Aren't 3D Printers BRILLIANT!?

 It's been a while, but a coming together of several circumstances led to a little garage time this weekend & my attention turned to the Stylus' airbox.

I made it when I put the blacktop in the car as the existing foam filter was tight up against the trumpets & was breathing engine bay air. Some time later, on a road trip I discovered that the flat face opposite the trumpets had broken up - the resonance of the air pulses I expect, so I mended that, this time also on a road trip I found the airbox was loose, I suspected the lower bolts had torn through & took it off to investigate.

If fact the airbox was still intact, but the bolts had fallen out. Easy fix, but there were more repairs to be done.

Repair 1 was to one of the upper mounting holes, that had pulled through, so an aluminium plate was made & bonded in place. A hole was later drilled.

Yes, it's on my kitchen worktop - what of it?

Repair 2 was the intake. This had originally been bonded on with Tigerseal - usually a very reliable means of attaching stuff. but not this time.

I had carried out a (ahem) "temporary" repair some time ago with a yard & a half of duct tape, could I come up with some thing better? You betcha!

I fired up the laptop & the very useful (& free) CAD system "OnShape" & effectively drew up an "N" - an internal groove, joined to an external groove, the first goes round the flange at the end of the intake, the second fits to the edge if the airbox

Having fed this into the 3D printer & given it some nice soft shore A90 TPU filament to chew on - and a couple of hours, I peeled this of the bed & after a little cleaning up - you can see it's a bit hairy still - I fitted the edge of the Air Box into the outward facing groove.

You can't see anything else though, because it's BLACK! (sorry, my girlfriend & I are a little "Fast Show" obsessed at the moment.

The intake slides through the big hole in the middle locking it in place & when slid fully home, the flange on the other end of the intake is trapped in the inward facing groove (after a brief struggle).

So the outside looks all neat & tidy like this ...

... and the inside looks all neat & tidy like this, the airflow is undisturbed & the intake has a little "give", but is VERY tightly held.

On the car it looks like this. Practically invisible - at least compared to a yard & a half of duct tape.

So there you are - 3D printers - not just for miniature figures of Yoda & sex toys, they have real world practical uses.