Introduction: 3D-Printed Safety Caps for Your Feet
Hi everybody!
Some weeks ago I was working on a project in my garage and I didn't think of using safety shoes, simply because I have none. But then it happened, my hammer fell on my foot and it hurt pretty bad, so I thought I have to be more careful the next time. But now it's summer and it's hot and when I'm working on something I don't want to wear safety shoes because it gets pretty pretty hot and sweaty in them.
So I thought of this:
A 3D-printed pair of Safety Caps, you can easily wear over your sneakers or flipflops or your bare feet. I know it's not the same as a steel cap, but it's much cheaper and for the tools you normally use at home I think it will be enough.
To make them you will need:
- a 3D-Printer
- 2 rubber bands
Step 1: Sketching
First thing I had to do was sketching the project on paper because I really didn't know how to do this in the CAD Software. At first I started to draw something directly on my computer and you can see what came out in the first picture. Not very good.
So I came up with the shape you can see in the second pic. I liked it and had an idea: There is a tool in creo in which you can connect several slices to recieve a freeform result without defining every little edge of the product in particular. I will tell you later.
But the point is, I had to draw all the slices in the first place. In these safety caps, there are 5 parameters in each slice: The height (inner and outer edge) and the width (again inner and outer edge) of each slice and the distance between the slices. This was a whole lotta work, I didn't expect that. But you can see the result in the pictures.
Step 2: Constructing in CAD
So, having drawn the Sketch, I had to transfer it to Creo. As I told you before, at first I had to draw all the slices. To do this I needed several planes, with the distances I had calculated. You can see one of the slices in the first and second picture.
When I was ready drawing all the sketches, I used the "Swept Blend" tool to connect them and as a result I recieved the main shape of the safety cap.
Now I added some details:
- the tread (to have more grip)
- 2 holes on the left and the right (for a rubber band)
I added the rubber band in the CAD software so that you don't have to imagine so much.
Step 3: 3D Printing (and Scaling the Model)
Well I'm sorry to not have pictures of this part. Our local 3D-Printer is out of order at the moment. But nevertheless I wanted to share this instructable with you. I will print them as soon as I can and then you'll get some photos but til them you'll have to trust on the cad model. Still I posted some pictures of this handsome looking man for you!
You just have to download the 2 files I attached and scale them.
I made them in my size (Euro 47). For different sizes you have to scale the model. I will show you an example how to do this. Here you find a table that compares all the different shoe sizes from around the world. There are 3 columns that are important for you: The Euro column, the centimeters column at the left end and the column of your domestic shoe size system. If you live in the US and have size 7, you take the size in centimeters in the same row, left column (in this case 25.1)and devide it with the centimeters of my size (Euro 47 = 28.9 cm).
So the factor with which you have to scale the Model will be 25.1 / 28.9 = 0.8685
You can do this with all 3D-Printing Softwares as far as I know.
So have fun with the printing, and stay safe at work!