3D Modeling

 I have been a fan of 3D printing for years. I bought a Makerbot Mini back in 2016 and upgraded to a CR10s in 2020. In all this time I have only ever printed interesting and useful things others have modeled/created. Occasionally I have added or removed a little bit of a model optimize it for my need, but I had never created anything entirely from scratch.  I just now finally found an issue that I could not find an existing model for. 

My Shark Smart vacuum that I have been using for years has a small issue of the power button being at the exact high as my door stops. This was never a problem before due to the pathing the vacuum would take from its dock. I recently relocated its dock as my new puppy seems to be obsessed with barking at it, and the only other reasonable location happens to set the vacuum on a direct path for this issue to happen almost every time. Other users have complained about the issue and have resulted in taping over it, but a plastic cover seems like a more elegant solution. 

As this is my first time modeling something I knew it might take a few revisions to get to a point that I am happy with. The first was too tight to fit in place. The second was too tall. The third was just right on one side. Rather than trying to properly curve the outer surface I decided to just tilt the cap to make sure neither side extended past the existing body. This was done to avoid scaring the baseboards; as the below photo shows the existing body already makes enough contact to transfer paint.

The forth revision printed with an angled fitted wonderfully. Printed in the only color of PETG I have available on hand. Now only time will tell if this stays in place after multiple cleaning sessions. The cover fits in place well enough that in order to remove it, I had to stick tape to it. Hopefully the tolerances are tight enough to make that a permanent solution. Either way this will allow me to get my vacuum back into the automation to run any time I leave the house. 

Thingiverse Model link incase anyone else want to print it. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5379770