Just got my first ever metal lathe

[Nubble]

While I think there are many uses for printed plastic parts, I don't think this is one of them. It is important to hold tight tolerances for the clearances between the read head and the scale. Contact between them is pretty undesirable! It looks like the top mounting slot & screws are a weak point for holding tolerances. I don't mean to rain on your parade but.....

I already fixed that issue by plastic welding in the screws so there's no side to side movement and put a nut on the back so it stays tight against the bracket and then the screws are also have threadlocked on them to hold them in place.

 

[SouthernChap]

While I think there are many uses for printed plastic parts, I don't think this is one of them. It is important to hold tight tolerances for the clearances between the read head and the scale. Contact between them is pretty undesirable! It looks like the top mounting slot & screws are a weak point for holding tolerances. I don't mean to rain on your parade but.....

This question came up on another thread and I think Yuriy (of TouchDRO fame) said he'd used 3D printed mounts successfully plenty of times.

There's no particular mechanical stress on this part (DRO read heads are hardly particularly massy objects).

Maybe some slightly larger washers might make the fixing (look?) more rigid but eh, assuming the part was made with a reasonable infill percentage and a sensible plastic used, looks okay enough to me.

 

[David2011]

I already fixed that issue by plastic welding in the screws so there's no side to side movement and put a nut on the back so it stays tight against the bracket and then the screws are also have threadlocked on them to hold them in place.

Sounds like you have locked the 3D printed parts in place pretty well. Watch out for cracking where you used thread locking compound. Radio control modelers started using thread lockers on servo control arm screws and learned very quickly that some thread lockers embrittle and sometimes melt plastics. The arms and output shafts started breaking causing the loss of their models. There are plastic safe thread lockers out there. Permatex has one.

 

[Cadillac STS]

3D printed parts can be very robust and strong.

 

[Nubble]

This question came up on another thread and I think Yuriy (of TouchDRO fame) said he'd used 3D printed mounts successfully plenty of times.

There's no particular mechanical stress on this part (DRO read heads are hardly particularly massy objects).

Maybe some slightly larger washers might make the fixing (look?) more rigid but eh, assuming the part was made with a reasonable infill percentage and a sensible plastic used, looks okay enough to me.

All of these parts were made with 50% honeycomb infill

 

[SouthernChap]

All of these parts were made with 50% honeycomb infill

In my, albeit limited, experience, 50% seems a reasonable infill.

 

[Nubble]

Sounds like you have locked the 3D printed parts in place pretty well. Watch out for cracking where you used thread locking compound. Radio control modelers started using thread lockers on servo control arm screws and learned very quickly that some thread lockers embrittle and sometimes melt plastics. The arms and output shafts started breaking causing the loss of their models. There are plastic safe thread lockers out there. Permatex has one.

As far as I'm aware it doesn't seem to affect petg, but I'd have to run a control test to check that, as typically I just use lock nuts for that kind of purpose

 

[bill stupak]

I think you'll be fine, unless there is some binding going on there should be very little force applied to the plastic bracket. I would prefer to see individual holes instead of slots, but they will work.

 

[Nubble]

Well then I believe I have enough lathe tooling to last me for quite a while, a buddy gave me a grab bag of tooling he got from an machine shop auction for 5$

I was also given a bunch of what I believe is key stock

Also in that grab bag was this oddity I've never seen a cutter like this..

 

[Larry$]

Some of that tooling is likely to be useful and will probably need some TLC - sharpening, de rusting. Key stock is handy to have on hand, not just for keys! Could some of it be HSS to use for tooling? Do you have a way to sharpen currently? Diamond laps for carbide. (don't use on HSS!) That last photo is a golden oldy!