as an auto tech for over 35 years seeing you design and make working car parts blows my mind. there are so many stupid plastic parts in cars today and seeing you fabricate some of them makes me wat to buy a 3d printer so i can tinker too! great hobby for when i retire!

I have never printed in ABS before so found this very educational. What did I learn: 1. I need a dryer. 2. ABS needs to be ventalated. 3. Beta print in PLA and 4. The job may take several iterations and therefore, don't expect to be perfect the first time. I hope to learn some more, thanks for the video!

I make replacement parts for cars out of ABS a lot. You may want to consider multipart assembly in your designs for things like this. You oriented properly to get a smooth cylinder which is good. Unfortunately for that part it means the tab holding the spring is printed in the weakest orientation, especially for something under constant sprint tension.

This was the best description of one of these dryer boxes. Everyone else just talks about it, but you actually described what you liked, what you didn't and what you did to improve it.

Love that you do true functonal items not desk ornaments

Did I just watch 40 minutes of a random guy creating a functional part that I won't need from scratch? Hell yeah I did. Super interesting, great problem solving skills, looking forward to more :) nice format

If I have to model a complicated part like that, I will take a picture of it perfectly perpendicular to a DSLR with a long lens from across the room. You can then bring it into your 3d model and build the base off of that. Gives you a solid starting point for the rest of the modeling since most of the angles and fillets will be very close to the original part. Really like your channel. I did some 3d printing in 2013 with a terrible printer from kickstarter, it turned me off completely that 3d printing would ever be usable. My opinions have changed, in part to your content. Thanks!

Most of the handles and such are made from ASA/PA. The ASA is a less tough version of ABS, but is far more weatherable (UV attacks the polymer). The PA, typically Nylon 6, is far more tough than ASA or ABS. So taking the two semi incompatible resins and alloying them together...makes for a good, tough and reasonably weatherable part for automotive. ASA and Nylon allowed typically makes a nice matt finish too. Just some information for ya.

It was nice to see an actual comparison to normal supports and tree supports.

Congrats on 3000. Just found your channel recently and been watching your back episodes. Really enjoyed watching the prototyping process and hearing your thought process on how to correct it. Very refreshing seeing a channel focusing on functional printing

Congratulations on 3000+ subscribers! I have been watching you for a few months. I can't say there is any particular part of this episode I like more than the other, I enjoy the start to finish aspect of it, I guess. I'm new to 3d printing and I am learning, I find value in your channel every week. I am working on the design aspects myself.

thank you for showing all process in the honest way. a lot of interesting ideas could be implemented based on your experience. thank you.

Excellent video - probably the longest one that I've watched on 3D printing, and worth every minute for your detail on the design and printing learning process. When I've been making functional parts I've tended to go all in on the design, and then get frustrated at what doesn't fit. So you approach of modelling the key parts first, getting them right, and then moving onto the details is a valuable learning point!

loving these videos, been printing for years, but only just getting into CAD, and its nice to see how you approach the design process with 3D printing in mind, great help thanks

Honestly - sometimes you are so much about making it perfect it almost triggers me. 😂 I would have went with the first fit all the time. Keep up the great videos. Never thought about layer height impacting the surface finish!

I enjoyed watching the cad drawing portion of the video. I’m just starting in 3d printing, but I’ve always enjoyed the sketching/rough mock ups and fabrication of parts. Also, liked the whole thought process in making that part. Overall a great diy video, thanks for taking the time to make it.

this is the first video ive seen from you. I liked the breakdown process of how to not only make the part for 3d, but also improving on the design to make it stronger!

I’ve used ABS to replace tired plastic parts on the Tacoma for years. My favorite things to make are small plastic clips and screw backers that invariably fail when taking something apart. I can usually print these faster than the time it would take to drive to the auto parts store and purchase them.

You are the first person I saw that printed such a complicated print well done big ups sir ❤

I really like that you explained why you made specific designe decisions. And also addressed some printing issues and how you solved them. So it wasn't only about the part it was also about the full process to get it.

