E46 M3 cluster swap

[AndrewBird]

A friend and I once set off a CO2 canister (like for paintball guns) without it attached to anything. It ended up behind us somehow without us even knowing how it got there, all within the blink of an eye. lol

[Farbin Kaiber]

^Rocket Banana was a huge flop for me. Dodging rocket engines is something else. Oh to be a kid again.

[AndrewBird]

My dad has always told me stories of when he was kid and flying string guided airplanes. They would cover the whole plane in model glue, light it on fire and fly it until it disintegrated. lol

I've attached my fair share of model rockets to various things.

[Farbin Kaiber]

^I may or may not have replicated the Trench Run on an not to scale model DS Trench that took two weeks to make and essentially vaporized a ~1995 edition Tie Fighter with three friends and $27.xx worth of Estes C & D series rocket engines.

[nando]

I used to build a lot of model kits. I knew the stock cluster lense was acrylic by the way it cut, and that the cluster housings are ABS (they usually would be anyway). I don't like the nasty black smoke that comes from polystyrene though, haha. I may or may not have had a Starship Enterprise model go down in flames as a kid..

[TwoJ's]

yeah, using a kitchen oven isn't ideal. thankfully acrylic doesn't release any toxic fumes. the thing is I have ideas for other parts that I wouldn't want to make using our regular oven because other types of plastics aren't so good for you. I don't want to have my kids around that kind of stuff. I'm thinking in a year or two we'll get all new appliances, then I can move that oven downstairs to the garage where nobody has to breathe it in.

It's funny, an old dude at work showed me his method of identifying mystery plastics -- he puts a lighter to them, watches how/if they burn and then smells the smoke they give off. I started being able to identify quite a few plastics, but I was caught doing this in my office by our plant manager and got a serious WTF look. That and I try to sneakily solder in there too... OSHA people would love me.

For the hole, can you use some evercoat or other body filler that sands really easily? Seems like you could fill that hole and get it perfectly smooth pretty easily.

[nando]

you're reading my mind!

I was thinking some sort of epoxy that I could sand/polish, but silicone would probably work too. I think it needs to be something with low-acid content? I like trying things that are easily removed if it doesn't work (like the tape), so I might do silicone first and then epoxy.

the tape did leave a tiny imprint but it's basically invisible once you put it on the cluster. the bigger issue is any dust particles caught under the tape leave a little bump that makes a mark in the acrylic. you can't easily see it, but I know it'll bug me. I figure to some degree I can polish most of the small defects out if need be.

I decided against casting "bumps" for the two switches that stick out of the E46 cluster, I'm just going to bore holes and maybe at the most install a small grommet. It's just easier to deal with one smooth surface.

yeah, using a kitchen oven isn't ideal. thankfully acrylic doesn't release any toxic fumes. the thing is I have ideas for other parts that I wouldn't want to make using our regular oven because other types of plastics aren't so good for you. I don't want to have my kids around that kind of stuff. I'm thinking in a year or two we'll get all new appliances, then I can move that oven downstairs to the garage where nobody has to breathe it in.

I saw some thing about making your own oven for like $30. the wife might ask too many questions about that though. lol. I figure I can appease her by making her things like custom chocolate molds. :p

I have a 5 gallon shop vac but I want to get rid of it for a smaller one.. there's a pretty nice one at Costco for about $30, I think it's 2 gallons or something. the 5 gallon just takes up way too much space and I just don't need that much capacity. however our regular house vacuum works very well, without me even pushing down on the frame it held the thing in there all by itself. it was made in Germany too.

[Farbin Kaiber]

From my moldmaking knowledge, I'd say you might want to lay down the tape, fill the hole with some RTV or silicone, then tape the backside, then remove the tape on the buck surface. I'm sure it won't leave much ghosting, but I think some might be there, lighting dependent on what hits it from sun, interior lights, etc. might cause a glare on it.

But, looks awesome. I was looking into doing some thermoforming projects with a friend that is in the 501st last summer, so I looked into a lot. The ceramic heater vented duct setup with a legit vac pump as opposed to the shop/home vac also makes a difference.

[RobertK]

SO excited!

[Ray Smoodiver]

[TwoJ's]

Very well done!

[nando]

try #2..




the second pic is a close up of the "major" defects. see if you can find them.. there are 2. :)

I'm still considering this attempt experimental, but wow! it actually does have some defects, but once you put it on the cluster you can't see them. it basically looks just as clear in person as it does in pictures! It's not perfectly clean, I just wiped it off with a wet towel really quick for pictures after I cut it out.

I plan on making two more. I realized I could get around having to finish the inside edges of the cluster perfectly if I masked a small edge of matt black paint on the lense. Also, I need to raise the "mold" up about an inch so I can get flanges on it and probably support the corners a bit with some modeling clay or something. when I turn on the vacuum the "mold" flexes a bit so the produced part doesn't have as much of a curve as it should.

My "mold" is just a cluster lense that I cut the outside flange off (using a acrylic knife). For the hole where the E30 odo reset button goes, I drilled it out with a 7/16" bit and "filled" it in with a piece of clear packing tape. lol. I put a piece of tape on the other side too so the vacuum wouldn't pull it in. But in actuality because the mold heats up when you put the hot sheet over top, the air expanded inside the tape and made a small bubble. I just have to put it back on with less air inside next time.

This time I dried it for about 4 hours, and didn't notice any bubbles this time. But I do have a problem with dust. The manufacturer says I can leave the protective film on, so I'm going to leave the outside piece on next time and see if I can eliminate that. I ended up with what looks like a piece of wood in the middle of the lense, lol. you can't see it though.

for heat I think I actually wnat to do it semi-cool because it's less likely to transfer defects from the mold into the final part. It came up to temperature pretty fast, about 5 minutes with the oven set to broil at 320 degrees (the manufacturer recommended 320f as the optimal forming temp). I didn't even have time to use my infrared thermometer because after 5 minutes it was already drooping about 4". the only issue I had with forming this time is my mold was too low so I couldn't really get a good flange around the edges.

anyway, now I'm 100% positive I can make it work. I'm actually pretty happy with how this piece turned out, optically you can't see the defects but I know I can make it better and I only need another $9 sheet of acrylic to make another pair. That leaves room for more experimentation and screw ups.

[nando]

it's not that much work. I had all the materials except the pegboard and acrylic. I think I've spent maybe an hour or two on it so far?

there are two switches on the E46 cluster too, not one. it will bug me, and the other guy's solution didn't look good either (he tried to sand down the nub and fill it in, but it stuck out like a sore thumb). that nub is basically right in the line of sight for the fuel gauge too.

there's way, way more time in the rest of the stupid thing, why skimp out on the finishing touches? besides, I have other ideas for vac forming.. :)

[george graves]

That's a lot of work to make the push button work. Skip it. Use the stock e30 cluster glass, and if need be, house a tiny micro switch in a 3d printed doghouse kind of thing for the switch.

But I know where you are coming from. I do the same thing.....make it work till it's perfect.

[nando]

Yeah, definitely not enough. It's actually pretty amazing how far it will droop before it tears.

When the plastic is hot enough, it will pull down into each one of the holes in your platen and suck down tight into ever sharp corner.

I knew as soon as i put it down that it wasnt hot enough. I also have some gaps in the frame that holds the sheet i can seal up better next time. I'm not sure if the foam i used is closed cell either, could be losing vacuum there too.