Can we 3D Print a One-Way Check Valve?

[@Barely_Creative]

When you were talking about an easy solution at the start, I was thinking that you were going to make a slot or pocket to store the squeeze-bulb in a compressed state.

[@c0mputer]

You thought this even though the title of the video is “Can we 3D print a one-way check valve” and the thumbnail shows the duster sitting on a print bed?

[@harrysvensson2610]

@@c0mputer I bet you're not surprised when you see the movie "Aliens" and aliens show up.

[@xelaxander]

I was screaming that in my head the whole time. This solution is more elegant though and made for a much better video.

[@sleeptyper]

Storing the duster in compressed state would deform it permanently, rendering it useless.

[@flickerblip9044]

I think adding some ribs to the internal circumference would make it inflate faster. You are able to get the air out quickly when squeezing, so not sure the hole is too restrictive by itself.

[@MichRules]

All that work just because a thing doesn't fit in a drawer 😅 that's why I love this channel, you sir are a master🤘🏼

[@_IanOfEarth]

always a treat to see other people's CAD workflows. really thoughtful design with just a few steps each with a big impact, leading to a great design.

[@DeveloperChris]

Very clever. An easy check valve for a blower is simply a hole in the side. As you press it your thumb covers the hole. When you take the pressure off air rushes back in under the thumb.

[@VanoverMachineAndRepair]

This video was excellent in every way. You made me realize how much stuff I don’t know, but you set a really high bar of what can be done when it comes to filming, 3-D printing, and designing. Excellent Work!

[@NochSoEinKaddiFan]

Love seeing mechanical and cad ideas, always makes you smarter when watching :) The concept of pausing and throwing stuff into your print, whether it is ball bearings, weights, nuts, other printed parts to capture, net cloth to stretch over and integrate or any other whacky idea, is way underrated imho

[@stevestofiel3521]

For a “dumb little idea”, as you put it, this is probably the close to the top favorite video of yours. I always learn so much from you! Kudos

[@matthiasmartin1975]

That was so satisfying to watch. That custom tray element was the cherry on top.

[@misterfixit1952]

Your attention to detail is always inspirational. I really appreciate how you work through and talk about what you do, why you do it that way and how you accomplish doing it. It's the little things that count. Thanks James, for sharing your thought process as well as your projects, big and small.

[@Asil-xyz]

You are like a combination of my favorite channels; Voice of Lockpicking Lawyer, Cinematography of This Old Tony, Great project ideas as AvE, Presicion of Clickspring New Favorite Channel!!

[@kentswan3230]

This was interesting in that it was a side project with two additional side projects. Cool!

[@Sam_596]

The ease and simplicity of your design is a testament to your experience. Fantastic work

[@TheTsunamijuan]

I've spent the last 3 months doing a unbelievable amount of tpu printing. Both research and production with the stuff. I live in a extremely high humidity area. Coastal town, with low temps. Average temp is relatively close to the dew point in the grand scheme of things. My best results for reliable tpu, and even at a 0.2 nozzle, was to make sure i thoroughly dried the filament, and for a good 12 hours or so, then i kept it in the desiccator and ran it none stop. I had to make a few temp modifications to the settings to make up for the additional heat the filament was carrying with it. But It allowed me to not only get a superior bond but an optically more appealing product as well. I was using a semi transparent tpu, so you could see moisture ingress in print if you were experiencing it. Figured I would share that with the comments section, save everyone some time if possible. Maybe I will make a video showing the results. As its likely to be included as a subsection of a friends paper.

[@legionjames1822]

Thanks for sharing. You know a bit of dessicant and a dry homemade dry box might save you some headaches.

