Man 3D Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission For Toyota Engines

ErnieKey writes A man named Eric Harrell has reverse engineered a 5-speed transmission for a Toyota 22RE Engine, and 3D printed an entire working replica on his desktop 3D printer. Even though it is made up almost entirely of plastic, he says that it could function as a replacement for the real thing. In all it took about 48 hours of print time, plus many more in order to assemble the device. He has made the files available for anyone to download and print themselves for free.

Comments

It's a model

[DogDude]

It's not a "working transmission" nor could it ever be. It's a model. Neat model, but just a model, nonetheless.

Re:It's a model

[BarbaraHudson]

Exactly. I'm getting almost as tired of these bugus 3d printing articles as I am of the kickstarter ones.

Re:It's a model

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to learn how a transmission works, and you don't want to disassemble one from the local junkyard, I could see this being a great option.

Re:It's a model

[rot26]

I'm not sure that "plastic" means what you think it means.

Re:It's a model

[argStyopa]

Agreed.

Not to mention (from TFA): "...While the majority of the transmission is 3D printed, there are some smaller parts which can not be printed on a desktop 3D printer, such as the 3mm rod, (18) 623zz bearings, (20) 3mm washers, and a few other small odds and ends like screws and bolts. ..."

"Even though it is made up almost entirely of plastic, he says that it could function as a replacement for the real thing." How the hell does the summarizer make such an assertion?
As far as I can tell from TFA he *never* asserts it could be a replacement for the real thing - he says "it's completely functional" which is a fuckton away from "can be a replacement for the real thing".

It is pretty cool though. Transmissions are one of those things on my "figure out how it works" list that I've never quite gotten to...

Re:It's a model

[ShanghaiBill]

But aside from using the 3d prints to make molds for castings, I don't see what good this does anyone.

There are 3D printers that use laser sintering to print directly in metal. Materials include stainless steel, aluminum, and titanium. Metal printing is immature technology, and thus expensive, but that will change. For some specialty steels, and for titanium, CNC machining is difficult, and wastes material, so 3D printing will likely eventually become the dominant manufacturing technique for these materials.

Re:It's a model

[hodet]

Not picking on you specifically, just answering a chorus of boos from the peanut gallery. People have lost their love of how stuff works. Who cares if you can't use it as the real thing. I can think of no better way to learn about transmissions than what this guy had done. And all the negative posters on Slashdot just shrug and criticize. You do this stuff because __you can__, end of story, no other reason needed. From the interest he has received I am thankful others still get joy from doing stuff for purely learning and discovery purposes. They are the ones that go on to invent cool things. The rest drool over their shiny new sealed smartphones and tablets.

Re:It's a model

[Anonymous Coward]

Actual transmission gears are made from hardened steel. The parts, once cut have to be heat treated in order to withstand the extremes of actual use.

The plastic in a 3D printer is about the weakest form of plastic you will find.

I think 10 milliseconds was probably close.

Re:It's a model

[mrchaotica]

Considering how much filament costs, the junkyard transmission might be cheaper.

Re:It's a model

[ceoyoyo]

It's a transmission sure. But the "for Toyota Engines" from the title might be a bit problematic. The "it could function as a replacement for the real thing" even more so.

Re:It's a model

[bill_mcgonigle]

Yep. And the unqualified claim that "it's not a 'working transmission'" is every bit as incorrect as the claim that "Man 3D Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission For Toyota Engines."

The nice thing about human communication is that it doesn't need to be explicit and precise in every modicum of phrase. Context is plenty sufficient for normal humans. If somebody said "it's not a working transmission" on a story about "Man Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission For Toyota Engines" it's absolutely qualified - by the context of the conversation to mean "it's not a working transmission for Toyota Engines".

Please don't try to destroy the effectiveness of communication by treating other humans like untrained neural nets. Work needs to be done on both ends of the conversation for maximum throughput.

Re:It's a model

[bws111]

Exactly. I remember when I was about 8 years old I built a Revell Visible V8. It was a plastic model of a V8 engine. You could see the pistons moving, the valves opening, spark plugs firing, etc. A very valuable learning experience.

I wish that these articles and headlines were a little more honest. 'Man builds working model of transmission with 3D printing' is interesting enough. No need to add the 'could replace the real thing' hype.

Re:It's a model

[Optic7]

I have to agree with hodet's point as well. I'm pretty surprised at the negativity of some of the Slashdot crowd regarding this story.

And the headline is accurate. They could have maybe added "replica" there to make it less click-baitish, but it IS a working transmission for his 3D printed, replica Toyota 22RE engine. The video shows it working exactly like a transmission should. Perhaps we have differing interpretations of the word "working"?

Still, the headline is the fault of the website, not the creator. He has done nothing wrong. On the contrary, what he has done is really cool.

Re:It's a model

[bws111]

The summary does not even hint that it is a scale model. In fact, it contains the laugher of a line 'could replace the real thing'.

Re:It's a model

[duck_rifted]

I don't think you actually meant to post flamebait. I think you wanted to just see the article discussed, and because online conversations often derail quickly these days, you got annoyed. So, I'll answer your question as if you're genuinely asking.

Let's use this article as the illustration. If you don't read the article called, "Man 3D-Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission" because you think it's bullshit right off the bat, then you won't read the article titles "Man 3D-Prints a Working 5-Speed Transmission" when it actually happens. And if that actually happens, it would be such a breakthrough in manufacturing processes that it would mark the start of a second industrial revolution -- exactly as 3D printing proponents have been awaiting with bated breath.

The question *should be*, "Why the hell does the article call it 'working' when it's not?" And the answer is that online journalism is an effing difficult field that requires bulk content production, often regarding complicated topics, and shit happens. We're going to see increasingly more of this as robot journalists become more prevalent. So, we may want to figure out how to revise our expectations when it comes to keeping things on topic. Whether an article derails itself is, itself, not a derailment.

Well... Not unless you believe every headline exactly as it's written, in which case you should write an autobiography because that mindset could probably produce some interesting anecdotes.

Whitney Hipolite seems like a decent author though. Feel better?

Re:It's a model

[bws111]

The headline is not accurate at all. Is there a Toyota 22RE engine that this transmission works with? No. The entire headline is false. Would you be as quick to excuse a news website that ran a headline saying 'President of US Killed in Terrorist Attack' only to find several paragraphs in that they are talking about a TV show?

And while some of the blame falls on the website, more falls on the submitter of the story. This reads like yet another attempt by 3D printing zealots to make it appear 3D printing can do something it can't. Which is too bad, because as you said, this is really cool. A story about making a working model of a transmission actually shows a good and interesting use for 3D printing, beyond the usual 'battery covers!' and 'will eliminate all manufacturing!' nonsense.

To be honest, I did not read the article. Why? Because as I said, it appeared to be just another bullshit 3D printing article. Had the headline and summary been even a little bit accurate I would have read it.

Re:It's a model

[TheTurtlesMoves]

When someone says i can give you a working toyota gearbox, i would expect it to be well a working toyota gearbox i can fit into my toyota. If they said *model* or *scale replica* then perhaps i would expect the the toy they did make with the *help* of 3d printing. You do know that car enthusiast have and do make real gear boxes without jumping on the 3d printing bandwaggon.

These 3d printer nut jobs are going around saying things like "you will be able to just print that soon" and post articles like this. It gets tiresome. 3d printing is 20 years old and it can't even print the metal case to a iPhone (its forged to get the correct micro structure). It is useful for some parts and prototyping, but stop with "printed a real working gearbox" bullshit already.

Come on

[finkployd]

You wouldn't download a car would you?

Re:Come on

[fph il quozientatore]

I definitely would. Who wouldn't?

Re:Come on

[serviscope_minor]

You wouldn't download a car would you?

You wouldn't steal a baby. You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet. You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow. And then steal it again!

Downloading is STEALING.

Re:Come on

[RavenLrD20k]

Boy these anti-piracy ads are getting really mean.

"Replacement for the real thing"

[leathered]

For about 10 minutes, yes.

Plastic gears are a bad idea whatever the application but I can't see any surviving 200+ lbft of torque being put through them.

Re:"Replacement for the real thing"

[HornWumpus]

Never last 10 minutes. There is no way he could have achieved spec clearances with 3d printed parts.

