Bear with me here, but I'm wondering as to the feasibility of making my own pollen filter housing for my car. The current arrangement has 4 (Yes, 4) parts, not including the filter.
My old Fiesta had a box with a lid. You took the old filter out, and put a new one in. I don't know what the VAG designers were smoking when they designed the abomination on my car, but I think I could do better.
How easy is it to get plastic parts moulded, or made from diagrams?
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m, I can't answer your question but I'm not taking my clothes off that easily. Your zips on the wrong side for a start.
JH
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I'm not familiar with this housing, but from your description I'd be tempted to plastic-weld the parts together to make a one-piece unit, perhaps with strengthening.
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JH - I guess 'bare' is the wrong varient of the word to use!
Doug - I was thinking this, but the way it is assembled currently, I would just end up with an unchangeable pollen filter.
Maybe someone can describe it better than me, but it really is the most ludicrous piece of design I have ever seen.
Doubly so on a car that is so well made/designed in other respects.
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If you are only making one, it will cost you an arm and a leg.
You could get it machined from solid, possibly, depending upon the shape.
You could draw it using a 3d drawing package and send the data to a specialist company which will make you one out of I think it is called an sla package. ( a laser is passed through a special liquid plastic formulation which hardens where required.) This makes an accurate "moulding" but is probably too brittle for your purpose. From this "moulding" a mould is made and accurate plastic castings can be made in a more suitable material. This isn't cheap, either.
You could go the whole hog and decide to have injection moulding tools made for the parts. The tools will be a few thousand, I expect.
This is assuming VW don't mind any copying of the parts.
It will probablybe cheaper to change cars!
PS If you are interested I will post details of the company we use for our sla mouldings.
HTH
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Sorry, there is another way, depending upon the shape of the parts, and that is to vacuum form them. If the shape is simple enough, the mould can be made from a suitable lump of wood. We have done this for prototype parts where the shape is important for function but the finish doesn't matter too much because the customer won't see it. If the shape works, a proper aluminium tool is made. We usually get about a dozen components from a wooden tool before it cries enough and turns to kindling.
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Cheers mjm - I will have to have a look and see what I can do.
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An SLS (lazer sintered) part is stronger than an SLA, commonly used in motorsport where you're usually making less than 5 parts, and can be cheaper than an SLA + silicon mould tool + resin parts.
Otherwise machine the part from solid? Depends on what your supplier's strengths are.
In the UK, Arrk Precision or Malcolm Nicholls should be able to give you a quote.
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You could make it out of GRP. Build it in cardboard, braced if necessary to hold its shape, then just brush on resin and cover with fibre mat. Use as many layers as neccessary to get the required strength and rigidity. When it's set, just rip out the cardboard and clean off any that comes loose. The residual layer will be bonded into the resin and won't matter. I've used this method to make shaped water tanks on boats.
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That's probably the most cost effective way of achieving what he wants, Cliff.
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Now you're talking! Cheers Cliff. (And to others who took the time to reply)
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Practical Boat Owner published a series of tutorials on making GRP moulds last year that might be of use.
Otherwise, try to get your hands on one of Dan Casey's boat maintenance books (he's published several) which include useful tips and step-by-step instructions for making simple GRP moulds.
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How easy is it to get plastic parts moulded, or made from diagrams?
There is plastic and there is plastic. How would you decide what the most suitable material was, and where would you get it from in small quantities?
--
L\'escargot.
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I'd use whatever the current parts are made from, and I have absolutely no idea, hence the question.
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Can't you just seal the bottom of the existing one, and make a GRP cover for it to stop it sucking rain onto it?
Maybe with just a letterbox hole at the front or back. The whole filter doesn't need to be exposed like it is.
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That was my cunning plan - keep the bottom part and making a btter solution for the top. The bottom part 'works' fine (As much as an inert piece of plastic can)
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