Embedded Files
For my Multi-part Assembly file I chose to fix the kitchen sink faucet handle in my home. The plastic cover that covers the selector switch between straight stream and shower had deteriorated to the point that it fell apart.
Seeing as the faucet worked fine aside from the cover being MIA I decided to take on the challenge of designing a new one in Fusion360 and printing it out of PLA.
This is the story of the process:
Revese Engineering
For this task I was going to need to Reverse engineer a part to fit in the place of the previous cover. I decided to take the approach of taking measurements as it was going to be the most practical approach (as apposed to a 3d scan or finding the original drawings for this particular faucet).
I collected my measurements using a digital caliper and recorded them on a sheet of notebook paper.
As this was going to be "press-fit" in place, the tolerances had to be exact. I determined that measurements be made to Hundredth of a Millimeter (0.XX).
I transferred these measurements of the space to be filled to Fusion.
Faucet toggle switch notes.pdfAfter creating a basic sketch on paper that I felt represented the dimensions of the faucet accurately, I modeled those dimensions in Fusion360 and 3D Printed a very basic frame to judge how close to the actual faucet my model was.
From the first sketch I printed a test frame to test my sketch dimensions.
From this first iteration I eventually produced 11 different versions over four different CAD files.
The main challenge I was running into was the clearance of the faucet handles switch lever with the roof of the body. Pressing on the buttons that I had created would cause the body to lift up off of the faucet handle, or with the buttons that I had created it would lose the buttons inside of the body after a single push.
The buttons
The largest problem I was encountering with my design was the buttons pressing up into the body when the switch was activated, as well as the buttons finding their way out of their guide holes and lost inside of the cover body.
One solution i came up with for keeping the buttons in their slots was simply to make the buttons taller. My thought with this was that the taller button would be less likely to find it's way out of it's guide hole. This solution worked marginally and made for a very clunky operation of the switches to a point that I wasn't really satisfied with.
To solve this problem in 2.0 I decided connect the two buttons together with a thin piece of the printing material, PLA. PLA is a sturdy but relatively flexible material. If flexed to a point the material will break but in the application I am using it I felt confident that it will hold up well.
This solution worked very well at keeping the buttons from "getting lost" inside of the cover but I was still having issues with the switch clearance. after identifying this as the next problem to be solved I moved to adjusting the dimensions of the cover.
Version 3.2 had, I felt, too many design complications that made it very difficult to navigate and make effective changes.
At this point I had become so accustomed to the shapes involved with the design that I decided start over from scratch.
V4.0
After version 3.2, I decided to go back to the drawing board as it were, and restart my frame design V4.0.
Through the process of tweaking versions 1.0 through 3.2 to accommodate the switch movement, the design became very busy and had a lot of features and events in the design timeline that had warnings that I decided to step away from my original sketch and start a new one but with a very deliberate design process.
I gave the slope of the button frame a more uniform shape by creating a profile drawing and revolving the main body. I then cut the shape out of the revolve and extruded the walls of the body.
The final result of the 11 iterations is version 4.1
Below is a render followed by an actual photo taken by me:
In the render the buttons are a little displaced compared to the real-life product but this is because the joint that holds the buttons together is flexible in real life and I am unaware of how to portray that in Fusion at the moment.
Lessons learned
The biggest lesson I gained from this exercise was learning to prioritize in the problem solving process.
I ran into two main problems while creating this product:
The clearance of the buttons in association with the cover.
The design of the buttons in respect to keeping them in place
All-in-all this exercise took me a total of about 3 days. Looking back if I had been better able to identify these problems and be able to come up with solutions that addressed these directly instead of using trial and error, I feel as though my work flow would have been more efficient.
The use of additive manufacturing with a 3d printer was exceptionally useful and really was what made the completion of this project possible. In all I created 11 prototypes in the process of solving this problem and each one brought with it valuable information for approaching the next iteration and eventual solution.
Click here for a Fusion preview file
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