3D Printing

SanchoRG
Texas
Any of you guys dabble in this? I got my mom a discount Chinese printer for xmas, which went about as well as you can expect. After having to drive over every weekend to tinker with that piece of shit, I got it stabilized so I only have to tune it about once a month. In the process though I got hooked and bought a much better Chinese piece of shit for myself.

Like I've known that 3D printers have existed for decades already, but I always thought they were just sort of shitty overall. I was so wrong. They are pretty damn amazing and the ability to print a wide variety of filament types and structures that can't be replicated by a multi-axis cnc is just great. Already looking at buying another.

13 comments

  • MrBater2010
    •
    2 years ago
    I have printed a few things. My son bought me one for Christmas one year. Next year I bought him one that he picked out. He has since gave it back to me cause he decide to move and not take it with him .

    For me I think the hold up on some things is that the vendor has everything locked down or trying to. Think HP. or it is free with bugs and needs work. And while you can just login to some website and download files and convert them. If you can do good CAD work you are going to have better success.

  • SanchoRG
    •
    2 years ago
    Yeah I bought one of the most locked down ones on the market (Bambu Lab). Half the features are straight up disabled unless I connect to a Chinese cloud lol. The performance and hassle-free printing though, combined with the relative price on the market was enough of an offset to make up for that. Their tech feels like 2023 tech, where my mom's bedslinger feels like 2013 tech
  • FTS
    •
    2 years ago
    Yes. I bought a $100 Creality Ender 3 Pro from MicroCenter. It's very useful when you need it, but only as useful as a piece of plastic can possibly be. Tinkercad.com is pretty easy to learn and quite useful to make simple designs.
  • Call.Me.Ishmael
    •
    2 years ago
    I have a few friends who've gone deep into this. Some are making a bit of side money.
  • SanchoRG
    •
    2 years ago
    They are pretty versatile. I can't imagine not having one in my shop anymore. You can even electroplate prints, or use them to make molds for molten aluminum, bronze etc. I can print strong brackets, braces, gears, threads, spacers, cases, stuff for my pegboard etc. Has saved me so many trips to home depot, or having to wait days for Amazon. Even basic bitch printers can print down to 0.04mm heights these days
  • shailynn
    •
    2 years ago
    So tell me what have you printed that has been useful that’s a common piece for the average guy to use?

    The only thing I can think of is my garage door opener button eventually melted. The housing was fine. Sure enough, there’s a guy on eBay selling replacement buttons he made on his 3D printer. I think I paid around $3 for this easy fix instead of having to order a complete new opener body ($50.00 at the time) and switching out the guts (you couldn’t just buy an original replacement button).
  • motorhead
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    2 years ago
    I believe the world’s first 3D printer was the vagina
  • JamesSD
    •
    2 years ago
    It's something I want to get into when I have the time
  • SanchoRG
    •
    2 years ago
    I've only had mine for a couple weeks but I've printed out a few cases for my raspberry pis, lots of shelf rod brackets for my pegboard, a few bins. Some nylon spacers, couple flexible gaskets (they sucked, I gotta figure those out). I'm about to dabble into nylon carbon fiber to print out some custom grips for a couple of my guns. Had a Roomba part break and was able to print a replacement. All this shit was already designed and modeled by someone else. I just grabbed it off a site like https://www.thingiverse.com/

    James the nice thing about 3d printing is its like a slow cooker. Set a print, go to work and come home to a delicious result (hopefully)
  • ATACdawg
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    2 years ago
    3-D printers revolutionized the pattern making trade about 40 years ago. We had Aries 3D modelling software at my Westinghouse division, and I was sent to Dearborn (unfortunately before my TUSCL days!) for training. Why Dearborn? Ford had funded a LOT of the development cost. They used it for making mold patterns for manifolds that did not require any flat reference surfaces, nor was there any need to clamp them. This totally freed the engineers to design hardware that was unconstrained by the need to be buildable by pattern makers, and in many cases removed that step from the process completely.

    Fun fact:. The 3D printers of that era worked in pools of light-hardened resin and there was a "table" that slowly submerged while a laser played over the surface to make the part.
  • shailynn
    •
    2 years ago
    Can you 3D print a pocket pussy? (asking for a friend).
  • SanchoRG
    •
    2 years ago
    Sort of?
    https://youtu.be/JZC2ji32q5A
    I'm not that far off the rails yet to build a sex robot though
  • whodey
    •
    2 years ago
    My brother has a 3d printer that he mainly uses to build model kits and puzzles for his kids. He has also used it to build replacement interior parts and badges for a couple of project cars he is working on.

    I have used it a few times to go along with my woodworking. It is great for building templates or even full mockups of projects. I have also built a few custom clamps for when I need them for some odd shapes that are hard to use regular clamps for. This summer I am looking at building a lot of cabinetry for in my workshop and I've thought about using his 3d printer to make the various handles for all of the doors.

    I don't think they make sense for most people, but if you are someone that likes to build or repair things they can come in handy.
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