I had an idea long ago to design and print a shift knob. This is actually what made me acquire a 3d printer in the first place, and to begin messing around with design. I had the classic Mugen F1 shiftknob, and in summer weather the thing would get very hot. One day I painted it white, and I really liked the result. One thing lead to another and I had my printer, some software and begun printing some shift knobs. They have some serious overhang, so till this day, they look a bit off. But not that bad actually. I've made various different designs. I have liked all of them. The one I stuck with, was suggested my a member off of a Honda forum. It is a copy of an NSX knob. It is very small but feels well in the hand. Settings for printing it are tricky, the size of it requires unique settings in order for the knob to have sufficient strength. The knobs are very light, but it does not bother me. I have solid shifter bushings and an extension on my shifter so there already is some weight there anyway. My shifter requires very little effort, thankfully my gears engage well still. With the extension and my horn plate I have manged to bring my wheel and shifter to a very comfortable position. Here is the NSX knob.
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This is a simple piece I designed and printed to replace the standard horn button on most aftermarket wheels.
I could never find a design I liked and what I like most is a clean, simple, unbranded item. One day looking through a bin of parts I found a momentary switch and that's when it struck me to design this. At first I made a basic metal piece that held the switch, but it was ugly and it tilted the wheel at an angle. This piece I measured and made it so the face would be level to the wheel, for a very clean design. Just a hole for the horn switch. I also blacked out the momo branding. It has an unforseen advantage of being able to be made with more stack height, to bring the wheel closer to the driver. In my case 2 mm. The only thing I would change is printing it on its face to avoid the support material leaving the odd pattern, or maybe it just adding more top layers. I purchased the well known Mugen pedal kit for my car several years ago. With age and use, the coral insert pieces,that are meant to augment grip, have gotten a bit ugly. They trap dirt and whatever else can fit inside and never can it be removed.
To be honest I didn't like the look of the silver coral insert from the beginning, and it honestly was not all that grippy. I had tried before to change it but could not find a proper solution. With my new 3d printer and some soft pla that I ordered for a project that did not turn out as I desired. I realized I could finally fix this. I got to work. First I removed the coral insert, I tried not to damage it in the process. In case my design did not work. But that didn't happen, so I continued with dismantling it. Then was design, which was not as bad as I thought. I contemplated a pattern and at first left it featureless and printed it on its face, in hopes that the support material generated by the slicer software would leave a grippy texture. It did but it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing. So I designed a pattern and tried at printing it on it's side to avoid having ugly support material. I didn't do this at first because to be honest, I did not believe in my abilities. Well, surprise, it worked. So well, I designed a matching dead pedal insert. The grip is better and looks much cleaner. |