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Lil'John said:
I'm not sure about lasting longer than my pig. Obviously they failed sooner than my pig ;)

I will stick with the thought of buy once, cry once for this issue. I'd rather have a metal set that will be "permanent" rather than pray it can be redone in 10-15 years again :(

I may have another source for plasma cutting the template as well as machining. I will check when I pick up my tcase housing.
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but your pig is a 71 and if the handle just broke, then it already lasted 45 years and the plastic wasn't the greatest then. i think a good quality plastic can last another 40 years.
 
what about making a new mold and actually casting from ABS? prolly much more durable than the printed counterpart- also make production runs feasible...same as casting pot metal parts, I'd imagine...
 
I just found out that downtown San Diego library has 3d printers that you can use. Mind blown.
 
LAMBCRUSHER said:
what about making a new mold and actually casting from ABS? prolly much more durable than the printed counterpart- also make production runs feasible...same as casting pot metal parts, I'd imagine...
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How many can you sell to recoup the mold investment, an inexpensive mold cost me $20,000 +/- and is good for 1000’s of parts a middle of the road mold cost me $60,000 +/- and is good for tens of 1000’s of parts.
 
not having a new mold made- making a new mold...can't be harder than fixing a pig tailgate latch system...our bulkhead molds were 35K a piece and we're pushing 50K plus parts from them so far; I know professional plastics molding isn't cheap...what would it take to do in a home shop? Hmmmm I'll dig into that a bit myself....the ABS material we have our fittings made from is rock solid at less than an 1/8" of thickness in some places; quite different than the ABS filament used by the printers...
 
Lil'John said:
Are you talking alum?
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Yes aluminum.

Lil'John said:
As noted, this was sending a guy a picture with him doing file creation with the existing handle.
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I don’t have time to make drawings so you guys will have to dimension it yourself or I could have it done for you for a nominal fee.

Lil'John said:
I am going to keep shopping around a bit to see what I get. Like the $20k+ molding, I believe most of the upfront costs are in the "setup/jigging".
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Fixturing for this part won’t add much of anything to the cost.
 
Give me a couple days, I have a guy that specializes in medium volume precision parts that I send a lot of work to.

I’ll try to talk him into taking on a low volume low profit job as a favor and see if hell do the engineering for a couple hundred bucks, if not the last time I had a simple part drawn my guy charged me $500 or $600 for a complete set of drawings.
 
All this talk about door handle brackets made me go out and take a closer look at mine. They are definitely showing signs of fatigue. Count me in for a set if you get things worked out.
 
I'll talk to the precision machining folks at the Tech College where I teach. Might be just the sort of project a 2nd year student could really get into. Guessing materials would need to be paid for, but the labor/drawings would be free and we have a fully set-up and amazing machine shop.
 
My guy got back to me today and he's willing to make the parts for $30.00 each if you buy them in groups of 4, he said he would do all the drawings and prototype for $100.00
If someone has a good part to send for sampling and wants to pony up the hundred bucks we can get this ball rolling.
 
Cool, let me know when you’re ready and I’ll have you send the part directly to him then I’ll work with him to get the samples confirmed.

FYI: we’re wanting to make them full width so the screw will have full thread engagement but use a machine screw.
 
I've got that one I sent to David, we can send it to your guy. I'm in for a set.

Thanks J Mack for stepping up.
 
J Mack said:
My guy got back to me today and he's willing to make the parts for $30.00 each if you buy them in groups of 4, he said he would do all the drawings and prototype for $100.00
If someone has a good part to send for sampling and wants to pony up the hundred bucks we can get this ball rolling.
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Lil'John said:
Let me dig around for a good part and I'll pony up the hundred bucks. I'll also be in for three full sets(12 pieces)
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Way to go you guys, this is awesome stuff! I have been occupied with work lately, but thank you both.
I am definitely interested in a set once we see how things shape up...
 
Hey David,

I already sent Jim my other spare, so if you're done, just send it to me.

Thanks for giving it a good try, hopefully we will get a good alternative to our broken handle problem.
 
Just a quick up date,

My guy has looked at the part and says no problem making the part for the $120 per set.

We are right in the middle of a big project now so we will start this as soon as we finish. Probably early next year.
 
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