Saturday, Aug 18 2018
The older I get the thinner my hair gets. What does that have to do with 3D printing? My choise in hair length is short or a comb-over. I don’t do comb-overs. No more long hair.
Short hair is easy to maintain. I’ve a Norelco all-in-one trimmer that comes with various heads and guards to set a maximum length. However, the largest guard is 16mm. That is a bit too short. I’d prefer a guard that is closer to 25mm. 3D printing to the rescue.
2nd try
This was my second test print. The first print was too big in several dimensions. I went back to the design and tweaked the sizes to get something closer. I was still guestimating needed clearances and expected to need a 3rd print before it was right.
Printing the guard in this orientation took about 2:44. Add another 20-30 minutes of hand work to remove all of the supports. As long as I was changing the design I made sure that I could rotate the design 180° and put the top on the build plate.
3rd try
That worked much better. Print time was 1:31. There was minimal support material to remove. I did have to spend some time on the clip that holds the guard to the clipper at the rear. I made it too large on purpose. The intent was to file it down to size to get a good fit for a strong connection. I wound up removing 1~1.5 mm from the clip to get the best fit.
Fits
25mm clipper guard
I think it will meet my needs. I do need to sand the forks of the comb to smooth them out. I may also take a heat gun to remove the tiny hairs. Or not. It is hard to tell they are there unless looking at the part under a magnifying glass in strong light — or in a photo.
UPDATE: The guard only lasted a couple of uses before the clip broke. Someday I’ll look at this, again.