3D printed parts for Ryobi

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  • devers6
    Handtools only
    • Mar 2019
    • 3

    3D printed parts for Ryobi

    Hi all,

    i have an older BT3000 that was in storage at my father-in-law’s business. When I dug it out, it was missing the rip fence. I looked around and found that many of the necessary parts for the fence, including the plastic parts, are discontinued and exceedingly hard to find.

    However, I am also a 3d printing and CAD enthusiast who routinely replicates broken plastic parts when I have an original, even a broken one. Does anyone here have a rip fence assembly (or just the plastic parts; broken is fine) that you could send me? I would pay shipping both ways, and would provide copies of any replicated plastic parts when I return it. I would also be happy to post the print (stl) files either here, by email directly to other users, or on a repository such as Thingiverse. I would make the same offer for any other part on the saw that is not currently available such as knobs, clamps, brackets etc.

    3d printed parts are not particularly durable, but they do last for a while; and when they break you can just print another one (or have it printed for you). Many plastic parts are not necessarily under stress, but they get damaged in other ways (I recall sawing the ends off the miter fence regularly). Having the ability to replace discontinued plastic parts could keep a number of these saws running for years.

    i am also willing to share my knowledge about CAD and 3d printing with any users on this site. I have the ability to do YouTube tutorials on the process if there is interest.

    Hoping to hear from you!

    (I am located in Nevada, USA)

    Dave
  • Jim Frye
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 1051
    • Maumee, OH, USA.
    • Ryobi BT3000 & BT3100

    #2
    Have you tried finding a rip fence from a BT3100? They are essentially the same and are interchangeable with the fence from the BT3000. I have both on my early production BT3000 and the BT3100 fence is from my pre-production BT3100. Just thought a BT3100 part might be easier to find. Great idea though. Don't give up on idea and offer. My son does 3D printing at work all the time. They just installed a 3D metal printer.
    Jim Frye
    The Nut in the Cellar.
    ”Sawdust Is Man Glitter”

    Comment

    • cwsmith
      Veteran Member
      • Dec 2005
      • 2737
      • NY Southern Tier, USA.
      • BT3100-1

      #3
      That would be great if you could get the parts from which to make the 3D drawings. A couple of years ago one of the other members and I worked together to come up with a drawing to 3-D print new slides for the SMT. The other member re-designed the pieces and I made the drawings so that he could print them (I still don't have a 3-D printer.)

      The drawing for those are here on the forum somewhere. At the time, I thought that having drawing made for the ever fading parts availability would be a great idea, but it didn't go anywhere. It's too bad that Ryobi/TTI doesn't make their original drawings available, but I was told that they are probably destroyed. I find it hard to believe, as most companies would keep their proprietary drawings for almost forever. Either way though, they don't seem to be available and that would leave us, the users to come up with whatever we deem necessary to keep our BT-saws working.


      CWS
      Think it Through Before You Do!

      Comment

      • Carlos
        Veteran Member
        • Jan 2004
        • 1893
        • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

        #4
        There is no way they will release them. I've had this discussion with a couple of companies, even one that was closing up and their drawings had no value. When some idiot makes the part out of paper machê and cuts his arm off, he will sue the company for not making sure that the drawings said "do not use cardboard derivatives and cello tape to make this part."

        Comment

        • woodturner
          Veteran Member
          • Jun 2008
          • 2047
          • Western Pennsylvania
          • General, Sears 21829, BT3100

          #5
          Originally posted by cwsmith
          It's too bad that Ryobi/TTI doesn't make their original drawings available, but I was told that they are probably destroyed. I find it hard to believe, as most companies would keep their proprietary drawings for almost forever. Either way though, they don't seem to be available and that would leave us, the users to come up with whatever we deem necessary to keep our BT-saws working.
          It is unfortunate that the drawings were destroyed, but that is likely the case. Those were likely from the paper drawing era, and storage of the old drawings takes space and resources. There may also be some legal implications, they can't make something when they don't have drawings.

