I have a friend whose hobby is restoring and maintaining stationery engines and similar mechanical things from times gone by.
He’s asked me if I know anyone with a 3D printer (I don’t) as he’s purchased a new project and requires a couple of small parts 3D printed. He’s contacted a few people online but nobody seems interested.
So I’m asking if there’s any Sketchup users, ideally UK based, with 3D printing capabilities that might be interested. The only details I have so far is that it would be “two fuse carriers” from a 1924 lighting set and that he has some rudimentary drawings to model from.
If anyone is interested feel free to reply or message me privately.
yeah, makerspaces have taken over a bit I guess, and even if they don’t have something, they might know a local person with the right machine. 3d printing involves trial and error, especially when reproducing an existing part, it’s good to have the machine / person nearby
Yes, he’s tried a few local companies and services but either people aren’t interested or haven’t even bothered to reply. Hence why I thought I’d reach out to the Sketchup community to see if any Brits dabbled in 3D printing.
I guess it’s a lot of effort for someone when the customer only wants to order two small parts.
FWIW, I think the thing could be 3D printed and modeling it in SketchUp shouldn’t be too difficult but I wonder if a 3D printed part would be sturdy enough for the job. What are these parts for? What kind of environment do they need to work in? I wonder if a hobbyist machinist might be interested in making them in aluminum or brass. Or maybe a school with a machine shop trades course. Might be a job for one of the advanced students.
They are purely for decorative purposes.
My friend restores stationary engines and his latest purchase is missing these. Originally they would’ve been porcelain and held fuses. The engine was originally used to power lighting.
He has his own machine shop but I think he was assuming it would be easier or cheaper to 3D print.
Until a few hours a go I didn’t even know what they looked like and my first thought was it might be better to machine out of Nylon rod.
I searched this morning and his local Makerspace has a full machine shop, laser and a range of 3D printers so I’ll ask him to contact them.
Unfortunately those photo’s are from a different engine and are larger than the ones he needs.
He has a drawing of the part and the photos are for reference.
The end pieces are 2mm too big in height. His drawing asks for 17.5mm and yours measure 19.5mm.
I’d say that although the 4mm hole through is on the centre line, the centre point of those end cap rads must be lower. Unless he’s dimensioned it wrong. That’s the problem with drawing in excel I guess!
I’ll check with him to make sure but I can’t guarantee a quick answer as he’s at work.
I’m away for the rest of the week so I won’t be able to reply until Monday if he hasn’t gotten back to me in the next hour.
I don’t think 0.5mm will make much difference on the exterior dims but I’ll ask.
Yes, that’s where the problem with drawing in excel comes in.
Reading it from the dims only, I’d say the flat base is 12mm from the centre. The overall dimension is 17.5mm. The centre of the semi circle is lower than the centre line of the whole component. There’s nothing to say that the semi circle and hole centre are concentric.
I’ve messaged him and await a reply. He’ll probably come back and say it doesn’t matter
I’d be surprised if the hole is off-centre from the centre of the semicircle - I can’t see any engineering reason why it should be, though of course it isn’t impossible.
Looking at your original photo image, with a much bigger through hole, it is clearly concentric in that item.
I’ll happily wait for a considered reply from him.
