I’ve one of these - Creality CR-20 Pro. I’ve had this one about a year but an older one for a few years before that. There is now a choice of many materials to print with each with its pros and cons, and many colours to choose from. Filament is usually supplied in 1Kg spools costing from around £12 upwards (more for the more esoteric materials). Quality is very variable so the trick is to find a decent brand and stick with it.
You would need a slicer program which translates a model file into 3D printer instructions. The standard model export format is an .STL file. Many are free and as Bob says, Cura is good although I use a paid-for program, Simply3D.
If you want to create your own designs, there are several free 3D design packages available. I like DesignSpark Mechanical.
Thhingiverse is the best repository for uploaded 3D printed designs and all are free to download. It’s sometimes painfully slow and quite buggy but has the greatest collection.
Wayne - I don’t speak from experience - my opinion is informed by common sense alone. You can’t improve a car’s steering by sticking plastic bits on doors. If anybody would like to post an independent technical report demonstrating how , why , and to what extent the said plastic strip can make 'steering response … much better ’ I’d be delighted to read it . For the time being I will remain Mr Cynical Sceptic
I was looking on ebay recently for MX5 parts, mods etc and found door bushings. I’ve been reading up on them and while I doubt I’ll notice any difference in handling, I like how they look so I bought some.
I got mine in red (to match other features on my car) and with my numberplate printed on them. £15 from Just Send It. Thought that was quite reasonably priced.
TBH, I will probably get them for the MK1 on a “what the hell harm can it do” basis without a great deal of expectation involved, but not the 2002 Sport given it’s shell is around 25% stiffer anyhow. Never noticed bothersome shake, rattle, 'n roll with it. It’s a far more refined experience.
Is the shell of a Sport model 25% stiffer? I didn’t know that! (25% stiffer than a standard Mk2 or a Mk1?)
Seeing my before and after photos, the semicircular protrusion on the black rubber bushing would only provide minimal contact between that and the casing on the door that receives the bushing. With the new red plastic one, there’ll be more contact area, surely?
My thoughts are similar to yours, being “what the hell harm can it do?” but also I like the idea of it being a semi-hidden subtle modification.
The original bushing (which Mazda just calls a wedge) has somehow worn over the years, and has become compressed, and needs replacing.
Mazda did a terrible job, and the original rubber has always allowed the doors to rattle too much. The Delrin/Acrylic/Whatever replacement bushes/wedges have a superior design.
I’ve had a few Mk1s over the years. Some rattled, some did not. The long termer (owned 16 years) has 270k kms under its belt (about 200k kms down to me). It doesn’t rattle.
For a long while I had this one, a 96, and a '93 1.6, with less than half the miles on it. The doors rattled like hell on that car, even when it had a full 6-point rollbar. I tried swapping the bushes/wedges from side to side. so the alleged wear surface was on the top. Made no difference. Hypothesied that maybe between 1993 and 1996, Mazda changed something about the wedge (though when they do, they usually add a suffix to the part number), and tried the bazillion mile wedges on the 93. Still rattled.
The wear is likely not in the wedge, but in the door lift gate dovetail (the cups), or variation.
An alternative to these door bushes, try giving the cups a bit of a squeeze. They probably spread a bit after 20-30 years of slamming doors.
What’s inside a stock rubber wedge. Its not rubber, its a lump of steel
Have ordered a pair for my NC2 in black with red lettering to match the Miyako colour theme of black leather with red stitching.
All convertibles have a big problem with rigidity, as there is only the floor connecting the front wheels to the back wheels.
Mazda have tried to offset this in their design by using the doors to add rigidity with the addition of bushes and cups to make them more solidly clamped in place when closed.
It seems entirely plausible to me that the cup and bush design can be enhanced still further by the substitution of suitably specced plastic bushes rather than the original rubber over metal, especially if they are a few years old and I’m happy to chance 14.99 to find out
I assume these blocks have a function, or Mazda wouldn’t fit them. The debate then, if there is one, is about the material/shape. Not all the aftermarket ones are the same, presumably, but nobody seems too worried about that. Perhaps some are less good than Mazda’s, others better, or at least different, in some undefined way - stiffer perhaps. I’m imagining maybe a trade-off between NVH and overall body stiffness, but whether the differences would be enough for me to notice, I instinctively doubt.
I’m sufficiently sure that I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference not to bother trying them - in my mind, there’s more chance that I’d notice a new squeak than a change in feel or response, so I’d rather leave it alone on my 18,000-miler.
Has anybody tried to measure the effect of them I wonder?
Also, as has been said, whether there is an improvement would depend on where you started from. If the existing wedges or cups are worn or misshapen or very high mileage then perhaps there’s something to gain. If I thought that was the case, my first thought would be to see whether proper parts are available.
