Advice about Dremel cutting wheels

[DaveC426913]

Ugh. So frustrating. I habitually get a few dozen hours into this project and conclude all over again that it's just not practical to build it all manually. I need

- 32 tubes, each of which has 2 ends, each end has 8 subtubes, each subtube has 3 stopper rings
- 16 vertices, each of which has 4 posts, each post is a universal joint, each of which has 2 ends and a core

That is a LOT of cutting and soldering. Like, a lot.

It's also not cheap. One 12 inch length of fully-nested tubes come to about $60. And I'll need several.And I end up going back to 3D modeling and printing it. At least I only have to design it once and just make copies.

It's not cheap either. One unit of tube and u-joint costs about $40 with shipping. That's going to add up to about $640 if I can't find a way of cutting costs.

The downsides to 3D printing are manifold:
- material is not nearly as strong as brass. Cannot withstand torque.
- tolerance/fitting is a lot of trial-and-error
- because it's not strong, it need to be thicker, and I end up with assembled parts so fat that they stop being practical (such as a tube that has a larger diameter than length!)

 

[jrmichler]

Now all I need is a lathe...

Now you have a excuse to get a lathe.

 

[Baluncore]

I have no idea why I didn't think of this.

Congratulations, you suffer from the human condition.

Perhaps because the tube came in a box, so it was hard to think outside the box.

The other problem with round tube is that your mind cannot let go of the elegant continuous roundness, so you follow on round in circles, never reaching a solution. Stop the world, I want to get off.

It often takes two perspectives to find a solution. When dealing with a stock material, 'us ideal purists' look for a zero-waste solution. We all know that less can be more. We can see others wasting material, but not ourselves.

Imagine making many flat washers by drilling through the centre of a stack of coins held in a lathe chuck. It becomes impossible if one coin is very slightly larger or smaller than the others, unless you can glue them together first.

Using an annular cutter, or hole saw, to drill through multiple free layers teaches you to drill and pin the material before starting on the hole proper.