3D printed programmer switch
- Thread starter Mu0n
- Start date
There's a design for it on Thingiverse. I've done it, not the orientation they told you to print it, but more economically (printing it like they say produces support structure waste), and worked fine until I took it out :/ then one of the legs broke. Might be a good candidate for nylon or PETG vs PLA filament.
I think we’ve all done that at least once. What version do you need? I have injection molded clear ones for the SE series but I might have some used ones for the Mac II floating around. I’ve found the 3d printed buttons to be weak.
Definitely the downsides to FDM printed stuff—at that scale it's pretty brittle. I've been doing some stuff for 6" figurines and it's quite fragile. Has anyone tried a resin/UV printed version to see if it's more resilient?
Last edited by a moderator:
Resin is quite a bit more resilient though it can be brittle. I would say SLA is superior to FDM. Though the costs are typically higher. Seems to be a trade off no matter what is chosen.
I wonder if a PETG or nylon print would hold up more—built for more flex. Heck, I might buy a spool of nylon just for kicks and see how it works.
I don't think it is too far off. I think within the next 10 years or so we will be there. I think that will mean some really amazing products that people do. Sadly, it will be nearly impossible to get perfectly transparent prints without post processing. That was something I discovered the hard way with various projects. I will never treat any transparent plastic, even injection molded, as being "cheap" simply because it is plastic. I just hope that the next generation is able to use all the amazing tools out there to create really cool stuff.
I agree. In physical fabrication in general, having cosmetic requirements makes their manufacture so much more difficult, especially optically clear components since there's nothing to hide. I have a project in mind that I want to make a custom computer case for a 68k machine, but I don't think 3D printing would be good enough. I'd like it to have the same texture and feel as if it was made in the 80's/90's.
Yeah, I've made that Thingiverse model using SLA printing as-a-service from dirtypcbs.com. It's pretty cheap there, and the buttons appears to work well, I've taken it out and put it back in a few times and had no trouble other than it is a bit stiffer than the original, so it seems, but otherwise it seems to bend back and forth okay and I'm not concerned about it being brittle and breaking... just concerned about accidentally double-triggering it because of the stiffness. Also, I'm mildly annoyed that it doesn't strive to be a more physically accurate replica of the original, but hey, what can we complain for a part that was designed to work fairly well with FDM?
