3D Printing and Your RV

Simple project for today.

The fridge door has opened a few times and will make contact with the bathroom door knob, leaving a nice dent in the fridge door. I don't want it denting any further, so I whipped up a simple bumper to cover the dent and to keep it from denting any further. There are 4 neodymium magnets glued into the insets on the back side to hold it in place.

Material is flexible TPU, so there is some spring to it and it won't crack over time like a harder PLA would. It will also bend slightly to follow the contour of the door.

Door Dent

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How the door gets dented


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Backside of the bumper. Magnets were salvaged from trade show name tags long ago.

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Attached to door

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Is it possible to print around the magnets or do the magnets have to be inserted into printed holes?
They go into the holes. You wouldn't be able to actually print around them since the print head would run into them. Plus I don't think you could get them placed on the bed accurately enough.

Easy enough to carve out the holes. Looks like this in 3d:

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Didn't know those existed, but the design I used was a simple download and the material probably cost around $3.

Plus I don't need to order it, just set up the print and let it roll.
kinda funny but everything exists on Amazon it seems.
 
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This is more '3d Printing and your truck', but it pulls the RV and it solves yet another Ford problem.

When Ford first brought the Ranger to the US in 2019 it included an engine cover. Of course, Ford doing Ford things for 2020 on they upgraded us to no engine covers (also, 4 instead of 6 bed tie downs, no ecoboost badge, etc etc.)

Of course, this doesn't happen for most people in warranty, but without the engine cover, water will get on to the valve cover and seep down into the spark plug wells over time. At best you end up with a rusty plug. People who do longer changes can end up with a plug so rusted you can't get it out, a failed coil, or both.

This is my #1 plug after 30,000 miles (I change them every 30K). My driveway is sloped and I generally park nose-down, so all the water runs into #1. Fantastic, thanks Ford.

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People come up with all kinds of solutions. RTV the cowl, pool noodles, etc.

I prefer a little more elegance.

Prototype #1

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Testing:



It works!!! I don't like how it drops the water right on to the coil connector, so.....

Prototype #2 (Actually version 6 in my files)

I've shifted the mounting holes forward and chopped material off the front. I've also added 5mm to each end. That will drip the water away from the harnesses. I've also cropped some material off the back.

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I'm currently waiting on Amazon to deliver some black TPU material. The orange prototype is printed with 'hard' PLA which won't stand a chance under the hood. The TPU should hold up just fine. If it doesn't, I'll experiment with some Nylon.
 
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have you investigated how much rain water falls in in there when the hood is closed and are there any type of drains in the cowl area that may be plugged?
 
have you investigated how much rain water falls in in there when the hood is closed and are there any type of drains in the cowl area that may be plugged?
Enough to rust spark plugs.

It happens to quite a few Rangers, it's just a crap design on Fords part. If they had decided not to cost down and cut out the engine cover, no one would have the problem. There's no drains in the area to keep clean. Its just a big flat piece of metal there that collects water.

If memory serves, there's a TSB out there about it where the fix is to replace parts and give them an engine cover.
 
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RE 3D printing, I'm interested in getting one and have been reading that the fumes are toxic. I get pretty wide temp swings in the garage and will not be running one in the house. Not sure what to do.


Are the mounts still there for an OEM engine cover?
 
RE 3D printing, I'm interested in getting one and have been reading that the fumes are toxic. I get pretty wide temp swings in the garage and will not be running one in the house. Not sure what to do.


Are the mounts still there for an OEM engine cover?

To be honest, I've never even given thought to printing fumes. I've been printing in my master bedroom for some time now and the Dr. Said the horn growing out of my skull could be removed pretty easily.

Seriously though, I think it is the resin printers that have more fumes that aren't great for you, along with ABS. PLA and TPU are fairly safe from what I've read on the subject and those are just about all I print.

Yes, the mounting spots for the cover are still there. But the covers are quite hard to come by and well over $100 last I checked, which was a good long while ago. Also, I'm not a huge fan of burying the coils under a foam cover. I know tons of manuf's do it, but I'd prefer they be out in the open air. And I'm cheap. Mostly I'm cheap.
 
I think you'll end up rich selling these! Remember your friends here when you've hit the big-time :)
 
I think you'll end up rich selling these! Remember your friends here when you've hit the big-time :)

Hahaha, nope, giving the design and files away to the community. I'll probably sell one or two to people that can't print theirs, but other than that I'm just giving it to the world.
 
Enough to rust spark plugs.

It happens to quite a few Rangers, it's just a crap design on Fords part. If they had decided not to cost down and cut out the engine cover, no one would have the problem. There's no drains in the area to keep clean. Its just a big flat piece of metal there that collects water.

If memory serves, there's a TSB out there about it where the fix is to replace parts and give them an engine cover.
Ford has no shortage on crap designs.. :) I think the engineers attend a special school on crappy packaging, end goal being to be able to pack 11 pounds of crap in a 10 pound bag... just so anybody has to work on their products develops migraines. gives up and takes it to the dealer..

the 5.4 in my Expedition had water down in the back coil one time... right after I purchased it ( used).. I think they pressure cleaned it and water got down in there.It caused a misfire about 4 days after I bought the truck..

