[dataway]

Very cool. Looks like you are into race cars? I so wish I had this printer when I was building vintage race bikes ... jeez it could have saved me some time and money coming up with small to medium pieces like that.

So far I'll typical go with four walls thick, or 100% infill on things that need to be tapped, has worked great.

Are those PLA or PETG? I was amazed at the strength of these parts when printed right, previously I was under the impression everything would be pretty fragile.

Printed this NEMA 23 motor mount for my CNC project out of PLA with I think 50% infill, four walls. A bit of warping in that corner as I forgot to cover the HVAC vent that blows right on the printer, printed at 70mm/second and 0.35mm layer height .. so I was pushing things a bit. Turned out very strong and perfectly usable. Also printed up a 1/8" isolation spacer out of black TPU.

[3X24SPD]

I typically use Heat Staked threaded inserts from McMaster-Carr installed with a soldering iron for smaller stuff, but you can model a hole in a part and tap it.
For larger threads, you can model using a helical sweep. If you do a helical sweep on a 1.79 degree taper, you can print NPT.
I modeled and printed this filter assembly yesterday. It has 5/8-11 thread and 7/8-14 NPT modeled and printed.

[dataway]

Very nice, my first attempt at threads was just printing straight from a cad file, 3/8 - 16 ... worked OK after being hit with tap and die. I didn't make any allowances in the file for the fact they were being printed.

Do you make any modifications to the thread profile for printing? I know some people will cut down the point of the threads to a small flat.

Do you recall the layer height you used on those prints? Nozzle size, material? Sorry for the questions but it's great to have the numbers to go along with the photos to get a fell for this process.

[3X24SPD]

Originally Posted by dataway

Very nice, my first attempt at threads was just printing straight from a cad file, 3/8 - 16 ... worked OK after being hit with tap and die. I didn't make any allowances in the file for the fact they were being printed.

Do you make any modifications to the thread profile for printing? I know some people will cut down the point of the threads to a small flat.

Do you recall the layer height you used on those prints? Nozzle size, material? Sorry for the questions but it's great to have the numbers to go along with the photos to get a fell for this process.

For the helical sweeps, I just sketched an equilateral triangle with s=pitch on the outer diameter of a extruded shaft for the male thread and the inner wall of the nut. That's not a true thread shape, as you mentioned (the point should be trimmed by h/4 and form a trapezoid) but I wanted max thread engagement, and the resolution of the machine is a limitation on the definition anyway.

Layer height was .007", T12 Nozzle, and ASA material.

[dataway]

Thank you, very helpful.

.007 is equivalent to higher definition settings on metric consumer machines of 0.2mm.

Some quick research shows that there is very little in common with the high end industrial nozzles and the consumer market

[dataway]

Been messing around with some displacement maps in 3ds Max ... I think I might be able to print things with a factory like vinyl pattern. At least two dimensional things .... wondering about printing things like radio delete plates, or dash patches with the proper textured finish.

[dataway]

Latest project was creating this unobtanium dealer badge with another forum member. Designed from scratch with his direction. Printed in PLA, vehicle owner will do the painting details. This was a "pre production" example ... currently working on the final design. Final product might be switched to PETG if I can get it to print as cleanly.

I think this may be a suitable process for replicating such items, along with any hard to obtain interior badges, radio deletes, maybe dash patch panels, or any fairly simple object that doesn't contain a bunch of compound curves etc.

[Shiny]

That is outstanding. Great application for your skills and tools.

I'll be interested in the finishing. Some of those "mirror" finishes start by application of a self-leveling paint to provide a smooth finish. This might be the simplest way to get a smooth finish on a part like this?

What was the original finish on this part? Was it a plated die-cast part or was it plastic originally?

[dataway]

In this case there was no original ... we "extrapolated" a design from period correct examples.

Getting a chrome like finish would be a challenge. I have seen a guy on YouTube doing some beautiful electro plating on plastic by using a filler primer, painting with a conductive paint, and plating over that ... but he was using palladium I think ... not exactly a cheap metal.

Original finish on most of these was pretty freakin bad .. so yeah, like you suggest, a combination of paint products would probably provide a suitable finish. I think by the late 70's early 80's many had gone to a colored or painted plastic of some kind.

On 80's and later cars with lots of plastic badging ... 3d printing could be an answer to hard to find parts.

[Shiny]

I'd be concerned about durability of electroplate over a conductive paint "strike" but I may not appreciate the adhesion of modern finishes.

An electroless nickel or copper strike sounds like a better solution to me, but I have been known to just make stuff up by extrapolating from dinosaur memory cells.

