What car part am I printing? UPDATE: answer

"zipfuel" (zipfuel) 03/20/2020 at 18:36 • Filed to: 3d print, vw, licenseplatelopnik, 3d modeling, #3DPrinting

1

30

Being stuck at home all does have some advantages, 5+hr print runs are no longer a weekend thing.

This is a (ridiculously overdesigned) replacement part for my 11yr old wagon, whaddya think it is?

Hint: the little hexagons are joints, this is only half of it.

UPDATE:
Congrats to —Wacko—CVT tamer who was the first to guess that it’s a license plate bracket

The original one on the Jetta was a bit of a POS (although I guess it lasted 11 years) here it is:

It mounts to the car with two long automotive trim screws into the tailgate and then the license plate is meant to be attached by more trim screws into little bosses on the bracket. The problem is it’s super low profile so even the shortest screws barely get past the tapered tip and don’t have much purchase.
 
I present the OEM/Dealer solution: Dremel the tips off the same type of automotive trim screws!
 

Vorsprung Durch ahh Fuckit

I didn’t help the situation by adding a smoked plate cover with screw caps and when I went to add the new license sticker in January the threads felt very strippy.
Sure enough last month I came out to find the plate hanging on by only one sketchy screw. The other 2 holes at the bottom were stripped already so flipping it round wasn't an option. I performed a quick office supplies repair with paper clips to prevent it dropping onto the road and set out to improve on VW’s design.
 
Replicating the original shape was my first thought but 3d printers don’t care for overhangs.
 
My printer bed is also too small to build the whole thing so it had to be a 2 piece. I linked the bolt holes I needed together with box sections then got crazy with the cut-outs and chamfers.
 
I had lots of nuts and bolts that came with the smoked plate cover kit so sized the new bracket to use them, glued the nuts into the back with cyanoacrylate. Was a bit worried about the extra depth (15mm vs 7mm) but it doesn’t look bad and the plate is still solidly under the lamps.

 
Things I learned:
• Measure twice dumbass: I started roughing this up late one dark damp night using approx plate dimensions from the internet that clearly weren’t right. I then didn’t check and correct them once I got the plate off and as a result the holes don’t line up with all 4 plate holes (not that I need the bottom 2) . The spacing of the holes for mounting to the car wasn’t quite perfect either but close enough
• 0.3mm is not quite enough total clearance for a 3d printed joint, it took quite a lot of clamping in the workbench to get the pieces together. Bonus though I didn’t need any glue.

• Increasing the nozzle temp and warmer weather seems to have solved my layer splitting problem, this was one decently solid chunk. Looking forward to building more parts.

• FreeCAD is a little bit tricky to get started with but waaay better than it has any right to be for being free and perfectly serviceable for drawing up small parts.

Yes it was too much effort to take a proper screenshot

Sovande > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 08:59

0

Battery tray? 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 09:00

0

Which 3D printer do you have? I keep thinking about getting one myself.

No idea what prat you’re making though

UserNotFound > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 09:02

0

Some form of bracket.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 09:06

2

Extremely over-designed cup holder

Wacko > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 09:15

1

Licence plate bracket?

BaconSandwich is tasty. > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 03/20/2020 at 09:18

1

Creality something. Maybe an Ender 3? I’ve been eyeing up one. They’re surprisingly cheap. Or at least they were before the Canadian dollar completely tanked. I’m sort of split between the Ender 3 and the Prusa Mini. The Ender 3 up here is (or was) around $300. The Prusa Mini would $500.  The Prusa has a smaller build area, but better reputation.  And auto bed leveling.  It’s also still quite new, though, which makes me think there may be teething issues.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 09:20

1

Is it the left phalange?

facw > Sovande 03/20/2020 at 09:37

0

I like this one. Two of these together seem like they’d form a strong and roughly battery shaped platform.

EngineerWithTools > BaconSandwich is tasty. 03/20/2020 at 09:55

1

I came here to ask the same question as MasterMario. I’m also looking at an Ender 3 (Pro?), a Prusa i3 , and (sorta, mostly dreaming ) a MakerGear M3 .

The Prusa i3 is 2- 3x the cost of the Ender 3 . The MakerGear with dual extruders is 10x the cost of the Ender 3. But...but....but, you can also do multiple materials with a Prusa + multi material kit for only 3-4x the cost of the Ender, but because it’s a single head, there are temperature change limitations  when switching materials.

So many choices! It seems to come down to how much hassle you’re willing to tolerate vs how much money you want to spend.

Ash78, voting early and often > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 10:03

1

The Mass Media: A pocket-sized nuclear weapon that can take down a city block.

jminer > Wacko 03/20/2020 at 10:07

1

I’m going with license plate bracket too

Censored > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 03/20/2020 at 10:18

1

I just bought an ender 3 pro, it looks like his is the ender 3. You can find the pro for around $220 and I highly recommend it. Great prints right out of the box. No steep learning curve, just get the bed level.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Censored 03/20/2020 at 10:32

1

Yea, I was just looking at that one and it seems like a great value and good first/hobby printer

Thisismydisplayname > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 10:56

0

Something for the rear differential?

Darkbrador > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 11:25

0

A steering wheel ! Wait, uh  ...

zipfuel > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 03/20/2020 at 12:33

1

As others have already said it’s a crealty ender 3 bought off Amazon after Xmas last year. I went with this printer because it was the biggest build area for the least money at the time while still being somewhat reputable and well supported. I really couldn’t justify the fancier stuff as this is my first one and mostly a toy. Although I’d recommend auto bed leveling, shimmying around the corners with a postit note every time is getting old.

