Working Air-horn

thingiverse

This is a working air-horn that is completely 3d printed and it is loud! I made the this for the #Makeitloud challenge. Once you print this it is as loud as you can blow! I have been able to achieve 110 decibels with a nice print of the diaphragm. If you use flexible filiment for the diaphragm you may get a much louder sound. Unfortunately, I do not have any flexible filiment to try. When printing the diaphragm print the diaphragm_2 first; I have had much better success from this one. If you don't want to have to print the diaphragm; I have found that a peice of paper works well! I printed this with ABS, I'm not sure if other filaments would work or not but please let me know if you try and how it turns out. Update: I have uploaded a new version of the case in an attempt to eliminate the need to push the horn in and out. Hopefully, if you use "Base Airhorn_2" the air-horn will work as soon as you put it together. I have left both versions of the base since the placement of the horn is very sensitive; If needed you can print the original case to get the best sound. Print Settings Printer: prusa i3 Rafts: No Supports: No Infill: 25% Notes: When you print the diaphragm you will want to make sure that you have leveled the bed and that you get a thin consistent layer with no holes. You may have to play with the distance of your nozzle and bed along with your first layer height to get this right. I was very successful with a .20 first layer height and the nozzle set where a piece of paper had some drag between the nozzle and the bed. I used ABS to print this. I'm not sure how other filements would preform but please let me know if you try! I have included 2 versions of the diaphragm I have had success with both it just depend on how the printer is set up. Also you can put two thin diaphragms in the horn if you are have issues with blowing it out. Assembly- place the horn section into the center hole so that the inlet of the horn is just passed the internal lip on the inside of the case with the mouth piece (if done correctly the diaphragm will sit on the inlet of the horn). Then place the diaphragm inside the case half on the internal lip and put the two valves of the case together. When it assembled blow into the horn. If air easily passes through the horn push the horn further inside the case a little at a time and retry until the horn blows. (you will know when you have it right.) If when you blow air does not pass at all or it is difficult pull the horn out of the case a little and try again until it works. Note: the diagram should be very thin and flexible after it prints. If it is too stiff it will be difficult to get the horn to work correctly. How I Designed This Had some fun While looking for something to design for the #makeitloud challenge; my son and I were working on it and he said we should make a car horn. We laughed and thought of other things but then I starting thinking more about it and started thinking about an air horn but the diaphragm was a challenge. All air horn I am familiar with use rubber and are very elastic. I tried several different ideas that failed and then I tried the thin print; It worked! After several modifications I was able to print it consistently. Update: in the spirit of ingenuity I printed the diaphragm using a rubber gasket. I found a large gasket with a diameter close to 1.75; cut the gasket and used it as the filament. It worked!!! I was able to print one diaphragm and got a really... really loud sound but then blew it out (technically I did print it so it still ad-hearse to the rules of the competition). However, I would not recommend using the rubber gasket to print with; I clogged up my nozzle and made a horrible mess and smell. Now my printer is down until I get it cleaned up. Video shows how to assemble the air-horn. Air-horn test