’s what I was thinking. To do the screw holes on the back, you can buy heat set threaded inserts like the pic below. Just heat them up with a soldering iron and press them in.
Obviously to use one of these you’ll have to make sure that the 3D printed part is wide enough to have an insert pressed into it without sticking out the front, which could be a problem if you are planning to print the badge thin.
So either look for a small threaded insert or make your badge extra thick.
This looks great, any way to keep the “HELLAS” in the middle of it?
I’ve seen badges with inserts built in like this one.
this is was I was originally thinking of trying.
I had to google ASA and PC. Thanks, already learning here!
@cxampl1 More like this?
I took some liberties with the font since the original was not very consistent. I didn’t know if that is on purpose or not. If you have the real font it can just be used and exploded to create the extrusion. I manually sketched over the lines front the image and cleaned them up.
This is a pretty simple job using fusion360. Download the free version and give it a try. The basic shape (without text) takes less than 10 minutes to sketch and extrude. If you have the existing font the text would add less than a minute to add.
I just used your image and traced over it. I then cleaned up all the spacing so everything was consistently sized.
I only have a single filament printer so in my case I make different coloured areas different heights so I can vary the colours easier. If you have an MMU you can have everything the same height as th colours will be witched as you print.