3D Printed Parts Thread

Tech Talk
#1

I’ve seen chatter here and there about 3D printed parts, but nothing centralized. It seems to me to be a good idea to have a place to show off and share our 3D printed parts for arcade sticks. I’ll update this main topic with parts as people post them, so this thread can be a helpful repository/link.

  • Consider discussing your process, any tips/tricks to printing your part.
  • Please also consider making your part available to the community so people can print their own!
  • For those without access to a 3D printer, please consider making your part available on Shapeways, which is an on-demand 3D printing service. Their print jobs can be a little pricey, but it’s cheaper than a $500 printer!

Parts, in no particular order
MadCatz TE:S button panel replacement by @jrronimo‌ (that’s me!)
[Printed Corners for an Acrylic Case](Acrylic and 3D printed Arcade Stick Frame by @cudbur‌, parts for sale here.
PS-14-KN RG Plunger by @"Pnoy Pryde"‌
OBS-M assembly for Seimitsu PS-14-G switches, | Version 2 (screwless) by @"Pnoy Pryde"‌
Sanwa JLF round gate by @wazwuz
PCB holder for the brooks PS3/PS4 board by @charliedrums

#2

I’ll go first. :slight_smile:

In working on my Wii U TTT2 -> XBO stick conversion, I quickly realized that the button panel would be useless to me. My workplace just bought a 3D printer, so what better task than to try and build a replacement panel that would also hold a custom lighted button? The original stick is a MadCatz TE:S; I assume this piece will more or less fit any TE:S.

Before this, I had never made a 3D model before. I used Sketchup with a few tutorials: I just did the 3 “Start A Drawing” ones, here. The part was designed in a couple days of intense revision and learning.

I went through a few revisions:

http://i.imgur.com/sLgI75U.png

Here’s one version of the piece in the stick:

http://i.imgur.com/eczEcrV.png

My new Xbox Home button:

http://i.imgur.com/yihEt8p.png

Not perfect, but close enough for me to be done with it and stop abusing work resources:

http://i.imgur.com/Zp50d7P.png

And some testing:

http://i.imgur.com/QTThtzE.png

I also made a blank one in case anyone here just wants it blank:

http://i.imgur.com/KmY8d64.png

Here’s the lighted button I used: Lighted Green Button @ Digikey
Here’s the link to the part on Thingiverse: With Hole
Here’s the part without a hole: Without Hole

Here’s the Support Part on Shapeways: clicky This part is designed to sit BELOW the artwork and an acrylic, providing support to them.

Our 3D printer at work is a MakerBot 2X, with a heated build plate. I designed the part to be printed “upside down” so that the player-facing surface would be smooth and finished. It’s imperfect, but most 3D printing seems to be. The striping that you see on the part is the “support” structure that the printer builds. I had told it to use a different print head with a different color so that it would be easy to determine which pieces to break off when I was done. I also printed a few versions with dissolvable filament, which came out really good but take forever to dissolve. This piece takes around 1.5 hours to print @ 0.2mm layers. We’ve had the most success with cranking our heating plate up to 115°C and leaving the extruders around 230°C.

I spent a lot of time measuring the original piece with calipers and making a lot of educated guesses. There was also a lot of “Eh, it’s probably close enough, I’ll just print it and see what happens.” Filament’s cheap, after all.

I still haven’t figured out how to make my part available on Shapeways, but I will do that as soon as possible.

To further kick this off, well, I have some extras! If anyone wants one of the extras, PM me your address and I’ll mail it to you, free of charge. They’re not perfect, but they fit. Most of the extras are a little too short in terms of height – 12mm vs. the 12.5mm of the final. (My ‘final’ part is 13mm, which is too tall, but close enough for use.) They should be perfectly usable for the price of free. :slight_smile:

#3

Recent thread where a user made some corner pieces to hold acrylic to make a case.

Available at: http://www.cuddleburrito.com/shop-arcade

There are also some joystick tops there.

#4

I’m also working on a design for 3D printed corners with plexi/acryllic sides, just going to do some testing first.

But it’s awesome to see designs coming out.

#5

is it hard to sand the plastic or did you just not bothered.
the final painted piece looks pretty “scratchy” or uneven.

#6

I didn’t bother. I tried two different things when I printed the version in the pictures: Lowering the temperature of the extrusion nozzles and printing thicker layers. It came out less “clean” than normal. I haven’t learned about sanding / painting / finishing parts yet. That’s next up. For now, I’ve spent too much time making parts for my stick and not enough time actually playing fighting games. :slight_smile:

Do you have any good tips for finishing? I’ve been printing with ABS filament.

