Dishwasher miscellaneous parts

The headline is "My Replicator and Nylon printing saved me $800".

I've been using my Replicator to print replacement parts for my dishwasher, because the parts companies only sell the complete rack assembly, for $400/rack . I originally printed them in ABS, but after a few months the ABS breaks down under the heat and stress of the interior of a dishwasher. Rather than print replacements every few months, I was about to break down and buy the (expensive) replacement assemblies, when Taulman 645 came out. Like Taulman 618, it's Nylon, which is (nearly) indestructible, but 645 is much more rigid than 618, so it works very nicely for this application. So rather than spending $800 on replacement assemblies, I've been printing them again in Taulman 645 Nylon. Yay!

The parts are all generated in OpenSCAD, so you can customize them to the measurements of your dishwasher. In particular, pin size, length, and spacing are highly variable between dishwashers.

Part 1: This is my unimaginative name for a rack section that folds up and down, on the top rack. The printed one isn't as strong as the metal piece it replaced, but it's sufficient to hold glasses in place so they don't hit each other. The pin spacing is uneven, because I copied the original part.

Part 2: This is a clip that holds a cross-piece in place. The cross-piece rotates so that pins are either up or down. I designed the piece so that the identical part works on both ends of the cross-piece.

Rack Protector: Pins tend to rust at the joint where they attack to the rack. This protector is a piece that fits over the pins in the rack to protect the joint where the pin attaches to the rack. This strengthens the joint if it's already weakened, and it protects it from damage, because dishes rest on the protector instead of the (thin) plastic coating on the pin. These snap nicely into place, so you don't need any adhesive to hold them in place. This is Ed Nisley's Dishwasher Rack Protector, tweaked a bit.

Rack Protector with Pin: if the pin has broken off, you can use a protector which includes the pin, in place of the missing pin. You'll need to glue the base into place so that it doesn't swivel around the rack. There's a parameter in the code so that if there's a 'stub' of the pin left, this will fit over the stub. This is from my Rack Protector with Pin.

I'm including the STL files, and a few photos, so that you can see what the parts are. But it's highly unlikely that the parts that fit my KitchenAid dishwasher will fit your dishwasher, so you'll likely need to take some measurements and tweak the OpenSCAD files to fit your needs.

I hope these are useful!

Instructions

Printed using Taulman 645 Nylon, at 240 degrees, 40 mm/s, 0.4mm layer height. Printed on Garolite LE heated to 110 degrees. 3 shells, 20% infill. Worked great for all parts.

Also printed using Taulman 618 Nylon, at 240 degrees, 40 mm/s, 0.27mm layer height. Printed on Garolite LE, unheated. 3 shells, 20% infil. Worked great for the protectors.

What you should do is measure the part that needs replacing in your dishwasher, and tweak the OpenSCAD to suit. The important thing is to copy the relevant structural elements, not every detail of the part. I found that all of the parts that I designed to be 3D printable turned out quite functional, but they look very different from the injection molded or mass-produced parts that they replaced.

Category: Kitchen & Dining