Nice design journey on this. I enjoyed the design iterations showing how you increased material in some areas demonstrating there is the one key difference between us as home diy fixes and industry is that we have the luxury of designing in more strength and as a consequence putting more material into a part as our focus is on maximum lifetime and strength, where as commercially every single cent of material saved is extra profit margin on a large production run.

I've made numerous functional prints to repair or create items that are unavailable, but never anything so complex in dimensional tolerance and with so many printing challenges. Well done. The project was inspiring.

Thanks for the video, this one stands out to me because I liked the way you show the method you used in modeling the part along with all the detail required to make things fit and work properly. Good job. Also, I meant to thank you for answering all my questions two weeks ago, have gone back and watched that one again as there is so much to take in.

🚗💡 Loving the DIY genius at work here! Who needs the dealership when you can just hit print? 🔧🖨 Absolute legend! 👏My favorite part of the video has to be the design/prototyping segment - turning car troubles into a fun project.

Thx, again very informative and creative and I am really impressed with your patience. Like that you added a short video on the print as well before it was all installed, Great stuff

Thanks for showing your process and sharing the good & the bad on the prints! This dual handle release I’m sure had its share of challenges but well done 👍🏻!! Looking forward to more of your videos !

The thing i liked most is taking us through the cad model... And want learn as much cad as possible to unlock more things to do with my printer

Great video. My favorite thing of this video was the attention to detail and not to get in a hurry when trying to re-create a factory part. I would like to see the measuring process that was used for the part. Great job and congratulations on your success.

Who agrees with me? - that "tree support" difference just about DOUBLED the spring hanger from the previous try! Great support design and made a great difference. Very clean work. Great job!

Another fantastic video. I really like that you share all the iterations to get the print perfect. I'm new to 3D printing and I get tired of watching what appears to be designers nailing it on the first try. It just isn't realistic. As far as this video, my favorite part was the whole design process. Getting everything to match that needed to match while adding strength where you could. Also learned more about ABS which I've been nervous about trying.

When you were talking about how to brace certain areas I had this preconceived thought that braces has to be vertical triangles, but seeing you lay one down and lean it against the corner really threw alot of ideas in to the tool box - Thanks!

I got into 3DP 2 years ago and for the same reasons. I love using this hobby for functional parts and have repaired or improved quite a few things around the house, but I have to admit, you have a lot more patience than I do :) Great channel and best wishes!

Thanks for the video. I was impressed with you repurposing your radon mitigation system to remove fumes. I am in a townhouse and my work area is in the basement and I have been struggling with how to deal with fumes and I may have to try this.

The materials selection on automotive are such that time alone is the built in obsolescence factor.

I like the iterations and the fact printed it in abs and you walked us through that process. Thanks for sharing

Congrats on 3k!! Just found you channel, well done. I really liked that you solved something real, and bonus for car issue. I also found your prototyping process really helpful.

Ive been doing a lot of research on 3D printing, especially for fabrication or fixing of car parts. Im an artist by trade, but in the past 5 or 6 years have found interests in working on cars and fabrication, and i have a lot of ideas about making this better or more efficient. This was the perfect video to show all the aspects of how to really do this stuff right. First video ive been able to watch from start to finish, although you almost lost me in the beginning 😏😉 The multiple parts that i appreciated the most was showing the computer generated specs that really gave me a chance to see hands on how it starts to come together before print. Doing the test prints to see how things where fitting or not was something i havent seen and seemed to be a very smart way to go about doing this. The fact that you knew to adjust for it being a mold, and being able to make it stronger in areas where there was extra room , and to make a better quality part than the original is what I appreciated a lot, as thats what I'm really interested in doing. Your attention to detail has given me the confidence to continue to work towards making all this a reality. In all the videos ive seen ive never seen the tree, thanks for that, and i didnt know, but had an idea, that the different filaments expell toxic fumes and that i need to exhaust them when I'm printing. The last thing was you making the snail better and showing how you did it and getting an extra to give away also with the part to adjust it, brilliant. In all honesty i never leave comments and I'm not doing this to get the snail. I'm doing this to let you know how much you helped me and how much I appreciate you making such a good video. If there's anything I'd like from you is a way to communicate with you so i can pick your brain some. i have some questions that i would like to ask you, and if theres a better way to talk with you besides through the comment section that would be great If not, thats ok too. Either way, thank you. Keep up the good work.

