Holder and Wheel Projects

In this article we will present two simple, but very practical 3D project. Our goal is to bring closer 3D printing technology to every-day life usage. The subjects are a pH electrode holder for aquarium and a garage door wheel. They are small parts which are easy to model and print, too.

Visit http://www.shapeways.com/ for quality 3D printing.

On this photo we see a pH electrode hanging inside aquarium and it is loosen. It does not look nice and it can be quite annoying during cleaning time. So, it is time to do something about it.

In this case, the garage door wheel is broken and it is time to replace it with the new one. The garage door is not heavy, so our plastic wheel will be a solid replacement. Also, it will not rust and will run smoother, too.

“Measure twice – cut once” is a golden rule. Considering this are not complicated projects, it is easy to get the right measurements. During modeling you can adjust it to your needs. This step is very easy and it will take just a few minutes to do it. We use CADENAS PARTsolutions software for our models.
http://b2b.partcommunity.com/community/partcloud/index#!part?name=Holder+for+PH+electrode&model_id=6599
http://b2b.partcommunity.com/community/partcloud/index#!part?name=Wheel+from+garage+door&model_id=6475

Our new parts are done. As always, we used MakerBot Replicator 2. The pH electrode holder is made a little bit thicker to be stronger and more durable while the wheel is exact as the original part. 3D printing went easy and we are ready to try it. 

These are close-up photos so you can see how the holder fits nicely to our aquarium. It looks like it was a factory made by all specific measurements! PH electrode fits perfectly well, same as aquarium glass wall. 

The pH electrode was taken out of aquarium just for the photo shooting. Everything looks nice and tidy now, so the pH electrode holder has got not just practical, but also the visual purpose.

3D printed garage door wheel replaced the broken one and it is running smoothly. After several tests, we came to conclusion the wheel is solid enough and it will last for a long time. Our goal is achieved.

These were just two simple examples of 3D printed parts to show you how you can use your 3D printer for your own needs. If you want to save you home budget, all you need is a little bit of creativity and sky is the limit. We hope you enjoyed this article and you can find many other interesting 3D models on PARTcloud web site.

Author: Dalibor Pejicic

Published by Threeding.com