3D Printed Family Shotgun Tools, Free Software and More

How I Designed, Printed, and Gifted Custom Family Shotgun Tools!

Hi everyone! I’m excited to be dropping my first ever blog and I think we got a doozy! If you haven’t read my “About Me” page, I’m a controls engineer who was fortunate to grow up in a hands-on household that shaped my interests and imagination.

Today, I have finally executed my plan for my extended family Christmas presents. We all come from a grandma with 6 kids and now we are a mini militia of 19 ±3 and counting. Annually we go out to the most underrated lake in the United States, Watauga, in Eastern Tennessee, for much needed family time, and an end of summer bash (this year 2024 sending my gf Kenzie and I to do 75 hard).

Yes, we eat, drink, and be merry… and drink, did I mention that?

We somehow adopted the theme of shotgunning:

While phases of yolo and swag have come and gone, shotgunning is forever engrained in the Fox family culture.

I graduated from UNL with a degree in mechanical engineering and was recently gifted the Creality Ender-3V2 3D Printer that was less than $200. With that, I have already learned how to design and the Ender 3 is a steal!

In brainstorming what projects I can turn into plastic, I came across a broken shotgun tool in my bag. Our trips are usually sponsored by plastic Amazon shotgun tools on floaties, so I was in need to reinvest. What are the odds! Perfect timing for a 3D printing project and better yet, a family name of only 3 letters that could be turned into the tool itself! Thank you, Newton, Einstein, and everyone gone before me for your sacrifices so I can spend my time doing such useless stuff😂.

Onto the project

A brilliant friend recommended designing in Onshape. It is a free, cloud-based platform that is super easy to adjust to/learn. I used the dimensions from the Amazon shotgun tool with my mighty calipers to lay the foundation of my model. I tried to keep to these constraints while leaving the lettering fairly flexible for minor cosmetic adjustments.

Here is the final sketch in Onshape:

Once I was happy with the design, I jumped straight to slicing it with UltiMaker Cura (another super easy and robust tool). I had already installed a Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint , so all I had to do was self-level the bed and hit print.

I was/am quite novice with 3D printing, so I only had 1.75mm PLA filament, and this was sufficient for every print thus far, but when the first prototype came out, I of course tested it on a beer, and it bent quite easily, still able to get the job done although. Here’s what it looked like:

This outcome would not suffice the brutality that the Fox family instills on beers. Depending on the day, there are even penalties enforced for not sipping your beer ‘out da base’; call it ‘Fox’ instead of ‘Buffalo’. So these tools must have hundreds, if not a thousand plus cycle life per trip.

Version 2

My first fix I attempted, version 2, was added structure to where the body and neck connect. I wanted an I beam-like structure to improve the neck bending in tension, because how the “X” and the neck split made it extremely durable being compressed, but not vice versa. I attempted to solve this with one I beam-like structure, but it did not make an impact.

After a little bit of research, I decided to attempt a material change. I decided to order some 1.75mm PETG filament. This was based off the durability, it being somewhere in the middle of PLA and ABS, along with the Ender 3 being able to handle it.

I made the version 2 print with PETG and it had a surprising and negative outcome. It turns out that ABS and PETG are more durable, but this is because it is more flexible. I tested out the new print, only for it to bend and displace a solid inch, but happily bend back to starting position intact.

I decided to beef up the I-beam braces to see if this would help… it didn’t.

Even with the additional I-beam braces and adjusted mass of them (version 3), the PETG bent easily. I think it will be good for other projects, but not the functionality I needed for this one. I needed something much more rigid, eventually returning to PLA.

Now that PLA was the material of choice, I went ahead and sent printing version 3 with it. It ended up feeling much more rigid and robust than the first, success!!

Production

Now I was ready to get these presents put together and shipped out to the fam. I decided to print 12 in one batch even though I have had issues with the Creality Ender 3V2 having to travel between duplicate prints. This led me to be super tedious about the bed leveling, and I loaded this slice up:

And since I left home this morning, they were still looking good about 13 hours in! Here’s what that looked like:

Finishing Touches

After I finally got my camera back from that timelapse, I was able to put the floaties on:

Add the cool mini double-sided carabiners:

And package it all up:

I took them to UPS and had them shipped off to their families’ houses!

Now the fun part, waiting for reactions and waiting to gun in Tennessee!

3 weeks later

Now came Christmas day. I couldn’t wait to give these to my siblings and see their reactions!

lolol they looked at this for a solid couple minutes and had no idea it spelt Fox. Face-palm. They were just excited to get shotgun tools. Eventually, they were blown away when I showed them which direction to look at it from.

I was thinking about waiting until after the 2025 July/August Tennessee trip to drop this, but who doesn’t like a little suspense. Follow back up in 8 months to see how the trip turned out! It’s going to be a good time!