Oppos are awesome!

"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
02/19/2018 at 11:11 • Filed to: Opponauts Rule

I few weeks ago, I noticed that my custom 3D-modeled and 3D-printed snowbrush holders were cracking. A fellow Oppo had printed them (the yellow ones) for me awhile ago and they’ve worked well up until now. My first set were printed by me in PLA plastic, but they warped in the summer heat. The yellow ones were printed in much durable ABS, but cracked when putting the brush in and out in very cold weather:

One broke apart completely, and this one had a bad crack developing that was slowly growing (below the round clip for the brush in the above pic).

Temporarily, I had dug out my old remaining first PLA (red) clip that hadn’t warped and used the one remaining ABS and PLA clip as a stop-gap until I could get something more durable. Fellow Opponaut DuckDuckGreyDuck heard my pleas awhile back and took it upon himself to slightly redesign my model and print me a set off two new clips out of UHMW!

A few weeks later, a package with this arrived in my mailbox! :D Luckily, nothing seems to have been Kinja’d and all seems to work great!

I got around to installing the new ones today and they work perfectly! I still owe him some payment for the work, but I couldn’t be happier...and these should last a nice, long time! I re-used my ABS covers for the screws (the yellow circular things) as those were fine, but I’m pleased as punch!

Thanks DuckDuckGreyDuck! :D

DISCUSSION (12)

MonkeePuzzle > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 11:38

well... damn! that’s slick!

my brush just sits beside my passenger front seat.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > MonkeePuzzle
02/19/2018 at 11:40

It works great! I figure getting it printed at somewhere like Shapeways wouldn’t be too expensive either. I can gladly send my files to anybody who wants to try printing a set themselves!

I love how it is completely invisible until you flip up the parcel shelf, and also how it means my brush isn’t wasting any of my interior space in the trunk or elsewhere!

MonkeePuzzle > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 11:46

well, my next vehicle will be a hatch, and should have a similar parcel shelf. I might just take you up on that at a point in the future.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > MonkeePuzzle
02/19/2018 at 12:26

For sure, just let me know! :)

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 13:15

You are welcome! They were fun to make.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 13:41

So that’s what those pictures were of! That’s a neat idea.

I’ve never heard of UHMW before. It sounds like interesting stuff.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
02/19/2018 at 16:23

You did a great job and they fit perfectly - they have just the right tightness to still be flexible when popping the brush in and out, but that they aren’t too tight. :)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > BaconSandwich is tasty.
02/19/2018 at 16:24

I hadn’t heard of it either...apparently it’s a type of polyurethane? :)

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 17:58

That’s an awesome idea. If I may suggest one improvement, instead of the screw why not use a rivet? I’m not sure how love the sleeve, or shaft part would need to be but I’ve seen some as long as 3/4” in aluminum.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
02/19/2018 at 20:42

I think you mean polyethylene. So many neat compounds out there to learn about. Polyurethane is neat stuff - especially the expanding stuff, and how it was discovered sort of by accident. A sample was contaminated with water, and rather than forming something hard, as expected, it suddenly foamed up and made very foamy material instead. Gotta love accidental discoveries!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > BaconSandwich is tasty.
02/20/2018 at 14:35

Whoops....yup! Easy word to get wrong! :P

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
02/25/2018 at 22:18

Very late reply, sorry! I could use a rivet...thing is (as with my reason for DuckDuckGreyDuck having to make this set), sometimes they wear out and a rivet would be quite a but more annoying to deal with if I had to remove and replace, or simply remove them period for any reason! When I eventually get a new car, if these last, I would want to take them off this one and mount them on the new car as well, so another reason why having them easily removable is helpful - I can change them both out in 5 minutes right now. Also.....I have no rivets or rivet equipment of any sort, so there’s that! :P

Hoping this material works fine! I have screw caps that I had printed before (the things in yellow) that are still in good shape and work perfectly to cover the pointy end of the screws to prevent damage to anything, or to prevent me from poking my hands/fingers on the screws, so the long wood screws I use really aren’t in the way - especially considering the way they are mounted! Rivets would look better, but you can’t really see anything anyway at all with the parcel shelf flipped down in it’s normal position, so I’m not too worried about the looks of the thing.

Thanks for the idea though! I might consider it in the future, depending! Really want to get my own 3D printer sometime and then I can make my own stuff! :D