Annoying Chinese Key Knob Fix !
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2022
(file link at the bottom)
Ever since I first got my printer, I have always hated those stupid enclosure door knobs that needed that triangle key thing. It's totally unnecessary for a hobbyist and even if you can find the key when you want in, it's still a pain just to fit the thing over the spud so you can finally turn it and open a door. There are 10 of them on my machine !!!
Anyway, all it needs is a knob, so I thought I'd try to just print one. It turned out pretty good! Easy to use finally, and besides a little cleanup from supports after printing, it just comes off the printer and ready to assemble.
I used an Elegoo Mars, which is one of the most common resin printers out there and the rest of them are pretty much the same, so it should be easy for anyone else to print too if you want.
So this is what I hated:
This is what came out of the printer. You could print more, but I was in no hurry really. More batches is no big deal:
This is after cleaning off the supports:
And the piece of resistance...
By the way, yes this was just printed with standard resin, which is usually so brittle it's fragile. But the shape of this piece makes for a very robust part. I torqued it pretty hard trying to make it fail, but it's just a pretty strong part. Of course if you want to get fancy with the resin and make it even tougher, that's always possible.
Also, when I say this is ready for assembly, I mean the threads too. Right off the printer, the 6mm screw fits the threads perfect - that's one of the beautiful things about resin printers (once you model the part suitably). Such fine resolution.
Here's a link to .ipt and .stl files if you want to try it:
https://thangs.com/mythangs/file/55130? ... rsion=true
p.s. I bet this has been done a hundred times already, but this was fun... and it worked!
Ever since I first got my printer, I have always hated those stupid enclosure door knobs that needed that triangle key thing. It's totally unnecessary for a hobbyist and even if you can find the key when you want in, it's still a pain just to fit the thing over the spud so you can finally turn it and open a door. There are 10 of them on my machine !!!
Anyway, all it needs is a knob, so I thought I'd try to just print one. It turned out pretty good! Easy to use finally, and besides a little cleanup from supports after printing, it just comes off the printer and ready to assemble.
I used an Elegoo Mars, which is one of the most common resin printers out there and the rest of them are pretty much the same, so it should be easy for anyone else to print too if you want.
So this is what I hated:
This is what came out of the printer. You could print more, but I was in no hurry really. More batches is no big deal:
This is after cleaning off the supports:
And the piece of resistance...
By the way, yes this was just printed with standard resin, which is usually so brittle it's fragile. But the shape of this piece makes for a very robust part. I torqued it pretty hard trying to make it fail, but it's just a pretty strong part. Of course if you want to get fancy with the resin and make it even tougher, that's always possible.
Also, when I say this is ready for assembly, I mean the threads too. Right off the printer, the 6mm screw fits the threads perfect - that's one of the beautiful things about resin printers (once you model the part suitably). Such fine resolution.
Here's a link to .ipt and .stl files if you want to try it:
https://thangs.com/mythangs/file/55130? ... rsion=true
p.s. I bet this has been done a hundred times already, but this was fun... and it worked!