3D printing car parts

[FarmerPug]

What do you think of these 3D printers, they seem to be able to make just about anything, could tricky to get parts like the cogs for the recirculation flap, or the clips that hold the window glass to the regulator just be printed out, of course it would take a bit of time to get them into a CAD drawing but a cog doesn't take too long to draw in a program like solidworks or google sketchup.

[dave406]

I have also been following this. I think it depends the strength. I have heard that at one point IKEA were gonna offer blue prints for furniture for you to print at home

[steve_earwig]

I'd have though it would be pretty tough if they can print a gun with it

[lozz]

Afriend of mine, retired engineer as got a machine, runs off a computer, ordinary Mid spec pc.
programe in and it does the rest,

id be lost with it in a few mins,but he can make most stuff with it in Metal form,

[steve_earwig]

Milling machine? I reckon that would be more like it for the recirculation flap motor

[lozz]

He makes stuff for Model aircraft/steam boats,
steam powerd boiler stuff,

coggs and stuff wouid be a doddle for him id guess,

[OllieNZ]

Heard on the news that BAE have been using it to make aircraft parts for the tornados and passed all the tests....

[mjb]

Guy at work's got one on order and said he'll print some stuff for me, so I'll be designing myself a phone mount for the car soon enough. Might put some steel behind the dashboard, and put a neodymium magnet from a hard drive into the mount so it just snaps onto the dashboard, although I dunno how badly that'll impair the tomtom app, which uses motion sensing and a silicon compass to assist it

Also going to make a holder for my vaping mod ("e-cigarette" - hate that term)

[FarmerPug]

I dislike the phone holders they sell on ebay, the one i buy that fits on the air vent is cheaply made and the clamping mechanism on them dont last more than a few months, also its a bit tricky trying to plug the connector into the bottom of the phone at the same time. Any other iphone holders are designed for the phone with no case.

So i designed this, a solid iphone holder that fits my iphone with its case on, i copied the design of the old phone holder bracket mount to slot it onto the vent bracket, and the dock connector can slot into the bottom and get glued into place, there are two removable plates at the bottom to allow the connector to be put into place and then closed up once it has been fitted

Here is what i designed in solidworks:

The curved bit around the top is there for access so the hand can get a grip on the back of the phone to pull it out of the holder.


the back of the holder with the holes so it will fit onto the existing bracket, the blue and yellow parts are removable to allow the dock connector in


the bottom of the holder opened up showing where the connector sits




looking down on the holder the phone will slot down and onto the connector

I think i need to design some sort of box around these drawings for the company that does the printing, then they can get back with a quote.

[FarmerPug]

The phone holder arrived, 3d print uk was able to make it, it took about 10 days before it arrived using the economy service:






It slotted into the old air vent holder perfectly, the phone fits nicely, although the connector was initially a bit too low some alterations with a dremel sorted that issue, here it is in the car:

(at that point i hadn't glued the connector into place, the wire now is hidden behind the holder)

[Welly]

Nice work, you've spent a lot of effort designing and now it works, you must be pleased. Was it available in other colours?

[FarmerPug]

The company who i bought it from doesn't do it in any colours, apparently adding pigment makes the plastic very brittle, but i think it will take a few coats of plastidip.

[steve_earwig]

This is pretty amazing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26534408

[FarmerPug]

I didn't think it had come along that far, that really is quite impressive.