Replacement filler for desktop charger

Adrian PA0RDA bought a second-hand desktop charger for his Icom IC-92E handy. This charger (Icom BC-139) normally comes with a filler, allowing you to place the complete handy into the charger or just the battery. By flipping the filler a perfect fit is guaranteed in both ways. However, in this case the filler was missing, resulting in a non-functional desktop charger. Since this part is not sold separately I offered him to design and print a replacement filler.It is so much fun to own a 3D printer! This missing filler is rather simple to design and print. All you need is a ruler and some clue on 3D modelling.

The radio’s manual gave me some inspiration on the shape, and the ruler helped me to get some initial measurements. Then I modelled and printed a prototype to check the correct sizing. It didn’t fit correctly, so I applied some corrections on the model and printed another prototype. I repeated this process once more to get the perfect shape.

This process of (re)modelling, printing and testing is very easy to do, since the material to print is rather cheap. This filler would cost less than a euro/dollar (material costs).

If your filler is missing too, you can download my design from Thingiverse and print it yourself, or find a nearby 3D printer at 3Dhubs. I normally use Tinkercad for 3D modelling.