What are these called (shower component)

[Geoff Inns]

The piece of plastic that keeps my heavy shower/bath screen in place has snapped, meaning the door cannot be safely used.

I don't know what it's called - a picture of it is here:

in yellow. They are the top and bottom pieces that allow the door to swing and stay in place. The bottom once has snapped. This is the installation guide: Can anyone tell me what they are called and where I can get them? It's an expensive screen to replace when all it is is two bits of plastic!

Any help much appreciated

[Biggles]

Have you tried contacting Mode Bathrooms?

[Tricky Dicky]

I do not know what their actual name is but they appear to be the socket part of a pivot. Seeing as they are part of an “exclusive” shower range sold by Victoria Plum try them I would imagine if they broken for you it is likely others may have had the same problem and likely Victoria Plum can supply spares.

Richard

[Tim+]

Any good to you? “Roman bracket” seems to be the search term to use. Not cheap.

Tim

[Theo]

3D printable one: Theo

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes, this is the sort of thing 3D printing excels at - replacing plasticky widgets that have broken.

I recently managed to fit some new squawkers to a very old set of studio monitors by getting a friend to print an adapter plate to match the old surrounds to the new drivers which were updated versions of the 40 year old units that had died. And even those were obsolete and the only stock was in Australia...whereas the repair parts for the woofers all came from China...

Repairing stuff these days takes a bit of creativity. My Jaguar has motorised air vents that open when the ignition comes on. There is a plasticky cam that breaks. Jaguar wont supply that but someone on ebay 3D prints a stronger version...

[Fredxx]

I'm not convinced the 3D printed bracket is going to be very strong.

[Theo]

That depends what you 3D print it in.

I would think about getting it printed in nylon or some other robust plastic. Or even metal maybe. Might not be cheap, but would be stronger than the original.

Theo

[Fredxx]

It's quite a lot of effort for a single small part, but I have used investment casting using a 3D printed part.

[Chris Green]

Are there really 3D printers that print metal? Surely you'd need CNC metal cutting machinery rather than 'printing' which implies building up a solid shape.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am not sure what my mate used to print the adapters for me, but it is strong like bull . No shit.

[Theo]

Yes:

Plenty of metals available

[Andy Burns]

Yes, but not by squirting it out of a nozzle like plastic printing.

They lay down a thin layer of metal powder, then use a laser to sinter the powder where they want a "pixel" to form, then lower the printbed by a layer thickness and repeat ... at the end you retrieve your print from the unsintered powder.

I've got some sculptures that were printed with steel powder as above, then soaked in molten bronze.

[Martin Brown]

There are 3D printers using metal by sintering eg.

Or you can do a 3D print in some soft thermoplastic and make a mould from it to cast a part in metal in a lost wax type process.

[Paul]

"Luxurious" "Chrome plated plastic"

Yes, that's how the Romans used to do it.

Paul

[chop]

Yes.

Nope.

There are 3D printers that do that in metal, usually called sintering.