I was a good boy this past year and Santa Claus brought me a 3D printer for Christmas! I have wanted one for awhile now to play with and make plastic things, R&D, etc, and I finally got one.
I downloaded and printed out a few items from the internet to get a feel for the printer (first time using one) and figured it was time for me to make/print something useful. So my first, from scratch item, was a shift knob for my 67 Mustang. I built and designed it in an old version of SolidWorks, sent it to Cara for conversion for the printer, and then 4+ hours later it was all done. In case you aren't familiar with 3D printing, the knob is not solid, it has 1.2mm thick walls and an internal structure to help support it and make it strong. I was actually able to print the threads (1/2"-20 in case you were wondering) and aside from them being a touch tight, I couldn't be happier with the results. I cranked my print settings down to get a smoother print at the cost of slower speeds. There were a few spots that needed touchup with a file (start of threads and outer bottom knob edge) because of the sacrificial pad it created to keep the knob stable while it printed, but other than that it came out pretty nice looking. I am planning on filling in the indented numbers and shift pattern with a contrasting color to give it a bit more pop, but otherwise I am super happy with the results!
I downloaded and printed out a few items from the internet to get a feel for the printer (first time using one) and figured it was time for me to make/print something useful. So my first, from scratch item, was a shift knob for my 67 Mustang. I built and designed it in an old version of SolidWorks, sent it to Cara for conversion for the printer, and then 4+ hours later it was all done. In case you aren't familiar with 3D printing, the knob is not solid, it has 1.2mm thick walls and an internal structure to help support it and make it strong. I was actually able to print the threads (1/2"-20 in case you were wondering) and aside from them being a touch tight, I couldn't be happier with the results. I cranked my print settings down to get a smoother print at the cost of slower speeds. There were a few spots that needed touchup with a file (start of threads and outer bottom knob edge) because of the sacrificial pad it created to keep the knob stable while it printed, but other than that it came out pretty nice looking. I am planning on filling in the indented numbers and shift pattern with a contrasting color to give it a bit more pop, but otherwise I am super happy with the results!