The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Day: June 21, 2019

  • Kitchen Blender Base Spacer

    We don’t use the blender much, so the most recent bearing replacement continues to work. I never got around to re-making the overly long shaft spacer from the first bearing replacement, which I compensated for with a spacer kludge cut from a random chunk of bendy plastic sheet.

    Which we put up with For. Eleven. Years.

    The blender recently emerged from hiding and, with my solid modeling-fu cranked up to a dangerous chattering whine, I conjured a real spacer:

    Blender base spacer - Slic3r preview
    Blender base spacer – Slic3r preview

    It pretty much disappears into the blender base, which is the whole point of the operation:

    Blender base spacer - installed
    Blender base spacer – installed

    When the bearings fail again, I promise to make a proper shaft spacer and toss this bodge.

    The OpenSCAD code as a GitHub Gist:

    // Kitchen blender base adapter
    // Ed Nisley KE4ZNU June 2019
    //- Extrusion parameters must match reality!
    /* [Hidden] */
    ThreadThick = 0.25;
    ThreadWidth = 0.40;
    HoleWindage = 0.2;
    Protrusion = 0.1; // make holes end cleanly
    inch = 25.4;
    function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit);
    ID = 0;
    OD = 1;
    LENGTH = 2;
    //———-
    // Just build it
    Spacer = [48.0,66.0,1.8]; // LENGTH raises blade holder
    Aligner = [Spacer[ID],52.0,Spacer[LENGTH] + 3.0]; // LENGTH locks into base ring
    NumSides = 4*3*4;
    //———-
    // Just build it
    difference() {
    union() {
    cylinder(d=Spacer[OD],h=IntegerMultiple(Spacer[LENGTH],ThreadThick),$fn=NumSides);
    cylinder(d=Aligner[OD],h=Aligner[LENGTH],$fn=NumSides);
    }
    translate([0,0,-Protrusion])
    cylinder(d=Spacer[ID],h=10*Aligner[LENGTH],$fn=NumSides);
    }

    Not that it really deserves so much attention …