Hacker News Reader

Comment by qiqitori | Hacker News Reader

I've always been wondering, could you build connectors like this by CNCing the metal parts and 3d-printing the insulation? (Maybe add in some metal bending, but maybe that could be done manually using hand tools?) In this case, there actually seems to be a market for thousands of these connectors, but for many other connectors the market is... a couple dozen or so. Note: I have very little knowledge in this field.

View on HN

Yes you definitely can. Obviously you should buy the pins instead of CNCing pins, but for the complex geometry of the main connector body you can definitely CNC it. Example of the pins being sold on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/JRready-Terminal-Connector-205089-1-c...

If not needed under 10 I'd make it manually like you say.

For above 10 I'd make a jig to either cut and punch holes in 3mm plexiglass sheets, or a jig to quickly make cardboard moulds into which I'd place the pins and pour resin into.

To me, either of the above is preferable to ordering 10k of them.

In the past, I've seen examples of D-shell connectors with molded all-plastic connectors.

The most common example is perhaps the Atari 2600's molded female joystick connector, but I've also seen male iterations (usually on IDC connectors).

Other than lack durability and lack of built-in shielding, I don't see any problem with the idea of 3D printing such a thing.

With a decent resin printer, one should even be able to design it to use removable pins that just snap into place (which are things that are still made in factories every day).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com