This adapter is designed to allow a Moen M6320 12-point handle to be fitted in place of the OEM steam handle (part number 10060186 or 10060190) for the Rancilio Silvia M espresso machine. This adapter has been designed to meet the following criteria:
- Heatproof. Because this component is intended to be attached directly to a steam boiler, it needs to be heatproof. Initial prototypes were printed in high-temperature FDA approved food-grade plastic, however, these were inadequate and softened at higher temperatures. Stainless steel is really the only material available at this point in time.
- Low complexity. 3D printed stainless steel suffers from poor dimensional accuracy (±5% deviation) and has a tendency to warp. A symmetrical design with thick walls and simple cavities is required.
- High tolerance. Again, due to poor dimensional accuracy, the model needs to have larger cavities and greater pressure angles on spline teeth, which has been reflected in later iterations of this design.
This project assumes you have have the following tools installed in order to modify and export a usable model:
- Hole in handle bolt/shaft for attachment of split pin/R-clip
- Rebuilt model from scratch to a) eliminate artifacts and model distortions from previous changes, and b) allow a cylindrical cavity to be perpendicular to an existing cylinder with minimal distortion
- Minor adjustments to spline for better fit
- Reduce amount surfaces for handle bolt/shaft
- Diameter of spine assembly for higher printing tolerance
- Length of spline assembly to account for inconsistent spline cavity of handles
- Diameter of D-broach for higher printing tolerance
- Length of D-broach shaft to account for protrusion of entire assembly on initial plastic prototype
- Initial design with low-tolerances for plastic prototypes