New Plastic Speedo and Tach Needles, you know you want a pair!!

SuperTopo

SuperTopo

True Classic
I had the model I created and printed quoted as a plastic injection molded part in white ABS. The quote came back exactly comparable in cost to having it SLA printed by any of the many 3D printing service providers. How much? $73 per needle. So $146 per instrument cluster. This requires that 12 people commit to purchasing a pair of needles. If I can get that commitment, I'll front the money and get them made.

Any takers? PM me. 12 takers is all I need. The cost drops linearly, so if 24 people want a set it's $74 per instrument cluster.

What are you waiting for, PM me!

Paging 3D Printer People....

I have dimensions for speedo and tach needles if anyone wants to give it a try! One thing's for sure, LOTS of potential customers!!!
xwebforums.com
 
I realize this offer is to have the needles molded, not printed. But you mentioned the cost to have them printed was the same.

I've never looked too much into 3D printing, other than what I've read about some amazing things they can do. So I don't know about the various types of printers or their capabilities or limitations. But I see there are several on the market for under $200 these days. For small parts it seems odd that the 3D printing service companies ask so much, especially when the data file has already been created. You could almost buy your own machine for close to what it costs to have one set of needles printed. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but my point is I'd have expected the cost to have 3D printing done would have dropped as they become more mainstream.
 
The machines you buy for home, at that price, won't print anything you'll want to use in your car.... Using a service prints them on high dollar polyjet and sla machines with much more material choice and far superior surface finish....
 
Not trying to torpedo the idea of a 3D printed instrument needles. It's a great idea.
I have used the product "Plastruct" with great success. Can easily cut it to any length. Can be shaped to a needle point if you like. Can be painted (I did my needle tips a florescent orange). The old needle can be removed, and this stuff glues right in.

You find this stuff at your local hobby shop or say a "Michaels". Should cost around 10 cents per dial.
s-l200.jpg
images.jpg
s-l1600.jpg
 
Lowtechprime said:
The machines you buy for home, at that price, won't print anything you'll want to use in your car.... Using a service prints them on high dollar polyjet and sla machines with much more material choice and far superior surface finish....
Click to expand...
I would disagree with with what you say. While professional printers can create perfect parts home filament printers have came a long way. Here are 3 parts I printed out with a $220 Ender 3 Pro using a .4mm nozzle. Detail is good and surfaces are pretty smooth, I also can print with a wide variety of plastics. For non-complex parts a little filler primer will erase all surface imperfection. This is why I believe I can create a near perfect needle for well under a dollar. Let's also face it, the parts in our cars are not exactly Rolls-Royce quality to begin with. ;-)

The three models below are a Tiger tank which I am printing out group of them for my Nephew's army men. The Gear was for a project I was doing and the Luger was to just see if I could.
1634870975588.png
1634871108639.png

1634871228211.png
 
Thank you a ton for the contribution regarding the model and sourcing a supplier. I really hope enough people hop on board with it. I won't be able to at this time, unfortunately, just because the car needs a LOT of work before I can get to the small details, and protecting it from rust takes my first financial priority, and I'm a fairly broke college student- but I digress.

Thanks again,
Jon
 
And in terms of low end printers (even though this discussion is better suited to the original thread):

I also have an ender ( 5 pro), which falls pretty low on the totem pole, and I do agree the quality isn't ever going to be PolyJet like, but as shown above, it's very possible to get a good surface finish and dimensional accuracy.

I'd be very interested to see how a pair of ABS needles printed on something like an Ender turn out after an acetone vapor bath, which can remove all visible layer lines. Since the part is so simple, I'd think this would be plenty good enough for our needs... though I haven't tried it out yet.

I would have printed these already but my printer is currently broken...a lightning strike took out the PSU. That's also part of the reason my progress on the Wiki 3D printing section came to a screeching halt. If the part file is being handed around, would someone mind adding it to the Wikis 3D/CAD section? It should already have an AFM Cover and a few other things in there... although if I remember right I never got the file upload to work correctly. Maybe someone smarter than I will know how to make that work...I'm from the era of technology where the user could be completely ignorant of how the scripts and HTML stuff works...thus I am quite useless at the more advanced functions of a traditional Wiki style page...I'll learn one day lol
 
Jonohhh said:
And in terms of low end printers (even though this discussion is better suited to the original thread):

I also have an ender ( 5 pro), which falls pretty low on the totem pole, and I do agree the quality isn't ever going to be PolyJet like, but as shown above, it's very possible to get a good surface finish and dimensional accuracy.