What did he use for synchros? They are wear parts, typically made of brass. He'd need something softer then his regular plastic.

I bet this transmission can't even shift while turning at a real world RPM. Not twice anyhow, will eat itself.

Re:"Replacement for the real thing"

[BarbaraHudson]

Considering this is only a scale model, I doubt that his plastic scale engine will generate even one-tenth that before it melts. And what would you use as the facing material on the clutch disk? Or the pressure plate? The thing is going to stink like a plastic bag caught on an exhaust pipe.

Re:"Replacement for the real thing"

[bobbied]

Never last 10 minutes.

You are correct..

I'd like to point out though that this transmission is not totally 3D printed. Even as a model, there are metal parts in this thing. All he really did was 3D print the housing and gears and didn't really model the original article exactly but produced a 'working' representation of the actual thing. It has no synchronizers, I'm fairly sure it doesn't have the same gear ratio in each gear and he made the gear teeth much larger. Scaled up and made of metal, this thing wouldn't be all that useable for the average driver. It looks more like a truck transmission (18 wheeler) than something from a car.

As plastic, It wouldn't survive being bolted to the engine and if it did, just starting the engine and releasing the clutch would likely shear off the input shaft, even if it was in neutral. If it survived to that point, there is zero chance you'd get any kind of useful torque though to the wheels. 10 min is totally out of the question.

This will NEVER replace a real transmission for anything but a model plastic model...

Of course it is totally cool as a tool to teach mechanical engineering concepts with...

Re:"Replacement for the real thing"

[Optic7]

All good points, but I'm still wondering where TFS got that the creator said that it would work as a replacement for the real thing. TFA doesn't say that anywhere. It seems that the submitter just made that up out of the blue?

Re:"Replacement for the real thing"

[BarbaraHudson]

Thanks for clearing that up. I have some followup questions: Will clothing stop bullets if we simply print "bulletproof" on it? Also, is it safe to use bleach to remove the pigment in my iris?

Thank you for asking. To answer your first question, if the bullets are plastic printed to the same scale as the transmission in the article, of course it will stop it. Even if they filled it with gunpowder, the plastic shell casing will fail, and the bullet won't have enough mass to go through the paper AND the clothing.

In answer to your second question, it's 100% safe for me if you bleach your iris.

Camelot!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only a model

Re:Camelot!!

[XanC]

shh

It would work just fine until...

[Anonymous Coward]

You put a load on it. Then it would be a bunch of dust. Now what is interesting is if you had one of those metal printers like they use for aircraft parts, this could get interesting for local mechanics in say 10 or 20 years if the price of raw material and printing goes down.

Pretty cool

[drinkypoo]

Assembling a transmission like this isn't very useful. But I'd very much like to build a four speed transmission to use with an R/C car, and if I could print all the parts and then do for example lost PLA casting, I'd only have to do all the painstaking cleanup work of the cast parts and then assemble them.

I would have thought that by now you'd be able to call someone up and they'd just punch some buttons and a machine would spit you out some custom gears for a reasonable amount of money, but as far as I know that hasn't yet happened. Anyone know different?

Re:Pretty cool

[itzly]

It's useful if you want to learn how a transmission works and how it is assembled.

Re:Pretty cool

[Whorhay]

There is such machinery but it has been pretty expensive CNC type stuff for the last few decades. Which meant that you paid a very large premium for getting a single or a few parts. My Father was just visiting though and apparently he's built one of those DIY kit CNC machines in the basement. One of the things that he specifically mentioned as being very useful was it's ability to quickly and precisely turn out gears.

Re:Pretty cool

[drinkypoo]

My Father was just visiting though and apparently he's built one of those DIY kit CNC machines in the basement. One of the things that he specifically mentioned as being very useful was it's ability to quickly and precisely turn out gears.

I'd like to know very much what kind of equipment he's using for that.

Re:LOL++

[bobbied]

This one wouldn't survive the engine starting much less than actually make it into gear... Assuming you could actually bolt the thing into place with the proper torque and not bust it first.... Plastic Transmissions, right....

RRRRRRGGGHHH!!!

