Battery cover for my electronic micrometers

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Battery cover for my electronic micrometers

This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 February 2020 at 20:49 by Jason Cundall.

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19 February 2020 at 12:54 #453009
Jason Cundall
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@jasoncundall54270
This may be of use to others, so I’ll post it here.

All of my electronic micrometers are second hand purchased from eBay. They’re all Mitutoyo – and they all had munged up / worn battery covers.

Rather than purchase new spare parts from Mitutoyo, I decided to model and print some. They came out pretty great if I do say so myself, and I’ve uploaded the files to thingiverse for anyone else in the same situation to use.

Mitutoyo micrometer battery cover

Cheers

Jason

Edited By Jason Cundall on 19/02/2020 13:04:23
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19 February 2020 at 12:54 #31624
Jason Cundall
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@jasoncundall54270
19 February 2020 at 13:28 #453013
Jeff Dayman
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@jeffdayman43397
They do look great Jason and you saved yourself a pile of money. I asked Mitutoyo's local office here for a quote on some similar covers a few years ago and was told $40 CDN each!

One thing to keep an eye on initially is that the black and grey coloured 3D print resins are sometimes conductive. This may cause dead batteries too early by draining charge away slowly to ground. If it does happen you could easily print some covers in white or clear resin as these colours are low or no conductivity in the resins I have tested.
19 February 2020 at 17:10 #453051
Enough!
Participant
@enough
Great idea and nicely done Jason.

How about bright orange as a colour?

(… yeah, I know – but you'd always know where your mic is ! )
19 February 2020 at 18:09 #453068
Jason Cundall
Participant
@jasoncundall54270
Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/02/2020 17:10:36:

How about bright orange as a colour?

(… yeah, I know – but you'd always know where your mic is ! )

‘Any colour as long as ~~it’s black~~ you have it loaded on your printer.
19 February 2020 at 18:14 #453069
Jason Cundall
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@jasoncundall54270
Posted by Jeff Dayman on 19/02/2020 13:28:16:

They do look great Jason and you saved yourself a pile of money. I asked Mitutoyo's local office here for a quote on some similar covers a few years ago and was told $40 CDN each!

One thing to keep an eye on initially is that the black and grey coloured 3D print resins are sometimes conductive. This may cause dead batteries too early by draining charge away slowly to ground. If it does happen you could easily print some covers in white or clear resin as these colours are low or no conductivity in the resins I have tested.

C$40 is eye wateringly expensive for a plastic cover! Jeez.

These parts aren’t printed using resin. It’s PETG filament, which as far as I know isn’t conductive at all… maybe some of the metal filled filaments are, but plain coloured PETG is as non conductive as any other plastic.
19 February 2020 at 19:54 #453089
John Baron
Participant
@johnbaron31275
Hi Jason,

Thingiverse won't let me click "like" without login in !

So here is my LIKE
19 February 2020 at 20:18 #453094
Howard Lewis
Participant
@howardlewis46836
VERY smart!

Must remember this if I ever need one, although my electronic callipers are either M & W or generic!

Howard
19 February 2020 at 20:38 #453096
not done it yet
Participant
@notdoneityet
Thanks. Love these useful little items. Please can you do one for the digi-calipers? That would fantastic (or is there one out there already?). I’m just learning to use my printer – any tips for a super finish to the job would be appreciated.
19 February 2020 at 20:42 #453099
Jeff Dayman
Participant
@jeffdayman43397
Sorry Jason for the "resin" nomenclature confusion. I work a lot in industry with plastics and to many in this industry any sort of polymer material is called a resin, whatever type or form it is.

Your parts did look 3D printed to me, I guessed by FDM based on the surface texture. I didn't know what filament you had used.

I have in fact seen black coloured slightly conductive PETG filament, made with carbon pigment (usually crushed coal or charcoal).

I have also seen non conductive black coloured NON conductive PETG filament made with chemical dyes rather than conductive pigments. As you said, uncoloured or light coloured PETG is non conductive, at least the clear/translucent, light blue, and white PETG filaments I have seen were.
19 February 2020 at 20:49 #453101
Jason Cundall
Participant
@jasoncundall54270
Posted by not done it yet on 19/02/2020 20:38:01:

Thanks. Love these useful little items. Please can you do one for the digi-calipers? That would fantastic (or is there one out there already?). I’m just learning to use my printer – any tips for a super finish to the job would be appreciated.

Someone has already uploaded one:

Mitutoyo calliper battery cover

The finish is pretty much down to the profile I’m using on my slicer (prusa slicer). It’s called “Pretty PETG v3” which has been developed by people with much more experience in 3D printing than me. You can find it in the prusa owners facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/prusacommunity/

ive also spent an inordinate amount of time tweaking the bed of my printer. The prusa mk3 has automatic mesh bed levelling which compensates for any warps or bows in the bed, to,a certain degree – but the flatter you can get it prior to it doing its levelling helps a lot. I mapped it out with a dti and got each of the nine points of contact to within a couple of hundredths of a mm to each other.

Edited By Jason Cundall on 19/02/2020 20:55:00
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