New buttons for 70's Guzzi switches

[F-22]

I had a small project to recreate the buttons for the Guzzi switches, and can also make more if anyone needs them.
So, the Guzzi switches have some flaws, and I know lots of people replace them. However, I am sure many still just keep them. They are also not the most solid, sometimes the buttons (or the housing) break, and at that point they usually get replaced with switches from another bike. There are also new replicas avaliable, but they are not cheap.

I had a spare right side set of switches with a broken turn signal switch. I also recently bought a 3D printer, and because of their blocky shape, I figured they'd come out nicely (3d printing is not that great with round shapes, since material is deposited in layers).



So I removed the broken switch, and started modelling. It took a while, and after I made a 3D model that was similar enough to the original, I started printing. It took a while to figure out the best orientation for doing it.



I used PLA to make the "prototypes", which is cheap and prints really nice, and it was even functional. But the colour was wrong, and it is a brittle plastic, so I figured why not buy the correct colour out of a better material. So I found colours that are very close to original, in PETG material (basically the stuff plastic water bottles are made of). The buttons are rigid, but if you put a lot of force on them, they are more flexible than the stock ones, so I think they'd be harder to break (but I did not want to break original buttons to test it).
First I made it out of black PETG, just because I already had it and wanted to tune in the printer for the new material (and was waiting for the correct colours). I was quite satisfied with the first try, except for the very top and bottom which had a few lines (it can be seen on the photo, but I fixed that now, and it goes away with a bit of sanding anyway).



Then came the colours!



If you look closely, there are some visible lines, but good enough to me, and much better than throwing away a set of old switches and buying expensive replicas (which might even be of worse quality than the original ones).





I decided to do a test on the black one.



I pulled it with an old weighing scale.



It withstood 7kg, at which point this happened:



It did not fall apart, but it did bend "permanently".



I am pleased with 7kg, as the button is really thin at some places. I am confident it would withstand even more force when installed, as there is a steel plate surrounding it at the hole, and thin "neck" between the outside and inside part basically almost only experiences shearing forces, while a 7kg bending force and its torque deformed it on my test. I tried pushing it as hard as possible in the assembled switches, and could not break it.
I also made them in other colours, and also made the starter/flasher/horn button. I tried to use the colours that are as similar to the original as possible, but it is not a perfect match (but hard to notice unless a button in original colour is near it).



Since I can now make them, if perhaps anyone else needs them, I can make them and send them for a small price. You can just PM me if you are interested. They are so small that shipping would be cheap to anywhere in the world...

[Guzzi Gal]

:1: Well done!

[twowings]

Very cool! A quite useful product....

[rodekyll]

Very good use of the printer.

Out of curiosity, what does an experiment like that cost?

[F-22]

Besides the cost of the printer (it's a quality one, and at 900€ was not cheap... but it can be very helpful if you know how to use it and make 3D models), it's quite affordable. I think the hourly rate for printing is around 3-5€, and it takes around an hour and 20 minutes to print one of these in good detail. Plastic is actually surprisingly cheap, a 1kg spool of PETG is commonly between 20-30€ (could probably even find it cheaper). One button weighs almost nothing, so a whole spool would last a very long time (I have bought 50g colour samples, made 4 green buttons and still got lots of material, each "sample" cost me around 3€, but the postage cost was as much as all of them combined, I had to order from abroad to get the right colours). The grey PLA plastic I used for the prototypes is even cheaper (but I got it with the printer anyway).
I did have to make models of the buttons, and that would probably cost a lot if I would pay someone to make them for me...

I'd be very happy if I could sell a few for 15€ (including tracked shipping to anywhere), to at least get back what I paid for the material. I think replica switches are around 80€, so 15€ to repair a broken one seems reasonable to me. Of course less if someone orders more than one... Anyway, I did it because I wanted a project, so it's not a big deal even if I don't sell any.

[canuck750]

Great stuff!

[Rick4003]

Nicely done! Would you care to share the brand of your printer? Are you satisfied with it?

Buttons looks great. I can also come up with a bunch of things that would be easy to 3d print [emoji4]

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[Rick4003]

Nicely done! Would you care to share the brand of your printer? Are you satisfied with it?

