Mercedes Benz Roof Rack Rubber Strip Trim Molding Insert

thingiverse

For the life of me, I could not find nor order a replacement rubber molding for my dad's Mercedes Benz-branded roof rack for his ML350. The original piece was gone with the wind on a spirited drive in Atlanta's suburbs. So, I decided to design and print it in flexible filament myself. What a nightmare. The design was easy enough. I took one of the original trim pieces off the rack. I measured it and made a rough approximation of the insert, which works fine so far. This is my second ever design, but I knew I'd have to print it without support and have to print it flat. No problem at all. The original rubber trim piece is longer than my print volume, so I knew that this would require me to glue two or three together to make it work. Printing with TPU was a real pain in the neck. I was using the stock Creality CR-10S with SainSmart's Black TPU. Everything I read online said it's the easiest flexible to print with, but my experience was a different story altogether. The filament would not push through the bowden tube to the hotend at all. I tried many settings, but nothing seemed to work. So, I decided to upgrade the extruder and hotend. I purchased and installed the E3D Aero Titan with the V6 nozzle. This puts the extruder right on top of the hotend, which made a big difference. But it still didn't work at first. So, here's what I did to get it to work: 1.) I moved the bed down a bit. Three paper thicknesses opposed to one. 2.) I increased the flow rate to 140%. 3.) Hotend set to 220C. 4.) Bed temp to 70C. 5.) Used a 7.6cm or 3in of bowden tube on top of the extruder. 6.) I ran the TPU above and straight down into the bowden tube. After I got three printed, I installed them onto the rack. Works like a charm now.