[@TheTsunamijuan]

@@legionjames1822 i actually use a commercial dry box for everything. but almost all plastics allow for absorption of water, dry boxes included. I also pack desiccant in them. But if its a filament that doesn't get used all the time, even doing all those things wont be enough. I am honestly considering building a bunch of low powered but higher accuracy humidity sensors. So i can toss them in all my dry boxes and log the data. I have a feeling humidity monitoring might become my new hobby at this point :)

[@evanbarnes9984]

I also live on the coast, and my TPU doesn't last a day outside the dry box. Even the dry boxes need pretty frequent drying of the desiccant since moisture still finds its way in through the seals. I have also found that running the TPU roll through the food dehydrator I use for filament drying is absolutely necessary before printing. I really want to try a zeolite based dry box next to see if I can get better long term storage going.

[@c0mputer]

When I read check valve I immediately thought about a reed valve like in a 2 stroke. That is interesting to me and might be fun to make print in place. Seeing the airsoft pellets in the thumbnail didn’t click right away.

[@piquat1]

I skipped this video yesterday when it was suggested because I saw the "ammo" and wasn't interested. Should have left the jar out of the thumbnail and just put a half dozen beads up there. I'd have gotten it then. Just wasn't making the jump between airsoft ammo and check valve balls. lol

[@redpug5042]

i've been thinking about a print in place design, too. I think you would probably run into issues of not having a good enough seal. It's hard to print parts close enough to seal with a little bit of pressure, while being far enough not to merge.

[@dougaltolan3017]

Tesla valve!

[@alexkart9239]

6:51 PrusaSlicer supports the STEP format, which (I believe) we should all use as a standard wherever possible.

[@802Garage]

Very cool! This is super useful. I have some of that Siraya Tech 85A TPU as well in transparent and I'm very excited to use it.

[@TradeWorks_Construction]

Simply amazed that it was so successful in just 1 try. Truly a testament to your extensive knowledge and experience with 3d filament printing.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

Silly idea, brilliant design, brilliant execution, brilliant solution! I love it.

[@rufustoad1]

OK I am not usually to impressed with 3d printing stuff but that was pretty cool. I printed some flexible #95 drain plugs for my wifes planters so water wound not escape and the Prusa 3+ did it pretty well. Would like to try this #85 on the XL and see how it does. You have convinced me to subscribe.

[@Derp3D]

The ribs on the original one probably helps to return it back as well.

[@lindsayhowse4883]

Only one thing to say " Simply Brilliant" .

[@glennfelpel9785]

When you are adding the dimension from a centerline to the feature you are wanting, try taking your cursor to the other side of the centerline after you choose the entities. This is the way it is done in SolidWorks. And I would surely think it works the same in fusion. I don't know but its surely worth a try because that functionality is very useful. Thank you for all the effort you put into these videos!

[@itstallionman]

James, Thank you for championing the freedom that 3D printing brings to our lives. This is where 3D printing shines.

[@AlbaderBohamad]

18:42 Regarding the 'less' surface area of small balls. You could've made a curved recess that matches the ball curvature for it to sit in. therefore, drastically increasing the surface area touching the ball. Instead, you've made the surface that mates with the ball at the bottom of the inside of the check valve to be a flat/straight surface. And I say this to further explain my example, not to ill-speak of your design. I think it's amazing and inspiring.

[@bnwabnwa]

Superb! the check valve does the work, but if you elect for a third iteration, to increase inflation speed, I would try to adding 3 or 5 vertical stiffener lines around the squeeze-bulb (inside ?), might help retake it's shape faster without making much of a difference on the squeeze. But that is just perfect, now I have to try to try 85 Duro.... I call this the "Clough effect" :)

[@xelaxander]

Small optimizations really do add up. Been on multi-day cycling trips recently. Really nailing the tools and implements I need and optimizing the packaging system makes such a difference. Having a neat solution at hand to any issue popping up while at the same time carrying little stuff is so freeing.

[@seabeepirate]

Cool idea. To simplify it more you could make a reed valve out of TPU, shaped a bit like a mushroom with a wide flat cap and a short stout stem. No extra parts or materials.

