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3D printing interior replacement parts

MalibuLX3

New member
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Location
Arlington, VA
I recently got a 3D printer and decided to see if I could replace some of the brittle and broken plastic pieces in my Volvo. It seemed like a trim piece that goes around the inside door handle would be a good place to start. After gluing my old one back together as best I could, I took some measurements, drew it up in Fusion360, then sent it to the printer. Unfortunately, I only have florescent color filaments or black, so black it is. I might look for a tan filament that would look a little better, but overall I'm really happy with it.

1L6BmZz.jpg

TDjpMYP.jpg

pyNk35L.jpg
 
Nice job. There will probably be many shades of tan. SEM camel color will be a close enough match for your tan Volvo parts.
 
That material looks as shiny as PLA. If it is PLA, don't park your car in the sun! That stuff melts at low temperatures.

Otherwise :cool:
 
Well, melty interior parts would be a change from brittle and cracked. lol. Is this kind of plastic uv and heat resistant?

Looks like a fine job. The plastic paint looked pretty good in the other recent thread where they were reconditioning the interior. He was using camel sem as mentioned.
 
While I applaud your effort, I have to wonder why all the effort when most of these pieces are still available new from Volvo. Black is easy to match. Being in the middle of refreshing my tan interior the pieces that I have found (black, blue, etc), that were not available in tan I just painted them with SEM camel and it is very nice match.
 
While I applaud your effort, I have to wonder why all the effort when most of these pieces are still available new from Volvo. Black is easy to match. Being in the middle of refreshing my tan interior the pieces that I have found (black, blue, etc), that were not available in tan I just painted them with SEM camel and it is very nice match.
So what piece isn't readily available?
 
Can't blame the guy for trying. Now if someone can make this moulding clip that would be nice. Someone else on here tried but the clip was weak and brittle. It is the "white one" in the pic.
20150711_174435.jpg
 
While I applaud your effort, I have to wonder why all the effort when most of these pieces are still available new from Volvo. Black is easy to match. Being in the middle of refreshing my tan interior the pieces that I have found (black, blue, etc), that were not available in tan I just painted them with SEM camel and it is very nice match.

Since I already have the 3d printer, it's actually not a lot of effort at all. From start to finish, it took me literally 15 minutes to measure and design the part. I then sent it to the printer, and 2 hours later, had the part. The cost of material to produce this part was less than 50 cents.
 
Without intending to sound rude because this part came out really nice... let me offer some information.

3D printers isn't a great name for these machines. They're rapid prototypers. This gives away their purpose of developing a PROTOtype for a component. Nothing manufactured through FDM/layer based additive manufacturing is going to survive better than the stock plastic in our vehicles. I highly recommend that my students utilize PLA for their protos because it's really easy to work with. It's also worth noting that the industry has pushed away from ABS because of the recent work and it's carcinogenic properties (their have also been recent studies implicating PLA as carcinogenic in extrusion based manufacturing processes as well, but they're less conclusive) and have begun using the alternative PETG which has similar properties but is maybe a hair less deadly.

Additionally, because these handle surrounds use a clip to interface, RP is difficult to expect long term results from unless you get this to fit PERFECTLY. Any stress on that clip ledge and in the heat of the car these thermoplastics will more than happily deform.

Lastly, most of these plastics in some states do just fine with UV... but for whatever reason, RP'd plastics seem to succumb to UV fading and brittling much quicker on the whole.

To offer positives. I say... if you have access, and want to try... you should, because it's how we all learn. If you understand some of the limitations perhaps you can design around them. Were you one of my students and you wanted to produce this component I would steer you away from the RP's and over to the CNC mill. At the very best, you can produce the component outright out of a multitude of materials, at the very worst you can produce an effective negative of your model and either injection mold or cast for a nearly factory perfect match. It'd be like living in the 90's! And it's the closest we've got to time travel.

I'm happy to offer any advice/etc on these processes. I'm also happy for you to all tell me to STFU...
 
^
Hmmmmm, and I encourage my students to explore new materials for 3D-Printers. Here you can see some photos of our projects on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ideenwerkstatt.saxeed/photos

We use everything from high-temp polycarbonate to carbon fiber reinforced nylon to flexible materials. It's amazing what's come on the market in the past few months. My favorite is Polymaker's CoPa, really nasty stuff but quite easy to print! Rapid-prototyping yes. Usable parts? Definitely!

