Last year the vacuum pump on my Pace rework station broke, more specifically the connecting rod broke at the driven end. Since plastic shrinks slightly with age, the plastic shrunk around the ball bearing and cracked. Last summer I super glued the broken piece back on and used a single piece of 22AWG solid copper wire wrapped over the brake and around the rod beam to hold it together. Then forgot about it until this weekend when it broke again. :-[
Since I have a 3D printer now I printed out a clip that surrounded the broken piece of connecting rod and glued it in place with E6000 glue which remains a bit pliable. I will need to get a new rod from Pace but this patch got it working again over the weekend.
The moral of the story is that everyone needs a 3D printer :dance:
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@ Jeff_Birt - Have you tried building the entire bracket? Also, what material was used?
I’m printing PLA. I also have an ABS printer at the university. I could try printing the whole connecting rod but I’m sure it would not be strong enough. The original rod is a very hard thermoplastic, printed plastic is much weaker as the bonds from layer to layer are relatively weak. I could machine one out of aluminum though if they are no longer available. Thinking about it just now, the ‘piston’ screws onto the rod. The bearing end of the rod could be basically an aluminum ring and the beam a length of aluminum rod that screws on between the piston and bearing ring. It would probably be as easy to machine it out of a single piece of aluminum though.
I’ll often do a 3D print of something before machining it. This gives you a good idea that your 3D model is close.