2 July 2018

3D-Printed (Baby) Drum Pedal

I really enjoy making things with my 3D printer, and normally my projects involve electronics too.
This was a bit different, but it's a good example of something you can design/print over a weekend.

My little nephew loves playing his toy drums, but the set that he used to have, was missing the bass pedal.
It wasn't worth buying a replacement since he'd outgrow this drum kit soon, instead I'd try to make him one...

I searched all the usual places for models that might be suitable, but didn't come up with much.

But I did find this model by Sean Geaney, and based the mechanics of my baby pedal on his design.

I do most of my modelling in Fusion 360 and this time, tried out a feature I'd never used before... Joints.
I set up my components so I could check for collisions between parts before printing everything out.

... looks ok
The pedal works by linking the footboard with an axle that swings a drumstick around when you step on it. Elastic bands tension the axle so when you lift your foot off the pedal, it rotates back into it's original position.


Printing and Assembly


I wanted the colour scheme to match the red and black of his drums. I designed the bottom section to be printed in one piece, but made it so that by changing the filament at a certain position I could get a two-tone effect.

The pins and axles are in yellow for contrast, and the drum beater had a red/black filament change too.

To strengthen the axle and drumstick, I made a hollow for a 2mm steel rod. The hole was a bit too tight though, so I used a 1.5mm rod for the axle and had to persuade the 2mm rod into the drumstick with a hammer :)

The stick holder and elastic band anchor are adjustable. I installed heat-set threaded inserts so an M3 screw can be used to adjust the angle of the drumstick and the elastic hook in order to set the proper pedal height.

I used a pair of 15mm o-rings for the elastic band. I already had these in my parts bin and they were an ideal size/tension. Pretty much any elastic band would work fine though, it doesn't need much force to reset.

To finish it off, I stuck some black felt on the drum beater and some velcro to the base to stop it sliding around.


Conclusion


I was pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the colours, and my nephew seemed to like it.
On reflection, the axle arrangement could be simplified. I used a hexagonal section to mount the pedal linkage, this meant the axle had to be made in two pieces.

I did this because I thought the link needed to be robust, and it is. My little nephew could jump up and down on the pedal and it'd hold firm.

But I could've probably just used a screw to secure the linkage like I did with the drum stick holder. Then I could have a round axle that would slide all the way through for simplicity.

Nevertheless this was a neat little project, it helped me learn some new Fusion 360 features and I ended up with a cool gift for my nephew.

Edit:


If anyone's interested in printing/modifying the files, you can find them here.



10 comments:

  1. Hey mike this is really cool I might make one for my daughter she likes banging around on my uncles drum set and if been thinking maybe I should get her her own for at her grandmas (payback for all the loud talking singing toys that got sent my way lol) and a custom pedle made by me would be all the more spacial I'm glad to see new post by you and I was really hoping there was a way I could get the mini snes I naught a 3d printer and almost the whole nes mini DIY list to make a mini snes just to realize the print files were never posted it would really mean a lot to me to get the us version I want to have a us mini nes snes and maybe a miner snes and like you most of my memory is are on the snes if you could post them to your blog or even email me at rjaymadore@gmail.com i would appreciate it so much thanks and i truly am glad to see you back at it your project are amazing

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    1. Thanks, I didn't release my SNES cases, because they were both based around quite heavy modifications to the Raspberry Pi.

      I'd like to go back and make a pair of SNES cases for full-sized Raspberry Pi boards that'd be easier to assemble.

      I don't know when I'll have them finished, but I'll make sure to post them when they're ready :)

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  2. I want to make mine maching scale too im more then willing to mod my board im actually really in my element doing hardware mods like that iv done lots of crazy mods to psps and and such would i be able to get a copy of your print files for the modded boards just for myself i wouldnt share them with anybody without your okay first and im not much of a poster i might start after i get a little bit more polished in my projects but as is im a newb when it omes to 3d printing i just got my first 3d printer so far all iv printed with it is a calibration cube to see what i should upgrade and mod first (its an anet a8) i just added a fuse on off switch to the power supply im waiting for a specific color pla to build a support setup to prevent any x y vibrations im waiting for parts to upgrade the heatbead to glass and im adding a moffet to regulate the power to the hotbed better im also going to put a e3d titan extruder and e3d hotend on it but thats gonna be a little faether down the road i plan on making my mini nes pi within the next couple weeks im just waiting on a couple upgrades for my printer and the fillament to get here after that i wanted to do the moded 3b board in snes case right after to the same 40% scale i believe is what you made yours at that and i got a couple boards to practice the cut with cuz i have a 3b board that iv been able to oc the gpu abnormally high and it plays all my emulaters like a dream including n64 with texture packs or shaders i havent tryed both together but im itching to put it in a mini snes thats 40% scale my goal is to make a nes snes and n64 all to the same scale and have them all on a display type stand all with nfc cartrages and maching 8bitdo controllers ( i already got the controllers 2 nes30 pros for the mini nes pi a snes30 pro for the mini snespi if you could share the files and an rb8-64 for the mini 64 im going to attempt to design a n64 hopefully just by taking a full scale one down to 40% then using the mini snes files to layout the inside for the carts on the n64 i want to desplay them next to my modded wiiu and switch i got a broken gamecube somewere im going to hollow out and put switch dock and gamecube controller adapter inside the wii i got right now im probly gonna sell its modded with all the retro consoles in it but my wii u doubles as a wii and has all the same mods on vwii and it has better ones on wii u side pluse the vwii emus are over clocked to run at wii u clock speed then i want to pic up a broken wii or wii mini and use it as a housing unit for my wiiu's two external hard drives so essentially ill have every gen nintendo on display capable of running its own stuff plus everything else im also trying to figgure out a way i can have them all some how connected to my TV and projector at the same time wirelessly so that it can be a proper display and not just a jam packed entertainment unit all i want under the tv is bluray and sound system for the most part i know what i want to do and how to do it and your modded pi snes case just fits in my vision so well sorry for such a long post k just put a lot of thought into this and iv more or less started getting everything ready to be how i want it like i said im just trying to figgure out how i can make a couple things work and for the last little bit of matterials and equiptment to be here maybe shoot me an email rjaymadore@gmail.com and maybe throw a couple ideas at me or some snes case files....lol but seriusly if you had any ideas or even tips about 3d printing im all ears hope to hear from you

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  3. Did you ever release the files so it could be printed?

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  4. 3d printers are the future!!

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  5. Hi Mike, can you share the 3d file please?

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