New 80 series Cup holder design:

[bhicks]

Sweet! Can't wait!(but I will, of course!)

Your gonna have to wait a little longer. I got my machine up and running tonight and was able to get one quick print done for a forum member. I went to start the machine back up for a long cup holder print and it died again. This time I blew the fuse inside the little converter box on the power cord. I'm just pushing the limits on all the electronics. Luckly it's just a standard automotive fuse so I will repalce it with a beefier one tomorrow. Hopefuly that will be the final upgrade needed to run with a more powerful heater, larger stepper motors, larger head, a more powerful fan, etc. etc. I also plan to install LED lighting, another extruder head and fan this summer so I can print in dual colors or dual materials at the same time. This machine is going to be on some serious 3d printing steriods. I should be able to crank out prints much quicker with the larger head and more powerful motors and still maintain a nice quality finish. As soon as I get perfect prints they will be photographed and posted on here. I also now have a decent pile of protoypes in various colors and types of plastic from close to perfect to "what the hell". I might sell the good ones of those to the really impatient folks who are also on a budget. I'm thinking around $20 for each. That doesn't even cover the cost of the plastic but it at least helps cover the cost and allows me to buy more plastic. I will go through all my prototypes tomorrow and see if any are worthy to be sold and then post those on here. First come, first serve basis.

 

[Mandito22]

Pm me first ... XD

 

[gothodgie]

here is another big one... I have one of these, it kept me from wanting a tablet too...
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/samsung/galaxy-mega-nova-black.html#fbid=GldQQuZwTIp

 

[bhicks]

Wow. That's another stupid big phone. That is the same width as that huge Sony one. It's just a tad under 3.5" wide. It should fit. I stretched the design to the absolute max length to fit those huge phones. the internal width is now 3.65" wide so that phone should fit.

 

[wemahfouz]

any idea when they will be up for sale?

 

[bhicks]

any idea when they will be up for sale?

I have tested 5 types of filament now and probably 30-40 color combos in attempts to color match the gray and brown plastic used by Toyota. Unfortunately no luck. I tried dying the nylon plastics in boiling water. they turned out great but I couldn't even come close to a color match nor could I get any form of consistency. I tried using acetone and a few other chemicals to help with the color. I even tried a few plastic paints. Epic fail on everything. The only thing I learned was which type of plastic was best for this project (color not considered). I have narrowed my plastic down to one candidate. I will be using HIPS. It's strong like ABS, can be sanded and painted if desired, it handles long prints, it holds up great to heat and the outdoors, doesn't shrink, and doesn't warp. The downside is that there are very few colors available on the market. There is no way I will be able to color match. My new strategy is contrast. I plan to go with a light gray (which they have in HIPS) that will give good contrast to the dark gray interior on 80's. It will have enough contrast that the two colors wont clash. For the brown, I will go with the only brown HIPS that is available. It DOES clash so I will be painting those using the rustoleum "bronze" that is an exact color match. I have also installed most of the upgrades. The only thing I'm waiting on now is the delivery of all the filament. I used up my only spool of HIPS when I was experimenting with it. I ordered enough HIPS to make about 20 cup holders. I really hope these sell because I put a lot of money on my credit card over the last couple weeks from all the filament, paints, dye's, machine repairs, and needed upgrades. If the 20 sell then I will order more filament and do another batch. Each print takes almost 24 hours to do so I can only make one cupholder per day. The expected delivery of the filament is Wednesday so add 20 days to that and that is when my first batch will be on ETSY. I will have pics of the finished cup holders much sooner then that. It's still surprises me to how long it takes to bring an idea to a finished quality product. I always double my estimate and it's usually double that. For those SUPER impatient guys on a budget, I will have 6-7 prototypes up for sell in the next day or two. Those probably wont go up on my etsy page. I will post some detailed pics on here and if someone wants them at 1/2 price then great. They all look good but all have minor issues. The prototypes with major issues went to the trash.

 

[jp_waltz]

I'd be interested in a prototype.

 

[mdandashly]

You should put up a couple pics of the finished product installed. I know some of the previous were concepts. As far as quality I'm sure they're better than the junk I have now (ram swivel mount)

 

[93jspec]

I might recommend that you start another thread for pre payment and ordering. I will gladly prepay to help offset your current development costs.

 

[jeffro109]

either a prototype in this wiz bang plastic or a spot in line please...just depends if you have the cell phone tray model in a decent looking copy

 

[bhicks]

either a prototype in this wiz bang plastic or a spot in line please...just depends if you have the cell phone tray model in a decent looking copy

I think I have 2 or 3 pretty good looking cell phone holder ones, 3 single cup holders, but no double cup holders. That was the 27 hour print and no matter what I did my machine had a full aneurism every time I tried to make that part with that long of a print. They were all catastrophic failures. Right now I am trying to wrap up this school year. I have students in my classroom for 3 more days (finals week). As soon as I wrap up this year I will be putting all my attention on the cup holder and "TOYOTA" badge projects.

