If you post it under What Is It?.

there's a very good chance that SolarEagle will answer that.

He's on his way. You will have your answer shortly.

(He's busy in the CR4 cafeteria identifying the mystery meat right now. Last I heard its something Del dragged in last night.)

That doesn't look like any winch I've ever seen....What do you use it for? There should be some sort of electrical tag on this if it uses electricity....If not you're going to need a lot more pictures...

It is for A motorized shade on a skylight. All the manufactures that make them now didn't even know they made them in 2000

Typical...

That looks a lot like the ones on an old style Overhead Garage Door opener I had to replace. I got them at a dealer. I think the shaft was bigger than 1/4" though - maybe you could bush them. If nothing else materializes, they shouldn't be too hard to make. Are they stripped? Maybe drill and install helicoils.

Inserts....

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?I=LXK034&P=8

Yep, also available from Lowe's, HD, etc. Cheaper than a heli-coil kit.

BTW, apparently some of the Liftmaster commercial openers and gate operators also use similar limit nuts.

Yes I work on all of them but this is not the same size at all

These are for screwing into sheet material or MFC (melomine faced chipboard) to then have things like shelfs or brackets screwed to them.

Bazzer

Acme thread inserts?

Not Acme threads. The inside thread will be a standard thread, in what ever machine screw thread is desired. The outer thread is similar to the thread design used in wood screws, but with little taper to it.

I was blithering about the thread on the shaft in the OPs photo.

Point being I don't believe that there are inserts (helicoils) available for that.

Looking more closely at the picture OP posted, those may be acme. If so, these people might can help - http://roton.com/Mating_Components.aspx?family=7060758

Well done on the guess mate but that wasn't the objective. I guess a genuine spare could be sourced now...

..shoot, have another GA, what the heck.

Its probably one of those parts inside that aren't user serviceable.

I think bigg nailed it. If you can not obtain one from the company, you could make one fairly easily. It only needs one notch to prevent spinning. And the hight of it could be thicker without hurting anything. An aluminum rod drilled and tapped, and cut to the desired length and taper. To improve the wear, the brass inserts shown in another post would help.

Want me to print you a couple of those with my 3D printer? The only other dimension I would need would be the width of the slots...

At last! Somebody living in the present!

3D printed spares are the way to go.

Which printer did you get? Cost? Performance (real user's opinion)?

That would be wonderful. If I could get 4. I will take better measurements and get back to you.

The outside diameter is 1" slots in wheel are 1/8" whole in center is 1/4".

ASC

Paul Baker

18400 N. 51st Avenue

Glendale AZ, 85308

If you could send me four you would be a life saver. Thank you so much

........ shouldn't the material be considered?

A photo of the screw with a rule placed against it would get the thread printed nicely...and the screw depth.

I'm assuming 1/4-20, and will hand tap after printing- I'm not sure I am ready to print internal threads, although that is theoretically possible (at least for larger threads)...

That doesn't look like a V thread to me.

If the CAD file that you print from is properly set up (formatted?) won't the printer just lay the thread in?

I'm still tweaking- I have a bit of an issue with smaller details (I would likely have to run a tap through the part anyway). Besides, it's easier to hand tap than to build a 3D model of threads!

Charlie

For now, PLA. I would need to order some ABS if that is preferred, and it takes a week or more to get the material here in the jungle...

material is not huge since it only has a small amount of pressure put on it. I will be more than happy to tap and make sure thread size and count is correct. the width of wheel is 1/4" also. couldn't remember if I had said that before

I had the width from before. What I don't have is the preferred color (see the private message I sent you). Also, I am out in the jungle right now- I ran in to a problem with backlash on my y axis that needed solving, so it will be a couple of days before these are ready to ship.

Paul-

Your nuts are finished:

I would like to send them to you FedEx or UPS or DHL (since they are coming to you from Panama), but I need a telephone number. If I send them via snail mail, it could take a couple of weeks to get to you...

I would suggest sending the telephone number via private message, rather than posting in the open here on the forum. If you click on my name, it takes you to my profile page, and in the upper right corner, there is a link to "send private message".

If I don't get a phone number in the next couple of days, I will send them snail mail.

Sorry it took so long to get these printed out- my trip to the jungle took a bit more time than I was planning.

Charlie

Nice job. They look great. What material are they made from?

These are made from an organic polyester called "PLA" (polylactic acid) which is derived from corn starch.

cwarner7_11, Do you know how stable this material is?

