Vent Latch 3D Print

[meddesign]

My pre-1970 manufactured vent latch broke....no stock.....I had this printed ....I had to open up the holes as they closed in.  It was done in ABS and I do not know how well it will hold up or if in a hot cabin outside it will creep.  (move/flex) ....Mooney space will not allow me to attach the .STL file so you can go to Onshape and download it

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/73637310336989c3f7b62652/w/886c172500534c2234d29d0e/e/0ce834d1e10a5aa8743911b9

 

 

 

 

VENT LATCH 1.pdf

Edited July 20, 2023 by meddesign
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[Fly Boomer]

2 minutes ago, meddesign said:

My pre-1970 manufactured vent latch broke....no stock.....I had this printed ....I had to open up the holes as they closed in.  It was done in ABS and I do not know how well it will hold up or if in a hot cabin outside it will creep.  (move/flex) ....Mooney space will not allow me to attach the .STL file so you can go to Onshape and download it

Nice!  Thanks for sharing.

[meddesign]

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/3d-printing-in-the-homebuilt-world.32290/post-775542

you can get the STL here 

[N201MKTurbo]

I need to make a new one. I will print one of those. I usually just cut a piece of Lexan and space it with some washers. The printed one will look bit better.

[meddesign]

16 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I need to make a new one. I will print one of those. I usually just cut a piece of Lexan and space it with some washers. The printed one will look bit better.

I am not sure if PLA would be more stiff.....or will be more stable in the heat...I do not have a printer .....so let us know how it turns out  in AZ   It looks like the original is Nylon....there are many options as regard fiber filled and different materials....if you have a printer it could occupy you for many satisfying hours.....

[N201MKTurbo]

4 minutes ago, meddesign said:

I am not sure if PLA would be more stiff.....or will be more stable in the heat...I do not have a printer .....so let us know how it turns out  in AZ   It looks like the original is Nylon....there are many options as regard fiber filled and different materials....if you have a printer it could occupy you for many satisfying hours.....

I don't have a printer, but I friends that do.

[M20F]

I snapped mine off and was lucky to pull one out of a wreck my AI had.  They are hard to find for whatever reason. 

[Hank]

11 minutes ago, M20F said:

They are hard to find for whatever reason. 

There is little incentive to make and store them. How often do they need replacement? I suspect their typical life is measured in decades.

Even a 1-cavity prototype mold could make one every twenty seconds, 3 parts per minute, 180 parts per hour. Or a thousand parts in 5½ hours. Having made my career in injection molding, no one gets excited about a 5-hour run, but a 5-day run is a different matter [5 days = 120 hours = 21,600 widgets, or how many years of current-level new aircraft + new Experimentals + replacement windows with the little storm window opening?]; one 5-day run every two or three years, good luck finding a contract manufacturer and expect to pay a much higher price for them to sit on your mold instead of running it.

Made with unreinforced Nylon, they would cost the manufacturer maybe 20-25 cents each. Add some Bidenflation and call them two for a dollar; Mooney sells to their MSC at 100% markup, $1 each; the MSC sells one or two a year at 100% markup for $2 each. And don't lose that little bitty box with a dozen parts in it, that's six or eight years' worth of sales, maybe ten years'!

As far as I can tell, the one I have is the same age as the hinges. Whether they're all from 1970, or if a previous owner replaced the side windows [say, when the 201 windshield went in in the early '00s], I can't tell.

Print your own, fake one with washers, check with your favorite MSCs--or call Great Lakes Aero who makes windows, they may sell you one from their window-building inventory. Should be the least-costly airplane part you've ever bought!

[N201MKTurbo]

I bought one from Mooney back in the 90s. it was $8

[Hank]

19 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I bought one from Mooney back in the 90s. it was $8

Low volume manufacturing will do that! It takes time, which costs money, to set up and start a mold. Say back in the 90s that Mooney was making 1000 planes per year [but they weren't]. At 20 seconds per part, that's 5½ hours, and if that's your only forecast production run for two years, there will be a set-up charge, significantly increased per-part pricing, and likely storage charge for the mold that isn't being run.

Several years ago [2017?-ish], I checked on having some parts outsourced instead of having injection molds built so that I could produce them in-house. We bought the molds, because the highest-volume parts were priced at 25 cents each, and we made them ourselves for 3½ cents each; the lowest volume parts that "the other guy" quoted were five times that price, > $1.25 each, and that was still ~10,000 parts per year in one production run. The low volume parts, some less than 1000 per year, they were not interested in running. So we had a slew of molds built [16 molds that made 40 different parts] and ran them all ourselves. Having 800 parts per year made for you is prohibitively expensive, and we got quantity pricing on the molds by having all sixteen build at the same time.

Using actual current production numbers, I can believe that this little piece could be molded in prototype tool in some 3rd-world locale and shipped to you for just a few dollars each if you bought enough. Put them in a new car, with their volumes of 150,000 per year or more, and the price will fall faster than the quality rises. But that only addresses the cost to manufacture, not the cost to hold them as inventory and distribute to the MSCs, nor their costs to hold them as inventory . . . . .  I don't deal with that, we make our own parts for our own use, not to sell to distributors.