Buttons looks great. I can also come up with a bunch of things that would be easy to 3d print [emoji4]

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Or I could just look at the pictures properly. Prusa i3

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[Ratso88]

That my friend is a really good use of technology.

I am very impressed.

[F-22]

Nicely done! Would you care to share the brand of your printer? Are you satisfied with it?

Buttons looks great. I can also come up with a bunch of things that would be easy to 3d print [emoji4]

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Yes, Prusa i3 Mk.3. As it says on the box, it is "proudly made in the Czech Republic", and is probably the best you can get for reasonable money. The "kit" version (you get it in parts and assemble it yourself) costs a little under 800€, and the assembled one a little under 1000€. The Ultimaker 3 is a very close competition, but they cost over 3000€, and even more for the "extended" version (although they might be a little more user friendly, have an enclosure, and the printing head also moves front and back instead of the bed - if the bed moves forwards and backwards really fast, the acceleration can knock the unfinished object you are printing off). Still, you can buy 3 assembled Prusa printers for the same price, and there are a few awesome things Prusa does better. Almost all the plastic parts for it are actually also 3D printed on such Prusa machines (they are "self-replicating"), and a good thing about that is you can make your own replacement parts of something would break, and Prusa also constantly updates and improves their design, so it is actually possible to upgrade older versions to the new one (even the original Prusa i3 mk1, through mk2, mk2s, mk2.3, to the new mk3).
It's completely open-source, so there are lots and lots of 150-500€ Chinese clones out there. Some might do a good job too, but there is just some stuff that can't be made cheaply, and you probably get lots of problems during printing (some Chinese ones even caught on fire and burnt down a few houses...).


There's lots of use for this if you think about it for some time. For example, it's really easy to make a badge. A while ago I was modifying a BMW R100RT into a CS, and modeled this:

It looks really cool after I painted it and all... But I was charged 20€ to have it printed (although in nylon, which is basically the strongest material that can be printed with an average 3D printer, but it does not print as nicely unless you have everything set up perfectly).


Also made the housing for this digital rev counter on a 97' Ducati Monster.

Also in nylon, and also cost around 20€. I'd probably make it nicer now, as I can do mockups quickly and easily. But it does not look too out of place with that blocky shape anyway.

After that, I decided I'd buy my own printer. It is a bit like buying a welding machine, you might not need it and do things differently, but it is really nice to have. It's also useful for making mockups from which you can later fabricate metal parts (easier to make it if you already have one in your hand). Most materials are also resistant to fuel.
I am also tempted to try and cast some stuff. There are also wax filaments specifically for this, but even the cheapest PLA filament can simply be used for a plaster mould and then burnt out. I was thinking about making some cool big finned brass exhaust flanges for my Monster. I also have a Pantah, and I'd love to make a set of those big finned aluminium valve adjustment covers for the Monster. I'll see how it goes, perhaps just start with some lead first.

[Rick4003]

I have been doing some aluminium casting a couple of years back and would like to get my foundry up and running again when we move back to Denmark next year. Was thinking a 3D printer would be handy for making patterns, both sandcast and lost wax casting patterns could be done on the printer. And also just handy to have around for making small plastic parts. The other day one of the tabs on the fume extractor above the kitchen hob broke and I had to glue it back together. A new one would be a quick modeling job in fusion and then send to print [emoji4]

Might buy one at some point. Can definitely see the idea in having one!

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[chuck peterson]

We have a winner!  so cool...

[wirespokes]

I love it!

I got some old switches with my T3 - I'll have to check if they're the same and if I need one of yours.

What's involved in the modeling process?

[F-22]

You have to measure it accurately enough, and then know how to use those measurements in some CAD software. It's actually easier to model the "mechanism" (inside) part of the button, since you can easily take the measurements. The outside profile is more problematic, as there are still a bunch of rounded parts that you have to approximate - it can be really hard to make an exact model without the original draft. But these Guzzi buttons are still quite blocky... I also added some very small tapers on some edges, because a flat surface looks odd when 3d printed.