I am new to printing and learning cad is proving to be challenging. I was impressed with your cad skills and would like to see more of that aspect of the hobby.

Nice build. I appreciate your ability to measure accurately & then design to those specs.

I'm glad I stumbled across your channel. I design and print exclusively functional parts and it's always nice to see how others approach the process. I also like that you're designing for 3d printing and not just copying injection molded parts - a pet peev of mine. I'd be interested to hear how those spring perch tabs hold up especially since they're in shear. I probably would have added some ears with holes to the back and passed a 2 or 3mm bolt with a nut through for the springs to hang off. But if it works, it works. Congrats of the successful ABS print, I've yet to tackle it, mostly because of the smell. Now I need to go check out your back catalog.

This is EXACTLY why I love 3D printing. About 90% of what I print is functional/utilitarian with the remaining 10% being custom lamps. The methodology you used is the same way that I do it so I'm happy to see that even if I'm not doing it right I'm at least not doing it alone. lol

I really like the details you show in the video and the struggles you go through with the design and printing.

great vid I have been skidish about making parts for a car on my FDM but seeing your job Im gonna give it a shot. thanks for the vid

The process of figuring out what was done for injection mold vs function of the part was pretty interesting and I think often overlooked. Sometimes it can get tricky because engineers will kind of combine those features. Something may be required for the injection mold process but that can get rolled into functionality as well.

Learned about ptfe tube couplers! Nice vid showing how many iterations stuff like this can take!

What I most about this is you actually make this part and how you went about making it. I just got my Bambu Lad printer and looking forward to using it make pieces something like this. Great video and thank you for doing it.

I love the videos and honestly making a making vs buying it has always been satisfying and rewarding to say “I made that!” Your videos inspired me to get into 3D printing to make functional parts around the house and i never thought to deviate and reenforce parts like you did for this one so i will certainly be adding that to my next design!

just messing around tonight with my beginner printer, ender 3 neo that i received today, have been binge watching and your videos were best and to the point. thanks for the info and the the obvious reinforcement to be patient and check all tolerances. My first attempts went pretty well making mounts for my govee permanent outdoor lights. after that I need to make my lovely bride a new battery case for Scarlet her Pleo dinosaur that has been dead for a couple years. Thanks for your videos and your willingness to share.

The test prints and taking your whole event along with the viewer versus how most will say I need this part, I printed that part, see you in the next video. Thanks for showing more than most!

Great video! ABS is really helpful in automotive applications, I used to hate printing it but really the X1C has made it so easy.

I like that you used several iterations first with PLA then ABS to get to the final product It's like the process of elimination I use to diagnose a problem 3D Printing is great I just bought the Bambu X1C and AMS And came across your channel to learn how to design my own functional prints myself

It's nice to see someone printing functional stuff. That was what I bought my printer for.

That was super cool. Great process intuition. Thanks for making this video.

The making of the perfect part was great but coming up with a way to modify the filament dry box and showing how to adapt it to work with a different setup is really helpful I think for everyone Great Vid and Thanks for Sharing

Excellent video! As a fellow reverse engineering 3D printing/automotive guy, It is quite satisfying watching your thorough, methodical approach! Sometimes, when I have to re-engineer part that I know will be difficult to print, I will split the part and either add tabs or screw holes depending on which might be best to reassemble what was originally a single part. That way, I can limit the ugly surfaces to internal, never to be seen and have clean surfaces all around! 😅 Thanks for the vid!

Hi I like the new modification on the snail that you did and the way it can help keep your filament dry and moisture free. Thank you. Deon from South Africa

The thing I liked about the video is how you tackles the daunting task of replicating a complicated part. On top of that you used ABS filament that you have not worked with before. That is like trying to make and baking a wedding cake without using flour before. 😂 but you made it look like a piece of cake to make.

Daaang. This was quite an undertaking. Props! Also, I love Super Lube.

