Hand Held Searchlight

[ZooHead]

This project is another tool, but this time I'm going to design and build the whole thing, not just the shell.

I thought it would be much easier to build the insides of a search
light instead of a drill, drills are jam packed with stuff.

I thought I'd start with plotting an accurate parabolic curve including the focus point.
Another method I've used before is to slice a cone at the same angle as the cone itself.

This doesn't calculate the focus point however.

I used a method you can do with pencil and paper and a compass.
I had to use Cheetah as my compass after unsuccessfully looking for a script to do it.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's an earlier version that went from math and science to art.

 

[ZooHead]

The previous line art is all done in Cheetah 3D with polygons.
The points plotted can be used to create a Bezier spline.

That spline, set to an approximation angle of 1.0,
will add more points between the ones plotted.

You can then Lathe this spline 180 degrees as is, or use a Loft
Creator to make a spline with more evenly spaced points.

This will obviously be used for the searchlight reflector.
Observation: LED based lights I've seen don't use a reflector, as all the light comes out of one side of the LED.
They do seem to use a lens, rather than a plain piece of glass though.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's a rough approximation of the shape I'm going for.

 

[ZooHead]

I'm going to break this down into sections.
• Rear Section
• Main Body
• Hand Grip
• Bezel
• Glass
• Reflector
• Internal components
• Wires

Here's the rear section so far.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's the other side.

I'm going to put a "zoom" control in the center to widen or narrow the beam by moving the bulb back and forth.

 

[ZooHead]

Main body and rear section.

 

[ZooHead]

Working on the grip.

 

[ZooHead]

I've already made the pocket holes to attach the grip to the main body,
so now I have to make some more to hold the two grip halves together.

Subdivisions are all made editable at this point and there's no more symmetry.
So first I need to sever the connection between the inside and outside surfaces
in such a way as to allow me to simply use the Bridge Tool to reconnect them later.

 

[ZooHead]

I lied about the symmetry, the inner left and right are identical.

I used to use a Modifier when I needed a Boolean,
but now I see the benefit of the Boolean Creator.

I can more easily see and edit the Boolean object with the Creator.

 

[Hasdrubal]

I like this grip a lot, especially that you made sure that one can see both halces as it would be with a real one.

 

[ZooHead]

If you mean screws come in from both sides, that is not correct.
Screw holes or pocket holes come in from one side only in a majority of cases.

Think about it, the manufacturers budget for screws would be doubled.
That would be a lot of dough if your making 100k+ units.
Besides the fact that it is unnecessary.

 

[Hasdrubal]

It was a typo, a "c" instead of a "v". I meant "halves" (and my eyes playing tricks on me).

And here it can clearly be seen that there are two parts which form the grip, like it looks in real life. A lot of modelers falsely just would make one piece of it.

So obviously I didn't mean the screws and can't even guess what "halces" could be.

 

[ZooHead]

I thought maybe it was "holes", no problem.

I wanted to see what it's like to design and build every part, more like a manufacturer would need.
It really complicates things, but it's a great mental exercise to keep the cobwebs out of my head.

This searchlight design isn't made very much anymore from what I have seen,
probably because you can't put it down on a flat surface while you're using it.
Thinking of an attached flip out stand of some design.
Maybe also a pole mount in the grip.

 

[MonkeyT]

So obviously I didn't mean the screws and can't even guess what "halces" could be.

I have several spellcheckers that believe it's real. Of course they like the word "iid" too.

 

[Helmut]

Halce seems to ba a salt liquor made of the entrails of fish, pickle, brine, etc. It is also Middle-English for neck, presumably a cognate of the German noun "Hals".

 

[ZooHead]

Just what I need, a big glass of fermented fishy pickle brine juice to get me going...
I'm surprised my dad didn't drink that, he liked to drink stuff like borscht and chav.

The grip is done for now.

 

[ZooHead]

I got all the joining surfaces all worked out and I then I realized a crucial thing.
If something will be injection molded, it must be designed so the part can be removed from it's mold.
Some parts of this object can't be be injection molded because they wouldn't release from their molds.

It could possibly be 3D printed with CLIP technology (continuous liquid interface production).

 

[misoversaturated]

I'd like to see a render with acrylic material which would show even the metal screws inside...

 

[ZooHead]

Looks good this way.