I don't doubt if you put a good coat of di electric grease on the end of the coil and then used a hit temp RTV ( red or Black) up around the lip on the rubber boot where the coil pushes down and seals against the cylinder head, you would be able to stop most of the problem.

The coils used to go bad on my 5.4 in my Expedition. I think I replaced 4 of them over the 150k I put on it.. I changed the plugs one time, what a major PITA as Ford laid a wiring harness over the one side and both fuel rails have to come off to get down in there to the coils... contrast that with the 3.6 V6 in my Camaro.. I changed all the plugs in that in about 20 minutes, you don;t have to do anything but remove one screw from the ignition coil and flip it out of the way to get to the spark plug... measured the gaps of the used plugs with 120k miles on them and they were exactly .060", which is exactly what they are when they are new.. from then on I decided I would never change the plugs again unless I had to replace a coil.. then it would just be both at the same time..

I decided with my daughters Nissan I was never going to replace the spark plugs until it starts misfiring.. and if it does I am going to replace all the plugs and the coils... the problem on that engine is you have to remove part of the intake manifold to get to 2 of the spark plugs..
 
Ford has no shortage on crap designs.. :) I think the engineers attend a special school on crappy packaging, end goal being to be able to pack 11 pounds of crap in a 10 pound bag... just so anybody has to work on their products develops migraines. gives up and takes it to the dealer..

the 5.4 in my Expedition had water down in the back coil one time... right after I purchased it ( used).. I think they pressure cleaned it and water got down in there.It caused a misfire about 4 days after I bought the truck..

I don't doubt if you put a good coat of di electric grease on the end of the coil and then used a hit temp RTV ( red or Black) up around the lip on the rubber boot where the coil pushes down and seals against the cylinder head, you would be able to stop most of the problem.

The coils used to go bad on my 5.4 in my Expedition. I think I replaced 4 of them over the 150k I put on it.. I changed the plugs one time, what a major PITA as Ford laid a wiring harness over the one side and both fuel rails have to come off to get down in there to the coils... contrast that with the 3.6 V6 in my Camaro.. I changed all the plugs in that in about 20 minutes, you don;t have to do anything but remove one screw from the ignition coil and flip it out of the way to get to the spark plug... measured the gaps of the used plugs with 120k miles on them and they were exactly .060", which is exactly what they are when they are new.. from then on I decided I would never change the plugs again unless I had to replace a coil.. then it would just be both at the same time..

I decided with my daughters Nissan I was never going to replace the spark plugs until it starts misfiring.. and if it does I am going to replace all the plugs and the coils... the problem on that engine is you have to remove part of the intake manifold to get to 2 of the spark plugs..

Yea, I'm not gunking my valve cover up with RTV. I change plugs every 30k and having to clean that off and reapply is not something I'm willing to deal with that often.
 
Yea, I'm not gunking my valve cover up with RTV. I change plugs every 30k and having to clean that off and reapply is not something I'm willing to deal with that often.
you don't have to gunk them up... thin bead around the lip of the coil... wouldn't doubt your engine is put together in some places with RTV...

nor do you need to change your plugs every 30 k.. but its your truck. I'm just offering you a possible solution.
 
Some days you just end up with a mess:



Yep, that's my printer. I should have checked my print head spacing and reapplied the glue to hold the print down. Woke up to a giant mass of plastic spaghetti.
 
Yep, that's my printer. I should have checked my print head spacing and reapplied the glue to hold the print down. Woke up to a giant mass of plastic spaghetti.
That does look like mess! How do you start the print? It seems like there would be nothing to hold it down, since it was just started. It's a chicken and egg problem.
 
That does look like mess! How do you start the print? It seems like there would be nothing to hold it down, since it was just started. It's a chicken and egg problem.
You rely on the first layer sticking to the bed. Lots of different bed materials out there. You get to learn what sticks to what bed and the temperature of the bed you need to use. And whether you need to use an adhesive to hold them....and if you want to use a skirt around the print, which is just a single layer outside of the actual print that gives you more surface area to stick the print down. Of course you then have to cut it off the print.

So, to break it down you have

Different Bed options
Different bed temperatures
Glue or no glue (The glue is really just a PVA glue stick that washes off everything with some warm water)
Skirt or no skirt

And then on top of that, different printing materials stick differently. PLA won't usually stick to my glass bed, but it will with glue. TPU usually will stick to glass with nothing else needed, but it has to be hot.

PLA will stick to a textured bed, but you can't have it too hot or you might have warping problems.

The PETG I've been using needs lots of heat and some glue. I thought I had enough still on the bed to make this one stick. I hit print, the first couple rounds of the print head looked sound, so I went to bed. Woke up to spaghetti monster.

There's a learning curve for sure, and when you get it wrong (and go to sleep) you get a mess to clean up.
 
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