Useful 3D printed items..

[clubber_lang]

I've been eyeballing some of the 3D printed hitch covers:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4093604
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400769
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2069747
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3027551
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:850579

Sponsored

 

[Cmar]

For those with access to 3D printers thought I would start a thread to share some prints for our Rangers..

One I found helpful is a funnel that connects the factory cap fitting

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4876148

This I like, I wonder if it would fit my diesel?

 

[Cmar]

I've been eyeballing some of the 3D printed hitch covers:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4093604
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3400769
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2069747
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3027551
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:850579

Nooo No truck nuts please! I have actually made number two myself, looks good, but in reality I hardly ever remove my tow ball shank. I had to re-size it ever so slightly to fit our metric receivers.

 

[Cmar]

You could probably get away with them being printed in PETG or ABS with a very heavy infill to prevent deformity from heat/pressure. This can be difficult as PETG is a bit trickier to print with on printers like the Ender 3, and ABS is straight up toxic at the temperatures needed for printing.

Alternatively, they're very cheap and can be purchased as injection molded ABS or metal versions for at or less than $20.

I had thought about doing that myself, but decided against it and instead use the file I found to make up some replacement hubcaps for my wheels, which I still have yet to put on lol.

I wouldn't even use PETG in fact I probably wouldn't trust plastic, for this, maybe Nylon with 90% infill would be OK, Nylon isn't all that hard to print as long as you keep it dry.

 

[Cmar]

It's not my design, but I have printed this in PETG. It's a little bezel for the ignition cylinder. It works great, and with a little sanding and/or paint, it looks almost factory.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4542950

I'm going to print that in glow in the dark fillament!

 

[Cmar]

I bought a Prusa clone off alliexpress around 6 months ago it was 400ish.. I have over 15 spools through it with no issues.. We use it way more then I thought we would..

Nice Prusa clone, I bought one of these, they were sold localy through Aldi but where in fact a rebranded Wanhau which is a very good Chinese Prusa variation. Mine has been excellent, have made many things with it.

 

[Cmar]

anyone have PLA printed things in the truck? wondering how they hold up to the summer heat.

Yes, my Redarc Brake controller is in a holder I printed in PLA. It was only going to be temporary until I found a better spot. 2 years later it's still there and surprisingly even in the summer heat here hasn't melted yet. I think shape and load has a lot to do with it, anything thin and / or supporting weight would probably slowly deform. This is round and thick, and just sits there.

 

[Msfitoy]

This I like, I wonder if it would fit my diesel?

I did my own double D...

 

[Msfitoy]

Nice Prusa clone, I bought one of these, they were sold localy through Aldi but where in fact a rebranded Wanhau which is a very good Chinese Prusa variation. Mine has been excellent, have made many things with it.

Aldi? The grocery store?

 

[Cmar]

How durable are 3D printed stuff?

You would be surprised. I have been.

I printed up some sun visor clips in PLA, for one of our cars, (no longer in stock-grrr) which isn't the best plastic for the job but I didn't have any ABS at the time, and 4 years later they haven't melted and still work.

I also printed up a drain cover for one of our rubble drains which I hit with the mower and could no longer buy new- also in PLA, and out in the weather and it seems to be holding up fine. Considering PLA is a bio plastic, and at least theoretically, biodegradable. Anyway I can easily enough make a new one if it breaks.

We have a home sewage plant because we live on acreage away from the city, and a couple of years ago (2019) it broke a fitting, on the cleaned water out pump, - on Christmas eve, nothing open, service guy wasn't available for several days, and we were flying out to the UK for a wedding the day after Christmas!
I printed up a replacement fitting in PLA, it was just a standard pipe fitting - fitted it and we flew out and left a message for the service guy.

Came back 2 weeks later to find the service guy had checked it, left me with a proper spare, and note which more less said, nice job, looks good, lets see how long it lasts! It's still in there.

Needless to say my wife now gives me less sh*t about what do you want that thing (toy) for!

 

[Cmar]

Aldi? The grocery store?

Yep they sell all kinds of stuff here as well as groceries, some of their tools are actually quite good.

 

[Cmar]

Do any of you use Octoprint? I had a spare Raspberry Pi sitting around from another project and rigged it with Octoprint and a Web cam.

It's nice to be able to just download a new project to the printer without mucking around wit SD cards, and the web cam is certainly useful to monitor prints, particularly if you are using an old roll of filament , which are sometimes a bit brittle towards the end.
Nothing worse than coming back to check on progress and finding the filament snapped or the print dislodged half way through a print.

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

How about useless 3D printed items lol, printer sat a month before i did this pumpkin vase.

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

Do any of you use Octoprint? I had a spare Raspberry Pi sitting around from another project and rigged it with Octoprint and a Web cam.

It's nice to be able to just download a new project to the printer without mucking around wit SD cards, and the web cam is certainly useful to monitor prints, particularly if you are using an old roll of filament , which are sometimes a bit brittle towards the end.
Nothing worse than coming back to check on progress and finding the filament snapped or the print dislodged half way through a print.

i love octoprint, makes it so much easier to use the printer vs the SD card

 

[Cmar]

I made this a couple of years ago. It's a completely printed mini itx computer case. I did it up for fun but it now houses a media server.

Sponsored