Inside the New Design & Build Lab
The old Build Lab page was ten pictures with captions. It's been rebuilt as the Design & Build Lab, and it now shows how the parts actually get made: the files, the revisions, the scans, and what came off the printer.
What's different
Every image is labeled Photo, Render or Scan data, so you always know if you're looking at a finished part or a CAD file.
A status board at the top shows what's on the bench and where each project stands.
Three projects get a full lab file with specs and a revision log. Twenty more sit in a filterable archive.
SD-001: Volvo T6 intake, now at v5
The T6 intake and MAF housing is on its fifth revision and in production. v5 made the sensor-screw holes blind (on v4 they broke into the bore), added a gusset under the long sensor boss, and reshaped the hose bead so the part prints with no supports. It comes in two screw versions: the stock Volvo MAF screw, or M3 heat-set inserts. The branding is molded in.
One honest note: the renders are the only v5 images so far. The photos on the page show v4 on the car and a v3 printed housing, and they're labeled that way until v5 gets photographed.
SD-002: A clear-top airbox from a phone scan
A customer with a 2000–05 Mercury Sable 3.0 wanted to see his intake. The factory airbox is solid black plastic, and no one makes a clear one.
The stock box got a matte coat and tracking marks, then was photographed on the turntable in two sets (194 and 250 photos) and meshed. Caliper-measured references locked the scale to real millimeters. From there it was rebuilt in CAD, checked against the scan with deviation maps, and redrawn twelve times.
The released design, v12.2, is four printed PA6-GF shells and two polycarbonate windows, with foam gasket at every seam. It holds the customer's own filter and MAF sensor in the factory position. It's in the build queue now.
SD-003: The reveal turntable
This is the shop tool behind a lot of the photos. It's a stripped LulzBot Mini 1, rebuilt with a new frame and printed mounts. It lifts and spins a part in front of a locked-off camera and fires the Canon R50 over Wi-Fi. It shot the photo sets for the airbox scan.
v5.5 added a 190 mm platter riser, so wide parts clear the tower at any lift height, and a longer-stance tripod to keep the taller machine planted. It runs a custom Marlin build and a desktop control app with saved routines and a phone remote.
The archive: 20 more builds
Brackets, adapters, mounts and one-offs, sorted into Automotive, Custom Parts, Shop Tooling and Home & Desk. A few to look for: the vent-mount gauge pod that starts the next product line, the Mercedes E550 intake adapter (nine revisions), a replacement sprocket and a tractor light housing built for customers, and the shop's own dust-collection adapters. Most of them started as a phone photo and a tape measure.
Why show the revisions
A revision log is the proof. A part that went through twelve versions had its problems found on the bench, not on your car. The page also lists which material goes where, from PA6-GF under the hood to TPU for anything that has to bend, and what I won't print: nothing in the exhaust or turbo heat path, and nothing in steering, suspension or brakes.
Need a part that doesn't exist?
Send a photo, the year, make and model, and where the part sits. If it can be scanned, drawn and printed here, you'll get a real quote before any work starts. Request a part quote, or read how design & build works.
309-501-1640 · benjaminhoffman@silvades.com · Washington, IL
