KS-17 energy/gas key - triangular/triangular - emergency 3D printing

Emergency situation...
And how long did it take to design + final print?

Hmm you have the printing information in the topic, such a gadget prints 20 minutes.
The design itself is a dozen minutes, it's just a few basic shapes, with me doing three test prints (this increased the time).
Out of curiosity I opened up Blender ( probably in something for CAD it would have been faster, but Blender was at hand and I know it ) and made a similar shape in 2 minutes (but of course that skips the fitting etc):


As far as I'm concerned, in situations like this a 3D printer can help and not just as a toy/gadget, it's seriously capable of producing a result faster than, say, waiting for Monday and then taking a car trip into town specifically to buy one key.

bsw wrote:

And how long did it take to design + final print?

Looking at the size of the part and complexity it's probably 15-20 min to design and probably 10-15 min to print. Especially as this is supposed to be usable and not pretty (read can be sped up considerably). If you have a good printer (read e.g. Voron or something like that) you can probably go below 5 min with the print time. That is, including even test prints you can have such an item under an hour.

I didn't optimise the printing time, everything went on the default settings, probably if the speed was set higher, it would also be shortened a few times. All in all, as I was printing bulk containers for SMD:

that's when I played around with it and indeed, with simple shapes the Print Speed parameter can be increased significantly with no noticeable loss of quality. On my Ender 3 Pro (not sure about other printers), I can also increase the speed scale with the knob during printing.

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

Total as I printed bulk containers for SMD:

Super fab! Did you design it yourself or was it downloaded from somewhere?

This is a project from the web, quite popular, it was described here: https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic3719527.html

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

The design itself is several minutes, it's just a few basic shapes, with me doing three proofs (this increased the time).

Even if you bought a ready-made key, there is no guarantee that you would have chosen the right size, a triangle being unequal to a triangle. You could also get a size too big by mistake from the seller. Then there is the wait for shipping a second time.

I like topics like this, thanks for sharing.

Situations like this are worth presenting to our wives, who think we're only buying ourselves unnecessary toys. Because they're not toys at all, are they?

khoam wrote:

in emergency situations I use what is known as a flat pincher. It has worked many times

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

one of the padlocks would not open for anything using "guerrilla" methods

khoam wrote:

Of course it is good to have such a key, but it is not a reason to buy a 3D printer.

It seems to me that this article is not about convincing you to buy a printer, rather what you can do with it once you have it.

khoam wrote:

in emergency situations I use what I call a flat pinch.

I made one for myself from thick-walled copper tubing shaped by heat.

Just what is there to work so hard for?
Old triangular file, grind the edges and hammer into the steel tube.
Measure - if the screw head doesn't go in, hammer in some more.
Quick and cheap.
I didn't write - mandatory glasses.
By now I have a piece of file in my finger from chipping.

I would not, however, give the hole through, but to the required depth. This will always strengthen the structure and, in the position in which you are printing this key, no slides are needed.

Leaving aside the design and the printing (full credit where it's due - I'd sooner make such a key out of a piece of anything using kitchen tools), the first thing that popped into my head was: If there was an emergency need to open the power padlock, that means there was no electricity. And what, the printer worked by sheer force of will?

miroskop wrote:

I would not, however, give the hole through but to the required depth. This will always strengthen the structure and in the position in which you print this key, no slides are needed.

The tube shape is the strongest for torsion
There is no need to fill the centre ...

Strongest for torsion yes, but made from the same amount of material - a tube made from 1 kg of steel will yes be stronger than a bar made from the SAME AMOUNT of material, i.e. a kilogram (which will be an order of magnitude smaller in diameter), but, of choice - from a tube or a solid bar of the same DIMENSION the bar will ALWAYS be stronger.

If it couldn't be opened by "guerrilla methods" then a printed key (whose strength is rather less than that of an ABS die-cast) lasted without a "flower" for once? I think you had poor pliers.... Somehow I don't have confidence in the durability of 3D prints.

Nice project.
@p.kaczmarek2 tell me what is the durability of such a key compared to the one from a well-known auction site?

kotbury wrote:

Somehow I have no confidence in the durability of 3D prints

And rightly so, but this is improving year on year. There are also different strategies for mechanically reinforcing the prints and you can get comparable strengths.

Jacek Rutkowski wrote:

The tube shape is the strongest for torsion.
There is no need to fill the centre...

