Easy-change Shower handle

thingiverse

I hate paying $$ every time the little plastic insert in a shower knob wears out. At our local hardware store, they charge $20 for the "replacement pack". This is designed to save time, money and hopefully reduce DIY stress at the same time. There are two components that you need to print: 1. The hexagonal part that press-fits into the brass end where the old knob used to attach. 2. The knob itself which press-fits onto the hexagonal part once you have jammed the hexagonal part on. Because every printer and filament combo can yield different results for press-fit parts, I've made a range of hexagonal inserts that can be printed quickly and easily and tested to see if they fit. The hexagons are all the same size (because they are what the knob press-fits on to), its the SIZE OF THE HOLE in each hexagon that is different. For me, Hexagonal Insert #3 (which has a 10.9mm hole in it) press fit perfectly onto the brass bit sticking out of the shower wall where the old knob used to attach). Then I printed the knob in bright red PLA because it's what I had laying around and it's the hot water knob, so it made sense :-) If the hexagonal bit ever gets stripped again, then all I have to do is remove the red knob (it's press-fit, not glued, so that's easy) and print a new #3 hexagonal part that I jam onto the brass shower fitting, then reattach the knob and I am good to go ;-) Hexagonal inserts and the sizes of the holes in them: #1 10.7mm #2 10.8mm #3 10.9mm #4 11mm #5 11.5mm #6 12mm I hope this helps somebody else with their shower woes. My kids are asking if I can dinosaur-style knobs instead, so that might be my next project :-) PS I don't remember where I found the original toothed insert or the knob design, but I think they were both on Thingiverse somewhere. Kudos to those people for those parts - they made modding this less painful than doing it all from scratch.