3D printer required?

[Retroanaconda]

I need to make up a pair of small bushes, to convert the ‘squared off oval’ wiper holes in my 90’s bulkhead to a smaller round hole. It strikes me that this may be something doable with a 3D printer fairly easily?

It’s to allow me to fit double washer jets in the redundant LHD wiper spindle holes. I want to be able to effect a weather seal against the bulkhead with some kind of flange to hold a foam/rubber seal, as well as support/centralise the washer jet body in the hole.

The bulkhead hole looks like this.

 

How would people recommend I go about this? I presume I’d need to get a drawing made up to be sent off to someone with a printer?

[TSD]

Post up a fag packet sketch of how you see it (with rough dimensions), and see what feedback you get? It certainly sounds plausible enough, printed in the right material.

I had good success previously casting some polyurethane parts in 3d printed moulds, I would be tempted to try the same again for this if it were me. That way it could be a single piece part that expands under a washer to fix it in the hole when the washer jet is tightened into the middle? More time and effort, (and money), and probably a prime example of how to get carried away with 'a little project'!

 

[De Ranged]

Having a couple of printers I'd recomend not..... heres why,
Most printers are printing with low melting point plastics like PLA or plastics that arn't UV stable.... out in direct sunlight on a dark body'd car you will get more heat than they will handle, that said there are guys who are setup to print in Nylon and there are alot variants of it, and I think some are better in UV (Nylon is beyound my ability to print so I don't know much about it)
The other issue is the way it is printed the layering of the filament means it isn't very strong in tension when it is applied against the layers compaired to cast plastic... eg the washer lip you are pulling against the panel to clamp the rubber seal will tend to snap off lol 

If you want to try something cool look into cast carbon fibre.... there is a UK company that has a youtube channel and makes DIY kits, get a mould 3d printed and away you go ..... keep thinking about having a go lol 

Personally the answer to me is a relitivily simple hollow bolt that would be easy to machine on the lathe out of alloy or stainless then machine or file a couple of flats to locate and then fit a squirter from a car bonnet in the hole down the middle 

https://i.imgur.com/bSQXUyR.jpg

[Retroanaconda]

Interesting, I had not considered UV stability.

I wonder then if I could make up something on a lathe, stepped to give the top hat washer for sealing purposes. And then file two flats on it to fit into the hole. 

[MECCANO]

From what i've read, it seems ABS filament seems to have okay uv resistance due to some witch craft. and the joy of printing is you can just print a batch and repalce them every few years. 

I havent tried printing ABS yet, but i plan to in the coming months. if you can wait i an give it a crack, Just need some fag packetry dimensions.

 

[TSD]

Because 3d prints are full of voids and gaps, I was more concerned about low temperature damage rather than high temperatures. It's not easy to produce a decent size print that is watertight, and certainly not airtight.

Out of interest, I have a few failed prints scattered about the garden as a very informal experiment. I've not noticed much degradation in any of them in a few years, though I've only given them an occasional inspection, I've not tested their mechanical properties.

Some bright blue PLA parts showed no noticeable change, until one day they had dissappeared completely - either blew away in a storm or gathered by some curious creature. PLA were the first parts I left out, since it's supposed to be biodegradeable.

Black PETG (my usual print medium) showed no degradation at all. Also nylon parts didn't degrade, but did seem to be getting some greenery. Nylon absorbs a lot of water, so that doesn't seem so surprising (My D3 is turning green for the same reason )

One of my failed Polyurethane castings has been riding around on my D3 towball for a year or so, and also doesn't seem to have been affected (though in this case I wasn't expecting any).

Lots of materials out there to choose from, and properties vary between manufacturers, and even between colours, so there's no universal answers. I've had great success with Taulman Alloy910 (Nylon) and 3dxtech CarbonX (CF loaded nylon) on occasion, but both are too expensive and tricksy for everyday use. I've got a couple of rolls of Arnitel ID2060 here. This stuff was specifically aimed at under-bonnet use, so I have high hopes but I haven't yet found a good enough excuse to open the box.

