Single-piece suspension attempt

WARNING: this piece did not meet expectations, but I decided to upload it so that perhaps others could get some ideas.

The idea was to make a combination friction-damper shock-absorber that could be printed in one go from PLA. It'd be nice, right?

Well, this design has two flaws:
1) The spring constant with PLA is way to high. It just takes too much force to compress. Going thinner results in curaengine not wanting to do the spring properly, so there's no easy easy way to fix. Maybe using a flexible material would work better.
2) The "holders" to keep the spring aligned/apply friction are too flexible, so things don't stay straight/in contact.

I still want to make a single-piece suspension item like this, so I plan to try a few more things.


You may have to run a thin blade between the spring/holders to free it up.

The source blend file is included. Several key parameters can be adjusted from the text object labeled "Controls"