General 3D Printed Fixes and Improvements

Description

By far the best part of having a 3D printer (after the novelty value has worn off and you have printed all the useless junk from the featured section of thingiverse) is the more complex and complete projects you can tackle. The second best thing is that fixing or improving things in your life becomes a breeze and the printer easily pays itself off.

This project is a collection of some of the things I have printed over the for this purpose. Quite a bit is omitted as I dont have the files or picture anymore and some items may have missing detail but I will put up as much as I have. These few things listed here have probably more than payed off my printer which means a lot for a lowly poor university student with no income.

Files

bikeindicatorlight.zip

https://hackaday.io/project/47140/log/87277-bmw-gs-motorbike-indicator-housing

x-zip-compressed - 1.79 MB - 02/04/2018 at 15:35

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Drill Press Knob.stl

https://hackaday.io/project/47140-general-3d-printed-fixes-and-improvements/log/87285-drill-press-knob

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 13.91 MB - 02/04/2018 at 15:33

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Washing machine Drum bolt cap V2.ipt

https://hackaday.io/project/47140/log/87282

ipt - 289.50 kB - 02/04/2018 at 15:32

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Washing machine clip.ipt

https://hackaday.io/project/47140/log/87282

ipt - 187.00 kB - 02/04/2018 at 15:32

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Pot Knob.ipt

https://hackaday.io/project/47140-general-3d-printed-fixes-and-improvements/log/87283-pot-lid-knob

ipt - 314.00 kB - 02/04/2018 at 15:32

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Project Logs

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Drill Press Knob
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 15:37 • 0 comments

This was the first thing I ever printed. It was super exciting and the part is will doing its job to this day. A replacement knob for a drill press handle. I have no idea why I chose concentric infill.
Pot Lid Knob
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 15:27 • 0 comments

This is just a replacement knob/handle for a pot lid. Simple and effective and I could CAD and print one slightly more interesting than the original. The knob has an embedded M6 square nut. Pause the print in this position to insert the nut med print. Use M600 in Gcode to pause automatically.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781800
Laundry Machine Repairs
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 15:20 • 0 comments

An easy quick fix for which it was not possible (to my knowledge) to buy replacement parts. One is the clip which holds my families dryer door closed and the other is a cap for the nut at the bottom of our washing machine drum.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781794
Magnet Key Holder
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 14:58 • 0 comments

Super simple and very cool. A magnet encased in a printed part that goes on a keying. I first wanted to pause the print and let the printed encase the magnet in one print but the magnet kept getting pulled out by the extruder carriage. So I printed 2 tiny parts in ABS and acetone welded them together then smoothed them. Its very simple and its very helpful especially I I cant put a key holder on the wall in my rented flat. Now I just lob my keys at the metal lights witch and they (almost always) stick. I used a 6x5 mm Nd Magnet. The CAD can easily be modified to accommodate a different sized magnet.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781766
Flash Drive Cover
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 14:49 • 0 comments

We have all in our time had to deal with a naked flash drive, where the enclosure has broken or something. I have re clothed 2 flash drives so far. I print most of the cover, pause the print and then continue the print to fully encase the flash drive PCB. Excuse the chewed plastic in the picture, a puppy had at it at one point. I embossed by Initials and Student number in this one so that it could easily be returned to me if misplaced.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781749
BMW GS Motorbike Indicator Housing
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 14:25 • 0 comments

The indicator housings on my 2002 BMW GS650 bike with very sun damaged and had cracked letting water in. So naturally, I took one off, drew it in Inventor and printed myself a full new set of 4 which I then smoothed with acetone. Again sadly I don't have pictures of the final product anymore and I didn't even bother checking what it would have cost me to buy a new set.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781724
Ford Bantam Bonnet Latch
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 14:02 • 0 comments

This is by far one of the most cost saving 3D printed repairs I have done. I sadly dont have any photos and have since sold the car but image a pathetic lever with a tiny cross section that must support all the force of you pulling in it because your battery has run flat and you need a jump. It took 2 iterations to get an optimal fit but I got it and printed it in ABS then acetone vapour polished it so that one cannot even tell its a home made replacement part. This saved me about USD 150 (my exchange rate is horrid)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781711
Polyurethane Belt Connector
Thirkell • 02/04/2018 at 13:55 • 0 comments

So I got given a mini late and needed to make us some polyurethane belts (polycord) for it. Now while these are easy to join, they are less easy to join straight and strong. You get tools that do it for you but they cost an absence amount of money as all industrial-aimed tools do. I asked to see one at the belting distributors and they let me take some pictures of it next to a ruler. Some CAD and some printing later and I had about USD 60 ish saved.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2781717