          FWIW, I have contacted engineering friends at TTI and have been told the same thing. While they are willing to release drawings, they can't release drawings they don't have or can't locate, and it's not worth their time to spend a lot of time hunting for them. I suspect we will be stuck with reverse-engineering the parts, once we can no longer get replacement parts.

          --------------------------------------------------
          Electrical Engineer by day, Woodworker by night

          Comment

          • cwsmith
            Veteran Member
            • Dec 2005
            • 2737
            • NY Southern Tier, USA.
            • BT3100-1

            #6
            Different company for sure and perhaps just a different management attitude. I worked more than thirty years for Ingersoll-Rand (later my facility became Dresser-Rand). There, drawings were sacred and NOTHING was ever destroyed. In fact, everything was also microfilmed. We went to CAD way back in the mid-1980's.

            I remember an incident when an old compressor from the early 1900's was discovered in the bottom of a mine shaft. Someone wanted to haul it out of there and restore it, we still had the drawings for it! Similarly, I was head of a team that found one of our "Imperial Type 10" compressors out in Bakersfield, CA. They were clearing that part of the field and found the unit in an old shed. I paid for it's shipping back to Painted Post where I arranged for it to be restored for display purposes... It didn't require any new castings, but things like shims and hardware were needed. We had those drawings too... the "Type 10" was made in the late 1800's.

            I've also done years of work for many of the largest manufacturers here in the northeast. One of them being IBM, which spent eight years doing parts catalogs and illustrations for. IBM's very first part, IIRC was a 10-32-3/8 inch pan head screw... part number 0000001. IBM sequenced all its part numbers in the order they were purchased, designed, or manufactured. Up until my last parts catalog I did for them, they still maintained all of their drawings too. Corning, Inc also keeps all of their drawings, and even keeps all of their glass formulations... even the one's that were deemed failures for the application they were attempting at the time. As explained to me, any time a competitor came out with a glass formula, no matter what the application, Corning could look back at it's formulations to see if they had already done that, and if so,would have legal entitlement. Keeping drawings and design records is just good business practice, even if the product is dropped, I believe there is a legal requirement for retention... how many years, I don't know.

            While I realize the industries are different, I find it hard to imagine that they just destroy their old designs and product drawings. Keeping them confidential perhaps is reasonable and I understand that, but destroying them seems an idea that is deeply flawed.

            CWS
            Think it Through Before You Do!

            Comment

            • woodturner
              Veteran Member
              • Jun 2008
              • 2047
              • Western Pennsylvania
              • General, Sears 21829, BT3100

              #7
              Originally posted by cwsmith
              While I realize the industries are different, I find it hard to imagine that they just destroy their old designs and product drawings. Keeping them confidential perhaps is reasonable and I understand that, but destroying them seems an idea that is deeply flawed.
              I think it is driven by concern about litigation - there are a couple of notable cases where old drawings and records were used in litigation, to the company's detriment. I'm on the electronics and IT side, but most companies have information retention and deletion policies now. The basic product support requirement is 7 years, and there are some exceptions and work arounds to that, so many companies delete every electronic record more than 7 years old by policy, with a process to flag files that need to be retained as exceptions to the policy.

              It does make it a little frustrating when we can't get information on our own products from more than seven years ago. Have to wonder if the Boeing issues might be related to losing that "tribal knowledge" and reference.

              --------------------------------------------------
              Electrical Engineer by day, Woodworker by night

              Comment


              • cwsmith
                cwsmith commented
                Editing a comment
                Woodturner,

                You make a good point, but I wonder how much "litigation" can be escaped just because the drawings are no longer available? Thanks for pointing out the "seven years" retention policy... jarred my memory and that "seven years" is exactly what I remember... even back before I started my career as a technical illustrator and writer. Not long after high school, I had a job as a mechanical inspector in a local manufacturing facility and after that as a data maintenance and vital records clerk in the home office of an insurance company. Both of those required records retention for "seven years", although, at least in the case of 'vital records', retention was much, much longer.

