Fixing a soldering iron with 3D printing
For years, one of the soldering irons at Formlabs has been missing a small plastic piece that holds the iron in its stand. This is rather embarrassing, because we have huge numbers of 3D printers around the office (not to mention dozens of talented mechanical engineers).
Unfortunately, the talented mechanical engineers were busy, so I tried my hand at fixing it myself.
From a few calipered measurements,
I designed the part in Studio.
Just look at that strange, graceful loft:
(click on any image to see its full resolution)
Next, I exported a mesh and used Preform to prepare for the print (including automatic support structures):
I printed the part on a Form 2 in high-temp resin. It was a perfect fit:
