3D printed GS500 parts

[Supa]

Just wanted to throw this out there since a lot of people seem interested in 3D printing. Obviously, home models are available (expensive... around $2k+) and not quite as accurate. I would check your local establishments to see if there are any print shops nearby that can print your renderings. There is a library 30 minutes from my house that allows FREE 3D printing. I'm pretty decent with SketchUp and had some help learning the other rendering tools necessary to print. I haven't yet printed any parts for my bike, but I have printed a small magnetic generator model (not truly functional, simply to demonstrate the physics of magnets). It's nowhere near a sophisticated as some of the professional printers, but free is free.

[kapiteinkoek]

Haven't forgotten about you guys eh. The ABS parts printed on a consumer type printer cannot be used on the bike instantly. The material itself is strong enough, is airtight and the printer (ultimaker 2 in this case) has sufficiënt accuracy. There is a problem with the nipple though because It indeed is way too brittle. Already snapped one when trying its strength. Basically the adhesion between layers of the nipple has only a thickness of 0,3mm or something because the material cools down too fast.

I'm now going to conduct an experiment where I put the part in some liquid modelling plaster and put it in the oven at 250 degrees C for a bit. The plaster will keep the ABS in the right shape while the temperature will make it soft and hopefully increase strength of the adhesion between layers. I already put it in more than a week ago and I'm waiting for the water to evaporate or react with the plaster so it won't boil before reaching 250 degrees. Probably can give it a try this week.

[ragecage23]

Awesome. Thanks for the update.

[metatron]

Quick question. The only problem here seems to be that the nipple is not strong enough?
Why not just change the design? Increase the width of D8 and the height of T8. Print it with a hole through it instead of the nipple.
Tap the hole and screw in a metal nipple. You could even use some kind of bonding agent to seal the thread permanently.
Bonus with this is that it will only need to be replaced again if the body itself is damaged.

[MeeLee]

Looking at some of these projects, makes me want to have my own printer!
I wanted this for many years already!

Perhaps soon!

I know there are 2 types of plastic to print,
PLA and ABS.
One is harder and more brittle than the other.

My only concern of this is, that most of these plastics don't work well with heat; and thus aren't a good candidate for engine pieces.

[kapiteinkoek]

Well they arent exactly engine pieces, only located close to it. I thought about making a hole then simply screw in a metal nipple, I guess thats an option indeed. The easiest option probably depends on what stuff you have lying around or can get your hands on.

I'd like to see a metal printed version from shapeways but unfortunately thats a $36 experiment. Being a poor student thats too much for an experiment for me 

[MeeLee]

Probably creating custom mirror covers, small body panels, hose clip-ons to clip hoses or cables into place would be possible as well.

Trunk mounting plates (adaptor pieces for trunk mounts), air filter boxes, toolbox, battery holder, handlebar C-pieces to convert from 6/8" to 1in grippers (like handlebar mounts for dash-cam, or windshield).

If it's printed thick enough you could also print body panels that will cover your feet and legs, so they won't get wet in the rain or cold in the wind, and add aerodynamics.

Not sure for a motorcycle, if there is a lot more you can print.
You can't print anything that is a part of the engine, transmission or drivetrain.

Perhaps a GPS or phone mount, so you can mount your phone under the windshield, so it can display the GPS to you.

[kapiteinkoek]

The part is in the oven right now so we'll see what happens.

-edit
wel as expected it indeed increases adhesion strength between layers. Unfortunately the part doesnt stay as well in shape as I hoped. Apparently there are enough voids in the material to make it sag within the mold rendering it useless.

So this brings us to the conclusion that an ABS printed part isn't going to work 'out of the box'. The nipple remains a critical point which is the problem in the first place. I figure there are a whole bunch of other options available for anyone to try.
Just to name a few:

- Have it printed in metal (shapeways). A bit expensive maybe ($30-40).
- Have it printed in PLA and bring it to someone that can do come lost-form casting. Probably needs some polishing work afterewards.
- Have somebody with a lathe produce the part in metal, probably without nipple. Drill a hole and screw in a nipple yourself.

A metal part will last the lifetime of the bike.

An ABS printed part would still be possibility if you screw in a metal nipple yourself. I could make a model without a nipple and some 'flesh' to drill a hole in and screw in a nipple. I dont know where to acquire such a nipple though (local garage maybe, some fish tank shop, fuel powered RC toys place). I believe they are used on some bikes to synchronize the carbs. Maybe the cheapest option if you dont have a friend that does lost form casting or has a lathe or something like that. Like I posted before a hub near me asks $0,95 for a part and less than $5 handling costs. I figure a nipple shouldnt be more expensive.



