Author Topic: 3 Prong Nuts - 3D printer to the rescue !  (Read 2761 times)

Offline awemawson

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3 Prong Nuts - 3D printer to the rescue !
« on: November 28, 2018, 07:08:19 AM »
As referred to in another thread I've had a challenging time recently with Toilet Seats in that our holiday cottage guests keep breaking them  :bang:

Now up until now I've been fitting quite expensive ones with a wooden core that is plastic covered to keep you warm when seated, but the hinge screws pull out of the core destroying the whole thing, so to be fair it's not really their fault but a bad design.

After  much hunting around I'm now fitting somewhat cheaper solid plastic ones with integral hinges, hopefully circumventing the screw issue, but instead of a conventional nut on the 'through pan' retainer rods they come with a none standard nylon nut with three tiny projections. This is presumably intended to be assembled avoiding tools, but I'm afraid these days my fingers don't grip them sufficiently and there's no room to get pliers or pump gland wrench at them.

So - Cetus 3D printer to the rescue - draw up a gripper in Fusion360, and port it over to the Cetus to print while I get on dismantling the 90 degree VDI40 powered tooling adaptor for the Beaver lathe.

Came out rather well I reckon - this is an ABS print as I happened to have it loaded from when I printed the last drive dog clutch adaptor for the powered tooling.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline John Rudd

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Re: 3 Prong Nuts - 3D printer to the rescue !
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2018, 07:52:34 AM »
Nicely done Andrew  :bow:
Its amazing how, having the right 'tools' one can make just about anything...well almost.. :lol:
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Offline awemawson

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Re: 3 Prong Nuts - 3D printer to the rescue !
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2018, 08:16:24 AM »
And it works a treat I'm glad to say. I got a full extra turn on one side and half a turn on the other on a seat that I installed on Monday.

The good thing is it only took two hours end to end drawing it up and printing it, and for over half that time I could get on with other things.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex