3D printing is a fun hobby. It’s also a great way to solve a lot of problems around the home. Here’s a quick tale about how I used 3D printing to solve a problem I had with my car.
I had a problem.
My car’s ignition switch was broken. The plastic part that covers the key hole snapped. In itself that’s not a problem because the key can still be used to start the car.
Unfortunately, I lost that too.
I was left with a the fob and a switch I was unable to turn.
Lucky for me, I have a 3D printer.
The part was pretty straight forward and used very straight forward shapes. I used a pair of calipers to measure all the dimensions of the switch and scribbled them down on a piece of paper.
I actually missed the depth of the part so I had to print it twice. The first time it was too shallow.
I used Fusion 360 to design the piece. It’s a free tool for hobbyists and students. It’s also a very powerful tool that I had used at University so the learning curve was very low.
Protip: I store all the dimensions as parameters in the design so I can easily change them later. This was very useful when I had to print the part a second time as it only took a few minutes to adjust the design.
I used a Creality Ender 3 V3 SE to print the part. It’s a great printer for the price and I’ve had a lot of fun with it.
As a strong supporter of open source, I always make sure my designs are available for others to use.
You can download the STL file right here or from Thingiverse, which also has all my slicer settings.
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Cheers,
Michael