[@GOVAUS1]

being able to print with such a material is absolutely mind boggling.

[@bradrogers3881]

Went down the rabbit hole on that one!

[@TheVivaLatrina]

5:34 I would usually go with a construction line parallel to the centerline, and tangent to the curve to be dimensioned, and then have a diameter dimension off of the construction line instead. Might also work with a line constrained perpendicular to the same points. Heck, a single sketch point might even work. Fusion works in mysterious ways sometimes! 😂

[@kjpace34]

I immediately thought the same thing and headed to the comments to see if anyone else said it.

[@Dogfather66227]

The discovery of a perceived problem doesn’t always have to end up eating into your lifetime. In my world the solution here was to put the thing in a deeper drawer and move on. But as anyone who has seen my shop could tell you I am not driven to over-organization. All that said, great video and audio production values, informative modeling presentation as usual.

[@hornyducks4090]

Or just not bothering. Didn't look like much of a problem, but hey, if you can not only solve a problem but make money from solving it, why not?

[@matthewlee8917]

This channel is criminally under subscribed. One of the best maker channels on the Tubes. I'm looking forward to the day when James goes full time YT. lol one can wish.

[@ShootingAir]

Having just gotten into 3d printing and having no clue how to actually use it (had grand ideas, no clue how to apply), I'm loving your last couple of videos explaining the thought process behind your implementation. And here I was yesterday, all enthused because I modeled and printing my first "from scratch"... it was a plastic washer, that I still had to drill out a bit. lol

[@josuelservin]

Another interesting option could be a diaphragm valve, like ones in respirator masks, you could print the disk from the same material and at the same time and just pause for installation as you did. This would allow better air ingress and remove the need for the bb.

[@986munkie]

Really enjoy the amount of effort you put into the *how* you created your model in fusion 360, i have used it a few times.... thinking i knew what i was doing. After watching this video i note realize i know almost nothing of what you can do with the program! Great video, watched till the end!

[@legionjames1822]

Super cool build. Back to the drawing board gone well. The near instant results is very satisfying. I know it took days but still thats fast in prototype world

[@nayvinyami]

a real thinker, 2 minutes in and im hooked

[@guyloughridge4628]

Outstanding results. I really enjoy your Fusion 360 and Printing video. .

[@Phiz787]

Excellent design! And that 85 TPU is really cool!

[@Nermey110]

Thank you for the video! I really enjoy your thoughts and principles on the design process for your projects. I have spent many hours trying to think of a new way to recreate the Festool Domino. I will probably never build one, but I enjoy trying to design it.

[@davidmott2090]

Looks like a good candidate for RTV silicone mold. RTV is used a lot for resin casting but you can mold just about any shape you want and its very pliable.

[@frijoli9579]

That was a very satisfying video. I made tip covers for spring-open needle nose pliers so they would stay closed in my tool box. lol. Not complicated, but it was satisfying.

[@JFirn86Q]

Hah. Brilliant. Love it and how it worked so well. I'm sure you'll get a lot of joy each time you go to use it from now on.

[@rik-de-jong]

A great little project, very well done.

[@silverzdk]

In Solidworks if you move the dimension number to the other side of the centerline, it goes from radius to diameter. Unsure if it's the same for Fusion but give it a try, it's really intuitive once you know the trick.

[@rexmyers991]

Since (at age 81) I can’t learn CAD or how to operate a 3D printer I would just form a clip (in the style of a bicycle clip for your pant leg) and partially squeeze the bulb enough to clear the drawer.

[@TeknoMage13]

I'm 43 and wrapping up a degree in engineering, so I know how you feel. However, I assert that it's not that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but that it's just harder to learn them. Fortunately for us, our life experience has left us with the determination to see things through. The words of a Navy Seal come to mind, "The will to win outweighs the skill to win."

[@simoncleret]

CAD has existed for many decades now. It has never been out of reach for your generation, and having such a defeatist attitude is unbecoming.