[Charcharodon]

QUIT TEASING ME YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!!!! I CAN"T AFFORD A 3D PRINTER RIGHT NOW!!!

I mean oh that is pretty cool.

P> Seriously I feel like the kid at school who can't afford shoes because I don't have either a CNC machine or a 3D printer in the garage.

Guy on the internet does something cool...

[serviscope_minor]

So a guy on the internet does something cool (yes having a fully working 5 speed transmission model like that IS cool). It took about 3 comments for people who have never done anything worthwhile in their entire lives to start shitting all over it for a variety of stupid reasons.

Sad really.

But this is a cool hack by any measure.

Re:Guy on the internet does something cool...

[chihowa]

To be fair, all of the negative comments relate to the the claim that, "Even though it is made up almost entirely of plastic, he says that it could function as a replacement for the real thing."

Had the article writer not said that (he must have misinterpreted the builder, a mechanical engineer who seems to know how transmissions work), and the submitter here not misrepresented it even further, the comments would likely be much different. It's all in the presentation. ErnieKey chose to present it as a drop-in transmission, which is not the way the article portrays it.

Re: 3D prints

[onepoint]

While they can buy it for less time and money and effort...
it's the ability to teach and do it.
What's amazing about science and scientist is ( and the human race in general)
, if they see it done, then they know they can repeat it.

Tinkering for the fun of it.

But how about what we really need ...

[Rambo Tribble]

... Yugo parts?

Re: 3D prints

[OzPeter]

I really don't want to troll, but these "articles" themselves are trolling. 3D printing as a form of non-useful replication is a waste of time.

In this particular case I am not so sure it is a waste of time. The model was printed as parts and then hand assembled into the final product, and the TFA says that any person doing this would end up knowing how a real transmission was put together. Thus there is a lot of educational value in doing it.

I don't know if you have ever tried building a transmission (I haven't, but I have rebuilt a few motorcycle top ends).It also seems to me that being able to do a desk top build of a real transmission is going to be a hell of a lot easier and with far less mess than wrestling with 100 to 200lbs of metal.

Sure this transmission is nothing that couldn't have been produced with traditional injection molding, but I doubt that the tooling costs would have made it feasible to build a replica of the genuine toyota transmission for the number of people who would be printing this model.

So far... why?

[garyoa1]

About the only thing I can think of that a 3D printer would be useful for would be to replace a little leg that you might break off of your keyboard. Or maybe even make one that's higher than the original. But 3k for a printer or $30 for a new keyboard? I'm voting for the new keyboard.

Re:Not so much to replace a real transmisson on a

[WillAdams]

Agreed. I'd also love to see one at the service desk at a car dealership.

plastic's old and busted, hot metal is new hotness

[Thud457]

geeze, just print the parts in wax and then do green sand or investment casting of whatever metal is suitable.
You savages are capable of melting metal, aren't you?!

Design of a open source robot to automate the metal casting process is left as an exercise for the student.

Re:plastic's old and busted, hot metal is new hotn

[drinkypoo]

geeze, just print the parts in wax and then do green sand or investment casting of whatever metal is suitable.

I've looked into this, and I haven't been able to find an open source wax extruder, only mentions of one. And the pictures of prints produced by it (for an art exhibit, from beeswax) looked pretty awful. So in the best case, there would be substantial cleanup to do after printing, and/or after casting.

However, there is such a thing as "lost PLA" casting. Yes, that's just what it sounds like...

Re:Metal 3D Printers

[Bob the Super Hamste]

1. reasonably works

Probably yes

2. is a cost-effective alternative to OEM.

No, well maybe considering how much a dealer chargers of OEM parts, but it wouldn't be cost effective for aftermarket.

Re:plastic's old and busted, hot metal is new hotn

[currently_awake]

You don't want to make gears by casting, you want machined metal, probably with heat treating. You could definately prove the design this way though, before building a real one.

Re:Metal 3D Printers

[HornWumpus]

Hard is not sufficient. Hard is brittle. Gears are heat treated in tricky ways. Harden the surface while leaving the core tough.

You'd have to build big old gears to make them out of Inconel. HSS is a better material choice.

Re:false advermatizing

[GrumpySteen]

Gotcha covered

http://www.dildo-generator.com...