Posted 13 June 2018
A friend got a new Dawes Lightning 1500 bike, and wants to install a ‘Swing Grip’ handle accessory on the piece (the ‘stem’) that connects the front fork post to the handlebars. I had printed up a similar bracket for Ray in the past, and so he asked if I could do one for this bike too.
I had him bring the bike over so I could get a good look at the ‘stem’ shape and then built up a prototype in ABS. I had a lot of difficulty with getting the ABS to print without lifting off the heated bed, and so eventually had to use a raft, which sucked because the raft stuck to the part too well. When I got the part done I tried it on the bike, and of course it didn’t fit, but it did allow me to see where the design had to be changed.
Printing Notes:
I printed the PLA part with
layer height: 0.2mm
extruder temp: 205 for layer 1, 195 for 3 & up
print bed temp: 70C
speed: 30mm/sec
Z-offset: -0.05mm
I had to work a bit to get the PLA to stick to the bed, and the right combination was the above settings, plus attention to getting the bed levelled properly and the correct Z-axis offset so the first layer was ‘squished’ significantly.