Here’s one that I printed last night with the “normal” settings, as a final test:

Here’s how the parts come out with the support structure:

http://i.imgur.com/DsZ8aR8.png

And here’s how they look after I break the supports off with an xacto knife or screwdriver or whatever’s handy:

http://i.imgur.com/k4X1wh4.png

The surface does look a bit broken up, but it seems smoother in person. I feel like my phone exaggerates the picture. Remember, this whole piece is around 100mm wide.

#7

I applaud your efforts @jrronimo, the only other solution to removing a TE guide panel was to get a plexy overlay to cover up the opening.
You given us another option to deal with the turbo/guide area.

Its too easy to criticize DIY custom parts made my a individual in his or her home.
I don’t expect a DO-it-yourself-er do produce the same results as a huge manufacturing firm on a shoe-string budget.
Especially when most of us haven’t taken the plunge.

I rather have a rough 3D printed custom part than a dead TE turbo/guide panel.

jrronimo, ever consider a filler piece for the turbo guide area that sits under a plexy that covers the hole up.
A filler piece would fill up the gap better than plexy alone and offer more stability to the stick than leaving the part out.

#8

It makes a good place to put a custom logo. Paging Jasen Hicks.

#9

Thank you! I’m pretty happy with it in the end. It’s a nice new area to hold my lighted Home button. :smiley: One could pretty easily put a sticker on the piece, too.

I briefly experimented with having a recessed area on the face so that I could 3D print a logo in a different color on it, but the logistics of making that happen became a bit more than I had spare time for. Plus the recessed area would be super rough and require more support structure to remove, etc.

It would be pretty trivial to “shorten” the blank piece so that the metal plate/acrylic covers it up and is stabilized. I’ll do some measuring tonight! My gut says lowering it to 11mm of height would do the trick, but obviously measuring twice and printing once is a bit better, haha.

#10

Very nice.
As a guy working with plastics most of the time with other hobbies, I was actually going to build/make something like this by hand myself with some ABS scraps. I’ll probably do it anyways down the line, just because I can. :slight_smile:

The light texture at the top actually looks pretty cool since it’s consistent across the panel.

#11

@jrronimo, I have heard acetone to be a good finish for ABS filament, and helps to get some of the imperfections out of the plastic.

#12

Acetone is a solvent to ABS and will likely ruin the finish more so than help it. It’s why you never want to spill the stuff on ABS (I’ve done it on accident) because you will get a wet streak that never goes away. In this case for finishing it is best to do the very high grit wet sanding approach and then compound and polish.

Unless I don’t understand how ABS filament works or is different than molded ABS. Thoughts?

#13

Well there is this

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/15/polishing-abs-prints/

and this

#14

@jrronimo PMd you. Amazing work man…

#15

I think a little sanding with high grit and a bit of paint would make it perfect.

#16

I’ve still got two prototypes with the hole in them if anyone’s interested.

@Darksakul‌: I made one that should be short enough to align with the metal plate to support an acrylic from below like you were saying. I’ll test it out tonight! Would you like it if it fits well?

#17

I don’t actually need such a part, but if you want me to test the thing out I willing to offer you feed back.
I also don’t have the correct plexy to test such a part

As it stands, my sole TE-S I want to keep the guide part I do have.

#18

My 3D printer rep told showed me the acetone vapor bath technique for smoothing out parts. From everything I can see, its pretty sweet. That “textured” look is just what happens when you print with these. Remember is essentially squeezing a fine bead out the hardens and sticks to its adjacent mates… forming a solid piece.

I’ve only done a few pieces since I got my printer because I’ve been so swamped with things; lots of art associated to working with these things… nothing is ever just easy :smiley:

The one thing I really bought it for (morpheus cases) hasn’t even come to fruition yet. I sent a set of boards to a fellow member here to give me a hand with the 3D model and a bunch of tech problems have arisen so he hasn’t gotten anything ready for me yet. I hope to get moving on some other projects in the future and then open the printer up for people to send designs to get made…thats later though.

#19

Well, I think most people think of “finish” in terms of what you said, sanding and polishing, but in this case, you are intentionally melting the plastic to smooth it out.
-ud

#20

hey everyone… @jrronimo‌ was awesome enough to send me one of these prototypes and i just installed it into my TE. I accidently ruined the traces of my original control panel when I was dual modding it and just been using the start + select of the PS360+ to activate home until now.
I actually have a PS3 TE and i found that i had to shave down the right side of the panel a few mms to get it to fit snugly. Not sure if there’s any difference between the xbox360 and ps3 versions. I ordered the same button that @jrronimo‌ used and it fit right in and i secured it with super glue… wired it up and its good to go. Pics below:

http://i.imgur.com/poFKAfS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YP09MvT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jr3abea.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AFVvapy.jpg