Tag 3d-printing

Custom tube spacer for bike repair stand

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Story time

This is a simple one but solved elegantly and quickly because of CAD and 3D printing, I have an old bike repair stand that was falling apart, still working but overall wobbly and unreliable. I’ve been thinking about restoring it, but I got my hands on a much nicer and reliable one.

The old one was mounted by getting its main tube through the top and hose clamps to the leg. The new one had a huge bracket that could either be screwed to the wall or to a countertop. I already had a big tube firmly attached to the bench so I wanted to reuse that. Well, the new stand’s tube is bigger than the old one’s so I needed to add a spacer to it and there’s a million ways to do that. I have CAD and a 3D printer so I took that route.

I was going to write something simple and short; this is just a solution to fit one tube over a smaller one but here I am, starting SolidWorks and a design walkthrough. I can’t stop now, sorry.

Design

The fixed tubing protruded about 5 inches from the benchtop, but the spacer didn’t have to go the whole way through, I didn’t want both to bind and also it was an unneeded waste of material and time, so I thought of making it in two parts, a base and a cap.

I usually start by sketching and sometimes modeling the reference material, in this case it would be the fixed tube and the new stand tubing but it was supposed to be something quick so I sketched the outer diameter + clearance of the fixed tube and the inner diameter plus clearance of the new stand tubing to use as reference for the cross-section.

Started with the base, added a bottom flange to protect the benchtop from the stand tube as it rotates and then flanged again up to hide its edge. Revolve feature, straight-forward.

Then the cap, designed inverted for ease of 3D printing, added a flange as a stop over the fixed tube and a chamfer to facilitate the stand insertion. Again, revolved sketch.

And this is it, I reduced outside material on the cap to reduce friction from the stand. For testing, I printed small sections of each (about 6mm) to quickly test fit and kept tweaking the first sketch until I got a good press-fit for the fixed tube and a slip-fit for the new stand.

Fixed tube
Base spacer
Cap spacer
Base installed

Product listing if interested:


https://cyclingdealusa.com/products/cyclingdeal-wall-bench-mount-bike-repair-stand-premium-bicycle-mechanics-maintenance-workstand-with-adjustable-360-degree-rotatable-clamp-head-for-mtb-mountain-road-bikes-up-to-25kg-55-lbs

Why I didn’t restore the old stand?

I didn’t because it hadn’t crossed my mind, and I got the new one almost for free which is a very nice upgrade overall in usability and materials. Now that I think of it, it could be a cool future project, but then I don’t think that the 3D printed PLA/PETG parts would stand better than the original injection molded ABS.

What would I have used if I didn’t have a 3D printer? Masking tape? I don’t know, what would be your approach with your skills and equipment? Machining? Turning? Getting rid of the tube and screw the stand to the wall or bench? My bike “shop” is a 7ft x 5ft portable shed so no walls and didn’t want to reduce the bench top area with the big bracket.

Printed Showcase: Sea Fairy Cookie Sword by slug__

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My daughter’s birthday is coming up pretty soon and she is a huge fan of the Cookie Run Kingdom mobile game, she is also a fan of my 3D printer and she’s requested stuff to print before. No special request from her this time but I decided to print something related to that franchise and stumbled upon a prop from a character she likes, Sea Fairy’s sword.

This is a very straightforward print, I didn’t have gold color on hand so I used yellow on PETG, the accents required two different blue hues but had only one. Total print time was 15h25m.

Model: Sea Fairy Cookie Sword @ makerworld

Published by: slug__ @ makerworld

Print settings:

  • Printer: Bambu Lab P1S
  • Nozzle: 0.40mm
  • Layer height: 0.20mm
  • Support: normal (auto)
  • Adhesion: outer brim
  • Filament: PETG for the handle and blade, PLA for the blue accents
  • Materials: 1/4″ wood dowel, glue

Gallery:

Character inspiration
Printing the highlights, notice that the spaghetti is from failed dowels which I printed later.
Gluing parts together, the designer included a thru-hole for a 1/4″ wooden dowel which got a perfect fit.
And here’s the finished product! Well, still gotta do something about the seams but I’m very happy and I’m sure my daughter is gonna be very happy.

