# 3D Printing Parts For My Jake



## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

Purchased my first home a couple months ago and being an avid golfer I knew I wanted a reel low lawn. This was a new build so the lawn was sodded only a few months ago and i'm just trying to get it established as best I can before it goes dormant.



The lawn needs to be leveled pretty bad and I have been cutting with a rotary but I dove in head first and picked up a used Jacobsen Greens King 522 to get ready for the spring. I paid $450 and despite not doing a ton of research i feel like I got an okay deal.


The mower runs good and cuts paper but needs a little TLC. I decided to purchase the R&R roller brackets that allow for a taller HOC and upon removing the old brackets I noticed that the grass catcher brackets were both cracked. I assumed this was because the PO had maxed out the HOC and stressed the brackets a bit too much.





since i'm not in a hurry and have access to 3D printers at work I thought I might try to design my own brackets before purchasing them at $60 bucks a pop. I modeled up a bracket in Solidworks and then mirrored it to make an opposite hand version. I decided to modify the bracket a bit in hopes of preventing similar failure seen in the original design.





I modeled this up pretty quick and didnt think about it much, if you have any suggestions regarding changes to the design feel free to let me know.

It may be a week or two before I get them printed just because our printer team is a little busy right now. I plan to have them printed on one of our Markforged machines. The material will consist of Onyx (nylon with chopped carbon mat) and we will add continuous carbon fiber reinforcement where needed.

I'll update the post once we get them printed, hopefully I wont have to make any revisions.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@MasterMech is the expert in the Jakes. I know that r&r has an improved bracket design too. Did you increase the thickness on the bracket at the crack point too?


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

I looked at the R&R bracket after I designed mine and they are pretty similar. You can see the additional material added to the bottom left and right of the part in the last picture that should prevent it from cracking again.


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## quadmasta (Apr 3, 2019)

I'd look into sticking a piece of box steel/aluminum on the outside of that existing part before I'd even consider printing one. Cut it so that it's a C-shaped channel and put a hole through it so the fastener that goes through that hole also goes through the metal part. If it's a snug fit it should be many times stronger.


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

quadmasta said:


> I'd look into sticking a piece of box steel/aluminum on the outside of that existing part before I'd even consider printing one. Cut it so that it's a C-shaped channel and put a hole through it so the fastener that goes through that hole also goes through the metal part. If it's a snug fit it should be many times stronger.


That would definately work but I promise this material is incredibly strong, this isnt a hobbiest printer. Tensile strength is roughly the same as 6061 aluminum. If it doesnt workout for some reason I will just buy brackets from R&R. I just thought this would be a fun way to apply the technology I work with.


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Sweet. Keep us posted.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

slammed68 said:


> quadmasta said:
> 
> 
> > I'd look into sticking a piece of box steel/aluminum on the outside of that existing part before I'd even consider printing one. Cut it so that it's a C-shaped channel and put a hole through it so the fastener that goes through that hole also goes through the metal part. If it's a snug fit it should be many times stronger.
> ...


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

Of course this got put on the back burner during winter but look what came off the print bed this morning!


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## The Walri (Nov 27, 2018)

Looks awesome! can't wait to see them mounted up and hear how they're performing!


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

Didnt have long but I went ahead and mocked them up really quick.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Something is not quite right there. The basket should sit level on the mower and the roller should be tucked much closer to the reel. The roller brackets sit perfectly vertical on both of my Jakes.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

MasterMech said:


> Something is not quite right there. The basket should sit level on the mower and the roller should be tucked much closer to the reel. The roller brackets sit perfectly vertical on both of my Jakes.


It looks like the mower is tipped back - note we're kind of looking up toward the bottom of the gas tank.


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## mowww (Jan 16, 2018)

@slammed68 that looks fantastic. How long did design and print take in total?


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

Ware said:


> MasterMech said:
> 
> 
> > Something is not quite right there. The basket should sit level on the mower and the roller should be tucked much closer to the reel. The roller brackets sit perfectly vertical on both of my Jakes.
> ...


Yeah you got it. Its tipped back a bit so I could remove the front roller. Notice that the first picture shows the original bracket still on the far side at the same angle.


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

mowww said:


> @slammed68 that looks fantastic. How long did design and print take in total?


Thanks! It probably spent 3-4 hours on the design. 'm guessing the print took about 24hrs but a coworker printed it and I'm not sure on the exact details.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

slammed68 said:


> mowww said:
> 
> 
> > @slammed68 that looks fantastic. How long did design and print take in total?
> ...


Please keep us updated on how they're holding up! They look great!


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## slammed68 (Oct 18, 2019)

Finally got a chance to start using the mower with the new brackets and I'm happy with the results.

I had to deal with some engine issues that took way to long to work out. Engine had a high idle that I could not fix, replaced the governor springs and arm, rebuilt the carb, and eventually replaced the governor it self to no avail. Eventually cut, bent, stretched, and tweaked the governor springs until it would idle down enough. Running like a champ now.

Here are a few pictures from when I scalped the yard this morning. Nothing to write home about, just a tiny builder grade yard that's less than a year old. Bumpy as hell and in need of work but I enjoy it. No issues with the brackets other than needing to add large flat washers under the mounting nuts. I should have known better, the small surface area indented the material a bit and I'd hate for them to loosen up.


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