Box for my miniature ratchet wrench

gbritnell · May 24, 2022

Gentlemen, I fellow on one of the other model engineering forums built a small ratchet wrench. I liked the idea so I took my 1/4 inch Craftsman ratchet and scaled it by 1/2. The ratchet and the sockets have been living in a ZipLoc bag so I thought it was about time I gave them a better place to reside. Several months back I got into 3D printing and have been enjoying the learning experience. It's not that I need another hobby! I drew up a 2 part box, top and bottom, to hold the ratchets and sockets and printed it out. I'm still trying to resolve the horizontal banding I get in my prints so I did a little filing on the sides after it was printed. The box was printed with silver PLA on a Creality C10 S. To give you and idea of the size the box is 3.0 x 3.5 inches.

Oldiron · May 24, 2022

Very nice. I've been thinking about getting a 3D printer myself for making organizers and boxes for the shop. The only thing holding me back is PLA is biodegradable and the manufactures say it has a life of 15 years or less. Has anyone hade any issues with the prints breaking down? Bob

timo_gross · May 24, 2022

Oldiron said:
Very nice. I've been thinking about getting a 3D printer myself for making organizers and boxes for the shop. The only thing holding me back is PLA is biodegradable and the manufactures say it has a life of 15 years or less. Has anyone hade any issues with the prints breaking down? Bob

Hello,
I had some prints desintegrating after few (4) years. (You have to replace printed items sometimes, because they will fail)
Boxes can become expensive when you compare the cost of printing material at 10$ per kg vs store bought plastic containers.
If I was after boxes I would use a laser cutter and thin plywood

or a router and thin plywood.

@gbritnell I like the box, but the ratchet is the better item

Greetings Timo

ddmckee54 · May 24, 2022

Oldiron:

My 3D printers have sat in my living room for 6-7 years, I only print PLA.

I can't say anything about long-term reliability , but I've got a 3D printed grass shear holder mounted on my push mower handle that's seen 3-4 years of use with no problem. Same with the repair part for my fertilizer spreader, except that's more like 5-6 years old. I think it's like most tools, keep them dry and they'll last a long time.

And is it REALLY a big deal if they only last 5-10-15 years? I've 3D printed parts for my dust collection system, when they wear out, I'll just print a newer, better, more improved version.

Don

awake · May 26, 2022

If you are only using PLA, I would encourage exploring other options - not to replace PLA, but to match the best filament for the given use case.

A half-way decent 3D printer will have no trouble printing PETG. As with metal, there are trade-offs - PLA is stronger and stiffer, but that can translate into more brittle. PETG can tolerate higher temperatures. ABS is not too hard to print if your print bed can go up to 100 degrees C; the secret is to use "ABS wash" to coat the print bed for the ABS to stay well stuck. (ABS wash is a little bit of ABS dissolved in acetone.) ABS does not tolerate UV well, but there are variations that can tolerate it better.

The flexible filaments can be very useful. The general wisdom is that you need a direct drive extruder to print TPU ... I can print even the more flexible TPU successfully on my Bowden drive, using a custom-designed extruder that constrains the filament path so that it can't squeeze out in the wrong place. I have to print it really slow - 10-15 mm/s, as opposed to the 60-80 that I use for other filaments - but I think that is true even for direct drive. Note that TPU can stick so strongly to some print bed surfaces (e.g., glass) that it will rip up chunks from the print bed when you try to remove the print. Here I recommend glue stick or painter's tape plus glue stick. The glue stick does not help it stick; rather it provides a bit of a release layer.

ddmckee54 · May 26, 2022

The main reason that I only use PLA is because I've got the printer in my living room and I don't mind the smell of PLA when it's printing. Do I like the smell of the others? Not so much.