Otherwise 3D-Printing has been working just fine for some parts I've used in my car projects, just got to use some higher quality filaments than PLA and PETG

Reverse linkage shortened and printed in Nylon, still going strong
XmDeVP3l.jpg


Throttle bushings in Nylon, nice replacement
cZ6WJQLl.jpg


Gemini center tool in ABS
jNwLnHOl.jpg


Adapter hose in TPU
WXNOMwNl.jpg

NNbELcYl.jpg


High-temp crankcase breather intake fitting in Polycarbonate
meAUj18l.jpg

KgOROtkl.jpg
 
Could you make some of the wiper covers?

I was thinking about trying to find one good one so I could send them off to china and have 100 or so made and selling the leftover on ebay to recoup my money. They dont need to be as thin as they are from the factory. If the sides were thicker it would just be more snug against the rubber wiper grommet thing.
wipers4747.jpg


^
Hmmmmm, and I encourage my students to explore new materials for 3D-Printers. Here you can see some photos of our projects on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ideenwerkstatt.saxeed/photos

We use everything from high-temp polycarbonate to carbon fiber reinforced nylon to flexible materials. It's amazing what's come on the market in the past few months. My favorite is Polymaker's CoPa, really nasty stuff but quite easy to print! Rapid-prototyping yes. Usable parts? Definitely!

Otherwise 3D-Printing has been working just fine for some parts I've used in my car projects, just got to use some higher quality filaments than PLA and PETG

Reverse linkage shortened and printed in Nylon, still going strong
XmDeVP3l.jpg


Throttle bushings in Nylon, nice replacement
cZ6WJQLl.jpg


Gemini center tool in ABS
jNwLnHOl.jpg


Adapter hose in TPU
WXNOMwNl.jpg

NNbELcYl.jpg


High-temp crankcase breather intake fitting in Polycarbonate
meAUj18l.jpg

KgOROtkl.jpg
 
What are those covers made from stock? Are they subject to friction?

Seems like very simple geometry, probably a good candidate.

RE: toxic filaments - I absolutely wouldn't eat off printed parts, nor would I run the printer without a nice exhaust fan to the outdoors. That said I think the finished product should be plenty safe for decorative pieces like this, especially if you paint it.
 
100%

Understanding what the process is and what the material limitations are addresses 90% of the issues. I think with more awareness about what the tech is capable of will go a long way.

I didn't want to derail the thread, and I don't want to imply the tech is useless. Don't mince my words into something they aren't.

^
Hmmmmm, and I encourage my students to explore new materials for 3D-Printers. Here you can see some photos of our projects on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ideenwerkstatt.saxeed/photos

We use everything from high-temp polycarbonate to carbon fiber reinforced nylon to flexible materials. It's amazing what's come on the market in the past few months. My favorite is Polymaker's CoPa, really nasty stuff but quite easy to print! Rapid-prototyping yes. Usable parts? Definitely!

Otherwise 3D-Printing has been working just fine for some parts I've used in my car projects, just got to use some higher quality filaments than PLA and PETG

Reverse linkage shortened and printed in Nylon, still going strong
XmDeVP3l.jpg


Throttle bushings in Nylon, nice replacement
cZ6WJQLl.jpg


Gemini center tool in ABS
jNwLnHOl.jpg


Adapter hose in TPU
WXNOMwNl.jpg

NNbELcYl.jpg


High-temp crankcase breather intake fitting in Polycarbonate
meAUj18l.jpg

KgOROtkl.jpg
 
Could you make some of the wiper covers?

I was thinking about trying to find one good one so I could send them off to china and have 100 or so made and selling the leftover on ebay to recoup my money. They dont need to be as thin as they are from the factory. If the sides were thicker it would just be more snug against the rubber wiper grommet thing.

Found some nice pics of it on the wiper arm.
http://www.skandix.de/en/spare-part...reen-cleaning-system/shaft-wiper-arm/1050393/

Modelling would be a snap, printing would be even easier. If you measure the dimensions of the shaft it goes on we could get a nice snug fitting coupler for all you rubber wiper grommet thingless peeps :-P
 
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