Palladium is used as an electroless plating catalyst but I cannot imagine why it would be needed as part of an electrolytic plating process. And in the autocatalytic plating application, there isn't much there... As I remember, it precipitates as colloidal particles from a solution of palladium salts.

Here is an article that might be worth reading:

https://technology.matthey.com/artic...he%20solution.

Regardless, if you want a "shiny" finish, paint sounds like an easier way to get there. The Spaz Stix black base and "mirror chrome" might be an option. Plating would obviously hold up better but a LOT more work.

[Shiny]

In my past life, we had good relationships with McDermid and their products worked well for us. They had very good tech support at the time.

If I wanted to mess with plating plastics, I would go to them. Here is a link to their process and plating chemicals:

https://www.coventya.com/products/plating-on-plastics/

[Gastiresandoil]

Vaccum thermoforming

https://www.mmmetalizing.com/

[dataway]

Shiny ... forgot, the guy used a heavy plate of copper on top of the conductive paint. I thought Palladium was weird too, but it worked beautifully. I actually looked it up ... as I wasn't that familiar with it. It's a fairly common decorative plating metal evidently. This guy was European, and working at home .. so perhaps there was some aspect of using palladium that made it easier to do at home compared to other choices.

He was doing a life size Bobofett helmet from Star Wars ... so, uhh ... not your average sort of guy

Here's the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsrlrH3omZc

He brush plated the palladium ... must have 100 hours into that thing.

[dmorg1]

Originally Posted by dataway

Whoa, Johnny that is one slick piece. I am sure somebody will be very pleased when it is mounted on their ride.


Are you sure that you don't do this professionally?




Thanks for sharing.




Dave

[Shiny]

I can only imagine why anyone would plate a helmet with Palladium but yes, it is a noble metal and therefore won't tarnish easily... why it's used for jewelry.

Rhodium is another one that is very "pretty" (very bright white silver color) but expensive!

Regardless, your work is awesome and will look great no matter how it's finished.

Mike

[dataway]

Mike ... I won't be doing any plastic plating that's for sure. I've got enough going on. Personally I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze compared to just paint.

Come to think of it ... they now make conductive filament for printing .... not sure how that will affect the process. I'm guessing the only practical method is doing parts in volume and sending them off to be plated.

I DO have a threshold where I'd rather send something out, than do it myself

[dataway]

Boredom productivity continues to produce results

Thought I might start trying to model a Rally II wheel to see if I can 3d print something like 1/12th scale wheels.

Just created this to test the process ... of course not accurate, wrong offset etc. etc. just trying to figure out how to replicate the stamped steel construction.

[Shiny]

That's a great start. Do you build that from nothing or can you import an image and superimpose your features? Looks challenging!

[dataway]

I got the rim profile from pictures of a Rally II rim, guesstimated the spoke geometry from a photo. So yes ... superimposed the image to get the rim profile, CAD sketched the spoke geometry.

The difficult part is the stamping in between the spokes ... it's not "planar", some areas higher or lower than others ... as you might expect from a stamped or "drawn" part.

Anything is possible with this kind of software ... but I don't know a lot of the "best practices" involved so it's easy to do something that sabotages something you need to do later.

When it comes to modeling my background is mostly in free form products like 3ds Max (used for animation (like Toy Story) movie special effects etc.) with that kind of software there are far less "rules" because it's not meant to manufactured or "real" just meant to look real. Might have to approach it from that direction ... luckily that software will output the necessary formats for 3d printing also.

[dataway]

You know ... on another note.

I'm very surprised there is not more cross pollination between a hobby like vintage cars and the "Maker" community .. the 3d printers, gizmologists, CNC'ologists, micro-controller fans etc. When it comes to vintage motorcycles, import cars, Steam Punk etc. those kids are all over it. By now they would have a repository of entire GTOs in printable files, every kind of mod you can think of, all kinds of problems solved, documents on how to reproduce your own parts etc.

All I can think of is maybe they are priced out of the vintage car hobby for the most part. Most of the vintage car owners tend to past the point of much "flexibility" when it comes to new technology and aren't interested if they can't just buy it off the shelf or find a used part. It's amazing what the younger crowd gets done when they put their mind to it. Huge communities of kids that have pioneered 3d printing, home made CNC, Robotics, drones, modeling, vacu-forming ... jeez, all kinds of stuff. 90% supported by the "open source" community, all sharing their ideas, giving away the information ... actually going to trouble and expense to give away the information. Very willing to help and get involved in any project that helps the community.

I think maybe the vintage car community is too "Salty" for them, as the would say