TIG button - creating the cover piece in Fusion

So now I need to design a replacement for the original cover that houses the pot and button. The only control input on mine will be via a finger-operated pressure button bearing down on the PSR underneath.

I suppose I could dive straight in and just make the replacement cover but that wouldn't be my style. Why do that when I can spend several possibly pointless hours creating the handle as well? Anyway, rightly or wrongly, that's what I'm about to do.

Here's a collection of planes where I will create a series of cross sections.

Like this:

Then loft them together to create a reasonably organic body:

Then use the shell command to hollow it out, leaving a 2mm wall thickness:

Ooof, it's looking very much like a sex toy where the bell end has got caught in something and got cut short. That will teach it.

Now define the cutaway portion that houses the controls:

And the platform thingy that supports the controller and separates it from the torch cable / hose.

It's getting there...

Create a patch over the opening, to form the outside of the replacement assembly:

Thicken it to 2mm:

Add a tab at the rear:

And a latch at the front:

Let's make one and see how close we are to a fit. I expect this will take some buggering about:

Fresh off the printer:

Doesn't look too bad as a first attempt

But does it come anywhere near fitting? It sort of fits near the front and actually latches in place, so the latch looks like a decent attempt:

But with the latch latched, the rear tongue is then too far back. On the upside, it engages correctly without the latch engaged at the front.

So - it's too long, by about 2mm and too wide by about 1.5mm, possibly more. Even a blind fool can see that - but in my defence, it's not easy to use the ruler tool to measure between points on a curved surface or edge. So I will bugger about with the defining sketches and aim to get it to mate with the handle. It seems like a half reasonable start at least.

I will pick this up again tomorrow and finesse the various cross section sketches to better match the original handle. If I don't fuck up the various interdependencies etc, the cover should mutate towards the intended shape, ideally fitting the torch handle. Time will tell....