my neighbors a lazy f*cking moron. saw him the other day and he goes "i owe you a call...been so busy"...no you're just a lazy *****. i gave up on him. if this ever finishes, i'll be glad just to forget about it. good luck Vic.

 

Awesome! I'm excited.

 

/sigh. I can't figure out what's going on. It feels like it's sliding in perfectly, then when it hits the little tabs on the side it pushes out like this. I guess I'll try trimming it down tonight to see if I can figure out where it's going wrong.

 

Looks like it's too narrow in the area where you see the line between unlock and lock buttons. Looks the same as the last one, only green. If you can still access the battery I think I might try a couple of drops of superglue on the sides and call it a day.

 

I know nothing about 3D printing, but I wonder if designing it with a pre-flexed inward design would compensate for the outer flex that is seems to be exhibiting when put on the fob.

 

I agree, it does look exactly the same. He said he widened it just a hair which we both thought would do the trick. The only issue with super gluing it would be if you go to sell the car and need to put the original back on.

 

To be honest, it looks like the part is being printed at 90% scale or thereabouts, and therefore flexes in that weird way since it doesn't quite fit. Is this possible?

 

You may need to make the fob thicker, I suspect that the whole unit needs to be nearly as thick as it is at the corners, remember that the way 3D printing works makes it extremely weak, compared to other forms of creating useful objects from raw materials, such as casting or forging (extruding).

Secondly, it looks like radius of the top portion is still to small, you can see how the top of the circle doesn't sit as close to the key as the area around the side, it almost looks like the fob is shaped like a semi ellipse but the key a semi circle (or vice versa).

Could you possibly send us a picture of the oem fob and your printed fob side by side without the key in them? Maybe we could see where there is an issue.

 

Hmm, yeah should be able to.

And you're probably right about the structural integrity.

 

It's always possible, but I kind of doubt it in this case. Everything else seems to be the perfect size.

 

Could it also be something with the little tabs? Maybe they are too small and are forcing ends to curl outward?

 

Don't know if this was mentioned before or not but the bottom part looks slimmer than the top part of the fob. It looks to taper slightly from the top.

I too would be super interested in this. I also despise the gigantic fob. It's in my purse most of the time but I still think it's too big! Women pockets are generally smaller than normal so the fob practically takes up my entire pocket when it's not in my purse and I hate it.

 

this.

 

How about a couple of small "tech" countersunk (short) chrome screws that would pierce the inside plastic and suck in the flare. The small hole they would make in the center would be covered once the original cover is installed. You could make this part of the "print" or just make them with a small drill and a countersink....

 

Ok, I ordered another one. This one is a whole mm wider than the last version (which was only widened .3mm).

On the plus side I'm getting to see how a lot of the different plastic options look in person. I would not recommend the high detail plastic for these (too porous), but the base plastic looks great (the green). This time I ordered the base plastic in yellow but polished.

 

Awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing it

 

Any progress?

 

Oh, yeah sorry. It came back. I don't think this design is going to work. There's not enough rigidity to keep the shape when everything is in place :(

The picture makes it look like the fitment is pretty good but IMHO if you're going to sell something it should be a perfect fit or not at all.

 

I would buy that version in black!

 

Has anyone considered making a leather key fob that would fit similar to these 3d printed plastic ones? And if the price was fair, I would actually buy that as well.

 

I guess I must be missing something - when the back part of the fob that covers the battery (embossed with MINI) is set back into place, it locks the cover in place, no? This is how I think the factory cover works, so if we can replicate the tabs, this piece should work the same way and get locked in tight?

 

It should, but it doesn't for some reason. Actually when it's supposed to "lock" it into place it pushes the wings out further. I can try to shave the tabs down a bit in case that's the issue.

 

Looks like you're making a little progress at least.
I still think if you made the top end a little fatter/thicker/wider and then taper down to the keyring end it would help keep it tight.
But, then again, I didn't stay at the Holiday Inn Express, so I'm probably not qualified to make such an observation.

 

In my opinion, even without the round housing, the whole thing is too fat, and the buttons are awful. I wish they would give us some sort of an upgrade path to a BMW style fob. At least that would be an improvement.

 

Looks good to me. As another poster said, I'd buy it in black. Make that two. As long as it doesn't come off easily, I think it is a success.