3D printing parts?

[Conor]

A few years back, 3D printing was all the rage.

Every second headline I would read in tech news sites was "joe 3d printed an egg mcmuffin at home" .. or something along the lines. Each article would also spout some hyperbole about the future of home manufacturing spare parts for all your stuff..

Seems to have all died down.. I wonder did people just get sick of printing random stuff or what?

Just curious has anybody ever come across anybody who has printed a part for their car?

My experience of 3D printing was that it was a complete faff and pretty difficult to master. (Apart from the printers being pretty expensive)

A quick search on Thingiverse shows few results but a couple of ones look interesting..

* Star logo
* Jack adapter
* Sunvisor clip for W126
* Radio removal tool

Curiosity more than anything..

 

[Moocow]

Yes, though I rarely can be bothered these days. I have an older generation printer which doesn't have a self levelling bed - it is a ballache to get it "dialled in" sometimes, but I did quite a lot of parts and projects over about 3 year period.
It's not about printing plastic tat for me, it is a tool as part of a process - you combine it with electronics or mechanical know how and you have yourself something special.
I have done a few parts for stuff you just couldn't buy and saved things from being scrap - part of a kids bike that got broke, just got the calipers out and measured it all up, knocked it up in a 3d design program and an hour or so later had the bike fixed (was a toddlers three wheeler, lost a bolt which led to a plastic spacer around the handle bars being lost on route back from the park)
I knocked up my own custom LED driving light pods for my motorbike - a part you can't buy. A clip on frame for the motorbike dashcam to fit it neatly under the seat space.
Car wise I got the wrong ABS sensor sent to me and needed it for the MOT the next day, measured up and printed a spacer for it to fit properly. A bigger project for my old Mini I was working on a custom gauge pod that connected to the OBD port, had an OLED screen in the middle to display different stats from it, an RGB ring around the outside that acted as a rev counter/shift light and a couple of buttons to change settings. All done with 3D printing/modelling from scratch, an Ardiuno device and off the shelf electronics parts. Never finished it as the car broke down unfortunately not long after I started but got quite a way along with it just for fun and learning.
You can also use it for casting metal parts if desired (Google - lost PLA casting) so not limited to plastics, though there is a such a range of materials available these days.

 

[LostKiwi]

I've heard of a few people churning out unobtainable parts for classic cars. Someone in the US was making r129 sunvisor flaps for a while - a part that isn't available from MB and scrapyards charge a fortune for.

 

[Conor]

Cool guys...

Moocow that mini project does sound cool..

 

[ajlsl600]

right, where do i sign up for one of them!!!

 

[Moocow]

Cool guys...

Moocow that mini project does sound cool..

Yeah it was a lot of work as I had to learn it all from scratch bar internet research. It's actually not too bad to do as people have already written things like OBD, RGB lighting and Bluetooth connection libraries - you just import them into your project and you stick them together. It's lazy coding really for Arduino.
The 3d printer allowed me to print out prototypes and refine them as I went to fit the components in to it. Probably the best bit about it as you can run at lower quality and have a part in the space of half an hour for peanuts. I still have it someplace in my office.
Sparkfun has all the parts and learning materials or the arduino forum itself has lots of info.

 

[alexanderfoti]

I 3d print LOADS of stuff, its mainly useful for rapid prototyping, stuff for the diesel bike, brackets etc.

Turbo outlet on the diesel bike for example.

 

[alexanderfoti]

 

[Conor]

Great.. I might see what I can come up with idea wise.

I have an arduino sitting unused the last few years.

Imhave been thinking of building a "black box" of sorts to log stuff in my car. Hidden away and anti tamper etc.

 

[alexanderfoti]

Great.. I might see what I can come up with idea wise.

I have an arduino sitting unused the last few years.

Imhave been thinking of building a "black box" of sorts to log stuff in my car. Hidden away and anti tamper etc.

Im playing around with an arduino at the moment, purely for a dash display for the bike: Oil temp, water temp, boost temp, boost pressure, voltage, all on one LCD

 

[ajlsl600]

I 3d print LOADS of stuff, its mainly useful for rapid prototyping, stuff for the diesel bike, brackets etc.

Turbo outlet on the diesel bike for example.

View attachment 52879

fair play to you wish i understood this more .

 

[ajlsl600]

Im playing around with an arduino at the moment, purely for a dash display for the bike: Oil temp, water temp, boost temp, boost pressure, voltage, all on one LCD[/Q

Pictures/cost of kit ?

 

[alexanderfoti]

Pictures/cost of kit ?

It was a development kit from ebay, with loads of bits:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113730742762

I bought a few different types of sensors to use with it as well, namely a couple of waterproof ones and a couple of very small ones for intake and air temp monitoring.

 

[Conor]

It was a development kit from ebay, with loads of bits:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113730742762

I bought a few different types of sensors to use with it as well, namely a couple of waterproof ones and a couple of very small ones for intake and air temp monitoring.

Beat me to it.. that is a humdinger of a kit. Has just about everything you might need. I would suggest you also buy a AC-DC adapter to power it when at your desk, less faffing about with batteries.