PLA has similar properties to PETE, but lower operating temperatures- with a glass transition temperature of around 60 ºC (but there are heat resistant versions of the material that can handle temperatures up to 110 ºC). Although it is bio-degradable, it requires exposure to a combination of high humidity and elevated temperatures (above 98% relative humidity at or above 60 ºC) before being susceptible to bacterial degradation- so long as it does not encounter these conditions, it can last "several years" (the stuff has been around only since the 1990's, so saying for sure how long it will last under different circumstances is difficult). Reportedly, PLA is highly resistant to UV radiation, and pretty much chemically inert (one can clean it with acetone, acetic acid, alcohol, etc. I suspect MEK might do a little damage). It appears to be quite stable dimensionally over time, in spite of the fact that it will absorb moisture from the air.

This material has found a good audience in textiles, and interest from the medical profession, although I am not sure one would rate it as a good material for engineering applications (although it seems, except for the temperature characteristics, quite comparable to ABS). I have encountered significant variations in material behavior when printing, using material sourced from different manufacturers (there are some Chinese suppliers that seem to have quality control problems), and even different colors from the same manufacturer behave differently in the printing process.

The printing process also introduces a non-isotropy in the mechanical properties- quite strong in compression orthogonal to the layers, but subject to shear when loaded parallel to the layers. I don't have any good data on this effect yet, and there may be ways to reduce the effect in the manufacturing process.

I am also curious about the coefficient of friction- I don't think we are looking at something like PTFE, but it might be a good substitute for Nylon bushings. I'm not that far along in my evaluations, though.

Interesting,

I can understand the shear loads issues. People tend to dismiss it.... or not even think about that.

Being made from polymers of the corn starch, Oxidation and UV radiation is what I was questioning....out of curiosity.

Thanks

They look pretty good.

Did you mange to "print" the screw thread or did you cut that with a tap?

Not a bad result for a bit of play time.

Tap was cut. Still tweaking on the fine details (although I have gotten rid of most of the backlash problem I was having)- one issue is the tremendous variation in the material properties...Even from a single supplier, different colors behave differently. Which means I have to run calibration every time I switch filament. Not something one wants for a "production" environment, but, for now, we are still in "hobby" mode...

Do you reckon there's a dollar in it?

I've been thinking about setting up a prototyping service here. Need to cross train some Autocad folk.

There are quite a few folks out there who "reckon there's a dollar in it", although that is not my primary reason for getting in to this stuff. I keep facing the same dilemma that Vexxed faced- needing parts that are not readily available in the local market place. Interestingly, though, the very first person locally that I showed the results of my experiments to, turned in to a "paying" customer...

These limit stop nuts use about $0.25 in material. The simple geometry required about half an hour to generate and turn in to the *.stl file (using the Open Source software, Salome), and another 43 minutes to print each one, not counting the "false starts", which were required to calibrate each color used (false starts could be minimized by using a single raw filament, rather than the multi-color approach I took in this case). Another 15 minutes per unit "hand finishing" (cutting away excess material, hand-tapping). I printed each one separately, but could print at least 5 (maybe as many as 16 in a single run after tweaking the print layout a bit), all the same color.

Were I looking at a "commercial" application, I would most likely be looking at a more sophisticated printer, capable of more material options (currently limited to PLA and ABS, although I could probably add Nylon to the materials list, with some tweaking. I would really like to get to the point where I could use HDPE, but that requires a much higher temperature than my current system is capable of). The commercial printers generally demand that one buy in to "vendor lock-in" on materials, which would most likely reduce the variability in the raw stock, although significantly increase materials cost.

The real limitation to the idea of a 3D printer in every home is going to be the generation of the CAD models. I am a "casual" user of CAD- not something I do every day, but something with which I have many years of experience. a professional CAD expert could run circles around me, I am sure. Not all of the projects I have done so far are as easy to construct as this object, and there are features of most models that need special treatment (one learns of this by printing "modern art" style objects accidentally). One could, of course, download others' *.stl files till the cows come home, and happily print away one's life. There are also services available on line that can turn your ideas or photos into 3D models (one I am aware of will use maybe 40 photos of different angles of a person's head and turn these in to a model of a bust that can be printed). Or print out your designs- some commercially oriented (i.e., printing parts prototypes), others directed to the consumer market (i.e., printing jewelry, toys, etc.).

This is turning into a blog post (I will probably duplicate much of this on my next blog entry).

The short answer to your question, yes, there is probably a dollar to be made here. I personally am not ready to abandon the excitement and the fun of trying something new for the sake of making money...

understandable, I justified allot of my projects as hobbies, and rightfully so. It took not only the pressure off of me generate cash flow, but it was in fact .....fun, i.e. a hobby.

I don't disagree.

There's nothing wrong with a hobby that pays for itself as well.

A quality 3D printer costs a fair wack.

Even if it doesn't pay for itself entirely then at least subsidising itself would be a good thing.

It's very similar to those use in automatic garage door openers.

The above use by LiftMaster