[meddesign]

owner produced parts it is legal, .....selling them as Mooney part not....unless you are Mooney ......solution would be to sell them to Mooney ....you could make a small fortune in aviation.

Does anyone from the factory watch Mooneyspace?  I am out of the loop is there still a Mooney factory/company

If they use my model maybe they will send me a sticker or one of the new parts as a souvenir, 

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, Hank said:

Low volume manufacturing will do that! It takes time, which costs money, to set up and start a mold. Say back in the 90s that Mooney was making 1000 planes per year [but they weren't]. At 20 seconds per part, that's 5½ hours, and if that's your only forecast production run for two years, there will be a set-up charge, significantly increased per-part pricing, and likely storage charge for the mold that isn't being run.

Several years ago [2017?-ish], I checked on having some parts outsourced instead of having injection molds built so that I could produce them in-house. We bought the molds, because the highest-volume parts were priced at 25 cents each, and we made them ourselves for 3½ cents each; the lowest volume parts that "the other guy" quoted were five times that price, > $1.25 each, and that was still ~10,000 parts per year in one production run. The low volume parts, some less than 1000 per year, they were not interested in running. So we had a slew of molds built [16 molds that made 40 different parts] and ran them all ourselves. Having 800 parts per year made for you is prohibitively expensive, and we got quantity pricing on the molds by having all sixteen build at the same time.

Using actual current production numbers, I can believe that this little piece could be molded in prototype tool in some 3rd-world locale and shipped to you for just a few dollars each if you bought enough. Put them in a new car, with their volumes of 150,000 per year or more, and the price will fall faster than the quality rises. But that only addresses the cost to manufacture, not the cost to hold them as inventory and distribute to the MSCs, nor their costs to hold them as inventory . . . . .  I don't deal with that, we make our own parts for our own use, not to sell to distributors.

I assume they still own the tooling for this part. Just putting the tooling on a press is probably going to cost $1000 or so. Then they can run off hundreds of parts for little money. They still have to do all the paperwork to put them in inventory, and then ship them out. All that to sell 10 or 20 a year.even if you could sell them for $100 each, it would take a few years to recover the cost. Hard to justify in a company living hand to mouth.

[Fly Boomer]

8 hours ago, meddesign said:

https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/threads/3d-printing-in-the-homebuilt-world.32290/post-775542

you can get the STL here 

Here is what I see:

 

[Boilermonkey]

If you need one printed in a different material just let me know, I'm always printing stuff.  

[meddesign]

20 hours ago, Fly Boomer said:

Here is what I see:

 

here is what you should see .....you may have join to download I am not sure but it is free to join

I can email you the file 

[meddesign]

It would be better if Mooneyspace allowed .stl files but given the utter ugliness of this site with all the advertisements I doubt they the will change the software 

[Fly Boomer]

3 minutes ago, meddesign said:

It would be better if Mooneyspace allowed .stl files but given the utter ugliness of this site with all the advertisements I doubt they the will change the software 

I’ll PM my email.  If you donate, the adverts go away for a year.

[meddesign]

k not sure why you did not see anything perhaps you need to go in from the front and the link will not work but with the screen shot you should be able to find the post and as soon as I get your pm I will send it  

Edited July 21, 2023 by meddesign

[hammdo]

Zip it then add to upload…

that should work…

-Don

[meddesign]

3 minutes ago, hammdo said:

Zip it then add to upload…

that should work…

-Don

• Accepted file types: jpg, gif, png, pdf, jpeg
• are you sure?

[meddesign]

On 7/20/2023 at 3:29 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

Hard to justify

easy to understand .....just sanding edges and drilling the hole to proper size I probably have 1/2 hr. labor and with today's shop rates that is one expensive part. ..of course if I had a printer I could massage the 3D model  and  in theory there would be no secondary operations......but right now I am pretty happy....I checked it after a real warm day and it might have bent a little but it is still tight against the vent window......The ABS seemed a little rubbery as I was drilling it and perhaps PLA might work better or any of the fiber filled materials.......

[hammdo]

Hum.. that is interesting. Let me see if upload to documents section does..

 

[natdm]

On 7/20/2023 at 8:18 AM, meddesign said:

I am not sure if PLA would be more stiff.....or will be more stable in the heat...I do not have a printer .....so let us know how it turns out  in AZ   It looks like the original is Nylon....there are many options as regard fiber filled and different materials....if you have a printer it could occupy you for many satisfying hours.....

I'm sure PETG would work well, at least? Less flexible and more strong. I definitely don't have the supplies to print ABS. 

[Utah20Gflyer]

I needed one of these and found a generic one on the web. I believe it was aircraftwindshieldstore.com Paid 15 bucks for it.  It’s made from a clear plastic.  

[meddesign]

24 minutes ago, Utah20Gflyer said:

I needed one of these and found a generic one on the web. I believe it was aircraftwindshieldstore.com Paid 15 bucks for it.  It’s made from a clear plastic.  

they sell a piper one and the clear generic one which look to be about the same size....I checked the piper one and it is not as long as the Mooney one and there was some question on my mind as to if the Piper one would work it was much shorter in length rather than the 1 1/2" long ones we have......so I drew the  3D model.

Edited July 21, 2023 by meddesign