Apple Corers With Fusion 360

Its the time of year in the UK where Apples etc are in abundance, well in my neighbours yard anyway, there is a very prolific apple tree with lovely eating apples, sweet and very crispy when fresh off the tree.

The only annoying thing about apples is the Pips/seeds that come with them, the bright ideas department has come up with an idea, why don't we make some apple corers, not a new thing obviously but we can try designing a few different types with Fusion 360.

All the supplies we need for this is 1.75 PLA and a 3D Printer.

I'm going to try 2 or 3 Prototypes and see which works the best, One could have a spiral screw effect, another could be fluted, another just plain, a slot for core removal etc .

Lets see where this goes:

1.75 PLA

3D

The first design will be a tapered design from the top down using the revolve tool, then the shell tool to hollow it out to or desired thickness, then create a slot for removal of the core.

In Fusion 360 we create a new component the create sketch, select the front plane for this.

We start by sketching a vertical line 90mm vertically, then from the top of this line create a horizontal line @ 12.5mm then from there I just created a gradual taper after the taper extend the line to the bottom and then a line back to the start, the sketch will change to light blue, we now from the solid tab click on the revolve tab, the sketch may automatically turn dark blue, and the then click on the centre vertical line as the axis, we now have a solid, finish sketch.

To hollow the solid out, we start by creating a new sketch and select shell from the modify tab, click on the bottom of the body and make this 2mm this will give us a 2mm wall thickness, finish sketch.

The top will still be blank so we create a sketch and click on this face, we create a circle going to the edge of the shaded part, we want the corer to be pretty sharp, so I guessed at around 1mm, extrude this - through the corer, finish sketch.

We now need to create a knob so we can apply pressure to the corer, create a new sketch and select the bottom of the corer, the 2mm ring, from the bottom view create a centre circle, I made this 42mm then selecting the extrude tab, extrude to 6mm, we now need indents so we can grip the corer, to achieve this, we create sketch, select the bottom face and the select centre circle to create an 8mm circle on the edge, it will snap to the edge, make this 8mm, extrude this down to clear the knob, we can now using the fillet tool just round off the edges at 2mm.

We can now use the circular pattern tool to replicate this feature, highlight the features and for the Axis click the edge of the knob, I went for 8 recesses in total, I then filleted the outer edge to smooth and finish.

Time to 3D Print.

Onto Apple corer #2

For design Number 2 we are going for a spiral cork screw effect so we can twist the corer through the Apple

In Fusion 360, same thing again, create a component then sketch again selecting the front plane, on the first corer we just sketched so it could be turned into a solid with the revolve this time we can create a wall and still use revolve to form it, so sketch as we did in the first sketch, then from the top of the taper, start another line and follow the line to the bottom, close this off with a line.

Using the revolve tool, highlight our wall section this time and then the vertical centre line as the Axis, we now have a hollow body.

We now need to create the screw, to do this we select coil from the solid tab, and then highlight the bottom plane,

Using the centre circle tab, on the bottom view of the corer, click in the centre and take the circle out just so its inboard the wall section, 50/50 is good, and click ok, the coil will appear as cut, we need it to be join, we then need to manipulate it first to the full length of the non tapered part of the corer, I made the coil 6 sections and 2mm diameter, within the tab you can select triangle for the coil which is what we want, but there are other options, round, square etc, using the arrows we can adjust the length of the coil, then click ok.

We now create a slot selecting the tangent plane then create a knob same as in the 1st corer.

3D Print.

Onto Apple Corer design number #3

In this design is just going to be a basic corer with a slot and very little taper.

In Fusion 360 we create component, then create sketch and pick the top plane, create a centre circle of 23mm and off set this outwards by 2mm, extrude this and using the wheel, create a Taper angle of -0.5 degrees, this will taper the corer from top to bottom.

The slot and knob are created identically as in the first 2 designs.

All the corers are printed in Cura, they can be scaled down or up using Cura as well which is good.

In the assumptions we will see which worked the best.

Design#1

At the time of the test the apples were a little on the small side and Design #1 split the apple in 2, but the design worked, the core with seeds was contained within the corer, and a push with thumb removed the core enough to grasp it for removal, I had to apply pressure to penetrate the apple but it is 3D printed and hard to get a knife edge....Result? I think so, will be interesting to try it on a bigger apple.

Design#2

This did with a push screw itself into the apple, I had to use a Tea towel to screw the corer home as the knob was hard to grip but it worked, and unscrewing it found the core inside the corer, the core was removed as in design #1...Result? Very much so I think, It worked really well.

Design#3

The taper design from top to bottom worked ok but I had difficulty removing the core from the corer.

All 3 designs work and the corers are easily washable, I wouldn't say they are dishwasher friendly with them being 3D printed with PLA.

Final assumption....Room for Improvement.