since i have now rebuilt the engine (twice, oct '13 thru march '14 and aug-oct 2017), and engine bay tidy up etc,
i thought i'd start putting other original parts back on.
as my late build 72 originally came from California, it had a smog pump fitted when i got it.
but i didn't get a pulley, spacer or the plastic fan filter, and the pump was seized solid.

a few years ago i started tinkering with the pump, managed to get it apart, one of the vanes was all split and mangled.
i removed them, cleaned and repacked the rear bearing, the front being moulded in, felt fine.
now i searched the net/ebay etc looking for a black square edge fan, as per the various technical books.
found a couple, but i wasn't going to pay 100$US and 40$US postage (about 190$AU) for a piece of plastic.

what's a bloke supposed to do,
well i'm a fitter n turner/toolmaker by trade, so i was going to cnc machine one from a solid piece of stock....
never got around to it
then recently i got talking to a bloke at work and he suggested i try 3D printing one.
so i found as many photos i could for reference as i didn't know anyone i could measure from,

modeled it up in a Computer Aided Design (cad) program called Inventor.



then we printed a test part to get an idea how it would go, he only had blue filament to try with,
i have since made a few changes to my original design, thinning the webs etc.





you can see how the part is made up in layers of thin hollow sections, as were only doing a prototype i didn't need full strength part.
it prints in extra support pillars to allow for overhanging areas, then they just snap out afterwards.



the final result after about 7hrs printing, it's a very slow process.



removed and cleaned up the supports, machined bore to finished size and light press fitting on to pump boss.





this is just a replacement part, never intended to pass judging, it just finishes the front of the pump off for me.

just cost me my time, a spool of filament about 30$US (40$AU) which i'll give the remainder to the bloke for printing it for me.

just waiting on some black plastic filament and we will make a final part and i'll post some more pictures.

 

That's awesome. Before I retired I worked for a distributor that sold tooling and I just loved going into the machine shops and was always amazed at the products that they made.

 

Excellent! I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

Boy, it’s a new world.

I remember the difficulty I had in finding and paying for the exact same part, only the white one that belonged on my ‘69. I think I paid $100 for it.

Nice work, impressive.

 

How will that hold up to RPM's? How strong is that plastic?
Looks real nice and if it's a hard part to find maybe you have a market for it.

 

Went to boneyard a few years ago and pulled a few smog pumps out of some old GM full size cars. the white fan is the same part but those were never removed and tossed by the original owners. You loose some of the fans taking them off but you get them REAL CHEAP.

 

the plastic is ABS and will be strong enough for the application.
its not under any physical stress or pressure, just centrifugal spinning,
the final will be made solid, not hollowed out, therefore stronger.
there are also other materials we could use, glass infused etc,
but the price of the filament skyrockets rapidly upwards and printing is harder.
if it fails, and i will be keeping an eye on it, we will try another material.

we don't have or ever did have smog pumps on any of our old cars here.... so none to be found.

 

Nice job man that looks wicked