[@astrocactus3910]

I'm in my 20's and decently proficient with CAD... I would still go for a clip on it, maybe even 3d print one that would fit into the gridfinity grid

[@RealSnail3D]

@@TeknoMage13good for you and the degree!!

[@madisonrollings1845]

All this talk of clips and modifications when you can just put it in a taller drawer.

[@chrisgill5692]

Brilliant.... totally OTP and OCD-ish. Luv it!! Your wife must really appreciate the attention to detail around the house! Really nice Fusion 360 workflow and another great video.

[@ДобрыйМолодец-г3р]

Another great engeneering job!

[@Uncle-Duncan-Shack]

Very elegant, that came out really nice.

[@3dmazter]

try to blow some fine dust with the backside to check if the ball leaks air when you squeeze it

[@chrisbjohannsen]

Yak shaving at its finest! New subscriber and loving all the content.

[@BvzJnxtcndjAfvbkbz]

This is awesome, especially the part where you insert the ball into the valve! Great idea! But for a real use, I would print out a u-clamp that would clamp the blower when storing it in a drawer.

[@ZappyOh]

I designed and printed a custom battery dispenser, holding AAA, AA and 18650, just to have all my rechargeables cycled equally during their lifetime. It looks like something from the future and gives a satisfying "tik-tik-tik-chunck" sound every time I grab a fresh one :)

[@jamminjim1208]

O-light makes one... oh and it charges them too. Spits em out like a toothpick dispenser... sad I know... I spent 5 years trying to make a 3d printer under 200$ now they are 10x better for 150$

[@Clough42]

Oh... That's an interesting idea. I wonder how hard that would be to do with camera batteries...

[@Sapper21b10]

I wonder how big a pain it would be to incorporate the guts of a charger in it? Drop it in, rolls down, the battery charges, and down it rolls. Make it sense when it reaches full charge, then cuts off.

[@Alanbataar]

When I used to shoot commercially, decades ago --- long before sensor cleaning was a thing on DSLRs --- I bought a couple baby ear irrigators. They're small, and work great for camera sensor and lens cleaning. Neat project, nice problem solving! The main question is why you have airsoft ammo on hand.

[@mikepetersen2927]

Obviously James does not suffer from earwax problems; the wax-removal kits include a small irrigator squeeze bulb. Granted, they don't have the fancy check valve so don't refill as fast, and would eliminate the "fun" of designing/printing my own, but it's ready-made and cheap. Sometimes, you just need small, hard smooth pellets for something. I keep a small carton of BBs for just such occasions. 😁

[@Stoneylloyd]

With regard to the radius/diameter issue I did find a work around ( bit of a fudge 😁). Instead of 1 centre line have 2 colinear one above the other joined at the origin. Make the one above the origin a regular construction line and the one below a centre line. Then when dimensioning choose the appropriate line to reference either a radius or a diameter.

[@Qwarzz]

Oh! I've been thinking I might be able to print a smaller duster. Seeing how well that ball valve worked I probably have to try it too now.

[@dougaltolan3017]

Tesla valve!

[@tinkerman-q]

The darn airsoft balls was the only one I hadn't tried yet couz didn't have it at hand. And your intuition was right the layer lines don't allow for a seal (tried both TPU and PLA). By the way, an alternate approach for the dry box is to print some ball bearing rings with a concave outer wall to act as rails that you can sit the spool discs on top of (you can mount them on the existing axels). That worked great for me for friction free spooling. PS. All of this work so far was so I could trap hydrogen from hydrolisis which was already a side of a side Project.

[@groggynod]

Plastic ring inserts or covers work for great for cardboard spools they're super simple design, prints fast, and saves a ton of print fail headaches.

