Mountain Bike Pivot Bushing

thingiverse

I needed to replace the bottom suspension top hat bushes on my trusty old mountain bike. Unfortunately, I couldn't find replacement parts anywhere, so I decided to take on my first practical part design and print project. The specifications for these bushes are as follows: 30mm outer diameter, 20mm inner diameter, and a 35mm x 2mm top hat. The overall length is 15.5mm. To bring this design to life, I printed two parts in grey PLA using my RepRap Prusa i3 printer. After printing, I hand-filed the parts to finish them off and fitted them onto my bike, and they work like a charm. Here are the print settings I used: * Printer Brand: RepRap * Printer Model: Prusa i3 * Rafts: Doesn't matter * Supports: No * Resolution: 0.3mm * Infill: 100% * Material: PLA I designed this object using Sketchup with a 3D mm template. This was my first attempt at designing a 3D object to print, and it turned out to be quite straightforward. I simply added an STL extension to my standard Sketchup Make setup and made a 1:1 model based on the measurements of my old parts. I used Slic3r to slice the design and Pronterface to control the printer, and it printed successfully on the first try. However, Slic3r did auto-repair a number of errors in the process, which I plan to investigate further for future designs.