MH Classic slider side window insert

[Magnet18]

Brad, awesome work!!

My first thought for strength would be to print it on-end on the z axis, to save trying to muck with supports, but I'm not sure what will be strongest

Also, this is ths perfect use of a printerbelt!
https://youtu.be/k-pmSmDDwY4
I'm wondering how hard it is to do a diy upgrade of my old printerbot... I've seen a couple of people do it :hmm:


Are you willing to send the files, or zip and upload here? I don't plan to pull a window out until it warms up, but since the pieces are small I might try some in-situ surgery

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

Brad, awesome work!!

My first thought for strength would be to print it on-end on the z axis, to save trying to muck with supports, but I'm not sure what will be strongest

I thought about printing on the Z axis as well but strength and warping worried me. It would be easy enough to try and I might try one this weekend just to find out.

I'm not convinced the little vertical lip at the top is necessary. Until someone can explain to me why it's needed I'm going to leave it out. Not having the lip at the top eliminates the need for supports of any kind. I'm thinking having slightly thicker side walls would help eliminate the need for the lip.

I've been looking at the profile of the original extrusion trying to discern why the shape is the way it is. There are some pretty funky grooves that don't make sense at the moment. The first thing I'm going to do is eliminate the V on the bottom and make it flat.

Also, this is ths perfect use of a printerbelt!
https://youtu.be/k-pmSmDDwY4
I'm wondering how hard it is to do a diy upgrade of my old printerbot... I've seen a couple of people do it :hmm:

The printer belt is really cool! Do you know if there are printer belt businesses out there that will take a g-code file or an slt file and print them? The printer belt would allow for full length extrusions without resorting to gluing the pieces together.

Are you willing to send the files, or zip and upload here? I don't plan to pull a window out until it warms up, but since the pieces are small I might try some in-situ surgery

My plan is once I have a suitable profile developed and I've made a couple of strips to put in my test window I will post the g-code files and the slt files here on Airforums and probably Thingiverse as well. More than likely I'll post the Fusion 360 files as well.

I hope these printed extrusions work, that would solve one of the many lingering problems Classic owners have

Brad

[bkahler]

In case you're wondering, I haven't given up on this project

Been busy doing other things but I've also spent a little time working out a few more details such as profile changes and density changes. My original attempt was to print the track in three sections and either glue the three sections together prior to use or just screw them in place. I took a slightly different tack and decided to print two 12" pieces instead. The problem with this approach is I can only print one piece at a time whereas with the 8" strips I can print about 10 at a time. It takes about 1.5 hours to print one 12" strip so figure about 6 hours to print enough for one window. In reality the strips would need to be 11.5" long so there's a remote chance I can fit two on the print bed. I'll be looking into that possibly shortly.



I now have my spare window sitting in the garage where I have easy access to it so I should be able to try the first 12" strips this coming weekend. Yeah I know, promises, promises!

Brad

[bobmiller1]

Amazing.........Regards, Bob

[bkahler]

Spent some time last night in Fusion 360 and shortened the 12" track down to 11.5" which is half of what the original track is. With that change there was just enough room on the Slic3r platter to fit two of the strips. As expected the print time basically doubled to three hours and 12 minutes. So it will still take six and a half hours to print enough pieces for one window. It looks like it takes about 75' of filament to fabricate enough track to do one complete window. There is about 2,376' of filament on a spool so each spool could create enough track to do about 165 windows. It would be interesting to see if those numbers would actually hold to be true. If there are 10 windows on a 345 then it would take about 32 hours to print enough for all 10 windows! Kinda scary when you look at the numbers




I've now got enough pieces printed to test in the window.



Stay tuned.....

[bobmiller1]

That’s interesting, because I’ve probably done more windows than anybody.....rebuilding them anyway, and no matter how I do it, it takes about 4 hours to rebuild one completely.....Regards, Bob.......Keep up the good work !

[bkahler]

Made some definite progress this weekend. I will say trying to work with a window that is not mounted in the chassis is rather difficult. It's hard to hold the window frame and slide the window at the same time!



I looked closer at the track profile I created and realized that I have the profile backwards. Fortunately that's an easy fix and I should have it redesigned this evening. I also was trying to get too fancy in the design by having a tongue and groove at the ends where the two sections meet. There's no need for that which simplifies things even more. I'm also going to add two screw holes per section to make it easier to mount. Using these strips you won't be able to use the existing screw holes, you'll have to drill four new ones. There is one thing that I really like about the two piece design. It's a lot easier to get the track set in place and then slide the window over it. You then lay the other piece in place, screw it down, slide the window back and screw down the other section. At least that's the plan

Oh, if you're wondering why I'm making them orange, it's to make it easier to see how they fit! If the pieces were gray it would be a lot more difficult for me to see where interferences were. Any production pieces would be printed in gray filament

Brad

[Magnet18]

Or you could charge more for custom colors!
I, for one, would like a slightly darker grey

Great work!

Edit

How well does it slide on the material?

