3D printed dust boot for top of steering gear
 

The original dust cap on the top of steering gear got brittle and damaged. But in order to replace it, you gotta unhook the lower steering joint assembly, and that looks like a pain in the rear.

So, I used my 3D printer to actually print something useful for once! ;)

Here is the design and the printed part installed on the car. Let's see how long it lasts.

Now that is a great use of 3D printing... :thumbup:

Very nice job with that

Fantastic.

FYI, nearly 3 years later, the part is still intact! :-)

That is pure genius and amazing, after 3 years still going strong!


That's actually so cool you actually kind of have me wanting a 3D printer just so that I can make shit now... my wife is going to kill me - "Honey, I think we need a 3D printer..." do you think I should lead with:


-because this dude on XOutpost made the coolest dust cover for his steering rack?


or
-, just think of all the cool things the kids could do with it over the summer to keep them out of your hair! (Damn... she'd say "Your kids are 18 and 20 and have no interest in a 3D printer, what's up")...


Oh the conundrum! :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

The 3D printers aren't too expensive these days. And there's TONs of practical stuff I've printed on it.

The danger with the 3D printer though is getting into the habit of buying too much filament. I do keep myself in check about that. The way I convince myself is that you have to keep the filament "dry" and so I have this large sealed plastic container that can't hold anymore filament. :) I have 4 colors and the black in 3 different materials.

I bought the printer for myself and my wife naturally reacted with: "oh, nice... another toy!" But.... Now she agrees it has been a very useful "toy". I have printed useful things specifically for her and things that benefit her too, so that helped ;)

I do not regret it at all. It has been a lot of fun!

Good luck with it! May be you can get some flowers to come with it, that may ease the acceptance at first... ;)

This is awesome. Do you have the STL file uploaded to thingiverse or a similar model repository?

You can find it here: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints...-rack-dust-cap