I’ve not got a 3d printer, but a few of my mates have and often offer to do things for me. I had a few things done so far, and thought it might be a nice idea to start a thread sharing links to handy stuff you may have printed or had printed!
I had this made for work, which I keep 2 security bits and 2 crosspoint bits in for when I’m out and about at work, saves me carrying around a heavy driver! Pocket screwdriver kit
Well, I have toyed with it a few times - what stops me is I know I’ll print out a tonne of useless tat I don’t need or want. Having friends with one suits better lol, that way I’m not going to waste their kind offers doing stuff for kicks and ultimately bringing more uneeded plastic waste into the world (which when you think about it worldwide must be a shed load since these things were produced). My mates shelves are literally full of tat, useless thingybobs, fidget junk, statues, unfinished projects and alike.
Printing out a bunch of useless stuff is good practice IMHO. Unless you’re dropping really big bucks on a fancy machine where someone from the company comes out to troubleshoot, 3D printing is a skill that has to be practiced. Better to figure out your machine, software, slicer, filament on small stuff before blowing an expensive large print.
Last thing I printed was a door step to get up to my car’s rooftop storage.
I came across this today and often wondered why they don’t make covers for open chargers, they often get dusty.
Here’s a 3d printed one for a Nitecore D4… printing it as I type.
Also I printed this fantasic case for my wera toolcheck plus set. The print includes a dummy inner lid if you don’t want to use the insert for knife wrench etc, or you can moidify that tray to hold what you like.
Printed hundreds of things, 95% are pointless toys, printed plastic is not strong, even ABS. printed plastic is not nearly as strong as injection molded. Few useful things are headlamps holders, vacuum cleaner accessories holders, even printed entire flashlight for one of scratch build contests.
However some plastics, like polycarbonate, can be very strong when printed, you can even print a outboard motor prop, and it will work as good as a factory one, but it takes special printer to work with PC, 300c hotend, 120c bed, enclosure… but those pretty expensive, and PC filament itself is 2-3 times more expensive than abs/petg/pla…
Hopefully now a few more of us have 3d printers on here, others will share what items they found, there’s so much out there! I’m still in that ‘I need to be printing something on my new toy’ mode
That new printer looks really cool!
Seriously though, that is a fancy printer, congrats!!
I’ve had a printer almost a year and a half. (Neptune 2S). I do my own modeling, if I can, I love the challenge. But I also print a lot from Printables(just recieved my first free roll of filament from prusameters actually! ), sometimes Thingiverse.
One of the reasons I finally broke down and invested in a printer was for flashlight parts, no one made a tail cap that fit my SC31 Pro that had both a lanyard loop AND a magnet pocket.
I’ve done several headlamp holder/clips lately.
I can post pics if anyone is interested. (Figure I ask first before just flooding the thread lol)
I tend to do a lot of functional prints. I’m a jack of all trades, tinker with Everything in my spare time. I’ve done everything from watch repair to building houses from the ground up… And loads in between. So now all the little 1 off parts and pieces that my projects need, that can survive as plastic are easy(er) to make…
The kinda thing I used to sit down at the lathe and mill in aluminum, or dremel from steel or aluminum I can now model and print faster and easier. And repeatedly… That might be the biggest gift of this, 15 prototypes in the time I used to make 2 failed parts!
Almost 18 months in for me, that “new toy I have to be printing something” mode hasn’t gone away lol…
Any time I’m in the shop, no matter the project, I go start the printer too! (I prefer to monitor prints in person, rarely run it when I’m not there) and run something I need on another project, or stock up on small bits for other stuff… Figure why waste the time it could be running.
I actually have my second printer picked out, to hopefully be afforably purchased this fall. So when something that takes 3 hours to print is going, I can still do development and run test prints while modeling something else.
My oldest daughter came home with an articulated whale shark as her very first print. It was under guidance, she was inducted to use the 3d printers at her university. Of course, during conversation she said i should buy one… that might’ve been my tipping point but i really don’t have time these days.
I’m a bit of a star wars fan, so naturally I love this guys work BigBricks's Portfolio of 3D Models on Thangs
He’s doing star wars lego big figures at the moment and they are so cool, providing you love star wars, lego or both!
Interesting. I picked up a used 3D printer and use it for things I can’t buy, like items I custom made (mounts and spacers) I am using PLA and it took me a while to set it up correctly and I was amazed how strong the parts were. I made a lock for a gear on a Lathe. I also designed and printed some parts for mounting a DRO on a milling machine. The prototypes were the size of a slice of bread and I gave it to a few guys to see if they could break them by hand. They could not. The gear block was made at 100% infill because I wanted it to be strong. I bet I could drive over it and not break it.
The parts I have been making have not been perfect. I am new at this and tricking out a 3D printer can be a large hobby. I have printed a bunch of nose cones. So far the crappy ones I was learning with have held up better than what I expected. I am curious why the ones you made were not very strong? I know injection molding would be compared to 100% infill, but even the pieces I made with 10% infill were very solid. Flexible but solid.
If you print a part with same dimensions as injected molding plastic, it will not be as strong, sure you can make it as strong by making it thicker/bigger, use proper orientation, before i learned how to make strong headlamp holders, I printed few dozen of them that broke.
It is true that filament get better and better, but it it still has its limits. Pla may be stiff, but it shatters on impact, even flexible one, things printed with it literally melt in a hot car. I printed constantly for about 2 years, got pretty good at it, but I got rid of my cr10s about 3 years ago, I can not say i miss it much.
I have heard of PLA not holding up well in the heat of a car in summer. I have not experienced it, but I don’t keep things in a car. I am not sure if I am using PLA or PLA+, I have a mix. The poor quality nose cones I built had of set lines in them, so it made them weak. (I tracked it down to a loose print head.) They are the size of a golf ball, with walls approximately 1/16". I shot one at low velocity into a water heater that I was scrapping. It dented the tin wall and bounced off without shattering. I am not sure on UV, but guessing it would degrade PLA.
3D printing has its purpose. Injection molding will cost 1000s for the first part, I can build a part for pennies. I spent a while on a CAD program and designed what I needed and printed them. Much easier and much faster than machining them. I am just starting to learn, but impressed what it can do. The thing that that surprised me is how slow it is to print. A small print can take quite a few hours. My Son upgraded his with a PI to make it print over twice as fast, but still takes time. I have seen guys print gears for their lathes. That have held up quite well over time. Not for shop use, but great for home machinist doing metric cutting.