I love following the hole design process and see other use they 3d printer, i myself use my 3d printer for designing spare parts that you can't get anymore, or make functional print for my home. thanks for sharing this video i love it hope to see more! i would love a filament dryer myself. i live in a humid country so it would fit in my setup perfect! thanks for making video i enjoy to watch!

Loved seeing someone design a replacement part for a car, most the handles on my car were broken a few were broken by my wife, lol. I plan on printing replacements in ABS and wanted to see how it came out or if I need to go the extra mile for ASA

Great Job & skills. Excellent video & editing. Congrats!

I think its always interesting that the same part printed out of two materials has slightly different dimensions when printed due to shrinkage, flowrate etc... nice video:)

I like your design process. That always is the hardest part for me. “Where do I start 1st.” I always look at the whole instead of looking at it as small parts put together. I have ABS Filament but have not tried to print with it yet. I have tried ASA. Prints great, not sure which would be better for automotive use. Thank you for the video.please keep us updated on how it does in the heat and the tension it has all the time. Some of those part where very thin. That is what I always worry about when designing a part, “is it going to be strong enough to take the pressure?” Thank you for making me just try it, worst case I buy the OEM part.

Great video, really like your design process.

I have printed some repair parts from abs and PC. Also a 3d pen works to repair broken clips. 3d printing can be great to make repairs and custom parts.

This channel is one of the best KZfaq recommendations for me

I must say you have a knack at working with cad program's . Wish i had that skill..Tinkercad is what i use the most and a couple others but Tinkercad is so easy to use. at first i thought you were going to use a scanner to scan the part and convert. It's nice to see others having to print some test parts as i do so i don't feel so bad in doing it that way.I found the video entertaining and informative. Thanks

Functional, protyping, testing and rely education. That is what I liked the most about this video. Great contet!

your use of the design program was amazing... there were so many complex numbers that had to work and you didn't have to try 14 times... very impressive... I'm trying to get into more abs and come of the carbon family printing and think the dryer is the way to go..... thanks for a good video..

A lot of auto parts are made out of ABS. If you need to repair it, the ABS glue for pipe at the hardware store is a lifesaver. I’ve repaired a ton of parts with it, and it works great. To see if it’s ABS, burn a shaving and smell the smoke. The smell resembles nylon.

Bookmarking this for when mine inevitably breaks. Thanks for sharing the STLs! You’re awesome 🎉

Ex Video games designer here, I remember designing 3d parts for a friend of mine for some extra cash, 5 years ago, he was surprised that, I will doing all that in 3ds Max and blender lol, Most of the time I just as Photos from all possible angles and 360 degree videos. Well few days ago I finally bought a 3d Printer for myself and came across your video somehow. Awesome design Process SIR, you earned a SUB

Great video! I'd love to see more of how you measured the original item and then transferred those measurements into CAD. Ever try 3D scanning?

I liked how you modified the dry box to keep it going. Maybe the manufacturer is watching and will make a change similar to what you did.

I enjoy the process of designing a part. I want to get better in fusion but the only way is more practice.

i have a bunch of printers... but all I do are functional prints. It's so great I stumbled across your channel! I would love to see videos of your measuring/modeling process though!

Great vid as usual. Really good and concise.

Congratulations. 3K and growing.

Really enjoyed this!

I like the fact that you never gave up after so many failures!! Failures=Knowledge!!

I very much enjoyed the video did not learn much because the way I do things is exactly 100% the way you do things right down to tube grease I have and the filament dryer and I came to the same conclusion for the same reason you did. It was reassuring that I’m not crazy The way I do things and the way I think it is the same way other people do it. Great job enjoy the video. I have a funny feeling when you do your version you use a new version number every time you make a new version like I do also. So if things get worse you know which version it went wrong on and you don’t have to start over.

