So my thermostat housing, both upper and lower, was corroded all to hell. Thankfully the lower housing is still available (though you will need a plug 90341-12006 for an extra hole), the upper...not so much and mine does not have a long life ahead of it.
Rather than kludging together a solution, I got a bug up my ass and decided to see if I could make a CAD design that I could 3D print or have produced. 3D printing would be cheaper for a couple of pieces, but the thermal resilience of the part makes that a little more difficult.
I've made the CAD model. I had the base printed and am waiting to receive it to test fit it to my old lower housing. Once I've made sure I have the base dimensions correct I'll do a complete prototype unit (will need to have small hose outlets tapped for NPT-ends of hose barbs).
These are the options I came up with:
I'm sure there's probably an easy fix I missed when I was looking up solutions to my corroded upper housing, but this was a fun way to learn CAD and photogrammetry. Also, I've always been interested in its application for hard-to-find parts and with more and more pieces falling off the radar we may need to rely more on this technology to keep our rigs running and leak proof in the future.
So, if you're still reading, is there any interest in doing a group buy of this? Assuming I can get a working prototype of course.
Also I attached the 3D model I used to get the angles/positioning of water outlets right mostly because it looked cool and I was proud of myself for even getting that generated.
Rather than kludging together a solution, I got a bug up my ass and decided to see if I could make a CAD design that I could 3D print or have produced. 3D printing would be cheaper for a couple of pieces, but the thermal resilience of the part makes that a little more difficult.
I've made the CAD model. I had the base printed and am waiting to receive it to test fit it to my old lower housing. Once I've made sure I have the base dimensions correct I'll do a complete prototype unit (will need to have small hose outlets tapped for NPT-ends of hose barbs).
These are the options I came up with:
- 3D printed plastic - ~$50-150/pc depending on volume
- There are some ABS variants that can easily handle the heat (some new t-stat housings are all ABS plastic now) but the only ones I've found available for 3D printing have a melting point of 112 C which means it would be really close to failure if you ever overheated a little - not a safety margin I'm super comfortable with. I haven't reached out to any printing companies yet to see if they have any new materials not listed in their auto-quote feature but will in the future.
- Probably the best option if it winds up just being me or a few others and we can find a good heat tolerant material.
- 3D printed aluminum or stainless - ~$200-400/pc (Al) to over $1000 (SS)
- Obviously cost prohibitive.
- At this price CNC/billet machining is probably a better option I have not generated any quotes yet.
- Injection mold - Probably the cheapest (by far) if there's a large enough group of people interested. I found low volume runs in the 25 pcs range, but I haven't generated a quote yet.
- CNC/Billet - $$$ not sure how much though. Haven't quoted this one.
I'm sure there's probably an easy fix I missed when I was looking up solutions to my corroded upper housing, but this was a fun way to learn CAD and photogrammetry. Also, I've always been interested in its application for hard-to-find parts and with more and more pieces falling off the radar we may need to rely more on this technology to keep our rigs running and leak proof in the future.
So, if you're still reading, is there any interest in doing a group buy of this? Assuming I can get a working prototype of course.
Also I attached the 3D model I used to get the angles/positioning of water outlets right mostly because it looked cool and I was proud of myself for even getting that generated.