 

[mdandashly]

You have students?? Dude that's free labor right there. Just call them interns.

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

Am I understanding correctly that you won't be doing the double cup holders due to print failures on the long printing involved, or do I need to be more patient?

Also, did you address the different lip height for different years and trim levels (IE: faux wood trim), or are they close enough that a single design works for all?

Thanks for all the work.

 

[bhicks]

Am I understanding correctly that you won't be doing the double cup holders due to print failures on the long printing involved, or do I need to be more patient?

Also, did you address the different lip height for different years and trim levels (IE: faux wood trim), or are they close enough that a single design works for all?

Thanks for all the work.

I will definitely be making the double cup holder. The 27 hour print was too long for my machine and the ABS plastic I was using. The HIPS plastic I will now be using can handle long prints. I also got a larger extruder head that can move a lot more plastic through the machine. My 27 hour print is now about 19 hours and is with a much better plastic. There should be no reason why I can't make the double cup holder. In regards to the lip height difference I adjusted all 3 designs to fit on either model. I just dimensioned them to the middle ground. On 80's with the faux wood panel it wil sit up about 1/8" higher. There will be a tiny gap under one section but not really visible. For 80's without the faux wood, it will sit down flush over console with a tiny gap in a different spot, but again not really visible. I have fitted my prototypes on both types of consoles with great fitment.

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

Thanks for the response. I have yet to see a price point for this product. Do you have it nailed down yet?

 

[bhicks]

Thanks for the response. I have yet to see a price point for this product. Do you have it nailed down yet?

I'm getting close. The shipping costs were higher then I had expected since I can't use the little padded envelopes anymore (like I have been doing with the grille badges). The HIPS plastic I will be using is less expensive which counter acted the increase in shipping. It looks like I'm going to be right around $45 (including shipping) for the single cupholder, $60 for the cupholder and cell tray, and $70-75 for the double cup holder. If I can get even better pricing on the filament, and fine tune my prints to be even faster (without compromising quality) then I might be able to get them a tad cheaper. Once I have a finished batch I will be able to do the math on each one and be able to come up with an exact cost. that should be pretty soon.

 

[mdandashly]

Check alibaba for filament and look into flat rate USPS shipping

 

[bhicks]

Check alibaba for filament and look into flat rate USPS shipping

I already plan to use the USPS flat rate boxes. They were the best pricing I could find. In regards to filament it's not as simple as finding the best deal. the market is being flooded with different brands of filament and the famous truth "you get what you pay for" rings very true in the filament world. All filaments are not created equal. I have used some of the ebay, alibaba, and other off brand stuff and they were HORRIBLE. Many of my machine issues and failures were due to cheap filament. There are only a couple brands I now trust but they come at a premium. The good news is that since there is all this cheap crap out there it is forcing the quality manufacturers to lower their prices to compete. The stuff that was $60-70 a year ago is now in the $40-50 range for the "PRO" grade filament and dropping.

 

[mdandashly]

If you'd like, PM me the info for the filament and I can try my hand at shopping around for a bulk deal

 

[bhicks]

Time for an update. I have spent this last week learning how to print in HIPS. I have gotten to the point where I'm getting perfectly smooth prints with zero warping and zero cracking. I started off using the same speed setting as ABS and quickly found out that HIPS can't handle those speeds. I started lowering the speed by 5% increments until I got all the way down to 40% decreased speed before HIPS smoothed out. So the increase in speed with the new nozzle, heater, and motors was negated by the head movement speed. So my print times are still in the 20-30 hour range. That does not include the time put into setting up the print, cooling the machine down, removing the print from the platform, removing the supports, sanding any rough spots, and printing the actual black cup holder insert which is another 9 hours. I have done the math and I can print about 4 cupholders a week if I keep my machine going full time. That SUCKS!! I'm thinking about going back to ABS which can be ran at 100% speed. With the new upgrades I might be able to get these prints into the 10-15 hour range which might allow me to avoid the warping and cracking issues. Either way, I'm still getting successful prints and am building a good batch of all 3 styles. It's just taking longer then expected. I plant to swtich back to ABS as soon as that order is delivered. If it doesn't work then I will just have to use HIPS and just take my time on getting orders out. ETSY will only show what I have in stock, so if it's there and you order it then I will ship it within a day or two. If anyone wants a prototype then PM me asap. I had about 11 good useable prototypes and am now down to 6. They will be 1/2 price because they all have minor issues. I will also be posting pics of them on here in just a little bit. Any prints that had major issues went in the trash. I am only selling the ones that are close to perfect.