A relative needed a simple ramp to fit a doorway, to make a transition over a door sill. It should be an easy job using plywood and a couple 2x4's. But I had to check some angles, to see if I could use some scraps of plywood I had around, and so started drawing it out in CAD. One thing lead to another, and I now have a 3D printing project in addition to building a simple ramp...I'm starting to think, that owning a 3D printer makes everything seem like it could use at least one printed part lol.
At least the ramp should be more durable, and have a gentler transition this way, but it is gonna take a few days to print all the parts. I plan to print it in PETG, since it will reside outdoors, and PETG is a more resilient material in general, compared to PLA and ABS (which stinks to print anyway). Fortunately the ramp is not needed soon, so this should work out.
I did run into one issue during slicing, which was a bit frustrating though. My printer is a Bambu X1C, which supposedly has a 256x256 bed (asterisk). However when I tried to slice the first version of the large ramp end pieces, it failed, even though the print was under the max size. I had carefully designed the parts with space around the "keep out" rectangle for the cutter, but the slicer balked, and would not allow slicing until I removed the 'keep out area" entirely. To clarify, the "keep out" area was not intruded on, and there were several mm of space around it, so this seems like a bug. I had read of this happening to other users, and it makes no sense that there is a 2nd, invisible "keep out" area in practice. I found it was easier to just split the design up further, than deal with the slicer's shenanigans. I could just print the clip to move the cutter stop out of the way and update the slicer, but I don't feel like messing with the printer since it is gonna run different jobs and swapping the parts out between is no fun. It's rare that I need to print large parts like this however, so I'm not gonna dwell on it too much.
At least the ramp should be more durable, and have a gentler transition this way, but it is gonna take a few days to print all the parts. I plan to print it in PETG, since it will reside outdoors, and PETG is a more resilient material in general, compared to PLA and ABS (which stinks to print anyway). Fortunately the ramp is not needed soon, so this should work out.
I did run into one issue during slicing, which was a bit frustrating though. My printer is a Bambu X1C, which supposedly has a 256x256 bed (asterisk). However when I tried to slice the first version of the large ramp end pieces, it failed, even though the print was under the max size. I had carefully designed the parts with space around the "keep out" rectangle for the cutter, but the slicer balked, and would not allow slicing until I removed the 'keep out area" entirely. To clarify, the "keep out" area was not intruded on, and there were several mm of space around it, so this seems like a bug. I had read of this happening to other users, and it makes no sense that there is a 2nd, invisible "keep out" area in practice. I found it was easier to just split the design up further, than deal with the slicer's shenanigans. I could just print the clip to move the cutter stop out of the way and update the slicer, but I don't feel like messing with the printer since it is gonna run different jobs and swapping the parts out between is no fun. It's rare that I need to print large parts like this however, so I'm not gonna dwell on it too much.
I decided to rework the supports for the ramp, since the original design required ripping a couple 2x4's at a steep angle. The new design just requires some square cuts and uses some printed shims to make up the angles. It's not as pretty, but I don't think anyone is gonna go looking under the ramp.
6/1/2025: I found that I had some 2x3 around, which makes this easier, so there was one more modest redesign. It will be allow me to just cut down a pair of 2x3 to the width or the ramp, and trim the plywood. The rest will all be printed parts.
6/4/2025: The ramp turned out well, though I had to re-work it again, since I forgot to account for about 10mm of a carpeted matt that is going on it. I have another to make, but it should go a lot quicker. The printing however takes a couple days in total.
6/12/2025: I was asked to make another ramp, and decided to simplify the design a bit by combining the base pads with a "shim" which sets the angle of the ramp. These new parts slide over a 2x4 and for these ramps, four are used per 2x4. I also found that there was a small bit of bounce on the ramp, so I added a 1x2 brace with similar slide on pad+shims. The ramp is now very sold with two 2x4 and one 1x2 supports. Making the ramps this way is pretty simple, since it just requires cutting down a 2x4 and 1x2 to the width of the ramp, and installing the slide on shims and tapered end parts. For the 2nd ramp, I'm gonna print some spacers as well, to get the lumber set more accurately. On the first ramp (shown), I just eyeballed the location of the braces which worked well, but took a bit of time to position things. Each 2x4 is held to the ramp using four 2" wood screws, which were just screwed in from the top of the ramp when everything was in position.
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