Wondering about printing a stainless steel shim to deal with an alignment issue. It'd be about 20 x 25 x 2mm.
I'm not sure what the easiest tools to draw it will be - this is all new to me - but does anyone have an idea what it might cost and who to use?
Unless it's a weird shape or profile, it will be a lot cheaper to just cut it from a 2mm sheet of steel.
Is it just a 20x25x2mm rectangle?
3D Printing is far from the best method of producing a shim. Unless you ramp up the quality and apply post finishing it's likely to be full of ridges and imperfections.
As for the easiest tool to draw it, pen and paper then give it to a professional as it'll probably have to be drawn different to take into account of material shrinkage, machine placement, grain structure, intended use...
Is it just basically a big washer you need?
for this?
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/misaligned-rear-derailleur/
Has a bike shop familiar with the brand had a look at it?
ajantom
Unless it’s a weird shape or profile, it will be a lot cheaper to just cut it from a 2mm sheet of steel.
That's what I have done in the past for similar purposes on a motorbike. With a bit of outback bodgineering it's simple to do.
Cut a piece of metal slightly bigger than necessary. It's easy enough to do at that thickness and get it relatively round.
Mark out the outer and inner diameters and mark the centre.
Find a nut and bolt that will fit in your drill then drill a hole that size in the centre.
Clamp the metal nut and bolt, it's best to use washers to help.
Pop it in the drill and spin it up. Lightly hold it against something abrasive like a bit of concrete and let it grind down until it is the correct outside diameter.
Then it's a matter of getting the inside diameter right. If you have a big enough drill bit, no problem so long as you you clamp the work down, otherwise it's a job for a round file and some careful filing until you have the diameter right.
You can afford to get it wrong a few times on a DIY job like this.
Needless to say the real engineers will cringe at the H&S issues and the inexactitude of the work, but it will get the job done at the expense of a bit of time.
Just buy the one with the right internal or external diameter here and file the inner/outer to fit?
https://www.namrick.co.uk/acatalog/Home_Metric_Stainless_Steel_Plain_Washers__A2___A4__62.html
bodgineering
I'm having that! Ta 😀
wwaswas
Just buy the one with the right internal or external diameter here and file the inner/outer to fit?
An even better idea. 🙂
Thanks for all the suggestions.
@wwaswas Yes. Though I've bent the dropout partway back, so may be close enough.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I agree about bodging flat shims out of sheet, but I was thinking of a ramped shim, slightly thicker on one side than the other. </span>