good afternoon! Just wondering if any of you guys have a 3-D printer? And if so, may I commission some work from you? let me know! Josh
I have one but am nowhere near a master of it yet. If you don't find someone with more experience/skills in a reasonable amount of time I'll see what I can do for ya. Haha.
I have an old bed slinger and can print PLA, PETG, or TPU as long as it's not too complex. I'm down in Rochester, though.
I know nothing about 3D printing. So not sure which type of plastic. So we recently acquired a new bike trailer for the kids. It’s one of the fancy shmancy ones. Where the piece connects to the seat post, it is too big of a diameter. So I need to try and get this piece made with a thicker sidewall. Haven’t measured anything yet but plan to. Ideally, if I could get two or three sizes printed so that it will fit either my bike or the wife’s, that would be quite awesome. Pics…
I have a **** ton of bushings that look like that, so if you get some measurements I might have something laying around. If you can take a pic and measure the ID of the aluminum part and the OD of the post going inside, then we can determine bushing thickness. Worst case is I can just get something from mcmaster if 3D print or my pile of bushings doesn't work. Russ
I can as well. I just picked up some TPU95 filament (pliable, good for bushings) on Prime Day that might be perfect for this. I'm getting better at modeling functional parts, this is definitely something I can do. Like Russ said, ID and height of the aluminum coupler (is that solid? Ours is split with hardware to clamp down on it.) Seat post ODs (usually printed right on the seat post, or just measure it).
Ok, I have some measurements but not all. First off, @Chux , yes it is a solid piece as you can see in the pics. It is designed to have 5-6 of these plastic inserts so that you can cover a whole slew of seat bar sizes. The wife ordered an e-bike and it hasn’t arrived yet. So I don’t have the seat bar size yet. Coupler measurements: ID=1.5” Height=1.5” Insert measurements: ID=1.25” Outer ring diameter=1.75”
So is there a reason for the gap in the bushing? Other than you can squeeze it for easier removal? So the ID of the aluminum is 1.5" and the hole depth is also 1.5"? If so, I might have something based on post size. Those are very standard numbers, but the ID of the busing (OD of post) will determine the rest. If the post is standard number (1.25, 1.375, etc) I should be able to get something. If the post ends up being some weird metric size, then you might need to do some 3D print, or machine down something else. Russ
Like was mentioned earlier, the seat post probably has the diameter printed right on it. Common sizes on Amazon are 25.4 (1"), 27.2, 28.6 (1-1/8"), 30.4, 30.9, 31.6 (1-1/4"). It's certainly no problem to 3D print that shape, and a TPU material would likely be a good equivalent. I'm a little confused about the application though. If the aluminum part doesn't clamp down, why is there a slit? Is this whole thing supposed to rotate on the seat tube?
Google image search tells be that mount is for a Weehoo bike trailer. Looking at other bushings for those, I don't see any with a slit, so perhaps we don't want to copy that feature. It does need to rotate on the seatpost. Also 40mm is pretty close to 1-1/2"
Yep, the slit is so that you can easily compress it and push it into the “hitch receiver”. When my wife looked for the ones that she needed, there were packs with 5-6 different sizes. The cost was around $100 for the variety pack. We have a Trek bike that it will need to connect to. But also a new e-bike that we will want to connect it to also. So I need two of them made for those two seat post sizes. I can get the one on the Trek. But the new e-bike is in transit/delivery status still. When the e-bike arrives, I’ll post both of the seat post measurements. I appreciate all of the offers and the input thus far! Hopefully we can get these made so that my kids don’t die riding in it. Lol. That’s what you get buying “brand new second hand.” Disclaimer: If you have the wrong size in the trailer lists dangerously side to side attempting to dump the children out. **found out quickly that it wasn’t right**
Good call on the image search. I see some available with and without the slit. Also interesting that it needs to rotate, the ones I have clamp down firm on the seat post to keep from sliding up and down, and have a pivot in the connector. I also see a lot of people have already made the models to print these. Here's one that is customizeable for seat post diameter, and even has an indexing key to try to lock into the seat post clamp and keep the adapter from spinning on the post and causing any wear there. Cool idea, IMO. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:804417 Josh, you can usually just google the bike make, model and "seat post diameter". That's generally a published dimension on bikes.
I think he prefers the old fashioned way where you remove the seat and then sit on the post... Use the built-in caliper. Haha.
It’s like a butt dyno. Only more intrusive. Matt, I’ll see if I can get the make of the e-bike that my wife ordered. I’ll need to grab the Trek out of the shed either way, as I’m not sure what type it is, ie: road bike, mountain bike, etc. but who knows, maybe they use the same diameter seat post on every Trek model*shrugs shoulders*
