Chapter 22 – Starter Contactor Mount

Today I started off by 3D printing Version 1 of the starter contactor mount.  I printed it with just enough plastic to hold a good shape and present the size as depicted in my CAD drawing.

Below is the finished 3D printout of my starter contactor mount.  Again, to be clear this print was made using the very common PLA plastic, which is not structural nor is it tolerant of moderately high heat.  Being a mockup, I don’t need to use the more structural types of plastic (ABS, PETG, etc.) right now just to figure out final part dimensions and configuration.

I then mounted the starter contactor to the freshly 3D printed mount.  The contactor fit fairly well, but there was definitely room for improvement (literally).

Here we have the underside of the starter contactor and mounting bracket.  

All in all, on this version I found about a dozen tweaks that needed to be made.  From adding just a few thou of clearance at the nut embed depressions, to making the wire channel for the small red & black control wires just a bit wider as well (thus the reason the black and red wires are not running through the 3D printed channel that lies between the two mounting bolts).

I will also note that since I converted a design originally for aluminum to be a 3D printed part, I decided that in Version 2 I will increase the size of the 2 round-shaped bolt attach points.

I also did a bit of tooling up for the Lathe CNC conversion project as well by 3D printing three mounting brackets that will be used to secure the accordion-type tubing that will help protect the cross-lathe running Z-axis ballscrew.

Tomorrow I plan on tweaking the starter contactor mount CAD drawing and then 3D print Version 2 of the mount.

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