Quake Champions inspired hood ornament magnetic

thingiverse

This is a Quake Champions-inspired hood ornament designed in Fusion360 using a piece of 1.75 mm filament to connect the pieces together and strong neodymium bar magnets to keep it securely on the hood. The filament hole and magnet holes are cleverly hidden underneath the base, adding an extra touch of style. The logo is held firmly in place by a 1.7mm piece of filament pushed through the curved tunnel in the base that also passes through the ornament part, ensuring a secure fit. The magnets slide smoothly into position from the bottom and then sideways, with their forces pushing away from each other to keep them from moving out from under the PLA ledge they sit on. This clever design eliminates the need for additional plugs, which I've included as an optional feature in case you want extra security. However, I don't find them necessary, and neither do I use them. To reduce the heating up of the hood ornament, I used white PLA, which absorbs less of the sun's radiation compared to other colors. While using something other than PLA would be ideal for withstanding heat, I've only printed with PLA due to its excellent performance in all printing projects. In my experience, a silver car's hood reaches 135 F degrees in direct sunlight, and the hood ornament withstands this temperature without issue. However, if you use a different color PLA or have a darker-colored car than mine, melting or warping may occur on the car's surface without annealing the PLA. My other car has a dark grayish-blue hood that reaches 175 F degrees in direct sunlight, and I've noticed issues with magnet deformation when trying to remove the ornament from the hood. I've found that annealing the PLA resolves this issue, even on dark-colored hoods. To achieve this, you can heat the entire assembly up to around 140 degrees if it's made of PLA and shape it to your hood. The bottom of the base is flat, allowing for easy installation once all pieces are in place. If you don't heat-form the ornament, it may rotate easily due to most hoods being round where the ornament would sit. I use an oven set to around 170 degrees with a pan inside to preheat the pan, then carefully transfer the fully assembled ornament onto the pan and let it cool for about 20 minutes. I repeat this process but pull it out of the oven in about 6 minutes or so and quickly place it on the hood of my car, pressing down around the outside edges of the stand to shape it to the hood. This process seems to anneal the PLA slightly and form it to the hood's surface. In my experiments at this temperature setting, I've observed minimal warping, but it likely doesn't fully anneal. If you'd like to try another material besides PLA, please share your results with me, as I suspect ABS wouldn't work well due to its reliance on bridging and lack of part cooling fans during printing. I recommend using strong neodymium bar magnets for this project. You'll need 2 magnets per print, which can be sourced from a reliable supplier like Applied Magnets.