I was very impressed with your CAD skills. I find trying to match an original part a real challenge and interesting part of the process. I'm coming from OpenSCAD, so it's a bit of.a different beast. I've been trying to get into ASA/ABS printing myself, and just waiting for Prusament ASA to become back in stock so I can cash in my Printables voucher. Impressed your first ABS prints came out so well.

i like what you did with the support blend, Grid & Tree works ! Prusa slicers users call it Organic (i guess it sounds more sophisticated😁)

This one was a complex one. Like you, I am mostly working on functional parts and print them with my X1C combo. I use OnShape for more than a year now, I found it is easier to use than fusion360 and FreeCad but those are also very good. In this case I would have started with a few pictures (top, bottom, front, right, left and back and I would have sized the picts acordingly and then I would have draw the part. But I am sure it would have take me one hole day for the first prototype. Like you, I would also have done it in ABS. Man you deserve so much more subscribers. Keep going, your videos are very good!

From what I can tell about watching the video, you did everything right. Good call on prototyping in PLA to get a good fit and then switching to ABS after. Because ABS shrinks and PLA doesn't, sometimes ABS will have a looser fit than the same dimension PLA part. This depends on how well calibrated the 3D Printer is for dimensional accuracy. Better option: I also have a part that I 3D Printed but then I printed it in ColorFabb's HT CoPolyester filament. In my application, the 3D Print lasted 3 years before it broke due to cold temperatures. Because it broke, I decided to redesign the part for CNC and sent it off to PCBway for CNCing from Aluminum 7075 and had it Anodized black. It will NEVER break again. You may want to consider that for this part.

Congrats on 3000! I'm shocked you don't have more subscribers with the value you provide in your videos. My favorite of the video was your willingness to try to design something that is somewhat complex and in an awkward spot rather than bow down to the big guys and shell out $150 for 10 cents of plastic. You touched on it a bit but I think in future videos with complex parts like this, it would be be beneficial to share your thoughts around print orientation. For functional prints, orientation is critical. Keep up the good work!

Nice job. Curious about what you might have used to measure some of the difficult features, recessed bore and such. Perhaps you could keep this in mind when you are creating your next video.😂

Very informative video. I’m curious how you captured all of the angles and dimensions for the parts… fairly complicated, as you’ve pointed out. Thanks!

Snail filament dryer... for Snail? As far as favorite parts of the video I liked the whole thing! Most useful I thought was mixing the two types of supports in bambu slicer... I didn't know that was possible, I use prusaslicer and creality slicer normally as far as I know those just do 100% trees.

When a piece is complicated as this one and doesn't have a good position for printing I usually try to split it in two parts that can be joined later using screws or glue. I like to avoid supports as much as possible

Nice one! I was unsure if you will make the part work without breaking, cause the spring tension and the odd angles and forms. Very well done bro! I learn a few tricks. Thanks

As supports go, I've found ABS to be one of the more cooperative materials. Far less prone to welding than nylons or PETG. Polymaker's ABS is quite nice too.

My favorite part of this video was how you used the original part as inspiration, but made something of your own that work just as well and hopefully better.

Who else thought that spring going "twoing" and just landing in the parts tray instead of disappearing into some dark corner of the shop, never to be seen again, was the most miraculous thing ever!? ;]

You can use variable layerhight, maybe helps with that top layer

I just stumbled on this channel with this video. It's really cool stuff. Thumbs up. 👍 my only critique is I wish there was more discussion on the reverse engineering of this part and the cad program used. So many questions, like how did you determine the diameter for the slot? What printer settings, infill etc... thanks for this video, coincidentally I belive my Toyota has the same issue..😂

Hey there. How does your son appreciate you fixing his car? l very much appreciate real life usage of 3d printer as you are presenting it. It is really inspiring. This video is no different and I thinking what could be fixed or improved in my car…. Just updated my fleet with Creality K1 Max so I am thankful for your videos… And Christmas is coming so maybe i think of printing a cover over the electric outlet as well for the Christmas lights… Snail box will be a greatly appreciated Christmas gift 😉. Thanks in advance.

I liked how you showed your iterations of the design. Most channels just show a little Fusion 360 and BAM a perfect part.leaving you wondering how they got it perfect in one try.

Hi there! For accurate design placements, I recommend taking a picture of the original part and overlay it in your modeling software. Not sure if something like this is supported in your case, but I use Blender and you can import images as a plain and model it into an object. Sharing this info as I am currently trying to 3D print my own car parts as well.

Feels like it's a part for a resin printer. Glass fiber ABS is good for lower shrinkage and warping.