[@codyhufstetler643]

Look into the one way valves on breast pumps or baby bottles. They're made entirely of silicone, and you might be able to directly print the whole thing. It's just a sort of hollow triangular prism with a slot at one end. When you pull through the triangle, the slot opens up and allows fluid through, but when you try to push back through, it collapses the triangle, pinching the slot off.

[@Vez3D]

Nicely done man

[@myxfit]

fwiw, when adding a pause in prusaslicer, it pauses just before the selected layer is printed. So in this case, you could have put the pause on layer 39, and it would pause just before those bridges are printed. Although it probably doesn't *really* matter in most cases (including this one).

[@patchvonbraun]

My father had a really nice lens blower. I might still have it somewhere. More compact than the one you have there. Made in Germany as I recall, and it was basically two cylinders--one slightly smaller than the other. The whole thing was about the size of a golf ball. He used it in his museum work (both on artifacts and camera lenses) from 1967 to 1977.

[@rich13348]

I think if you were to make the cross section oval that will stop it from rolling away on a flat surface

[@WillemvanLonden]

When you wash out the grease from the bearings and leave off the seals it will decrease the friction to almost nothing.

[@outsidescrewball]

Awesome video production/discussion/design/mentoring …..❤

[@TheButchersbLock]

Super cool idea mate, very simple and elegant design 👍😊🇦🇺

[@ToddRafferty]

This is such a great tutorial. 🙌

[@bertus76q]

FYI, check valves are always one way! Just bugging, keep up the good videos!

[@android01978]

That’s pretty cool. I would have tried to make it with an oval profile (when viewed from the top) rather than round but with thicker walls on the flatter sides to act more like bellows.

[@evo-labs]

Awesome design and print there sir.

[@DrDr4g0n]

Super cool idea!

[@amden01]

Amazing work, subscribed!

[@INTcraft]

Also you can print small clip to squeeze original part and store it squeezed)

[@sirtra]

Im halfway watching something about bearings, a necessary step in the manufacturing process of a one way check valve 🤔 👍😎

[@ambsquared]

I wonder if it would inflate even faster if you put some ribs on the bulb similar to the commercial one. Maybe have them internal to keep the smooth exterior.

[@KwongKan]

5:28 If that bugs you so bad you can use a construction line and put it tangent to your curve. I, too, am adding /2 to my dimensions because laziness > annoyance.

[@Cjarka_]

The problem you had at 5:25 When creating the dimension, drag the cursor to the other side of the center line and it'll know you don't want to dimension length but diameter It also happens when you are making a dimension between a center line and lines

[@MrGadgetgav]

Nice design and execution. You mentioned that you looked online and looked at how the commercial ones achieve this but you didn't elaborate. I haven't dissected a bulb blower, so I don't know how they're typically done, but I would have thought a simple flap or umbrella valve would have been an easier solution. Duckbill valves seem like they'd be possible to print in place, though you'd have to cut the bill open with an xacto blade.

[@ShaunBennett]

I printed a stem valve cover and squeezed it , caped it and stored it. Your solusion is more elegant.

[@Catrik]

This is very cool that it works! I actually bough a roll of TPU for the same purpose, though the pump would have been for an office chair. I ended up finding a tool called air wedge, which had the correct size pump.

[@Agnes_Noby_sir]

Great stuff, subscribed! Now make a clip to keep the original bulb under the drawer margin, no throwsies awaysies!

[@degreeless_engineering]

Adding internal ribs that run the length of the bulb body will help it return back to shape more quickly while still maintaining the squeezability, which is not a word.

[@larsord9139]

Should be a word. ie: "She had great squeezability".

[@WatchWesWork]

Seeing that Hero 3 is giving me PTSD.

[@woodscreekworkshop9939]

I hear painting a forklift may cure one's GoPro PTSD, we all know how much you love painting.

[@JFirn86Q]

Wes, when is your Gridlogicify 9000 video coming for your shop? 😊

[@Clough42]

Yeah. I know the battery anxiety well.

