Gas Heater Button

thingiverse

These buttons lasted all of a month in an otherwise perfectly serviceable Everdure Brigadier gas heater. When they started jamming and soon snapped, we made some running repairs with limited but functional success. Until today - these 3D printed replacements are better than brand new! There's still room for improvement: I copied the original dimensions precisely, including features that are probably for volume manufacturability rather than function (eg. the draft on the button body). So they're still as sloppy and almost as catchy as the originals. I'm sure a wider, straighter body and more secure flanges would work much better, but I can worry about that next time 'round. Also, the dimple on the top surface I rushed by abusing the fillet function instead of a proper sphere subtraction or something. I printed it without supports anyway, so it turned out as best as the printer could manage - which turns out to be just fine (if you don't look too close)! Printing: Orient top side (with the dimple) down. I then printed with no raft and no supports, and just post-processed the overhangs. Otherwise, all default settings in CraftWare. Standard black PLA. About 2m of filament and 40 minutes of printing.