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3D Printing a DSG Shift Knob

vswagon

vswagon

New member
So I'm not sure how many of you have had this happen, but I have the DSG and recently noticed that the previous owner messed with the knob and somehow managed to break the tabs that held the two side accents in place. When I bought the car they seemed a little loose, but I didn't think much of it, but recently when I investigated it I realized they were basically epoxied in place and came off pretty easy. Nothing worse than a loose knob...



They barely stayed in place which bothered my OCD, so I went online to find a replacement and found out we don't have many options for the DSG... besides buying an entire shifter for $250+ which is not going to happen.


Long story short: I'm a professional geek and work at a 3D CAD software company so naturally I took it upon myself to simply remodel the part and 3D Print it using our Makerbot Replicator 2 last night.




It was sort of a pet project of mine for the last few days and here's how it turned out:


Since almost all the tabs on the back were broken and non-existent on the original piece, I over-designed the tabs and I am eyeballing the fitment and using a dremmel to make adjustments.

The hope is I will get a nice fit tonight and then reprint a stylized version with proper tabs and some graffiti-like geometry to make it a little more unique. I've done some 3D graffiti before and it looked pretty sweet so we'll see how it goes!



I'll be posting updates as I go and figured I'd share.

Cheers,
-Blake
 
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GoodTimesIndeed

GoodTimesIndeed

Go Kart Champion
Nice!
 
vswagon

vswagon

New member
Velociraptor Thrust said:
Looks rough, but its a start! Rome wasn't built in a day! But I might be contacting you about me doing the same thing. My knob is loose as well...
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Haha thanks man, yea this is the result of me spending a couple hours modeling and doing a rough print for sizing. Still have a good amount of messing around to do, but we'll get there :)

My hope is to have a reproducible and customizable replacement piece by the time I'm done with a couple iterations, but we'll see lol
 
bskim2

bskim2

Passed Driver's Ed
Nice try!!
 
vswagon

vswagon

New member
Thanks a lot guys, I'll probably need to spend the next few days/weekend fixing some geometry to make it a bit more flush and making some more stylizing, but I'll post updates when I have something worth showing :D

Chris@DoubleApex said:
:thumbup: Great job! Where in MA are you? I've been wanting to design a 3D printed shift knob, just haven't had the time. Metal prints are getting cheaper and cheaper....
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man, I sleep in Marlborough, work in Waltham, and can usually be found hanging around Boston/Cambridge, haha. That would be awesome, I want to print this in Alumide when the design is nailed down, Shapeways.com and Makerbot's Thingiverse are great resources :)

jgarcia1925 said:
cool stuff, im currently working on a bracket for my intake, only disappointing thing about my CTS turbo intake, should be making it next week.
Click to expand...

Nice, I'd love to see the progress, best of luck!

Michael5812 said:
http://orientalparts.com/DSG-Gear-Shift-Knob-Silicon-Protection-Wrap-Black-VW-P2905119.aspx
Click to expand...

Huh, interesting solution! Honestly at that point I could just buy $5 worth of vinyl wrap and just wrap the handle using a blowdryer though, haha. I'd rather do something a little outside of the box like this, but good to know in case I rage quit for some reason
 
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