I made this thread for those who really want to get good electronics, but don’t want to spend a truckload on mechanical parts.
I am currently looking into @solidgeek’s motor mount and 3d printed pulleys on thingiverse. Motor mount @solidigeek : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2429445 Other Motor mount without steel rods: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2578901 40t Pulley for flywheels: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:545345 20t pulley: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:686273
My opinion is that most 3D printed parts won’t cut it unless they’re for a minimal load/wear application. Plastic wont last long enough in this application. My general experience with 3D printing is that the parts just aren’t tough enough - for example, a 3D printed motor mount would tend to crack and loosen around the contact surface with the trucks and eny screws you put through it will lose their grip over time.
Of course, there are higher-quality-than-average prints that can probably handle it, but you end up paying more for them anyway, so why not invest a bit more to get some metal parts that will last much longer?
Note that this somewhat changes if you have your own printer and can be re-printing your parts every 6 months(?) or so. With your own printer, it’s so cheap that who cares if it wears out? Just make sure you have an appropriate maintenance window so you aren’t using parts that are going to fail on you while you’re actually on the board.
True, I agree that some parts you should get metal parts like the motor pulley and the motor mount, You can get a motor mount for 9 bucks from hobby king and a 20t aluminum pulley for like 5 bucks, but for the wheel pulley, I think you could get away with that for a while, but like you said, you want to have a 3d printer to print new parts.
personally, I think that you should only use 3d printed parts if you have your own 3d printer. If you don’t, just buy a metal one which will definitely last longer.
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I have as much as possible parts on my board 3D printed. They hold out pretty good, in case of design flaws I redesign them and then print a few more pieces. My entire battery enclosure is glass fiber enforced PLA. VESC enclosure was printed with more temperature resistant material than PLA - GreenTEC.
Speaking of motor mounts - CF reinforced PETG:
NIce dude. I have a 3d printer too so replacement parts are easy
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