Brake/clutch reservoirs

[Mr Gazza]

I'm thinking about getting some custom reservoirs 3D printed following Nasher's post showing his natty Multistrada reservoirs on his project.



The first hurdle is to find a material that can printed and is fully resistant to brake fluid.

I've been in touch with the extremely helpful fellow who printed my trip reset knob some years ago and his first question was; what are the originals made of?

Does anyone know by any chance?

Thanks in advance.

[Luddite]

I think it's polypropylene, Mr G. (I looked it up a few years back when I wanted to heat up the spout to bend it a bit.)

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks Vince. He did venture PP which I assume is polypropylene?

[Luddite]

Yep - PP = polypropylene

[Mr Gazza]

Comprehensive reply, as ever. Thanks again.

PP is a thermoplastic as far as I know so should be easily printable... First hurdle cleared.

[slob]

the main problem with most fdm printed items is quality of finish, although many printers can ‘rumble’ the finished items to improve the surface. i’m away in europe right now but will look up a place i’ve found very helpful when i return.

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks Rob, I thought that might pique your interest.

Sam recommends SLA or DLP technology. He used resin SLA at high resolution for my trip knob and the quality and finish was very good.
Sadly he no longer does the 3D printing but he's given me a handful of places to try for that level of printing.... You can't muck about with brakes!!

[Nasher]

Hey Mr G

You might want to check that Dropbox folder we share

[Mr Gazza]

Yes, spotted that. Thanks Nasher.

[Kato]

Brake fluid reservoirs are injection molded with Polypropylene as has been mentioned

Not to familiar with 3d printing but assuming you can get adhesion between the layers and a decent quality finish ? looking forward to the outcome of this thread

DMLS in 316 stainless ??????

[slob]

Originally Posted by Kato

DMLS in 316 stainless ?

certainly sir, minimum order €2500

[Kato]

Originally Posted by slob

certainly sir, minimum order €2500

Of course I was not being serious

But you never know if every member bought a pair we might break even in five years :

[slob]

yup, in the early days of 3d printing i used a service called 3dlabs, a website that let printer owners rent out spare capacity, you could get sls Ti parts from airbus in toulouse but the starting prices were astronomical.

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks for all the interest in this idea, a little amusing to see how it soon gets out of hand though, with thoughts of stainless and Titanium seeping in..

According to Sam the SLA method will make a watertight job and from my experience it gives a very nice finish just like an injection moulding.

This is going to be a while coming to fruit as it's a slow burning project.
Next step is to get the brake pot off my SS along with the elbow that pushes into the master, get them to my brother who can make me a 3D model of my hybrid reservoir design, then go from there.

It'll be nice if it works, and I can get rid of the scaffolding that holds the pots on Goldline masters. those horrid little tubes with their rusty clips too!
Does anyone know what the thinking was behind the remote reservoirs? Just seems untidy to me.

[350TSS]

Possibly remote reservoirs were made to work with clip-ons where the down slope of the bars would have restricted the volume contained in the reservoir