These are indeed great machines, that certainly punch above their price point. I have had a 3D printer at home since 2012, upgraded to one of these since a little more than a year, and it is a jump forward compared to anything consumer-grade. I am sure you will find a million non-car related uses for this as well; my parents, partner and friends have been asking me to design and print all sorts of NLA spares you can imagine over the last decade. Just keep it in a well ventilated room, even "non harmful" PLA emits VOCs that I would not advise breathing in.

 

Very cool man regarding the 3d printer! That video is so spot on. I've thought about buying a 3d printer but like he says in the video, most affordable ones take tons of tweaking, work, etc. and don't really work straight out of the box. I have enough hobbys and just wanted a tool but realized a lot of other 3d printers aren't a plug it in and print kind of thing. It's awesome to hear such a thing exists that isn't crazy expensive. Very cool and keep us posted on your 3d printing adventure!

 

I've already got quite a few parts planned. This opens up a ton of options for me, both for test prints for things I want made out of metal, and finished parts out of ABS or whatever other filaments. I bought upgrades to run hardened steel components that will let me print the more exotic glass and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. Lets see...
.

• Fuse box holder - needs test fitting, tweaking, and reprint in ABS
• Mazda logo - Needs size adjustment and mounting pins added to replace old badge on rear bumper, perhaps some curvature added, then reprint in ABS.
• NB2 fog light brake ducts. Design posted online and FM sells similar ones. The one my buddy sent in the care package with the delrin bushings is in PLA. Reprint in ABS.
• Mercedes center console light trim piece - I want to do some minor size adjustment and reprint in ABS.
• Gauge pod - I bought the design for a 3 gauge pod to fit above my tombstone so I can get my HVAC vent back. I miss that thing.

Parts I know I can design and make in the short term
.

• New door lock motor bracket. My driver side power door lock motor is gone, I want to make a bracket for the generic actuators you can get on eBay (and I have in hand)
• Spoiler support rod brackets - I want some brackets that hang down below the trunk lid to support any lexan spoiler extensions, rather than bolting through the top surface like the Blackbird spoiler. This will let me run longer spoiler extensions like I poorly drew some posts back. These will likely just be test pieces for CNC machining.
• 3rd brake light mount - The spoiler will cover the 3rd brake light, so I'll mount a new one below the trunk lid.
• Center console organizer
• OBD port mount - it's also dangling around like my fuse box.
• New master cylinder brace - test print
• Mk60 ABS mounting parts - The ABS pump, yaw sensor, and speed sensors all need mounting points.
• Seals for my SADfab sphericals. I've had these on the shelf for years as I've always been unhappy with the seals available off the shelf. Once I get some of the flexible and grease resistant TPU filament, I can make something to my own design.

I have a bunch of ideas for future projects inspired by the Miata 3d printing association on facebook, but a lot of those involve building off of 3d parts scans, which is not a skill I currently have. Sort of like how Megasquirt helped me get a job in engine calibration, I'm hoping these sort of home projects will give me some experience while I try to transition to my career into an engineering design role.

 

Interested in sharing/selling the files to the fuse box holder and OBD port mount? I'm also in the "1.6 dash swap, where the heck do I put this stuff now" boat. What you've done so far looks real good!

 

Everyone else's enthusiasm for this thing is a serious fire under my butt. Thanks guys!

Thanks for the pointers and encouragement! For now it's in a spare bedroom that stays closed so that we have an allergy free room for guests. I was considering moving it to the basement, but if the VOCs are a big concern I'll probably just leave it.

I'm just starting to consider the possibilities of making stuff that isn't for cars! The only non-car thing I've designed... well, it's a wall display for 6 bolt aftermarket steering wheels!

I'm absolutely willing to share if the final product is worth a crap. Hopefully I'll have a final design soon, stay tuned!

 

Great pickup on the printer! I'm thinking it's probably time for me to get my own instead of using the public libraries at this point.

@BEAVIS designed some engine seal installers that are on thingiverse which I used during my build. There's a cam locking tool on there as well. I've printed soft top latches, a radio delete panel, a hood prop holder for my Subaru... The possibilities are endless. I've only actually drawn one of my prints so far and it was just modifying something I found online.

 

One tip on the "slightly curved" parts, such as the badges; print them flat and form them using heat. While this seems counterintuitive, printing curved parts results in more time and filament (supports) and the quality is worse.

And basement is a good solution, just make sure there's a bit of ventilation/fresh air coming in. The P1 has an exhaust fan; you can print a duct and attach a brake air hose to get air out through a small opening somewhere.

 

So I have a 12v outlet wired directly to my battery, and the other day I left an inverter on by accident. When I next tried to start the car, I only got solenoid clicks. Oops! Jumped it and went to work.

​​​​​​My 30 minute commute apparently wasn't enough to recharge it. I had to get some help bump starting it. When I got home, I put it on the trickle charger. I drove it to a friend's house and when I went to leave for the night, it cranked slowly but never fired. For some reason none of us had jumper cables. I was gonna take one of their cars home but gave it one last try and the heat from the prior cranking must have given it enough of a warm up to fire the engine to life.

So when I got home, trickle charger again. Next day, nothing. The battery is definitely dead! It gave me a long life of service - it's either the one that came in this car 8 years ago, or the one I bought for my NA (!).

I held off because I knew battery prices have gotten ridiculous lately. ​​​I looked at my options - the famed MIATA part number, 51R size swap, power sports and lightweight options, but in the end nothing made as much sense to me as giving the old Lawn and Garden battery a try. $68 after taxes.


