My brother in law got a 3d printer some time ago and asked if I had any projects he could practice on. I was playing around with the idea of making a 115 fuse box that would accept ATC blade fuses and gave him an old fuse box to work with. Next thing I know, he presents me a working concept that I thought looks pretty good. If we start producing these, would there be an interest and what kind money do you think it could sell for?
I’m assuming this would be a direct replacement that connects to the original wiring loom. If so I’d be interested. I’m no fan of the ceramic fuses. I used a generic blade type box on my GTV but connecting it to the harness without cutting the original wiring is a bit kludgy.
As far as price goes I’d say that $500 is way too much. I’d suggest looking at the time and materials cost and then giving us a ballpark where you feel it would be worth your while. My homemade solution cost about $50 in parts and a few hours of work. I think you might find buyers at around $200 but I’m just one guy.
As far as price goes I’d say that $500 is way too much. I’d suggest looking at the time and materials cost and then giving us a ballpark where you feel it would be worth your while. My homemade solution cost about $50 in parts and a few hours of work. I think you might find buyers at around $200 but I’m just one guy.
I appreciate your response, the $500.00 was because there is a guy that makes something similar for Ferrari cars and that is his price point and AlfaBB requires a price listed. Seriously I'm hoping to be able to offer something for much less money. My plan is to have something that an average person of general mechanical knowledge be able to install in an afternoon with little or preferably no modifications to the existing car that to a casual glance looks original and can be replaced with original equipment if desired. I also thought about incorporating relays to take the high amperage loads off of the various switches.
Sounds great. I’m in. Hopefully there are others who are also interested.
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This looks very promising, I would imagine you would get some real business if you can fine tune it.
I have a word of advise, as I have quite a bit of experience 3D printing. Look into a higher temp solution than PLA. If you get a wire running a lot of current (a headlight not on a a relay), it will melt the plastic from heat and could be a disaster. PLA cannot handle much heat. I believe that ABS, while harder to print, might be a better solution. I would recommend you do your due diligence and research it well before you start charging for a product that is this mission critical. $200 seems like a reasonable price point for a plug and play soliton. How do you plan on dealing with the bussed together hots like in the original?
Alex
I have a word of advise, as I have quite a bit of experience 3D printing. Look into a higher temp solution than PLA. If you get a wire running a lot of current (a headlight not on a a relay), it will melt the plastic from heat and could be a disaster. PLA cannot handle much heat. I believe that ABS, while harder to print, might be a better solution. I would recommend you do your due diligence and research it well before you start charging for a product that is this mission critical. $200 seems like a reasonable price point for a plug and play soliton. How do you plan on dealing with the bussed together hots like in the original?
Alex
1750 GTV "Tribute" Car, S2 Alfa Spider & Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio
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Leash electronics has great fues box and other electrical refit parts. Heres what I put on my GTV. There is 2 things here. 1 the fuse box and then 2 an extra relay module so every switch is covered. However, they sell just a fuse block for $75 which although not a direct replacement for the old fuse box would work well for someone looking to rewire their Alfa. https://leashelectronics.com/products/big-dog-ii-fuse-block
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I used the Leash relay block for my GTV (headlights low and high, fog lights, fan), it worked great. Very nice products.
“Been-there done-that”. In 2018 I won a $20k FSM printed. We used it to print all sorts of things in our garage. We got good at it. We don’t use it any more. We don’t own it anymore. We donated it to a local jr. high.
We are still making parts when needed using 3D printing.
HUBS printed replacement fuse holders for us using HP’s multi jet fusion process. At the time I couldn’t find any good used or NOS holders.
I sent to HUBS a STEP file of the CAD model I made of the factory original fuse holder and they send me the parts. Cost was circa $50 for quantity of 10. Turnaround was and is 5 working days. In 2021 I sold the eight holders I didn’t need for $100 each. Because I wanted the holders OEM in appearance I ordered them dyed black and polished. (There was no way that the FSM printed ever came close to looking like or performing like the OEM parts)
HUBS’s quote app is easy to work with and technical staff will make sure your part will print successfully. I think that overall they might be even better than SendCutSend.
Looks like you have some competition.
www.alfabb.com
Just released: Modern fuse Buss for 105/115
BradCo in conjunction with AWS is excited to announce the release of our plug and play modern fuse buss with (12) fuses that fits perfectly in the factory position. This eliminates the universally hated bullet fuses and one of the most common sources for electrical failure! The kit includes a...
www.alfabb.com
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