3D Printing Corner

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Recently consolidated and organized my 3D printing corner and here it is going from the bottom-up left to right:

Bottom shelf: Bulk filament storage, first two containers were air sealed using weatherstripping, there’s also two air-tight cereal box containers which will be transformed into sealed individual filament dispensers

Next shelf: Small materials, tools and supplies, batteries, magnets, bearings, glue/resin, foam and tooling and replacement parts for the two printers

Printer shelf:

  • Ender 3 Pro converted into V2 with custom upgrade kit from 1stLayer which included a bigger and color LCD screen, upgraded board with silent steppers. Also installed a direct extruder kit, BL Touch for automatic bed leveling, and a Creality Cloud module. I’m keeping this printer with a 1mm nozzle to tackle bigger structural prints where detail and speed aren’t as important. There’s also the possibility to increase the print height with existing materials.
  • Bambu Lab P1S, this is the intermediate level of their printers, twice and sometimes thrice as fast as the Ender, CoreXY which eliminates bed slinging for more accurate prints, fully enclosed and as easy to use as an inkjet paper printer.

Top shelf: filament dispensing and storage, there’s some recently used filament spools inside vacuum sealed bags, a dual filament dryer which I use to also dry desiccant and the amazing Bambu Lab AMS (Automatic Material System) which is the next biggest thing for 3D printing. I got this AMS as a bundle with the P1S and I totally love it, besides multi-color printing, it contains four material/color spools ready to go at any given time in a semi-sealed container. I printed desiccant containers to add inside to help reduce/eliminate moisture.

This was a quick tour, nothing much or big but finally organized and ready to go.

Keyboard MegaShelf, sliding keyboard tray

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This is a set of brackets that mounts a shelf that slides under a desk.

Hi! This design is the result of my need to free desk space and lower the keyboard height as the desk is too tall for me. I spent over an hour looking for sliding keyboard trays and none met my needs/wants.

Designed in SolidWorks for Makers, printed with a Creality Ender 3 V2 printer with custom 1st Layer firmware and board.

Features:

  • Big enough to hold plenty of peripherals and more
  • Slides under desk to reduce footprint and add some dust protection
  • Solid. Very solid. Even when extended, the natural binding of the peripheral and hand weight “locks” the shelf in any position
  • Uses common or easily available materials, this aluminum extrusion is very stiff and practical
  • Can be adapted to any desk and shelf size without changing the 3D prints, fully dependent on the extrusion lengths

Designed for 3D printing, considerations:

  • The front desk mount piece uses four screws since it will hold most of the weight
  • The recommended print orientation maximizes the layers along the shear forces
  • No supports required, nada.
  • The extrusion mating parts include an inner “rib” that makes contact in the extrusion slots before the side walls to reduce sliding friction and considerably increasing the holding strength
  •  Not only functional, but also spent some time shaping for a nicer look and feel

Downsides:

  • It binds when trying to slide-in or out caused by uneven force on the ends when doing so, the solution is to frame the shelf with additional length-wise aluminum extrusion to force squareness
  • It doesn’t make tacos but it does free your desk to hold them

For the future: Can’t stop thinking about using v-slot wheels for that smooth and satisfying slide but initial thoughts makes it look clunky, obtrusive, and more expensive. But I like the challenge and more options are good so stay tuned!

All-in-all, I’m extremely happy with this solution, it’s very solid, holds peripherals clearing my desk and stows away. I’m publishing this free hoping that my time and effort go further than just meeting my needs.

Published and available to download in Maker World

Prototyping gallery:

Fanswap, 120mm fan modular cover/grille

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This is a 120mm fan cover, mostly common in computers. Like the million others out there, it protects the fans from foreign objects and your fingers from its blades. This design tho, also allows to swap grille colors and designs without unscrewing it plus when covering two or more fans together (as in computer radiators), it sprawls an overlapping design to make it seem like a seamless unit.

Designed in SolidWorks for Makers, this parametric design contains three configurations for single, double or triple and more fans, in double or more configurations, the screw tabs overlap the following frame and reduces mounting screws. The grille also “connects” to the next one enhancing the seamless design.

I created Fanswap as a way to mod my PC, what I wanted was not available and what I liked was way too expensive (CNC machined aluminum covers, anyone?), also the pain of changing the cover in a tight case, specially on radiators where the fan also comes off the same screws. Also, why did double and triple radiators never looked like a single cohesive unit?  

In the image above, the parts were printed in Overture black PLA and 3D Solutech Silver Metal PLA, I love this last one.

I have published the files for printing in Maker World and Printables.