3D printed toy parts

Hey, sorry if this topic is in the wrong place…

How would one go about getting a small part for their son’s toy 3D printed?

Let’s assume that the person asking has absolutely no clue about how a 3D printer works and quite frankly thinks it must have something to do with the dark arts!

My son broke his favourite toy helicopter and my super glue efforts on the small plastic part have failed. Is there anyone I could speak to about getting this small part reproduced at all? Would make one little chap rather happy…my son too.

Send me the details and I will help… :blush:

Legendary.

What details do you need? Not sure how the printer works!

I need the part so I can create a digital copy(3D model) before I can print it.

That’s awesome. Thank you. I’ll remove the part and bring it down later this week. Probably Thursday daytime. I’ll find somewhere safe to leave it for you. However, if you drop us a line when you’re next about I’d love to see how you do it.

Can you upload some pics so I can see the complexity of the part?

So it’s basically a long shaft with a disc halfway down. The shaft has holes bored into them. One at 2.5mm diameter and 10mm long. The other is about 1.5-2mm wide and unknown how long as I can’t get the metal spindle out yet. Will have to take a Stanley to it to get it out and measure how long it embeds into the shaft.

In the pic, the bottom disc is not attached. It slides up and down with the spring and acts as a stopper, so only the main shaft with disc halfway up would be needed. Is this something the printer could create?

Cheers.

Also, if it’s not too cheeky, could I get a spare printed out too in case he gets all heavy handed and somehow snaps the rotors off again?! Would obviously whack some money in the honesty box or similar if there is one for materials for the printer?

The 1.5mm hole in one end needs to be 10mm long too.

If 3d printing turns out not be strong enough - let me know and I can cnc something.

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I’m not even gonna pretend to know how you’d do that, but thanks!

Do you need the original now, or is the sketch enough to print from?

Also, if you need any woodworking done, I can return the favour (not that I’m an expert or anything, but more than happy to repay the favour using my limited skills) :smile:

Sorry, just realised there’s two offers of assistance here! Thought it was the same person.

Either way, thanks to both of you and the offer of having some help in the woodshop is extended to the pair of you!

I also make a half decent cuppa if you don’t have any woodworking projects that require help…

That will take minutes to replicate from your drawing. Looks like the shaft attached to the rotor is threaded, if it’s a standard pitch we can thread the print.
It will be easy to do and print, for longevity, a lathe turned aluminium part would be better but our space lathe is not ready yet. :disappointed:
Let’s try a 3D print first and go from there…
I have some PLA we can use for the test…
I can have the part ready and printed for Friday night?
I will be doing a laser induction then…

Wow. That escalated quickly from reproducing a little bit of plastic to threaded printing and aluminium replacements! Not that I’m complaining.

The rod is indeed threaded. It’s a 3mm flat head screw. I didn’t realise you could print threads, hence me asking for it to be 2.5mm. Was hoping to screw it in and create the threads as it goes in.

What time on Friday? I’m working until 7pm but will be heading home on a number 3, so passing the space around 8pm. If later, will head home and drive down. Seriously chuffed you can do that for us. Thank you so much.

I will just tap the print… :wink:

Haha 2 mins to be exact…


If I can print it at work and get it to the space before Friday I will let you know…
Will print 2 so you have a spare.

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Fantastic! That’s some quick work. Thanks again for that. Much appreciated :smile:

That’s a big overhang. My printer couldn’t do it, but I still haven’t added fans to cool the print.

Will it work OK, I wonder? If so I need to get those fans added!

pssst, you need to put a notice up for that! :stuck_out_tongue:

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