I always intended to make mechanical parts so have been running ABS out of the box, so far so good although I'm less than a dozen prints deep.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 12:44

0

Good to know. How hard was the learning curve? I’m an engineer by trade so I have the 3D modeling part down I’d just need to learn how to use the printer itself

Censored > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 12:52

0

If you want to get away from the fumes of abs, petg is very close mechanically to abs, but has no fumes and doesn't require a heated build chamber (can easily be printed in open air).

Censored > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 03/20/2020 at 12:59

2

I hate hijacking, but I’m going to anyways. If you can turn a switch on and twist a few screws, there’s virtually no learning curve. For the ender 3 and 3pro, there are great YouTube videos that show very detailed how to assemble. It took me about 30-45 minutes and I really took my time. About 15 minutes to level the bed and done. I’ve probably done 100 prints or so and only had 1 fail because of a bed adhesion issue. I was nervous to pull the trigger too, my only regret is not doing it sooner. I also run Solid works all day, so the modeling side is pretty simple for me. If you didn’t have access to sw or another program it might be less fun. There are free options out there, but unsure how powerful or easy they are. The one thing I would recommend reading up on is the slicer program. Creality recommends Cura, there are countless articles and videos that go in depth on how to set it up to start then teach you how to tweak from there.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > EngineerWithTools 03/20/2020 at 15:02

0

My budget is somewhat constrained, so a Prusa Mini would even be pushing it.  The only printer I’ve really worked with was a Replicator 2, back in 2013-2014, and I imagine things have improved since then.  If the Ender 3 is anything like it, I think it would definitely fulfill my needs.

zipfuel > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 03/20/2020 at 15:10

1

What the other guy said, it’s shockingly user friendly. I got it built and then sat on my hands thinking I’d need to give it a whole ton of attention to start up, but it turns out not at all. My first tiny test print came unstuck so that taught me to use a raft for smaller stuff and raise the bed temperature. I’ve had a couple where the layers didn’t stick right, likely due to cold temps in the garage, I cranked the temperature of the nozzle up and this print seems pretty robust.

The biggest challenge for this part was teaching myself how to use FreeCAD: Its shockingly good for free software and will do proper parametric design. However its not super user friendly and may glitch when you create model errors where other commercial packages will spell out you what you screwed up.

Cura is amazing for free software it just works, slices your model with no drama and generates all the supports with a single switch click.

In short do it

zipfuel > Censored 03/20/2020 at 16:45

0

Thanks for jumping in, that’s been my experience exactly - had it a year and regret not powering it up sooner.

I’ve got to say I’m really pleased to hear your 100+ runs and still going smoothly. Mines be great so far but I keep watching those cheap Chinese servo belts ripping back and forth and wondering how long it’ll be before I have to start troubleshooting.

My bed sheet is getting a bit warped so I’m thinking of swapping to glass.

I haven’t noticed much smell from the ABS although my nose sucks, also it’s in my garage. I have been considering building a simple enclosure but upping the nozzle to 240 degrees seems to have helped the layers stick. How much is PETG comparatively? I went straight for ABS not just because it’s stronger (Nokia 3310 convinced me its actually indestructible) and more temp stable than PLA but also cheaper.

I spent 7 years of my career in SolidWorks but I’m getting too old for cracking software (plus those companies are litigious AF and I have actual assets now) so I tried out FreeCAD which is now surprisingly decent for being free and means if I ever want to commercialize something (unlikely) I won’t have to worry about license issues.

Censored > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 17:07

0

Petg is about $22-25 per kg. I’ve had really good luck with overture brand from Amazon.

I built the IKEA Lack enclosure for mine to keep temps stable inside and would definitely help if I ever print abs.

The only wear showing up on mine is the wheels that each axis attaches to the beam with, x and y are worse as z doesn’t move much.

I’m not even sure how you could crack sw now. You can’t even have it installed on 2 machines now, everything is on line now and it checks back home every time it loads.

Here is a picture of my setup.

Censored > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 17:11

0

Oh yeah, order the creality magnetic bed off Amazon. Skip the glass, you’ll thank me later. It comes standard on the pro and is awesome.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HNWSMXY/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_-etDEbPCP62TA

MM54 > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 19:02

1

I haven’t used my 3d printer in ages. I bought this house in 2016 and still haven’t even set it back up. Now that I too am working from home maybe I’ll come up with some sort of idea for something to print, I do like the noises it makes.

zipfuel > MM54 03/20/2020 at 19:09

1

I've got a busted RC car and a Beyblade part in my queue atm

MM54 > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 19:12

1

Some friends and I once contemplated having a competition amongst ourselves to design a fully 3-d printed car (spec powertrain, retail wheels/tires/electrics/driveshafts, otherwise design and print it all. We would then have a competition where each of us would pick one event and announce it the day-of, like something top gear would do but RC

It never came to be but your mention of RC car parts reminded me haha

zipfuel > MM54 03/20/2020 at 19:24

1

That’d be awesome, m y ability to model surfaces is distinctly lacking but was thinking of making a cybertruck replica body for my kid’s rock crawler after I fix the suspension. I even have some silver vinyl kicking around.

EngineerWithTools > Censored 03/20/2020 at 20:14

1

This is great info! Leaning back toward the Ender. Bonus is that I won’t have to be embarrassed about the cost with Mrs. WithTools. I’m an NX user so the cad part I’ve already covered. I’ll have to learn a slicer, but seems straightforward.

This is good oppo-ing. Thanks!

MM54 > zipfuel 03/20/2020 at 22:37

0

I made am RC car body out of some carbon fiber (wet layup, I’m not that fancy) for a buggy several years ago, and now that I think about it, it was remarkably similar to the cybertruck if it were driving backwards. I wonder if I still have it (and/or the mold) somewhere...