Hello 3D Printing Friends! Today on the BV3D Channel,
we'll learn how to use 3D printing to repair a chair! Stick around and we'll
get into it right after this! I'm Bryan, and you.. are watching BV3D!
Hi, welcome back. Hey, if you're new here, and you're wanting to learn about 3D printing,
3D modeling, and other 3D printing related stuff, start now, by subscribing, and clicking the bell,
so you don't miss anything! Okay, so today we're going to design and 3D print a part that will let
me replace this really-old-and-about-to-break chair glide with this
not-very-old-and-less-in-danger-of--immediately-breaking chair glide. See, i've got a problem here,
and I need to fix it. My dining table and chairs are at least 20 years old, maybe even older.
And the original plastic glides on the bottom of the chair legs are starting to break. So I need
to replace the old glides with new ones. But the problem is that new chair glides either need to be
nailed in or screwed in. And the original glides have a cylindrical part that fits into a hole in
the chair leg. They use a simple friction fit to stay in place. And these replacement glides that I
have, they're held in place with a screw. So, how do i put these new chair glides on, and keep them
centered on the leg like the original ones, when the hole in the leg is far too big for the screw?
One way to do this would be to find a dowel rod that is a large enough diameter to fill the hole,
cut a length of it off, apply glue to it, put it in the hole, let the glue dry,
and then drill a pilot hole for a screw. Then the new glide could be screwed into place.
But that's how we did things before 3D printing. In the age of 3D printing, we can use the
free browser-based CAD software, Tinkercad, to design a cylinder of the appropriate diameter,
and design it with the screw hole already built in. And so that's what we'll do.
Before we actually design something, we need to know how big the something needs to be.
So, looking at the original glide, the part that goes into the chair is about 10mm in diameter, and
it's about 11mm long. I also measured the depth of the hole on the chair leg, and it's an astonishing
40mm deep. When the screw is in place in the new glide, it protrudes about 15mm. Oh, and that screw
is 4mm in diameter. I think a hole that's 3mm or maybe 3.5mm in diameter should accommodate the
shaft of the screw, and allow the threads to bite into the part without cracking it. And now that
we have those dimensions, we have the information that we need to create the part. So let's ...uh..
*glide* on into Tinkercad. It's free to use, just go to tinkercad.com in your web browser,
and sign up for an account if you don't already have one. Then sign in, and make a new design.
Tinkercad gives new designs some of the wackiest names I've ever seen,
and this is no exception. So i'm going to rename it. This is not an Amazing Jarv Amur,
this is, in fact, a chair glide adapter. There. So since we need something to go
into a cylindrical hole, i'm going to grab a cylinder part, and drag it out
onto the workplane. Then I'll change its footprint from 20mm x 20mm, to 10mm x 10mm.
I'll leave the height at 20mm though. That should be fine.
Next, I think I said I needed a hole for the screw about 3 or 3.5mm in diameter.
I'll try 3.5, and we can print one of these out and test fit it. We can come back into Tinkercad
if we need to make an adjustment. So, to make the screw hole, I'll drag out a hole-type cylinder,
and set its footprint to 3.5mm x 3.5mm. Going back over to the solid cylinder,
I want to add a bevel to it, so I'll do that here. I'll just set the bevel value to 1, and that looks
fine. I just want it to be a little bit tapered to make it easier to insert into the chair leg.
Oh, and since Tinkercad puts the bevel on both ends of the cylinder, Ii want to cut about a
millimeter off the bottom of the cylinder to maximize the contact patch between this part
and the printer's bed. So for that, I'll drag out a hole-type box part, and set its height to 1mm.
Okay, time to get all these parts lined up and grouped together so that they can do their thing.
Let's drag a selection box around all three parts. Then, using the alignment tool here.
center these parts relative to each other in the X and Y axes. With everything lined up,
group them together, and the hole parts will cut their shapes out of the solid part. Now if you
look closely, you'll see that the resulting part is actually floating 1mm above the workplane,
but that's an easy fix. With that part selected, press the D key on your keyboard. That's the
shortcut for Drop to Workplane, which does exactly what it sounds like. It drops the part straight
down onto the workplane. Now I can export this as an STL by clicking the export button.
Then I can import it into my slicer, and here i'm using PrusaSlicer. I'm just dragging that
STL file onto the plater. I'll slice it with a 0.28mm layer height. It looks like it'll
take about 12 minutes or so to print, so let me save that to a memory card and get that printed.
There, all done. Let's pull that off the printer, and see how this fits the
chair glide and the chair. So I'm going to use some adjustable pliers to hold on to the part
while i attach the glide with the screw, and then I'll test fit this assembly into the chair leg.
And it looks like it fits great! Awesome! Now that I know THIS one works, I can print and install
three more of these, and then the chair will be fixed. Well, perfect! No longer on its last leg,
this chair is ready to glide around for years to come. And that's one of the neat things about 3D
printing, and in particular, PRACTICAL 3D printing. You can design something quick,
like the thing we did here today, print it out, and fix something
without a lot of trouble. 3D printers are less expensive now than they've ever been. I mean,
you can get an Ender-3 direct from Creality for right around 150 bucks, and you can get
some pretty darn good filament from Printed Solid at less than 20 bucks for a one kilogram spool.
Armed with an Ender-3, some Jessie PLA, and either a little bit of design skill or the ability to
search the web for 3D printable replacement parts, you, too, can make repairs to things around the
...uh... home, and keep using them longer! Well, 3D Printing Friends, that's about all
the time we have for this episode. And now that we're at the end, let's go print something cool!
Hey, real quick before you go. I wanted to say, "Thanks!" for being one of the super
awesome people who sticks around all the way to the end, and thanks for all the likes, comments,
and shares. And an ESPECIALLY big thanks to those who directly support what I do.
You're all wonderful for doing that, and I really appreciate it. If you liked this episode,
a thumbs-up would be great. And if you'd like to help support the channel, check the description
for ways you can do exactly that. And hey--if you haven't already subscribed. please do! It's
absolutely free, and it's an excellent way to help keep me making these videos for you. Well,
that's it for this one. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time, here on the BV3D Channel!