For the same outside diameters, a solid bar is stronger than a tube, this follows from the torsional strength formulae. After all, a rod is also a tube with a wall thickness equal to the radius, so it has an internal diameter =0. I guess it is logical that the thicker the wall the stronger the tube.
Also, I was thinking of the fact that closing the profile in this way would increase its resistance to deformation or tearing, rather than that it would improve torsional strength.

3D printing offers the opportunity for cheap, aesthetically pleasing fabrication of many components. Many of the gadgets presented on the forum would look much better in a 'bespoke' case than another solder-burned, sculpted Z15. I don't know what the anti-printing attitude is all about, these aren't fat money devices, and the question of the durability of printing at the moment is basically limited to how you design the thing and what you make it out of.

maestro16s wrote:

3D printing offers the opportunity for cheap, aesthetically pleasing fabrication of many components. Many of the gadgets presented on the forum would look much better in a 'bespoke' case than another solder-burned, sculpted Z15.

That's how!

maestro16s wrote:

I don't know what the anti-printing attitude is all about, these aren't fat money devices and the question of print durability at the moment is basically limited to how the thing is designed and made from

Simple. You have to buy yourself the equipment first, then learn how to use it, and finally you have to learn some design software. Very much 'work', so it's simpler to look for a hole in the whole thing.
Obviously 3d printing is not a panacea for all 'mechanical problems', but for the electronics hobbyist it has huge applications.

Gentlemen, I am not looking for a hole in the whole, printing decorative figurines or "tailor-made" enclosures for electronics is OK (I have a few printed adapters for various types of batteries - e.g. Makita to Einhell and they work b. ), but when someone prints toothed wheels for gear belts to drive an electric skateboard (which has recently become fashionable among young people) - and if with such a piece of equipment riding over 50 km/h the teeth come off, the belt stops, and the guy glides some 20 m forward, I have some doubts about the sense of using 3D printing. After all, you could mill such things out of aerospace aluminium (e.g. PA52 alloy, reasonably cheap, or bronze) and be sure it would hold up.... Printing such things looks like a demonstration of the capabilities of the technology, rather than a sensible necessity.

We start an offtopic, but it's hard, maybe the moderation here won't 'ban' us straight away.

kotbury wrote:

but how someone prints the gears for the toothed belts to drive an electric skateboard (which is recently in vogue among the young on riding such a thing) - and if with such a piece of equipment skipping over 50 km/h the teeth will come off, the belt will stop, and the guy will glide some 20 m forward then I have some doubts about the point of using 3D printing

Here I sense some manipulation . Firstly, great that it prints, because however when you design something it is better to check if it fits. Secondly, the question is what it prints from, because there are materials that should be able to withstand such loads (with the right geometry). Thirdly, this is some kind of weird case from the top down. It is the same as saying that knives kill. If someone uses a tool in an inappropriate manner, he or she will feel the consequences, and that is that. Neither will it be banned nor will people be taught (all "from the top").

kotbury wrote:

Printing such things looks like a demonstration of the technology's capabilities, not a sensible necessity.

I don't know if this only applies to the mythical skateboard wheels or the presented key, BUT. The pony is great because, as we've already written, it works in emergency cases. As for the skateboard wheels, in my opinion, it is also a super thing. You can check that the detail fits. You can print it out of some sturdier materials (e.g. polycarbonate with carbon fibre and then it's more likely to last, it's hard to print it on a 600£ printer without mods, but you can try). Not everyone has the access/staff to commission the details, only to find out later that something doesn't fit.

In conclusion, I think it makes sense to rationalise and not think of 3d printing as a 'hammer for everything'.

3D printing will contribute to what programming and 'Arduino' have done to modern electronics. It's just that a lot of people are aware that the new generation of "engineers" may not know how to use a saw, file, riveting machine or hand-controlled machine tools (they'll be taught that if something can't be printed or cut or milled on a CNC it can't be done at all).
Returning to the subject of the "essential" key, for which it turned out to be necessary to harness 3D design software, a person with a rich technical imagination would, for example, take a pen out of his pocket, use a plastic casing heated by a lighter to press it onto the screw, wait for the plastic to harden and unscrew it. It is very good that the author managed but personally I think that using 3D printing for such simple parts is the wrong direction (taking shortcuts kills technical imagination).
The younger and younger generation has access to 3D printing and it would be better if they didn't print themselves dashboard keys because it could end badly.

