Toilet Seat Replacement Hinge

thingiverse

I'm really excited about my latest 3D printing project, a brand new toilet seat that I designed using OpenScad! This thing is super functional, and I'm proud to say it's the result of a seamless collaboration between me and my awesome wife. Last week, disaster struck - another part of the hinge broke, but fortunately we have a backup plan, thanks to the amazing work I did on the original 3D print! Let me tell you about the printer settings I used for this project: Custom MakerSlide build, 25% infill, and no rafts or supports. I printed in ABS, which turned out to be the perfect choice - the gradual bridging I created was a real challenge, but totally worth it in the end! I made sure to adjust my bed adhesion settings for maximum performance, which ensured that both parts came out flat and fitting together perfectly. As this was an easy print, I combined both parts into one .stl file. It was really satisfying to see them print smoothly without any issues. Speaking of designing, four years ago I used SketchUp, but it got really old fast. About a year ago, I switched to OpenScad and have never looked back! For this design, I simply applied dimensions from the previous part and added some quick measurements - my first iteration was pretty flawed, with the hinge point positioned too far back. With just one simple adjustment, everything fell into place perfectly. Now, onto potential improvements: This design has worked beautifully so far, but I'm sure there's room for tweaking! Item 0 is the low-hanging fruit - if my wife picks out a new color, we'll be able to reprint it in no time. Slight clearance problems between the top lid and hinge could be improved with just a tweak of design 1. Then again, redesigning the whole thing would require a fresh look at design 2. I even thought about swapping the main base for a polyhedron instead of a cube, to print faster and use less material (design 3).