The bottom hinge of my shower cabinet door is broken. Can’t buy a replacement because it’s too old. I think about design it and print in metal. Or to sawing and filling it out of a metallic block.

I‘m not sure how stable a metallic print is. The glass door is quite heavy either around 15 kilos. Do you guys have recommendations?

And do you know a metallic print service in Germany or Europe? I own just a plastic printer

  • DrunkenPirate@feddit.deOPEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Thanks for that thorough answer. Yes, I thought of the laser sintering thing. The glass door is quite heavy. I diubt plastic prints with some aesthetical metallic cover can hold it. I mean, the hinge was broken because of the weight and calcification.

    Do you have an idea how much laser sintering might cost for a 25 x 25 x 50 mm size? Printing it first in plastic as a prooftest is a good idea.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I’m not sure on costs, and that depends a bit on material. I know ProtoLabs has a German location.

      They do good work but aren’t cheap.

      • DrunkenPirate@feddit.deOPEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        Hi guys, thx for all your help. My project is finally successful. Shower hinge repaired - entire shower cabinet usable now. Let’s give you a short feedback:

        • I‘ve chosen PCBway as it was the cheapest with 90€ for stainless steel, laser sintering.
        • Other both providers were around 300€ up to 1000€ ( this one in chrome though)
        • The production & delivery time was quite long with 2-3 weeks from China. But I‘m not in a hurry.
        • I did two plastic prototypes first and discovered always a few new details I didn’t recognize first.
        • The metallic print is stainless steel (hope better than Tesla quality) and it‘s fully printed - not the walls only.

        At all it costs 130€ for the print, oil, silicone sealant and some other things. Saved me approx 2-4000€ for a new shower cabinet as spare parts were out of production. A picture in comment below.