[Chris911]

Hi all,

So I'm kind of a gadgety guy and recently designed and 3D printed this CRD250L dash plate as a place to mount my USB/voltage charger and my accessory switches. (Its "off season" here in the Midwest so we gotta do something to keep busy)

Before I spend any more time on this (although its nearly done) does anyone else offer something like this? Any great ideas I should incorporate? I'm designing it to be snap-on so I can take it on and off and I prototype it.

THanks for any feedback.

[Back2-2]

That's pretty cool. I have no experience with 3D printing myself but am certainly interested. Our local library has a nice 3D printer that is free to use I just have not looked into it yet. I take it that you have to have a program on your computer to lay out the plan for what you want to produce or is that on the printer itself that you do that? Is it hard to get all the measurements right for that dash to fit? Take several trial and errors ?

Thanks for posting and love to see what other items you come up with.

[Chris911]

There are a ton of free online programs now for computer aided design. From as simple as "TinkerCad" to engineering oriented versions. If you want to dabble you can use Tinkercad to design something and probably take the file down to the library to print.

Its slow (this took 4 hours to print) but not as slow as fabricating a part out of aluminum at this level of detail or laying up fiberglass.

Measuring wasn't too difficult on this one because the shape is relatively simple. A basic trapezoid and then I had to tweak the curvatures and such. Each iteration I printed a layer about 0.5mm thick and then tried it, made adjustments and reprinted. THose took 15-20 minutes each. Only when I had the dimensions where I wanted them did I print the thing in full.

So it was maybe 10 revisions, the last 3 being some trial and error getting the "snap in" tabs right.

[Back2-2]

Excellent. Thank you for the information. My dentist knowing I was an engineer told me about two machines he has and how much he thought I would like to get into fabricating 3D parts. He said one of his machines was over 10 thousand dollars and the other was cheap Chinese unit. I may have to look into it and try the library for a few things before diving in. I do love to fabricate things but they are usually aluminum or steel.
Sure sounds like it would be fun to have and do.

[Chris911]

Same here. I'm terrible with wood but love working with metal. Love building/creating new things, thats why 3D always fascinated me. But when the price on a good 3D printer for home use went under $200 I couldn't resist any more.

It is slow to print, but I can print one overnight, add any fixture holes I want, etc... Once done I'll print this in ABS plastic for weather and heat resistance.

[Back2-2]

That's funny - I am horrible at wood working and don't like working with wood. Metals are reliable and straight.
It would be a kick to make cool motorcycle parts. Can I ask what brand and model machine you have?

[Chris911]

Same. Plus if I booger up a metal piece I can add material. Can’t do that with wood.

I have the Creality Ender 3. It goes on sale a few times per year.

[Chris911]

A few revisions later with components installed and printed in a more outdoor temp stable material.

[Noltez]

I'd love to have the STL file for the blank one if you still have it. I have a 3D printer and finally got PETG to print properly. A snap over "dash" to add a couple waterproof switches would be great.

Any chance you could post the STL in a dropbox or something?