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

[rot26]

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

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

[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.

Come on

[finkployd]

You wouldn't download a car would you?

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.

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: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....

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: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.