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3D Printed Parts for the car

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Joules:
Another dash cam mount, and making the GPS less obtrusive.  The last couple of long-ish trips out have been a pain with GPS and dash cam suckers falling off.  Todays job was sit down and design some bits to sort them out.  The in built car radio packed in ages ago so we bought a replacement, but it left the display on the dash that annoyed me.  Hmmm some plastic butchery removed the display, opened out the moulding and fit some printed clips to rubber mount the GPS.  It's not pretty, but a lot more useful than the broken radio display it replaced and not obvious it's a GPS.

Attention then turned to the dash cam.  We have previous experience here with PLA roof lining clips going soft in the heat (PETG is a good solution), so this time I had to come up with a better idea.  My other half has opted to wear her sunglasses in the passenger seat, so that means I have the sun visor to play with.  It's set far enough back that it shouldn't get much sun and the clip is designed to slide into the map sleave on the rear.  A 20mm stainless bolt was used for locking the adjustment and a turned and knurled nut locks it tight.  Being set back it doesn't obscure the view, and no sucker on the glass.  I also had fun with strimmer line using it to thread through the car body work so I could pull the power cable through, all you now see is a short cable coming out above the mirror.  Looks a lot neater especially as this car is pretty basic and no interior lining to jam the cable behind.

Joules:
I have added the CAD and STL file to GrabCAD if anyone is interested for the sun visor mount.

https://grabcad.com/library/dash-cam-visor-mount-1

Brass_Machine:
I have got to say... Every time I think about getting a 3D printer, I look around and I am not happy with the prints I see in the interweb. Then, I see yours. I swear... I think however you design, print or the printer itself... It seems like you are a few years ahead of everyone else!

Nice job!

Joules:
Eric. I think a lot of the problem is we have few of the classical amateur designers coming through with real hands on engineering experience using 3D printers.  So many are blinkered that if it is to be 3D printed it must all be 3D printed.  Until recently a lot of people failed to understand grain in printed parts, and that you should mix and match parts.  PLA doesn’t glue well, but it welds great.  It really is a case of understand the materials and their limitations, then work within them.  A lot of the free library sites are full of rubbish that people tend to print because they can, not because they should.  You then have the situation where the majority of stuff you see printed online is just crap.  I mix 3D printing in with my everyday designing and prototype work.  Sometimes things don’t work, but you shouldn’t look at it as a failure, just another step in the right direction.  If you have any design abilities I would recommend a cheap printer to start with.  My printers were all budget models and I just adapt them as I go along.  You never stop learning, just as you do any machine tool, think of the 3D printer as another tool, not a complete solution.

I’m still learning Eric, I have used lathe and mill far longer, but the 3D printing just clicked with my level of engineering and craft skills.

Pete49:
A couple well thought out solutions to placement of modern gizmos
Pete

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