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Simple things done well... (Air vent related content!)


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There's a chap over on defender2 who made some adjustable floor vents on a 3D printer, posted up the finished product and prompted a flurry of "Can you make me a set?" replies...

Mine arrived this morning, I have to say I'm pretty impressed and surprised that nobody has done similar before - I know there's been discussions on here about adding additional vents but not a lot really came of it... Really shows how things like 3D printing have come on, and what you can achieve with a bit of ingenuity!

For those that can't make it out from the pic, the round bit of the vent swivels, so you can direct the airflow - point it at the driver, point it at the window etc etc... 

 

20180313_134210.jpg

Edited by =jon=
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I just spotted that... :)

£30/pair posted. 

The ones pictured however have a machined nozzle, not printed so were a tenner more.. I think he was running out of print capacity!

Which printer have you got? Stuff like this may inspire me to get one - I have a feeling it would be one of those things that you never think you will need, but will be incredibly useful for making random widgets when you get one!

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Oddly enough I've been thinking about 3d printing windscreen demisters for 1Bex, as standard LR ones don't fit behind the Miketomcat custom dash, and then started thinking about the vents for the end of the dash to demist the side windows.

I'm just finishing a new build with 300mm x 300mm bed, with the aim to print nylon parts for my 2Bex build.

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I have two printers, the first one is a Prusa clone from China that got me going and which I gradually upgraded, cost less than £200 originally and I've thrown another £200 at it in upgrades one the last couple of years. The second one is a CoreXY I built from scratch, based roughly on the Vulcanus Max design but with my own X carriage and a few other changes here and there. I used the Prusa to print all the plastic parts for the new printer and should really sell it now but you never know when 2 printers will be needed !

I print primarily in PETG as it's relatively easy to print, has similar temperature resistance to ABS but doesn't smell when printing ! For early prototypes I still use PLA for environmental reasons though.

My CoreXY has the capability to print nylon but I haven't come across anything that I've needed to print in Nylon so not tried it yet. I did spec all metal hot ends though, just in case I ever need it !

I got mine primarily to print housings for my electronics projects but have used them to print all sorts since for the vehicles, the house and, of course, my electronics stuff. Even SWMBO admits that it's paid for itself !

I'm secretly collecting parts for a small Delta build at the moment, if I buy a few bits at a time it may go unnoticed by the financial director !

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Very similar here, the new printer is CoreXY mostly from the D-bot design, and I used the older Ormerod to print all the parts for it.

Mostly housing and test jigs for electronics, but also quite a few special tools for the shed. Even PLA can be tough enough to be very useful around the workshop. I printed an expanding mandrel to pull the pistons from a set of brake calipers. Didn't expect it to last (or even work!), so printed several. I pulled all 12 pistons with the first one. Printed a sleeve to press the tricky top rubber bush back into the steering column, and a clutch alignment tool, also in PLA.

Haven't really tried many different filaments, but I have been swapping between PETT, PETG and nylon on the CoreXY.  If you get the urge to try nylon Dave, then from my first tests, Taulman Alloy910 prints really nicely, and the results are really well bonded, though I'm not really dialled in yet. A bit more flexible than I'd like, but really tough parts.

I'm wondering if I can print the fuel filler recess for the Ibex in one piece, as I can't find anything on the market I really like the look of.

 

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Thanks. To the uninitiated, most of that was totally unintelligible ;)

If you wanted a good starter printer that could do a wide range of stuff, what sort of thing would you be looking at?  

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I don’t regret the route I took, I learnt a lot and got good results right from the first print.

I started with a Geeetech Prusa i3 Pro B. It’s 8mm acrylic but at around £180 for the kit, all the components are good quality, so much so that I bought a second kit to supply parts for my second printer.

Acrylic frames don’t have the best reputation but the 8mm is pretty solid and has always worked well for me.

You can get the Geeetech direct or via AliExpress or Amazon - AliExpress was the cheapest last time. Single extruder is fine and auto bed levelling is something best added yourself later.

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