I'd be very interested to see how a pair of ABS needles printed on something like an Ender turn out after an acetone vapor bath, which can remove all visible layer lines. Since the part is so simple, I'd think this would be plenty good enough for our needs... though I haven't tried it out yet.

I would have printed these already but my printer is currently broken...a lightning strike took out the PSU. That's also part of the reason my progress on the Wiki 3D printing section came to a screeching halt. If the part file is being handed around, would someone mind adding it to the Wikis 3D/CAD section? It should already have an AFM Cover and a few other things in there... although if I remember right I never got the file upload to work correctly. Maybe someone smarter than I will know how to make that work...I'm from the era of technology where the user could be completely ignorant of how the scripts and HTML stuff works...thus I am quite useless at the more advanced functions of a traditional Wiki style page...I'll learn one day lol
Click to expand...
Here is the download: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3590755
 
KBabcock said:
I would disagree with with what you say. While professional printers can create perfect parts home filament printers have came a long way. Here are 3 parts I printed out with a $220 Ender 3 Pro using a .4mm nozzle. Detail is good and surfaces are pretty smooth, I also can print with a wide variety of plastics. For non-complex parts a little filler primer will erase all surface imperfection. This is why I believe I can create a near perfect needle for well under a dollar. Let's also face it, the parts in our cars are not exactly Rolls-Royce quality to begin with. ;-)

The three models below are a Tiger tank which I am printing out group of them for my Nephew's army men. The Gear was for a project I was doing and the Luger was to just see if I could.
View attachment 53963View attachment 53964
View attachment 53968
Click to expand...
Pretty neat. What scale are these? They look quite good, I presume they have required a surface treatment to improve the surface?
 
kmead said:
Pretty neat. What scale are these? They look quite good, I presume they have required a surface treatment to improve the surface?
Click to expand...
The tank is about 1/30th, it’s about 6” long. The Luger is actual size, it was printed in several pieces then assembled. The gear is about 5” diameter. No surface treatment, these are how they looked right off the bed. Printed in PLA+ With .4mm nozzle.

like I said the quality of these inexpensive printers have really improved. The only down side is print time.
 
KBabcock said:
The tank is about 1/30th, it’s about 6” long. The Luger is actual size, it was printed in several pieces then assembled. The gear is about 5” diameter. No surface treatment, these are how they looked right off the bed. Printed in PLA+ With .4mm nozzle.

like I said the quality of these inexpensive printers have really improved. The only down side is print time.
Click to expand...
My time has no value :)

Very cool, nice work. I presume the digital models are from a website?

I had a second generation set of needles printed with a graphite strand embedded in them and they have so far worked well. I don‘t know how much they cost as they were part of a larger order at work.

I will post a pic of a couple of extra parts I have (backups) later when the lighting is better.
 
kmead said:
My time has no value :)

Very cool, nice work. I presume the digital models are from a website?

I had a second generation set of needles printed with a graphite strand embedded in them and they have so far worked well. I don‘t know how much they cost as they were part of a larger order at work.

I will post a pic of a couple of extra parts I have (backups) later when the lighting is better.
Click to expand...
I am really looking forward to having my time loss it’s valve ;-)

Well the tank and Luger were downloaded and I created the gear. Would like to see what you printed up.

The needle print will be a winter project, I have a spare dash to work on. While I still have good weather trying to wrap up other work I am doing on the car.
 
SuperTopo said:
I had the model I created and printed quoted as a plastic injection molded part in white ABS. The quote came back exactly comparable in cost to having it SLA printed by any of the many 3D printing service providers. How much? $73 per needle. So $146 per instrument cluster. This requires that 12 people commit to purchasing a pair of needles. If I can get that commitment, I'll front the money and get them made.

Any takers? PM me. 12 takers is all I need. The cost drops linearly, so if 24 people want a set it's $74 per instrument cluster.

What are you waiting for, PM me!

Paging 3D Printer People....

I have dimensions for speedo and tach needles if anyone wants to give it a try! One thing's for sure, LOTS of potential customers!!!
xwebforums.com
Click to expand...
For those who have not had to fiddle with the instrument cluster yet, how do you get to the needles? Do you have to pull the cluster and then remove the speedo and tach?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top