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Oh, if you're wondering why I'm making them orange, it's to make it easier to see how they fit! If the pieces were gray it would be a lot more difficult for me to see where interferences were. Any production pieces would be printed in gray filament

Brad

....and there was me thinking you were trying to sneak some traditional Argosy orange into all those classic motorhomes!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

Or you could charge more for custom colors!
I, for one, would like a slightly darker grey

Great work!

Edit

How well does it slide on the material?

Custom colors....hadn't thought of that

It does slide but how well is hard to say. With the window just leaning up against the table it's pretty hard to handle by myself. Once I get done with the redesign I'll try again.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

....and there was me thinking you were trying to sneak some traditional Argosy orange into all those classic motorhomes!

Do you think the Classic owners would notice?

[bkahler]

Ok Classic owners

This weekend I will be doing a trial fit of the latest version of the window track that I've developed. Assuming it fits and I don't see any glaring issues I would like to find someone that would be willing to be a beta tester.

What I would like to do is send out a set of window tracks, enough to do one window, and have them installed and tested. What I don't want is to send out a set and then have to wait for weeks or months for the test to be done. I'd like feedback rather quickly. The track color will be solid gray, or orange if you prefer

In theory what you would need to do is remove the old window track, slide in the new replacements, screw them down (2 screws per track section) and see if the window will function correctly. If these tracks work then maybe the Classic owners will finally have a viable alternative to the deteriorating original gray tracks.

Thanks,

Brad

[mayco]

Great job Brad. Most of my windows are in pretty good shape so I'm not a good test subject yet. But thank you for your persistence and determination on getting these fabricated. Looking forward to the results!

[Magnet18]

My tracks are in terrible shape, some of the windows I basically have to pick them up to move them, so I'm very interested

I don't have a window in front of me, but as long as I don't have to remove the window, I could try one out quick turn around

If you send me the files I could print my own, I also have a prusa I3 MK2, but only PLA, no PETG on hand

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by mayco

Great job Brad. Most of my windows are in pretty good shape so I'm not a good test subject yet. But thank you for your persistence and determination on getting these fabricated. Looking forward to the results!

Mike, you're one of the lucky ones

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

My tracks are in terrible shape, some of the windows I basically have to pick them up to move them, so I'm very interested

I don't have a window in front of me, but as long as I don't have to remove the window, I could try one out quick turn around

If you send me the files I could print my own, I also have a prusa I3 MK2, but only PLA, no PETG on hand

Rob,

I don't remember if I still have your mailing address so why don't you pm me your address and I'll mail you a set made from PETG. I'd rather the test be done with PETG as that's what I plan for production use. As far as I know you can't remove a window until you've removed the track so there should be no issues with leaving the window in place!

On my test window I just slid the new track into place so I can't see why you shouldn't be able to do the same. The old track is held in place with a small screw at each end. Remove the screws and pull/tug/yank/cuss to get the track out from under the window!

For the test you shouldn't have to fasten them in place with screws but should you decide to leave them in place I'd highly recommend fastening each section in place with screws. I've provided a hole at each end of each piece so at most you would just need to enlarge the hole slightly for a screw. I decided to provide the holes to make it easier for drilling and also to ensure the holes were in the center of the track.

Thanks,

Brad

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Rob,

I don't remember if I still have your mailing address so why don't you pm me your address and I'll mail you a set made from PETG. I'd rather the test be done with PETG as that's what I plan for production use. As far as I know you can't remove a window until you've removed the track so there should be no issues with leaving the window in place!

On my test window I just slid the new track into place so I can't see why you shouldn't be able to do the same. The old track is held in place with a small screw at each end. Remove the screws and pull/tug/yank/cuss to get the track out from under the window!

For the test you shouldn't have to fasten them in place with screws but should you decide to leave them in place I'd highly recommend fastening each section in place with screws. I've provided a hole at each end of each piece so at most you would just need to enlarge the hole slightly for a screw. I decided to provide the holes to make it easier for drilling and also to ensure the holes were in the center of the track.

Thanks,

Brad

PM Sent!

Great, that's what I thought, but I have yet to tackle that project.

Also, where do you source your PETG? Would like to get some, not sure if there are good/bad brands, as there are definitely some sub-par PLA sources out there.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

PM Sent!

Great, that's what I thought, but I have yet to tackle that project.

Also, where do you source your PETG? Would like to get some, not sure if there are good/bad brands, as there are definitely some sub-par PLA sources out there.

Rob, enough pieces to do two windows should be in the mail sometime this week.

I did a trial fit with the revised design and I don't see any glaring problems. I might have to rethink the hole locations but will wait to see what you think.

I've been buying eSun 1.75 PETG from Amazon. A friend of mine uses several Prusa machines to fabricate gears and parts for his business and swears by eSun. Since I'm still rather new at this I can't say it's the best but I don't seem to have any issues when using it.

Brad

[Magnet18]

Thanks Brad! I should have time to do a test fit this weekend. My current class wraps up Friday so I plan to put in some long hours on the Airstream this weekend to relax

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

Thanks Brad! I should have time to do a test fit this weekend. My current class wraps up Friday so I plan to put in some long hours on the Airstream this weekend to relax

I'm thinking you need to find a different source of relaxation

Package is in the mail, you should have it before the end of the week.

Brad