So I made the mistake of doing some reading on the new 3D printers while I was sick this week, and last night I ordered a Lulzbot Taz 5 and a bunch of filament. The next couple of months is going to be fun.
Anyone have ideas they might like to see printed in common or exotic materials?
This is my second 3D printer. I have a Printrbot Simple 2014 that I ran for about 6 months before disassembling it to take on an over the top rebuild. I’m to the point now where I just want a decent sized working printer that can print exotics without spending another 200 hours building. Fortunately most of my upgrade parts can become repair/upgrade parts for the new printer.
I think it would be interesting to print flashlight “cases” like people have phone cases to protect them if they fall. A protective cover for the Kronos SS/CU X6 and X5 might be neat. Something that would hug the curves of the flashlight, and protect it from minor scratches. If you made it out of a high-heat material, so it wouldn’t melt, and made it to show off, not hide, the features of the flashlight, some people might even want to buy some from you. Another use for a “protective cover” might be to disguise expensive flashlights to look like junkers so that they don’t get stolen.
Also, I have a flashlight host/tube that I need printed. I’d pay you to print it for me. I just haven’t yet finished the model. I started it in Blender3D a few years back and got stuck trying to change it from a 3D viewable pretty thing to an actual 3D printable model. I know we like metal flashlights, but this design would be very difficult and expensive to get machined.
Also, are you planning on selling the older printer? I know you said you can use the upgrade parts on your new printer. I’m talking about the original non-upgrade parts.
I like the idea of protection covers for lights. Ninjaflex would be great for that.
I use Solidworks and Inventor to model. I have used Slic3r and Cura for slicing, and Pronterface to control the Simple.
Not sure what all I’ll have to sell, but I’m definitely open to the idea of selling anything that isn’t easy to use with the new printer. I could probably sell almost everything that someone would need to put the Simple back together.
I know, the 3D printer works by melting the filament and extruding it onto the surface, much like a hot-melt glue gun. So, yeah, my statement, taken out of context is VERY funny!
But, I was talking about a material that could withstand the outside temperature of some of the hot-rodded lights built here. Different plastics have different melting points, so one of the more heat-tolerant plastics might work well enough for our use.
No, when a flashlight gets that hot, the last thing I want to do is touch it!
But, a cover that doesn’t completely cover over the entire light is what I was talking about. Just enough coverage to help protect from scratches and such.
A worthy suggestion. I’m planning on making battery holders anyway to charge from my DC power supply, so I’ll try to make sure they fit that criteria too.
Most of the spacers and shim ideas are pretty easy.
Something like a switch housing would take some looking into, not sure how good the print resolution needs to be for consistent results on a switch.
I’m betting there’s going to be at least a month long “getting to know you” period with the printer. I’m sure it will be up and printing quickly, but really good calibration takes a while, so I’ll be tinkering for a while before I try high difficulty prints.