                As a technical illustrator and writer, everything that I did would be passed through Engineering for their signoff. Initially, all that was required was that my boss 'look-it-over', but I could see immediately that was flawed. So, I instituted a review process and an approval form to go with every request; that included the project engineer, his supervising engineer, the senior engineer, and finally, before publishing, the Corporate Legal counsel.

                I always felt that as the publisher of my employer's service literature, my first allegiance was to the customer. Technical illustrating, to me, was basically building the product n my illustration. I'd gather every component drawing and draw it in isometric, ensuring each component mated properly with the next, until I'd build the entire assembly on my drawing board. There would be times when I found mismatches, or drawings that just didn't make sense and would find that alterations were made "on-the-floor'. I made it a practice to know every machine, every component, and I'd spend a lot of time in the shops with the people who were building the various units; and, I got clearance to the mechanical labs and testing areas so I could learn first-hand the stuff I had responsibility providing literature for. Proper documentation can save injury and lives and of course litigation against my employer.... and, from my point of view, that's why they employed me. But I gotta tell ya, it was a bit of a fight at times!

                I wonder what the liability to a company would be because a part was no-longer available and that led to product failure and injury? Probably nothing, but it is perhaps a reasonably question when the product in less than a decade old?

                CWS
            • devers6
              Handtools only
              • Mar 2019
              • 3

              #8
              Thanks everyone for the interesting discussion so far. I spent a little time and was able to replicate several of the smaller plastic parts, including:
              • Miter Gauge End Caps
              • Miter Gauge Pivot
              • Fence Clips
              • Front and Rear Rail End Caps
              The .STL files for each of these parts is located on my Thingiverse page here:

              I am a long-time maker, with specialties in hobby CNC, electronics and software. I designed and built a mid-size CNC Router, have converted a Sieg SX3 mill to CNC, and have recently branched into FDM 3D Printing.


              If you have a 3D printer, simply download the files and print as usual. If you don't have a 3D printer, there is also a link in the page where you can get a price for having one printed for you by a printing company. I'd strongly advise getting your own 3d printer - they have come down in price massively in the last couple of years. My favorite printer right now is the Creality Ender 3, which you can buy in kit form for less than $200. I use mine constantly to make jigs, adapters, replacements for broken parts, and literally hundreds of other uses. The learning curve is substantial, but the rewards once you figure it out are definitely worth it.

              The best thing about a 3D printer is that when it is too late to work in the shop, you can come back inside and get some serious work done even when the rest of the family is asleep. 3D printers are quiet and reliable enough that I routinely leave them printing overnight, so when you wake up a brand new part is waiting for you.

              I'm still on the lookout for the plastic Roller Holder part for the rip fence, although my experience with it was that it cracked easily due to the clamping forces. I see there are aluminum replacements that are probably the best solution, but I would still like to try 3D printing a version to see if it could be beefed up enough to be better than the original.

              Dave

              Comment

              • capncarl
                Veteran Member
                • Jan 2007
                • 3564
                • Leesburg Georgia USA
                • SawStop CTS

                #9
                I’m not sure how it is going now but our local library had 3D printers available for library card holders to use. I suppose they are still there and available. Check your local library.

                Comment

                • devers6
                  Handtools only
                  • Mar 2019
                  • 3

                  #10
                  I was able to find the parts for the rip fence on Ebay, so I have added the plastic parts included to the Thingiverse repository. The link is:

                  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3573634

                  The parts on this page include:
                  I have made a few prints of all of these parts, but I have not yet used them on my saw. If I discover that any of them have fitment or dimensional issues, I will correct the parts on Thingiverse and leave a message here that updated parts are available.

                  Comment

                  • billwmeyer
                    Veteran Member
                    • Feb 2003
                    • 1858
                    • Weir, Ks, USA.
                    • BT3000

                    #11
                    Thank you for the effort that you are putting into this! I don't have a 3D printer, but I understand that some libraries have them.
                    "I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in."-Kenny Rogers

                    Comment

                    • anmack
                      Forum Newbie
                      • Apr 2005
                      • 15
                      • Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

                      #12
                      Out of curiosity, what would the best material to print with?
                      Adrian

                      Comment

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