bhicks

Figured it was time for an update. We went into production on these and got around 10 pairs made and then the Mother's Day rush slammed us. We had to pull that machine away from the rubber part production and back into our main assembly line...

So my part finisher just brought me a couple of the inserts. These went through 4 brush-on solvent treatments each. You can see the one part that is fresh off a machine for comparison. The parts had a real ugly high gloss finish which was...

I have done silicone molds in the past by using 3D printed parts as the master. The problem is that the molds break down around 10-15 parts and a new mold has to be made again. The time and cost to continually make new molds quickly gets higher...

It wont bankrupt me. I have developed MANY products over the years. I fully understand the process. This one is bigger than just this single product. I have a line of items I would like to start making out of rubber. This is my learning curve for...

Time for another update: The last two weeks got a bit crazy. The tax return season hit us hard. Folks started getting their refunds and sales took off. We had to pull our machine that was printing prototypes for the steering column insert and put...

Got the water soluble support and been testing it over the last few days. My prints with the two materials and dual independent heads are starting to look really good. Almost finished product worthy but not quite. My last hurdle is oozing...

That might have to be plan B if I can't find success with 3D printing the rubber. We will see.

I spent some time last week printing in this super soft rubber filament. What a huge PITA this stuff is. I have printed in rubber before but nothing this soft. I finally got some quality looking parts and was able to build the right package of...

The rubber we are using is the most elastic/flexible rubber filament on the market. Very similar to silicone. My hope is that no tools will be needed and this piece will simply stretch right over the stalk blinker/wiper assembly things. We will see.

Had a chance to sit down this morning and knock out the CAD design. It's close to an exact copy of the OEM part. The only change is that the OEM piece has the tube stick down about 1/4" below the bottom of the part. I had to cut it off even with...

I don't need a nice one. An old faded cracked or torn one would be fine. It's a LOT easier working from the actual part then from the clam shell it fits into. The clam shell gets me the basic shape/dimensions but not the subtle details and geometry.

Looks like there is enough interest in this that I could at least break even on my investment on the first batch. The easiest option for me to do this would be to have the OEM rubber piece in my hands. Does anyone have one? Damaged/torn is ok as...