Toilet Seat Rehab Kit

The discerning bathroom (aka restroom, aka loo) sometimes features a wooden toilet seat. They're a solid, durable and natural material choice, so they both last a long time and look good. After a decade or two they can be in need of a little rehabilitation.

The main failures seem to be the plastic bumper pieces. These degrade and become brittle and can disintegrate or gradually deform and cause the dreaded wobbly toilet seat syndrome. So it's 3Dprinting to the rescue. There are a few other toilet seat bumpers out there, but I elected to start from scratch for mine, as they are simple shapes and I realized I would need to adjust with peg spacing, size and style anyway.

This set of parts are what I needed to rehab my half-bath aka "powder room" toilet seat. It's interesting how every country has its own words for the toilet rooms. You're seeing Canadian-centric names here with a bit of text to catch searches from other locales. 

The parts are:

• Under-seat bumpers. These are spacers that hold the seat off the ceramic rim of the toilet, and carry the weight of a seated occupant.These have two posts at a spacing of 38mm, with friction-fit posts of just over 5mm diameter. See below about barb vs ridges style posts.
• Lid bumpers. These are on the lid, and cushion the closure of the lid over the seat, and act also as spacers between the lid and the seat. This part has a barbed post ofjust over 5.2mm for a friction fit in the lid holes.
• bolt washers. These are washers that go with the nut on the underside of the toilet-bowl rear, where the seat is bolted to the ceramic body.

I recommend that you use a strong PLA with improved moisture resistance for the under-seat bumpers. There are PLA+ filaments on the market that purport to offer these characteristics. They print at slightly hotter temperatures. Also, consider flexible TPU filament for the lid bumpers and the washers. The resilient material offers a quieter closure on the lid, and gives a bit of conformance on the nut tightening.

The bumpers are held in place by friction. There is a hole of about 5mm in the wood, and the posts on the part push into the hole and fit snugly. They're always under compression, so this works fine. I have two styles of friction fit posts, one that is barbed and one that is ridged. I tried both, and they were both fine, with the barbs being a little tighter and harder to remove after inserting. Pick what you like most.

It's conceivable that there are some seats out there with different hole-sizes and spacings. You'd need to pull the STL file into a design tool to adjust in that situation.

Finally, remember to check your parts often - I have no idea how long these will last in the application. There's water and nasty contaminants nearby, obv, so that may degrade them more quickly than the factory set. Don't know.

Hint: While you have the seat removed, and the bumpers off, it's a good chance to sand and refinish with a polyurethane finish. Soak the brass fittings in some white vinegar for a bit, and rub with fine steel wool.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Monoprice

Printer:

Select Mini

Rafts:

Doesn't Matter

Supports:

Yes

Resolution:

.4

Infill:

100

Notes:

Recommending TPU for lid bumpers and washer, and PLA+ (or ABS perhaps?) for the seat bumpers. Regular PLA is rather moisture sensitive so may become brittle with time.

Important – anything with posts, like these bumpers should always be printed sideways. That is, NOT with the posts pointing straight up or down (in the z-axis). That is because 3D prints fail most easily with stresses that try to separate deposition layers, where adhesion may be more poor. By printing with the posts horizontal (in x- or y-axis) you benefit from the tensil strength of the filament rather than banking on the layer adhesion.

(There are barbed posts on both the seat and lid bumpers)

Category: Bathroom