Another Day, Another 3D Print Out

[Bruce]

Overnight I printed a piece which sits on top of the jack supplied with my car. Its sole purpose is when jacking up my camper it ensures the jack is centrally located on the small 50mm axle.

I initially printed a test version using only 15% infill - no good for the real thing as the weight of the camper would crush that but it was to test for size and only took a couple of hours to print.

Test piece on left only weighs 20gms.

The final piece (right) was printed with 100% infill, ie it is solid plastic, weighs 108 gms and took 8 hours to print (hence overnight). For the plastiphobes - I used PETG for durability.

Tried it out this morning and it does the job just fine.

As usual it was designed in OpenScad:

The code is very simple. Using variables means it can be scaled up or down according to the need (as I did with the test piece).

//Jack Mount for Camper

//Variables

var=2;          //fit variable

diaj=40+var;   //diameter of Jack head
depj=14;       //depth of Jack head
wdax=50;      //axle width (Square)
wdth=10;        //width of parts

//end variables

$fn=80;

//Jack Head Cover
difference(){
    translate([0,0,0])cylinder(h=depj,r=(diaj/2)+wdth,center=false);
    translate([0,0,-1])cylinder(h=depj+2,r=diaj/2,center=false);
}

//Axle holder
translate([-(wdax+(wdth*2))/2,-(wdax+(wdth*2))/2,depj-.1]){
    difference(){
        translate([0,0,0])cube([wdax+(wdth*2),wdax+(wdth*2),(wdax*0.4)+wdth],center=false);   
        translate([wdth-(var/2),-wdth,wdth])cube([wdax+var,wdax*2,wdax],center=false);    
    }
}

Feeling quite pleased with myself this morning. I have an old hydraulic bottle jack that I use at home but it only has a top of about 25mm diameter, I might make an insert so this piece can be used with that.

Keeps me off the streets.

[macywack]

not the type of thing i do over breakfast

[Bruce]

Nor me, but this arvo I painted it blue.

[Bruce]

Made an adapter for my 45 year old hydraulic jack to fit (doesn’t time fly?)

Simple design in OpenScad:

Doesn’t have to be a very precise fit:

The code only took ten or fifteen minutes to write

//Camper Jack Adapter


//Variables

//from Camper Jack Mount

var=2;         //Fit Variable
diaj=40;   //diameter of Jack head
depj=14;       //depth of Jack head

//K Mart Jack

kmdia=22;      //Kmart Jack Head Diameter
kmh=8;         //Kmart head depth

//end variables

$fn=80;

//body

difference(){
    translate([0,0,0]) cylinder(h=kmh+var,d=diaj,center=false);
    
    
    translate([0,0,-1]) cylinder(h=kmh+1,d=kmdia+1,center=false);
    
} 

//removal pips

translate([(kmdia/2)+((diaj-kmdia)/4)+.5,var/2,var/2]){
    rotate([90,0,0]) cylinder(h=var,d=((diaj-kmdia)/2)-var,center=false);
}    


translate([-((kmdia/2)+((diaj-kmdia)/4)+.5),var/2,var/2]){
    rotate([90,0,0]) cylinder(h=var,d=((diaj-kmdia)/2)-var,center=false);
}    

I hope I get to use it more than the other jack because I use the hydraulic jack at home - mostly when removing the wheels to grease the wheel bearings each year. If I use the other jack it will be out on the road with a puncture!

Again printed with PETG

[macywack]

too techie for me m8

[Bruce]

I am very much beginner with OpenScad. I have read that having some programming experience is actually a disadvantage and I can understand that now. OpenScad doesn’t respond like any programming language but it is really effective at what it does. And it is free and open source.

There are plenty of YouTube videos but have found a couple of really good tutorials or texts that take you through step by step, this is one:

Mastering OpenSCAD