One of the folding chairs (aka thinking stools) I have in the garage broke recently, rather than chuck in the bin I thought it would be good practice to 3D model replacement parts and then make using a 3D printer. By good practice, I mean testing my Fusion360 skill are ‘good enough’ to the point where it would be more cost effective to model/print versus simply buying a new chair, depends on how much you value your own time I guess.
One of the corner brace/brackets snapped offThe original bracket was held in place using rivetsThe design went through a few iterations, was happy to have gotten majority of the design right in v1Model I created of the bracket in Fusion360 (bracket is upside down in screenshot)Top piece which inserts into main bracket, you can see the M8 thread modelled internally. Ready for functional testingUsed bolts in place of rivets, probably should of also used nylock nutsHad to open up the holes left from the rivets in order to get the bolts to fitThe mushroom sleeve plastic thing has a bolt that screws in underneath which grips the chairs material, this was printed with an M8 x 1.5mm thread modelled by Fusion360, the M8 bolt screwed into the printed thread just fine. The finished piece, probably should have printed this in Carbon Fibre reinforced Nylon as its a structural part taking the full weight of a person. Will be interesting to see how long it holds currently as PETG.
In the end it probably was about half an hours modelling time, and a few hours print time for a total of 3 iterations, it was worth it in the end just as a fun experiment, turns out I can model pretty quick when I have to.
