3D Printing Bike Parts/Accessories

krink

krink

Eddie Munster
Anyone use home or work 3D printers for bike parts or other items? (I was thinking custom head unit mounts) Just dove down this rabbit hole and wanted to see if anyone had experience. To me looking into these, PLA, SLA, SLS type printers, it gets expensive as things like material durability and tolerances come into play. Cheap stuff looks like brittle, non-durable and so not useful, and anything durable enough, like polyurethane, nylon or any metals looks way too expensive to just fool around with. What say you?
 
i have (whos surprised??)



had good luck with inserts for my kedge mounts, and have had good luck printing adapters to use my lights with the bontrager blendr mounts on both stems and saddles. I was even doing gopro mounts for my nightriders(@iman29 has the extras that i no longer needed) back in the day when those were the cool things to have, PLA will not cut it for material choice, you will need at least ABS (ASA) if not PC or Nylon for better durability, but the later two require a much more expensive machine with higher end hardware, and a bit of working to get printing correctly. all of the better materials will require an enclosure to print successfully. For the garmin type mounts solube supports are almost a requirement which means you will need a multi-nozzle machine (again, $$$$$)
 
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shrpshtr325 said:
i have (whos surprised??)



had good luck with inserts for my kedge mounts, and have had good luck printing adapters to use my lights with the bontrager blendr mounts on both stems and saddles. I was even doing gopro mounts for my nightriders(@iman29 has the extras that i no longer needed) back in the day when those were the cool things to have, PLA will not cut it for material choice, you will need at least ABS (ASA) if not PC or Nylon for better durability, but the later two require a much more expensive machine with higher end hardware, and a bit of working to get printing correctly. all of the better materials will require an enclosure to print successfully. For the garmin type mounts solube supports are almost a requirement which means you will need a multi-nozzle machine (again, $$$$$)
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Thanks! Sounds like it’s a long run for a short slide. May hold off on this fit of creativity unless I hit the power ball. It looks like an entry level machine to do something remotely useful is 4-5k? And how much is the raw material?
 
krink said:
Thanks! Sounds like it’s a long run for a short slide. May hold off on this fit of creativity unless I hit the power ball. It looks like an entry level machine to do something remotely useful is 4-5k? And how much is the raw material?
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I had good success with abs on my $500 (at the time) creator pro 2. the machine I have now is closer to your suggested range but runs 4 tool heads and prints 300x400x400mm

Material varies. Abs is approx $20/kg pc is around $40/kg and nylon runs up to $100/kg

Also remeber 3d printing is a rabbit hole so ..... yea
 
I picked up a Bambu P1S a few months ago and I've been playing around with parts for a variety of different things. Haven't delved (yet) into any of the more exotic plastics that you'd want to use for something like a Garmin mount but it is an enclosed unit that's capable of printing most of those materials and if you add their "AMS", you can do things like including water soluble support material. I spent a lot of time using 3D printers in an academic setting quite a few years ago and also on and off at work since then and I'm really impressed with how solid/easy the Bambu machines are to use.

Edit: if you want to check out any of this stuff in person, Microcenter out in Paterson has a really good inventory.
 
The Bambu machines with ams(really any of the Ams type single extruder machines) have an issue with waste when changing materials. If you are going to use soluble material you will have to purge alot to ensure you don't print with contaminated material which would weaken your print. It's for this reason that multiple toolheads are recommended/preferred for printing with soluble supports.

EDIT: also bambu AMS doesnt like flexible filament (PVA TPU PVB ect) so that excludes many of the readily available soluble supports from use with it, not sure about other brands offerings.
 
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shrpshtr325 said:
The Bambu machines with ams(really any of the Ams type single extruder machines) have an issue with waste when changing materials. If you are going to use soluble material you will have to purge alot to ensure you don't print with contaminated material which would weaken your print. It's for this reason that multiple toolheads are recommended/preferred for printing with soluble supports.

EDIT: also bambu AMS doesnt like flexible filament (PVA TPU PVB ect) so that excludes many of the readily available soluble supports from use with it, not sure about other brands offerings.
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Don't disagree. Bambu has a PVA support that's water soluble but it's only shown as compatible with PLA/PETG prints. It's also new enough that I haven't seen reports of anyone using it with other materials. Seems like there are some potential workarounds but as indicated above, all of this can go way down the rabbit hole depending on your goals and interest level.
 
Check out this Etsy page for a Philly area guy making 3d printed bike stuff, mostly tools. He also has some shareable files.
IG link: https://www.instagram.com/chrisheerschap?igsh=NW00ZmViY3Q4Y3Ny

www.etsy.com

cmhPrintedDesigns - Etsy

Shop Various 3D printed useful bicycle tools and items by cmhPrintedDesigns located in Pennsylvania, United States. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Speedy replies! Has a history of replying to messages quickly. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher
www.etsy.com www.etsy.com
 
Yes my most useful prints so far a bash ring, fork seal tool and an adapter for bb tool. i also made a derailluer hanger never put into use.

I bought a road bb and i lost my adapter for my bb tool and had a new one printed up in 2 hours. That was probably the most useful thing i ever printed.

I have an ender 3 with dd and dual z for consistency. An enclosure is highly recommended.
 
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Ironjunk said:
Yes my most useful prints so far a bash ring, fork seal tool and an adapter for bb tool. i also made a derailluer hanger never put into use.

I bought a road bb and i lost my adapter for my bb tool and had a new one printed up in 2 hours. That was probably the most useful thing i ever printed.

I have an ender 3 with dd and dual z for consistancy. An enclosure is highly recommended.
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What material did you use for the BB adaptor? Thats a high load part. How about the hanger?
 
krink said:
What material did you use for the BB adaptor? Thats a high load part. How about the hanger?
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High load but there is not much room for it to fail. I used petg.

The hanger was just for practice. I never tried it but im sure it could get you home.

Oh i forgot i made cleat shims for my road cleats and not only do they work great they solved my knee issues and comfort.

I would only use pla for toys. Master petg first as it is pretty easy to work with if you have an enclosure.
 
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if you have the capability/ability to design your own stuff PLA is GREAT for printing prototypes and test fit parts since its soooo damn cheap, but you definitely want something better for the final part. Im not a fan of PETG myself, but it is easier to print than ABS and most of the el cheapo machines you see on amazon cant handle the higher end engineering type materials
 
My kid has made me light and computer mounts using our home printer, and some guitar stuff using the pro stuff at school. I’ve ridden tons of printed group sets and bike parts, it would definitely be cool to have the ability to make that kind of stuff but I feel like that’s a lot of money.
 
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