3D Printer Project - Printed Toilet Seat Bumber / Spacer

Nifty

Printer VIP
Administrator
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
3,046
Reaction score
1,405
Points
337
Location
Bay Area CA
Printer Model
CR-10, i560 ,MFC-7440N
So, I'll admit it... I LOVE having a bidet on a toilet! In fact, I've purchased about 7 of these SUPER cheap ones and given them to friends and even installed them for a few people... just to spread the true gospel! Many people (myself included) swear that it's the best $25 you could spend! (and the install only takes like 10 minutes)

I mean, look at the reviews! almost 6,500 4.5 stars!!! https://amzn.to/2MxH3SI

Anyway...

The only problem I had is with one of my toilets has a seat where after adding the bidet, the seat was raised higher, and not seating against the bowl. I had too much space between the bowl and the seat :(

I noticed the spacer / bumper / foot on the bottom of the seat (and space between the bumper and the bowl):
seat2.jpg

I pulled off the bumper and thought "I bet I could print a spacer for this!"

... and then remembered Chuck's video where he scanned a thing and imported it into tinkercad to model from!!!

See the first few minutes here:

You can see my scan of the bottom of my spacer here:
Clipboard01.jpg

I edited it a bit in photoshop, converted it to black/white, and imported it into tinkercad:
2018-06-12 21_46_38-3D design toilet seat spacer _ Tinkercad _ https___www.tinkercad.com_.gif

Next I designed basic shapes into this model:
2018-06-12 21_47_02-3D design toilet seat spacer _ Tinkercad _ https___www.tinkercad.com_.gif

Which ended up like this:
2018-06-12 21_47_25-3D design toilet seat spacer _ Tinkercad _ https___www.tinkercad.com_.gif


My first few iterations were going to be replacing the existing gray bumper with this plastic one... which I did, and it worked pretty well.

... but, I liked the rubberized material of the existing bumper, so I took the shapes I used to create the holes, duplicated them, and made them "shapes", which ended up like this:

toilet-bumper-spacer-3d-printed.gif

After a bunch of testing, tweaking, etc. (as seen below)...
toilet-bumper-spacer-3d-printed-5.jpg


... I ended up with perfection!!!
seat3.jpg

This was a very satisfying project!

:)
 
Last edited:

The Hat

Printer VIP
Platinum Printer Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
15,617
Reaction score
8,691
Points
453
Location
Residing in Wicklow Ireland
Printer Model
Canon/3D, CR-10, CR-10S, KP-3
@Nifty you are certainly getting full use of your 3D printer and I am doing much the same, because I can’t look at something without thinking I can make it better, I wonder when others will see just how handy and exciting these simple printers are...;)
Congratulations on another great project, this stuff is priceless, bring it on I say... :thumbsup
 

stratman

Printer VIP
Platinum Printer Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
8,712
Reaction score
7,163
Points
393
Location
USA
Printer Model
Canon MB5120, Pencil
Hooray for the bidet but a cold spray? Brrr!

Great project, Nifty. Well done. :clap
 

Nifty

Printer VIP
Administrator
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
3,046
Reaction score
1,405
Points
337
Location
Bay Area CA
Printer Model
CR-10, i560 ,MFC-7440N
You guys... :rolleyes:

They do make super fancy electronic heated seats, warm water, hot-air dry, bidets, but I actually like the simplicity of the manual cheap ones. I think everyone should spend the $25 and just try one out. Everyone I've purchased one for is quickly converted to a believer!

Regarding the print: Yeah, I really love finding ways to design and print myself out of problems!

What's funny is the old saying, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"... well, I sometimes feel like I'm always making up excuses / reasons to "fix" something with a 3D print! :D
 

Nifty

Printer VIP
Administrator
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
3,046
Reaction score
1,405
Points
337
Location
Bay Area CA
Printer Model
CR-10, i560 ,MFC-7440N
Welp, I knew it was a question of "if" and not "when" my test prints for this project would break.

I had printed them with very little infill or wall strength to speed up the prototyping / printing process.

... and one just broke:

(you can see how little infill there was)
upload_2018-9-8_11-39-22.png


So, I printed a new version with 50% infill and 4 walls:

upload_2018-9-8_11-39-58.png


Should be MUCH stronger!


(took only about 10 minutes to print the replacement... 3D printers are so cool!!!)
 

The Hat

Printer VIP
Platinum Printer Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
15,617
Reaction score
8,691
Points
453
Location
Residing in Wicklow Ireland
Printer Model
Canon/3D, CR-10, CR-10S, KP-3
(took only about 10 minutes to print the replacement... 3D printers are so cool!!!)
I mostly found it faster to use high infill, up to 100% on most things that are going to get a bit of rough treatment, add up the time it takes to print something twice, especially when it time your trying to save and not the filament.
I can’t count the amount of times some of my projects broke in my hand with 30% infill...:hu
 

Nifty

Printer VIP
Administrator
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
3,046
Reaction score
1,405
Points
337
Location
Bay Area CA
Printer Model
CR-10, i560 ,MFC-7440N
I don't think I've ever printed anything with 100% infill, but very few things I print require a lot of strength. Of course, I might change my tune if this thing breaks again ;)
 
Top