My co-worker asked if I could make a new steering wheel to his son's toy car because the old steering wheel was destroyed under heavy usage. I didn’t have to think too long when I told him that challenge accepted but first I needed some dimensions of the wheel. After he gave me the needed dimensions I was able to design the replacement part and download it to the Cura which is a sliding program of the different 3D printers.
After downloading the part to the build plate, Cura shows and suggests if we need to use any supports. We need to use supports if there is nothing under the part. Suggested places are marked with red as you can see in the picture 2.
The Cura adds the support automatically in right places. As in the picture 3. support is marked as blueish while the rest of the part is now red. When you are using supports, the printing time will increase with several percentages because the support is an extra material that still needs to be printed.
After doing a slicing step, the job is almost ready to print. We just need to move the sliced file to the printer, put it on and wait when the printer is ready.
When the part is printed and removed from the printer, then we must break the support and rip it off. Pliers are the right tool to remove the support. After removing the support, the steering wheel is ready to be installed and used.
I haven’t seen the car before the task and I thought that the car would be in a better shape. The car had no seat and the cover of the engine was completely smashed. But the result of the printing challenge was successful and all starting dimensions were also accurate enough. Now I’m waiting that my friend will ask me to print other broken parts also...
-Marko