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Posting this up for others who may want to use it. MLeopard contacted me earlier with these additional variants to the three gauge panel which now includes the previously deleted upper radio bezel. The design and reinforcement is beautiful! Thank you!!
The non-upper-bezel versions are all listed in his main links.
Since I ruled out Jensen HD 1-DIN radios (their non-removable fronts will not clear our console surround plastic) I'm going to try this with a Continental/VDO 1-DIN soon since they have removable front surround bezels. FYI, if this is the first time you've seen this, MLeopard designed the two-gauge and three-gauge panels around VDO's Vision Black 52mm gauge series which are flush mount. Many types of gauges are available from them in that spec as analog electric as well as some analog mechanical.
I've got to say it is a beautiful looking piece!
A screenshot from my Autodesk Inventor Fusion viewer:
Looks great, thanks for posting up the finished product. Just a heads up that I made those bolt holes recessed so you should be able to run a socket head Allen or Phillips head type bolt that actually sinks inside the hole so they aren't visible. But looks good how u have it too. Good work!
Thanks for the headsup on that. I'll have to find some allen head bolts now.
Printed the gauge panel twice. The first one was printed with about 30% infill, which was not good for the upper portions thin walls. That’s why there’s just half the panel.
The second was was printed with 100% infill and is much stronger. The gauge circles are a bit jagged because of the support material that was holding the circles to prevent them from collapsing while printing. That can be further cleaned with light sanding.
Printed the gauge panel twice. The first one was printed with about 30% infill, which was not good for the upper portions thin walls. That’s why there’s just half the panel.
The second was was printed with 100% infill and is much stronger. The gauge circles are a bit jagged because of the support material that was holding the circles to prevent them from collapsing while printing. That can be further cleaned with light sanding.
you have to rotate the part before you Slice it so that the gauge faces are laying on the bed. That way you will not need support material. Looking at that design, the only place that would require support material if rotated as I suggested, would be on the tabs up top, and that would be minimal. It would come out so much more cleaner.
FYI, I have a Prusa i3 printer, and will be very soon finishing up by 24"x24" bed printer build for bigger parts
you have to rotate the part before you Slice it so that the gauge faces are laying on the bed. That way you will not need support material. Looking at that design, the only place that would require support material if rotated as I suggested, would be on the tabs up top, and that would be minimal. It would come out so much more cleaner.
FYI, I have a Prusa i3 printer, and will be very soon finishing up by 24"x24" bed printer build for bigger parts
I thought about that, but the face of the part is not flat, it is rounded on the face to match the slight curve of the dash.
Therefore if printed on it's face, you would wind up with support material on the face of the part which would mean even more work.
Mine prototype bezel based of your base drawing has been working fairly well. I made my final tweaks so my gauge and switches should fit perfect now. I do like how you added that support at the bottom, so I did that as well. I added some more supports for the actual mounting flaps as I just want to be sure those are as solid as possible since that is where the hardware is actually holding it in place. Here's my final result. Hoping to get one made in the next week or so.
I've been thinking about adding a dual extruder setup to my large printer build so that I can run HIPS on the second extruder and use as the support material, then it just washes away with Limonene. That's another thought for you
I've been thinking about adding a dual extruder setup to my large printer build so that I can run HIPS on the second extruder and use as the support material, then it just washes away with Limonene. That's another thought for you
Today I received one of MLeopard's combination triple gauge and 1-DIN stereo dash panels printed by mrmj2u.
Pretty exciting to finally hold one of these in my hand! Thank you both!!
It is a unique shape because not only is the front face slightly curved but the lower section where the gauges are also is thicker and sticks out slightly more than the top section, other than the matching curve in the top bezel section.
Support/infill material was removed for me already by mrmj2u and I've carefully sanded just the easiest non-forward facing surfaces where the stereo unit and bezels need their tight clearances.
I would like to learn how to give this an OEM-like flat and smooth finish if it will not endanger the uniformity of the surfaces. Light sanding, primer and a choice of paint seems to be what is recommended but I want to learn more.
Right now I have no VDO gauges or stereo to install into it. I did have a Jensen stereo but it was not going to fit due to its front bezel. Expect an update later on.
It is a very sturdy and solid design in black ABS. Thank you Mleopard and mrmj2u!
Last edited by KahnBB6; Sep 2, 2017 at 02:48 AM.
Reason: Grammatical correction
I've thought about just getting some satin black vinyl wrap/sticker type material and putting it on the front of mine to give the the clean oem kinda look just like the ash tray lid. Not sure how well it'd stick though, but if it was roughed up with some sand paper I'd imagine it would stick OK.
That sounds promising if it's got a very similar finish to OEM dash plastic. How permanent and lasting have you found the Plasti-Dip to be for this purpose, t2d2? Will I have to redo it after a couple of years or is it very stable as a coating?