Getting my core charge back. They're literally the same size.


Honestly, it looks like they took a regular car battery and cast the flag style terminals on top of it.

It's a vented wet lead acid battery, 350 CCA instead of the 320 an AGM will get you, or the 370CCA wet cell Mazda will sell you.

Car starts again, and cranks way faster now!

 

How the hell do all these prices make sense? A 380cca flooded or AGM battery is going for over $200 nowadays and the one you bought is basically a third? Wild.

No regrets on my Antigrav battery still, but if I’d known I could get the battery you just bought for a quarter of the cost, I might have had a tough decision to make.

Also, 8 years out of a battery holy crap. If nothing else, I thought they were designed to degrade well before then.

 

A lightweight battery makes more sense to me for an NC when it's mounted so far up front. For the NA/NB, they're pretty much in the perfect spot for a bit of extra weight.

If it doesn't last long, well, I'll just get another AGM and hope it lives as long as the last one did.

 

That does seem like a pretty tempting option... Even if you buy a jumper pack you'll still be saving money over the usual culprits. I guess the only downside is the lack of tabs for the tie down bar and needing to convert the terminals?

 

You don't even need adapters really. I just opened up the gap on the cable end and pushed it onto the flag terminal. Next time I place an order from Rockauto, I'll order some adapters - Deka 02033. They're like $3 there, vs $12 on ebay or $17 at Napa. The battery is held firmly in place but I'm not a fan of having the positive terminal being outside of the footprint of the battery.

Another one of my dozens of barely moving projects, I'll get to it eventually style of projects will be replacing these fusible links with a single fuse block for a tidier layout back here.



I'm starting to play with the 3d printer more. Here's my first big print, a gauge pod designed by a guy that goes by 3DRX online.



I'm not sure what other mods he was designing for, maybe he cut the dash pad? Once I removed a significant portion of the lower plastic, it fit really nicely. I've reached out to the designer to see if his dash was modified in any other way, but on the whole I love this design.

As my first large print, it came with a lot of lessons learned. I think I can clean this print up nicely, but if not, I'll just do it again. This is about $5 worth of filament. Once I'm happy with the fit, it'll get some cleanup and paint so it's not obviously a fresh off the bed 3d print.



Peeking into the frame is the Mercedes light cover plate, this time printed in ABS and fitted. They're not wired up yet. I'll make them come on with the 1.6 dash footwell lights, which can be controlled separately from the standard NB overhead light.



This piece will give me two extra gauge locations, but more importantly, I'll get my driver side vent back. I'm not sure what other gauges I will run with a stock ECU. Maybe just a cover plate for now that can hold a phone mount. That'd be a nice way to get OBD output and lap time readings while I'm on track!

In other news, my RSX buddy is trying to no longer be RSX buddy. He's listed it for sale.

It's a bit disappointing since it's got my BBK on there and the headlights were a birthday gift, but I understand why he's doing it. He just doesn't have enough time to play with a car that's getting eligable for classic plates I pointed out that he's fixed pretty much everything wrong with it, and a lot of the work was driven by mods he did and track use, but he's worried it'll never end. The K20 got rod knock while on track, probably because it was the classic "cheapest one I could find" purchase. Then the K24 he swapped in had more torque, leading to more wheelspin on corner exit, so he got an LSD. The higher top speed from both started eating his brakes on some tracks, leading to the BBK.

If you know anyone who wants a well sorted, track ready RSX, send them this link!

Acura RSX Type-S: K24A, Time Attack prepared for Sale in THOMASVILLE, NC | RacingJunk



Easing the blow is that he invited me to tag along to this place.



They had a minty fresh RX7 in the showroom. This thing probably only has delivery miles on it - the radiator is immaculate, and the plastic is still on the floormat.



Usually low mileage cars make me sad, but this basically is in a museum. Everyone that buys a boring crossover gets to look at the kind of cars that could be all over our roads if they would stop buying monuments to compromise. I think I've got him convinced on an ND3 over the new Acura Integra or BRZ/GT86. His wife has a nice sedan, why get two of the same thing? How often are you going to need 4 seats, but won't be able to either plan in advance or head back home? Almost never. Buy that sports car!

 

Dang, didn't take long to start getting use out of that printer huh? The gauge pod is rad! What a steal for $5 worth of filament too. If you could find something like that on eBay or Etsy, you'd be paying $80 for it (or worse).

That's a bummer about your buddy's RSX, but I get it. I was "that guy" for my buddy too. We spent 6 hours on a hot Saturday installing the Getrag diff in my car and he welded the mounting plates into the rear subframe for me. I ended up parting out the car three weeks later, but tried to make it up to him by giving him my BroFab E30 front hubs for super cheap.

Speaking of super cheap. $10k for the RSX seems like a deal. Hopefully he makes a quick and easy sale of it.

 

The Jass performance equivalent is more than $300 worth of European dollarydoos. Time to start adding up the ways it's paid for itself - because I totally couldn't live without that AC vent!

 

Ya.. I gave serious thought to buying that same battery but said screw it I'll get a fancy AGM one. The only place I could find one reasonably was online. Some local stores said they could get one but it'd be >$200. I was like WTF?! I guess it's a "specialty" battery these days. The biggest/largest battery (H8) I installed in my e90 and it cost <$200. I read the charging profile is different from an AGM and non-AGM but maybe not enough to make an appreciable difference, especially if you use a tender regularly.