Something like that

[metatron]

You should be able to find a suitable nipple from a pneumatic or hydraulics supply store but may have to thread it.

[kapiteinkoek]

If the nipple has some sort of relief you dont even need a thread. You can install it the same way I installed one of my broken tachometer legs. Grab it with some pliers, get it very hot on your gas stove (or some other nice burner) and push in into the plastic. When hot enough the plastic will shortly become liquid and form closely around the metal piece.

[k.rollin]

I haven't posted on the forum in quite a while, but found this thread while searching for the exact part that has become the main topic of discussion due to breaking the functional nipple on one of my stock units. I ended up purchasing two in metal, but while waiting for them to ship, drilled out the solid nipple and plugged the hole from the broken side and continued riding with the repaired part. When the parts from Shapeways did arrive, I found that the center to center distance for the mounting holes was not the same as the stock part. In order to make the parts from Shapeways useable, some rework will be required - at a minimum, one of the mounting holes will need to be elongated. The internal dimensions may need some attention too, though that will be determined when I take my bike apart again and actually do a thorough dimensional inspection of both parts and identify the other discrepant features. This isn't meant to disparage the efforts of kapiteinkoek and Slack, but to offer some feedback of the existing as-built hardware.

[kapiteinkoek]

If you like you can measure the shapeways part (e.g. the mountinghole distance) and post the results here and also post what needs to be adjusted and how much. I can easily adjust the model and update it on shapeways. For now I have disabled sales thing on shapeways until we get it right. Its supposed to be a plug&play part after all.

Oh, and I forgot: Got some pictures of the printed parts? 

[k.rollin]

Here are photos of the printed parts. There are some dimensional discrepancies between the OEM parts and these ones, but aside from the mounting hole spacing,  they do not appear to impede function.





The stock parts have a mounting hole diameter of 0.173" and a center to center distance of 1.469". The printed parts have a mounting hole diameter of 0.160" and a center to center distance of 1.386".

[kapiteinkoek]

They look really awesome! I will update the model and reupload them to shapeways soon.


-edit

I updated the model. Increased hole diameter slightly and made the holes longer. This way some distortion in the final product should be no problem for the position of the bolts. I used the pictures k.rollin posted, if you don't like that I will remove them from the product page. Did give you credit though 

http://shpws.me/Kixo

[Weedy64]

rage - did you get your part?

1) you could disable the emissions crap on your bike and then  no need to fix the vacuum fitting, the part is used to apply vacuum to a  pilot valve that vents the top of the carb and sinks the needle for a leaner mixture under some conditions.

2) we could swap parts, you send me your broken fitting and I send you a good one (you cover mail).

I disabled my emissions stuff when I went header, lunchbox, pair block offs and re-jet on my 2009 so I have two that are unused, just caps for the carb now.

[Edward]

wow! How cool!!!

[actlikeyouknow]

Got my parts in by mid December been great so far, I can only say they'll definitely outlast the life of the bike.
Here's the imgur album to supplement my post.
Used IRC never was a fan of forums though, http://imgur.com/a/P1O8m.
I can't thank Kapitien enough for uploading this onto his shapeways account, this saved me from buying a new carburetor set, used to say that 3D printing wasn't for anything other than hobbies but now that's starting to change my view.

[kapiteinkoek]

Thats awesome 

Can I use one of the pictures at the shapeways product page so people can see the result?

[kapiteinkoek]

Carburetor slides are now printable too although I don't recommend doing it yet. Metal ones are too expensive and plastic ones are untested. In case of failure your engine will probably get damaged beyond repair because the whole shazam gets sucked inside. You can find them here.

Somebody gave me second GS500 for free. It's got some wear on the carburetor slides. Right now I'll try to polish them up for a bit. If the bike turns out to be a money pit (e.g. it uses too much oil) and not worth fixing I'll consider putting in these nylon 3D printed sliders and blast the shaZam! out of them to see how they hold up. God knows they might even work. They would be 70% cheaper than original slides.

[kapiteinkoek]

Bumping up this old cow because somebody ordered some nipple caps again this weekend. So far 6 units have been produced and shipped since august '15 and apparently 3 more will be crafted soon for this weekends order. 7 throttle clips were bought as well as 4 throttle slide guides (may and august '16).  I have received no feedback either positive or negative from any of the buyers. Was wondering if its any of you guys that have ordered it because it would be good to know how things are holding up. Unfortunately Shapeways doesn't pass through any buyer information so I can't send out a message to ask how things are going.