Can 3D-printing improve your car?
 

Yes! Take that [checks bookmarks] Betteridge's Law of Headlines!

No, that's not it.

Bob, He Who Likes to Make Stuff, showed how he couldn't find replacements for some interior pieces on his 30-year-old vehicle, and how he made his own. Then he showed how he was making his own cupholder for larger drinks. He asked his employees to find projects to improve their own vehicles with 3D printing and one made a collapsible cup holder and another made a Homestar Runner vanity plate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SndYymulUe4

I can't find the part I'd downloaded from Thingiverse, but here's the relevant search: www.thingiverse.com/search?q=vw+center+cap&sort=relevant

The one I snagged (actually the second) correct for the Lemmerz wheels I have on the car now I printed out a few times and determined 104% scaling gave the best fit. I've got some Bronze filled PLA from Proto Pasta, but my printer is down until I figure out how to R&R the Bowden tube. The instruction shows brass fittings where there're no brass fittings. :confused:

I've got a spool of PETG I haven't tried yet. Proto Pasta has heat-treatable HTPLA www.proto-pasta.com/collections/all/feature_heat-treatable

You can get the ferrules from a bike or heavy equipment cable shop but they really aren't necessary

Tried your friend gaga?

I have a friend? :confused:

The brass fitting has a specific thread. But there is a C-clip and push to release part in common. When I remove the clip the release doesn't.

Probably the best solution would be a dual gear extruder. But there's the same problem at the hot end.

The same here. I didn't want to invest nearly $30 in phone holder, so I print my own.

The truth is, what matters is how do you treat your time. I spent hours with searching through Thingiverse and remodelling parts in CAD to suit my needs. Should I multiply these hours with my wage, I would probably be better off with factory made item...

With a lot of the things on Thingiverse, like small storage boxes, it's faster to go to Goodwill. Business card holders though -- I had looked for one forever, then when I got the printer I printed one. Probably the most useful thing so far.

Mostly what I printed before the PLA in the machine absorbed moisture and lost all it's cohesion, was archtiectural models, created in Blender.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...kcipdahdml.jpg

The only picture I have uploaded. Five of these make an hemisphere.

According to this video, before Sir Isaac Newton, people estimated Pi by calculating shapes with more and more sides. I think they calculated shapes with at least hundreds of thousands of sides.

Millions?

How close is close enough?! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMlf1ELvRzc

regarding PLA absorbing moisture:
- keep in original packaging (ziplock bags, airtight), when not in use
- when too moisture absorbed, dry in oven for few hours

That works when it's on the spool. I've got lots some in Ziplocks. But it was the part left in the printer that wasn't protected. If I could get the Bowden tube to release I could rod it out or replace it.

The car, yes. The thing under the seat, even more.

Here's an example:

additivemanufacturing.com/: Classic Car Meets Future Technology: VW Caddy Fitted with 3D-Printed Front-End Structure

https://additivemanufacturing.com/wp...s_P8037112.jpg

Quick and easy if you have a sintered aluminum printer.

So if it cracks or a tab breaks off you can't weld it.

.

Looks like welding isn’t a problem.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo


More pictures and information here.

http://www.3i-print.com/


Scalmalloy

https://www.apworks.de/scalmalloy



>

.

DDG:
My concern with AI designed lightweighting is going to be susceptible to nicks and scratches cascading to failure. Like the Wonderful One Hoss Shay

Huh, ... that reminds me a Tay bridge disaster poem.... https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.or...idge-disaster/.

I concur:
None stronger than the geodesic dome. See Permallink #6.

Scalmalloy is an example of what Buckminster Fuller called 'metaphysically engendered materials'.

edit:
I just looked at the comments for the video at #11.
So it's three years old. Their CAD files and print output should fit any Mark I Golf. Why aren't they at SEMA?