3D model for door lamp lens

[WissaMan]

Felt inspired tonight so decided to have a go at making a replacement lens for my 77 New Yorker door courtesy lamps.

Here's the result. The third picture is the original, which I had to hold in with my finger because the tabs are broken.

I printed it using a circular top and bottom layer and concentric inner layers (for strength) which resulted in a pretty cool (I think) pattern. I still want to tweak it and make the tabs thicker/stronger. I was also thinking it'd be cool to put an embossed Pentastar in it somehow. I didn't do the recessed line across the middle. It could be done easily but I like the look as is.

Once I have it refined I'll upload the model.

 

[rowjelio]

Amazing job, Put that 3D model in thingiverse! Or send it to me and I'll do it! 3D models of replacement parts should be open to all!

 

[WissaMan]

I will do so once it's ready for prime time. It needs to be tweaked yet. The tabs on the OEM piece are amazingly tiny and unfortunately the slots in the car that they go into are equally tiny. The material I used was strong but brittle and the tabs just broke away pretty easily. If I make them thicker they don't fit in the tiny slots. So I'm going to try a different material (TPU) and see how that looks. TPU is flexible and very durable. I've used it to make hinges and it holds up remarkably well. An alternate, but less desirable, solution would be to file out the slots to accommodate thicker tabs.

 

[Big_John]

I will do so once it's ready for prime time. It needs to be tweaked yet. The tabs on the OEM piece are amazingly tiny and unfortunately the slots in the car that they go into are equally tiny. The material I used was strong but brittle and the tabs just broke away pretty easily. If I make them thicker they don't fit in the tiny slots. So I'm going to try a different material (TPU) and see how that looks. TPU is flexible and very durable. I've used it to make hinges and it holds up remarkably well. An alternate, but less desirable, solution would be to file out the slots to accommodate thicker tabs.

Please let us know what your name is on Thingiverse... or better yet, Cults3d.

 

[WissaMan]

I wasn't sure if I had an account on either of those, but it looks like I do on Thingiverse: AbsentMindedProf

I let you know when I put it there. I printed one today in TPU and it seems decent but doesn't look quite as nice as the rigid filament. I don't have the car atm to test fit it, but will tomorrow.

I'm also thinking of firing up my resin printer but I'd want to do clear or a mix of clear and white resin and I don't have either right now.

 

[WissaMan]

I've been tinkering with this and I got it into a pretty usable state, so uploaded to Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7147780

 

[3175375]

I've been tinkering with this and I got it into a pretty usable state, so uploaded to Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7147780

View attachment 735241

Awesomeness!

By the way, the trim brackets that you made for our 1995 Buick Roadmaster, Mel are doing their job flawlessly!

 

[Big_John]

I've been tinkering with this and I got it into a pretty usable state, so uploaded to Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7147780

View attachment 735241

Just "favorited" and following.

 

[WissaMan]

By the way, the trim brackets that you made for our 1995 Buick Roadmaster, Mel are doing their job flawlessly!

I think you have me confused with someone else on this

 

[3175375]

I think you have me confused with someone else on this

I mistook you for @Zymurgy . Sorry about that but your work looks great!

 

[WissaMan]

Update on this little project.

I come to realize that when the doors are open for a while, the bulb generates enough heat to soften the 3d printed lens and cause it to warp. So that is not going to be a viable solution. Maybe if using LED bulbs, but not with incandescents. Also, the tabs were always very brittle and would sometimes break off when installing it. If they were printed with Nylon they would probably not break, but I always have problems with Nylon when printing flat models, they warp and peel up at the corners no matter how many countermeasures I try (brims, adhesives, high bed temp)

So I switched to 3D resin printing using a clear resin Siraya Tech Blu. I have one installed and I like the look of the clear, but if you wanted, you could mix some white resin in to make it more milky. This resin is tough and the tabs don't break off.

Resin printing comes with it's own challenges though, namely the "elephant's foot" effect where the bottom layers are much wider because of the extra exposure needed on the first layers to make it adhere to the plate. My slicer (Lychee) doesn't have compensation for that in the free version so I will have to sand the edges if I want to get rid of it (or pay $10/mo ) Also, because of the elephant's foot effect, I made the surface one flat rectangle instead of two because the center groove was getting mostly filled in anyway.

I just printed another tonight. I'll try to remember to get pictures of it installed tomorrow.

 

[WissaMan]

First two pictures are the resin printed lens. Third pick is an OEM lens. These pictures were taken in daylight. The lens in the first picture I used a belt sander to flatten the elephant's foot bulge which is why it looks cloudy around the edge but I don't mind that effect.