[@oldskeptic1513]

... kudos James, very impressive ...

[@theehans]

I've been thinking about this. Really weird invention project and this might have solved some of it and it taught me so much about tpu.

[@CraftedChannel]

I don't have feed problems with dual drive feeders (both wheels knurled and geared together) and I have TPU down to shore 68. I have printed puff bulbs for another purpose. Notice you need to increase the extrusion multiplier to get solid airtight prints. They look solid but are leaky. At least 115%. I added a rib of extra thickness around the OD of mine to get instant reinflate. 2mm id is probably 1.5 after printing. It's too small. I like your solution.

[@garygarland9366]

I don’t understand why I can’t turn away from this stuff. If watching this is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Thanks James!

[@OddJobEntertainment]

I've thought about 1-way valves a lot myself. Great design here. My only critique is that I wonder if you had a curved surface for the BB to seal against if that might improve the sealing ability by increasing the contact area?

[@dylanpendlebury23]

You could probably achieve a check valve without the BB at all if you went with a membrane style check valve. Just a flap disc that covers a slightly smaller hole at the bottom. Or a duck-bill check valve which might allow you to print the entire thing in one go.

[@B0A2]

Great video. Super cool project as well

[@legionjames1822]

A v2 with an all 3d printed check valve and wavy main body like the original item would be awsome. Maybe a short? Could the little shpere perhaps be a little polygon?

[@mhoover]

I think a simple flap would work as well.

[@cooperised]

Hard to print though.

[@mhoover]

@@cooperised The flap would be printed separately and glued or fused in during the print like he did with the ball.

[@cooperised]

@@mhoover Ok, that would work, but once it's a two part print with an assembly process the ball starts to look easier again.

[@mhoover]

@@cooperised The flap prints next to the bulb and after the base of the bulb is done so is the flap. Then you pause, set the flap in place then continue. Easy as pie.

[@cooperised]

@@mhoover But then what's the advantage over the ball? I'm not trying to discount your idea, which I'm sure would work. But what advantage would it have? Just that it's all printed?

[@Cookie-cn2jc]

It is amazing to watch an OCD thought progression in action.

[@ferrumignis]

_"a One-Way check valve"_ They are the best type, two way check valves are much simpler but not as popular. The actual easiest solution would be to bend a simple metal clip to compress the rubber bulb slightly for storage.

[@jjsjeffjjsjeff]

VIN numbers

[@ferrumignis]

@@jjsjeffjjsjeff It's a downwards descent, whilst we add an additional added bonus.

[@cooperised]

@@ferrumignis This comment is totally unique.

[@dougaltolan3017]

​@@jjsjeffjjsjefflake Windermere

[@danmenes3143]

Some potential variations: these bulbs frustrate me with their limited air volume. Not only is the volume of the bulb small, but a lot of the volume is wasted because the bulb doesn't collapse completely when you squeeze it. To address the volume, you could give it a square or rectangular cross section. To make it collapse more fully, make two sides out of rigid filament. You would end up with something like a little fireplace bellows. You could even give the flexible parts a bellow shape. Another advantage (maybe?): you could put the nozzle into one of the rigid parts, and reduce its tendency to wander around while you squeeze--another thing that annoys me about air bulbs sometimes.

[@gillesst-onge]

nice the way you do the one way valve

[@alangliniak9514]

Try pulling your radius dimensions over the CL. I'm not sure it will work but it does in solidworks. 😊

[@kurtu5]

I have a single tool box with a rusty hacksaw, a small sledge, a cord drill and some assorted bits and sockets. This is crazy. A bulb that sucks and blows air? Oh wait, I have a solder sucker too in that tool box. Funny how I actually do have a similar tool to you.

[@SmallDisturbedChild]

I use a babys nasal aspirator for cleaning fountain pens. much smaller though not as much air.

[@NicksStuff]

That's really cool. I would have done it differently but that's really cool