[mad_pete]

3D prints don’t have to be full of voids and gaps. I’ve done prints I’ve run water through.  PLA is a bit low melting point so while I m not sure it uv degrades as much as some suggest I did leave a pla lid in my conservatory and it did warp a bit, but something a like abs will likely handle it. I would try it. You can always send the design for a 3D print shop to do in a given material if it fits with pla. 

[MECCANO]

Totally agree, on parts these small id just bang the fill up and make them solid. But if you got proper adhesion and a thick enough wall it's not going to be an issue.

 

40hr part 40% fill. No delamination.I could stand on the thing on its edge, and I'm 15 stone. .. and it's only pla. Oh and it holds water

[FridgeFreezer]

I'd say for the application at hand even a basic PLA 3D print should be adequate to hold a washer jet on, if it degrades in 10 years it's not going to be the end of the world.

An alternative would be to get a lump of nylon or similar and machine it - lathe and/or mill could whittle it into the right sort of shape pretty easily.

[De Ranged]

So am I the only one here who has had PLA prints warp when in the car..... I did a steering knob out of pla that the lid warped and delaminated bad enough it pop'd off and then the lip of the body distorted this in a project car that was parked in an ally way 

Sorry no pics of the damaged knob. After that I did a bit of research and found it alot of videos on youtube showing the different plastics and how they perform in a the heat from the sun..... why I fitted a metal hot end to the printer so I could try ABS... unfortunatly my printer isn't liking ABS my success is about as random as tossing a coin (and about the same odds lol) so I've gone back to PLA and PETG was going to try building an inclosure 

[mad_pete]

Warping inside the car or engine bay with pla will be a risk. You can always pay a print shop to do it on abs for you. 

[elbekko]

I printed some tablet holders in PLA years ago, they warped a bit initially but haven't moved since. And they're permanently mounted on the top of the dashboard.

[AlWorms]

I have PLA (actually, Esun PLA+) covers over my security cameras, out in the NZ sun for 18 months, and they are still the correct shape. They might be brittle, I haven't checked... but I can print more 🙂

The UV stability is more of an issue for structural parts, or those that have loads applied.

Painting them can delay the effects of UV damage too.

[Ed Poore]

Different filaments would easily be suitable I'd have said. After all @simonr 3d printed some air intake bits (if I'm remembering correctly) for @Mo Murphy's M57 conversion.

@Retroanaconda if you want post up some fag packet drawings of what you want or at least some dimensions I can knock up a 3D model for you. Other people have far more capable printers than I do so I'd recommend someone else printing them.

Alternatively I have a slab of 40 or 50mm thick delrin somewhere which is a lovely thing to machine.

[FridgeFreezer]

There's a lot of stuff being done with 3D printers and people are coming up with all sorts of developments on the regular - there's also a HUGE variability in quality between prints, printers, and materials, what I print on my printer with my chosen brand of PLA may perform VERY differently to what you print on yours etc.

Making For Motorsport has 3D printed a lot of stuff including an inlet manifold that held up longer than the car did... he's also got videos about annealing PLA to withstand higher temperatures.

 

 

 

[Bowie69]

MFM is a great channel when he's not trying to sell something, shame he doesn't post that often.

[simonr]

This is what I've been using for car stuff recently - https://uk.store.bambulab.com/products/paht-cf

It seems to have good mechanical and thermal properties.

Prior to this printer, I used HIPS, which is commonly used for Dashboards.  It's more brittle than ABS or PAHT (above) but it behaves well at high temperatures.

I've had no issues at all with UV.  During Covid, I made a load of Gutter fittings for the house, which were not available at the time.  3 years in sunlight and freezing weather and there's no apparent visible degradation.  These were printed with PolyMax Tough PLA, which was one of my favorites for mechanical stuff.  Now, it's out performed by PAHT, PETG and several others.