Flat Damper


 
Benjamin Thibault said:
If anyone wants to print the gear, since it's so small, and let us know how it prints that'd be sweet.
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Took the day off, so I went ahead and printed the gear and the rack from the door. I printed this with a 0.4mm nozzle which is pretty much standard. The teeth are rounded a little bit but it feels like it works fine. A finer nozzle would obviously give a better print, just not sure if it's completely necessary.

KdGgSiU.jpg
 
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Yeah that looks similar to what I had gotten printed. The center part will fit tight pushed down around the splines of the servo. With the ABS I had it printed in, it was tight enough to back feed the servo by turning the gear with no glue.
 
Yeah they looked pretty big so I thought they might be OK. I see what you're saying about not having to buy other parts as in addition to the 3d printed stuff though. One thing you may consider though is making the lip on the exterior side box that holds the plate have this 45 degree action on it. The straight overhang would mean support material would have to be inserted between the two and that might leave some bits in the track that would affect how easily it slides. If you angle it like this (and the plate would also have a matching angle) then it will print easily:
HQBW6eX.png


(the scale of the groove might be off but I just wanted illustrate the concept)
 
Bryan Mayland said:
Oh I have a set of those as well, but they only go up to 1 3/8" and can make some gnarly holes in thinner sheet metal unless you're also cutting a giant hole into some support material.

If you don't like the conduit, you'd love knowing that my plate is galvanized steel as well. Is there a better sheet material that can be purchased from Lowes / Home Depot that doesn't cost more than $10?
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Bryan,

You can get 316 Stainless Sheet from OnlineMetals.com and have enough to make half a dozen adapters.

You can also get stainless tubing in 1' lengths for a reasonable price.

Now if you want to get fancy and combine the two without a TIG welder, you can simply use a MAPP Gas torch from Home Depot and 56% Silver (aka Safety Silver) and braze that 316 together without any problem. It's only a little more advanced brazing stainless w/ 56% than it is doing copper fittings--just have to get it hotter (but not too hot or the silver runs off).

Don't use galvanized though--makes really bad fumes though it's unlikely it's getting hot enough on a slow&low cook to make those fumes--but why risk it huh?

Benjamin, very nice design! I'd initially thought of doing a box kind of thing that fit on the BGE draft door and had a servo that opened and closed a door on the box so that it would be sort of like opening/closing the draft door on the BGE but went with my Whomper Damper design instead (it's done BTW, need to post up pictures) because it was a lot less fabrication for me. It's still on my list of things to try though but it would be way easier to do with those off the shelf rack/pinion parts for sure.
 
So, I recently decided to get some prints made of the latest revision. I sent them to http://www.shapeways.com/, and elected to use the SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) process, in Alumide. It's a plastic with aluminum particles mixed in. Supposed melting temperature is 170ish Celsius. I was hoping that being a laser process, the geared parts would come out much nicer than with traditional extruded plastic printing, but alas it didn't.

I'm not quite happy with how the side panel fits on, due to there not being a lot of room in the pocket for the TRRS jack. I'm going to redesign it a little bit if I have a chance this week, and make it flare out a little bit on the end there to accommodate the wiring a little better, and let it accept 4 screws. Currently the top one on the jack side is missing because of the pocket.

Here's a short video of it actually working. Whenever I get a chance to cook something, I'll see how it works on my PBC.
Here are some pictures of the printed pieces, and assembly.





 
If 3D printing the rack and pinion gear are giving you trouble you might consider just buying these parts injection molded from someplace such as McMaster-Carr, Amazon:Industrial or another gear/drive distributor. Should be cheap and work perfectly.

AubreyW
 
AubreyW said:
If 3D printing the rack and pinion gear are giving you trouble you might consider just buying these parts injection molded from someplace such as McMaster-Carr, Amazon:Industrial or another gear/drive distributor. Should be cheap and work perfectly.

AubreyW
Click to expand...

This was actually already covered in the thread. I do have a set that I bought, and they are super nice. While that may be the route that I go with for myself (because I'm quality oriented, not cost) it makes sense to provide a 3D printed option for the people who might want to try the design. The gear and rack as printed by all means work. They just aren't quite as a crisp, visually, as I would like.
 
That looks so cool, I love it. I really didn't appreciate how compact it was until I saw it in your hand. Thanks for all the pictures!

Look forward to seeing more down the line, and let me know if you have any heatermeter software questions I can help you with.
 
I updated the Thingiverse files with a "turned-body-phono" and "turned-side-phono". This puts the TRRS jack on the left side, and spins the servo around. The pocket for the TRRS jack is now huge, and wiring should fit a lot better. Alas, I forgot to add printed provisions for the fan wires. And I was unable to get 4 screws in because of the servo. Maybe I'll figure that out some day.
 
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