ChatGPT for 3D Printing Fishing Tackle
One of my hobbies is fishing, and it just so happens that Texas, where I live, is one of the best states for fishing.
When I’m not fishing with a lure, I like to use a tungsten slip sinker, which is nice for a couple of reasons:
- Traditional lead sinkers are potentially bad for the environment and bad for you.
- Tungsten has a higher density than lead ( versus ), arguably making it better sinker material. The primary disadvantage is that tungsten is more expensive than lead (something like ~18x the cost). Thankfully, you don’t need much tungsten to make a good sinker. In my case, I generally use sinkers that weigh under 1 ounce.
Anyways, there’s a component known as a sinker bumper (AKA a ‘shock spacer’ or ‘knot protector’) which sits in between your slide sinker and any knot on your line. The bumper protects your knot from the sinker as it moves along the line. Since the bumper is a simple plastic bead, I thought it’d be a perfect application for my 3D printer.
However, simple searches on Thingiverse and Printables turned up nothing. I’m sure I could have found something (after all, the bumper is just a plastic bead), but I thought I’d design one myself, just for fun. And to make things more interesting, I thought I’d use ChatGPT to create the design.
So my prompt to ChatGPT was:
Write me an OpenSCAD script to generate a sinker bumper.
For which ChatGPT provided this script:
// Sinker Bumper Parameters
$fn = 100; // Increase for smoother circles
outer_diameter = 10; // Outer diameter of the bumper in mm
inner_diameter = 5; // Inner diameter of the hole in mm
height = 5; // Height of the bumper in mm
// Sinker Bumper Model
difference() {
cylinder(h = height, r = outer_diameter / 2, center = true);
cylinder(h = height + 2, r = inner_diameter / 2, center = true);
}
// Render the Model
translate([0, 0, 0])
difference();
Not bad!
Though I only specified ‘sinker bumper’, ChatGPT generated something with the correct shape and approximately correct dimensions.
The inner diameter is most problematic: 5 millimeters is too big. Instead, I used an outer diameter of 5 millimeters and an inner diameter of 2 millimeters.
After pasting the script into
OpenSCAD,
here’s what the design looked like:
So, I exported the model as an
STL
file, converted it into
G-code
using
Cura, and kicked
off the print using my
Ender-3 Neo.
And here’s how the bumper looks in between a swivel and a sinker:
Though I used PLA for this print, TPU is more elastic and would provide better cushioning. Also, I used 100% fill, so the bumper should sink by itself. But the bumper (or any PLA object) should start to float at around ~80% fill.
If you’re interested, you can download the STL file here.