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I thought I'd post what I did to manufacture an ebrake cable boot for my 49 F1 since I was unable to find anyone making an aftermarket one. I decided to try to design one and try to 3D print it.
Not having any old ones to use as a reference, I started by taking dimensions from cable itself and cable holder/clamp to start my design. I also had no idea how long to make it, so I arbitrarily picked 2" long. With the dimensions and a rough idea, I started doing a 3D layout and came up with this...
I ordered a spool of black TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) that was listed as having a shore 95A.hardness. This is a little stiffer than I'd like and is considered semi-rigid but I figured that would have the best chance of feeding in my Ender 3 Pro bowden tube printer. Going with a more flexible filament would require costly printer modifications and I'd rather put the money into truck parts.
It ended up running much better than I expected, and it took a little over an hour to print one. When it finished, I was very pleased to see how flexible it is.
The first one required a little tweaking to fit properly, and the next one fit perfectly.
Well, this is what worked for me and set me up with parts that I wouldn't have been able to obtain any other way. They're not perfect and probably not the same as original but they'll work.
If anyone has any feedback on the correct dimensions for these, send them my way so I can make modifications to get the design closer to the original.
Of course, if anyone has access to a 3D printer and wants to make their own, PM me and I'll be happy to provide the STL file.
3D printing offers a great opportunity to recreate parts for our trucks that are obsolete and no longer manufactured by anyone. Maybe the forum should add STL & Gcode files as allowable forum attachments in addition to the jpg, gif, png etc image files so we can share 3D printable parts?? Maybe start a parts library?
JB- I use an Ender 3 Pro printer that is a bowden tube type printer. A direct drive printer is better for TPU filament since it the filament is about the consistency of al dente spaghetti but that adds to the price of the printer. The 3D design work was done with Autodesk Fusion 360,
Very cool! Great work. If I recall correctly we have had discussions on 3D printing some of the emblems that aren't reproduced.
I library of this sort would be awesome. I haven't gotten into 3D printing, but it is interesting.
I received some images of an original boot from Chuck (thanks Chuck!) along with some basic dimensions the day before yesterday. I spent a fair amount of time scaling the image based on the ruler and dimensions he provided to get a rough idea of what my redesign needed to accomplish. The real boot is 1 1/4” longer than the boot I designed and the ribs are larger so the differences are significant. After spending 45 minutes trying to modify my rev 1 design, I realized it would be easier to start from scratch.
It took me a couple hours creating the new model last night and the new part looks pretty good. It took a little over two hours to print this morning and turned out quite well. It fits pretty good but can use some tweaks to improve fit but I’m pretty happy with the results. I’ll probably refine it this weekend sometime and then run two more to install permanently.
Since the post was bumped up, I'll gladly respond.
Two of the boots I printed are installed on the truck. They went on well and seem up to the task of doing the job.
From a durability standpoint, I'm not sure how these will hold up as this is my first experiment with 3D printed flexible material. I did have a concern about interlayer adhesion since the TPE is a new material I never worked with. Adhesion is always an issue on fused deposition (FDM) 3D printing since the boot is printed layer by layer. I did do an informal pull test that shows OK, but not great, adhesion. I was able to pull it apart with a moderate amount of force and it clearly is not the same strength as a monolithically molded boot. From an environmental standpoint, TPE is pretty tough stuff but to see how it does longer term. I hung a couple of spare boots from a wire on the south side of my barn. I'll be checking these in 6 months and a year to see how they hold up.
I don't plan on commercially producing these since their long-term durability is unknown. I did this effort since I was curious whether it was possible and since I have a 3D printer in my basement. I posted my results because 3D printing for the masses is something relatively new and more people are buying these printers to play with. Hopefully, my results show the potential to replace no longer available parts with this technology if someone has a 3D printer and the desire to experiment.
The alternative to this was to not bother with a boot and leave the cable entry unprotected. My attitude is always: if it was broken before I started, there's no possible way I could make it worse, so it was worth a try.
I'm always available to answer questions and assist if anyone has access to a printer and wants to try this.
Since you have the 3D file needed, could you just ask a commercial shop what it would cost to either print them, or cast them? I assume a commercial shop would have a wider range of materials they could use, and surely a faster process. You should make money on this, you did the work, and we would all appreciate it!
Thanks for the encouragement, Ross. I just retired not too long ago after working in the high speed, high precision stamping and molding industry for years. Could I further refine this and design it for manufacturing as well as find a shop to manufacture this? Heck yeah, but turning this into a business opportunity sounds too much like work rather than the hobby that it is . I'm doing this because it's fun and challenging and don't want to ruin that.
Then again, with the price of gas shooting through the roof now after a year of steady increases, I may need to start something up to be able to put gas into the F1 when it finally hits the road again!......
Ron, they will write stories about you if you make them available LOL!
Its a good addition to a well restored truck, and they do serve a purpose to keep the elements/dirt out of the cable. I don’t think there is alot of stress on it. Even if you had to replace them every few years, they are relatively easy to get to.
Someone said cast and I was thinking something along that line.
If you made a thin part that could be dipped in a rubber type stuff (plastic dip maybe?) to the right thickness then the part "crushed" or "broken up" to remove it from inside the part, would something like that be a better fit?
When I see things like this and other parts made I want to run out and buy a 3D printer just to play with but i also like living and the wife I am sure would kill me if I got one LOL
Dave ----
. I'm doing this because it's fun and challenging and don't want to ruin that. 
