Single-piece suspension attempt

thingiverse

WARNING: this piece didn't quite live up to my expectations, so I'm sharing it in hopes that others might pick up where I left off. My goal was to create a single-piece shock-absorber with both friction and damping capabilities, all printed from PLA at once. Sounds like a game-changer, right? Unfortunately, this design has two major flaws: 1) The spring constant is way too high for PLA, requiring an excessive amount of force to compress it. Thinning out the material only leads to CuraEngine struggling to render the spring correctly, leaving me without a straightforward solution. Perhaps using a flexible material would be a better bet. 2) The holders intended to keep the spring aligned and apply friction are too flexible, causing them to lose contact with the spring. Despite these setbacks, I'm eager to pursue my vision of a single-piece suspension item. I'll continue experimenting until I get it just right. You may need to carefully insert a thin blade between the spring and holders to release any stuck parts. The source Blender file is included, along with key parameters that can be adjusted from the "Controls" text object.