Rocker Clip Interest

[AMC Diplomat]

There's a local company that makes 3d printed clips and pieces. Before I waste my time even investigating what it would cost to make a run of the rocker clips, I'm curious as to how many people are even interested. I'd hate to go to the effort, spend several hundred dollars, only sell 2 sets, and have the rest end up the attic for the rest of my life.

I mean, I still have brand new radiators that didn't move and the for sale section here shows almost no interest.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Before investing your own money in it it might be better to see if an existing company that sells clips online would make and sell them at their cost. Otherwise once they've made the 3D printer drawing for them they can add it to their collection and sell it themselves so it's like you'd be paying them to design their own product.

I'd be really interested in making this sort of thing myself to sell but I don't know anything about 3D printing lol

 

[AMC Diplomat]

They claim no order is too small. I'd like to figure out where the break even point would be. They don't do retail, only production, so I'm not worried about them selling clips. I think this is a niche market and that's why no one sells them. I'd basically pay to do one run and that would be it. I wouldn't do a second run unless there was serious demand

 

[Camtron]

There’s some reasonable small batch companies out there. SendCutSend is one I’ve been looking into and messing around with their part builder online. Pretty easy to use and pricing isn’t terrible. I don’t know how easy it’d be to try and make a spring clip on their site but they work a variety of materials and have a decent amount of base template/shapes to start off with and then you add all your dimensions and offsets, ect…to make your piece.

 

[AMC Diplomat]

I think I have at least 1 clip that isn't broken that I would just bring to them and see what they say. Probably in a couple weeks when I have some free time

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Call my crazy but I've got enough crap I need for various projects that I'm seriously thinking of starting to mess with 3d printers.
Maybe I'll start with some of the software to see how easy it is to draw the stuff up.

 

[Duke5A]

Call my crazy but I've got enough crap I need for various projects that I'm seriously thinking of starting to mess with 3d printers.
Maybe I'll start with some of the software to see how easy it is to draw the stuff up.

Buddy of mine got into it a while back. Drawing up from scratch can be complicated, but what a lot of people do now is 3D scan the part and then make slight modifications. LIDAR cameras (depth sensing) aren't that expensive anymore and the new Pro/Max iPhones have depth cameras built in.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Buddy of mine got into it a while back. Drawing up from scratch can be complicated, but what a lot of people do now is 3D scan the part and then make slight modifications. LIDAR cameras (depth sensing) aren't that expensive anymore and the new Pro/Max iPhones have depth cameras built in.

I was looking at that the other day. Some of the printers are capable of duplicating and have a scanner too. There's so much out there I might buy a chiepie printer that has a good rating to play around with and go from there. At least it wouldn't be a big investment lost if it ends up being beyond my capabilites. That's what I did with powder coating and still using the eastwood kit.

Sorry to hijack the post lol

 

[AMC Diplomat]

The part scanning really has come a long way. I'll get an appointment set up and see what happens.

 

[GranFuneral_85]

Really curious if anyone has had any success on this topic. I only have 1 good clip on my passenger side so I took the trim off to not lose it on the road and it’s not my favorite. This is my “nice” car lol

 

[Camtron]

I have a friend/co worker in PA with a print farm. I could probably get him to make a few and prove concept; how he paid his bills during covid. I imagine he’d do it if we cover the filament cost.

 

[Camtron]

Someone get me a trim clip, lol he’s game to give it a try.

 

[AMC Diplomat]

I never got anywhere with this, all my clips were broken

 

[Mikes5thAve]

I had a bunch of new clips for another car fail. I'm guessing they were 3D printed. I'm not sure if that sort of thing is affected by the printer and type of material used.

 

[volare 1977]

I have had good luck finding trim clips on ebay. BTW, Not a clip but I had a printed bushing fail in no time. They were too brittle

 

[Camtron]

Yes, there are a bunch of filament compounds and options on the market and your filament selection and what you need it to do matters very much.

 

[GranFuneral_85]

Someone get me a trim clip, lol he’s game to give it a try.

View attachment 56181

I’ll see if I can get it removed without breaking it this weekend and let you know.