E8600 wrote:

There are simply a lot of people who are aware that the new generation of 'engineers' may not know how to use a saw, file, riveting machine or hand-controlled machine tools (they will be taught that if something can't be printed or cut or milled on a CNC then it can't be made at all).

Sorry to say it but this is 'fear sowers talk'. In the same way they talked in the 19th century that if the steam engine came in, people would all starve to death because the machines would replace them. Somehow this did not happen, but the standard of living improved, for all people. Besides, we are not exaggerating that the new generation of 'machinists' will not know how to use a file. Those who have to will. Besides, the term engineer is a very broad one, so neither in the past nor nowadays have all engineers ever had a file in their hands.

E8600 wrote:

Back to the subject of the "necessary" key for which it turned out to be necessary to harness 3D design software, a person with a rich technical imagination would, for example, take a pen out of his pocket, use a plastic casing heated with a lighter to press it onto the screw, wait for the plastic to harden and unscrew it. It is very good that the author managed but personally I think that the use of 3D printing for such simple components is the wrong direction (by taking shortcuts we kill the technical imagination).

Well, I don't know. The pliers couldn't handle it, but a thin plastic tube could (and if you heat it up and push it in, it'll be uneven and have a lot of potential defects, so you'll weaken it). And if it breaks, what next? With a print you have options to change the parameters of the part and print details you can enhance this. A lot of CAD packages have a finite element simulation option so you can even simulate it (it's not difficult or complicated stuff), in fusion you used to be able to optimise the geometry using this method (finite elements).
And I think that the efficient use of CAD software in combination with 3d printing is a great tool to develop your technical imagination. You have a tool where you can think of something design it and print it. By yourself. In one day for not very complex ideas. And then test and learn from it. You don't have to play around to make everything out of sheet metal or flat bar and then after two weeks of sculpting come to the conclusion that it wasn't a good idea after all.

E8600 wrote:

The younger and younger generation has access to 3D printing and they'd better not print themselves dashboard keys because it could end badly

I for one don't know where the zamordism comes from. Let this young generation be watched over by their parents and not top-down by the elektroda forum. According to this logic, if someone posts a project with a battery, you will have to write not to eat it, because children have pocket money and you don't need proof to buy batteries. That is to say, all children, upon seeing batteries, will buy them en masse and eat them if you don't put a proper warning spell on the forum.....

E8600 wrote:

she would take a pen out of her pocket use a plastic casing heated with a lighter press it onto the screw wait for the plastic to harden and unscrew

Too many McGyver films

You don't have to be a McGyver and the screws on these padlocks are not tightened at all because you end up breaking the thread on the brass screw.

ArturAVS wrote:

I made one myself from thick walled copper tubing shaped hot.

trojan 12 wrote:

An old triangular file, grind the edges and hammer into the steel tube.

teskot wrote:

I would sooner make such a key from a piece of anything using kitchen tools

metalMANiu wrote:

Situations like this are worth presenting to our wives, who think that we are only buying ourselves unnecessary toys. Because they are not toys at all, are they?

For a person who can't design anything themselves in 3D which is very intuitive these days, a 3D printer is just a toy used to print designs from the web.

There used to be a rash of 3D-printed shredder gears on auction sites, but they disappeared after the first comments from buyers. 3D printing will still have a lot of limitations for a long time to come and the technology should not be seen as:

miszcz310 wrote:

In summary, it seems to me that it makes sense to rationalise and not think of 3D printing as a "hammer for everything" .

E8600 wrote:

There used to be a rash of 3D-printed shredder gears on auction sites but they disappeared after the first buyer comments

Well because they got on with the job and sure enough , the cheapest pla printed without even thinking about the moments that are in the shredder.
As for limitations though, people are very inventive. There is now a company printing with very clever technology on carbon fibre.

Edit: Obviously they did NOT know on the robot. The phone ate the 'no'.

https://youtu.be/0BKzikfssTM

Btw, 3d printing also works very cool as an enabling technology. E.g. you can print yourself a detail and use it for casting with e.g. a Loss Mould (I don't know what it is called in English it is investment casting, because you lose the printed detail). This is how rings/earrings are cast. In the same way, people cast metal or low-melting metal parts.

miszcz310 wrote:

No because they knew their way around the job and probably , the cheapest pla printed without even thinking about the moments that are in the shredder.

No because such wheels are factory-made from PA66+50GF (polyamide with 50% glass fibre content). Fitting companies mill from the same material or from metal to increase durability.