Waiting for my 3D printer !!

[PaulG40]

A mate at my work has one that he leaves printing while he's a work. He was telling us that the plastic is Hemp based so his neighbour is constantly complaining and even got as far as calling the police on him as she is convinced he's growing and smoking weed. He's even invited her in to inspect the printer and the smell but she still insists he's dodgy. lol.

[Insanity Magnet]

CoolHands said:

I can't see the point. What could you possibly make that you need, that you can't buy? It will end up sitting unused in 6 months.

Depends...

I'm running one for prototyping and it's well suited for most of the jobs I stick through it, apart from really small stuff and dual material printing (which is a whole new level of WTF, setup-wise). A friend runs a Zortrax and an Ultimaker 2+ for prototyping and they are on almost constantly, rarely failing a print. If I wasn't convinced of the value of dual-material printing (think supports for overhangs and internal geom) I'd probably buy one of those.

If I didn't use them professionally I probably wouldn't buy one as there's a limit to the number of Yoda heads, dino skulls, frogs and multi-coloured lizards that I would want to print. Having said that, I have printed some interesting stuff for the house and my kids have printed out the odd thing for homework assignments...

[98elise]

bucksmanuk said:

I bought one in February, and progress is slow, caused by me not having time to give it a proper go, I made a desk pen holder with my g/f name embossed onto it. She didn’t seem that impressed- miserable cow….

Genuine lol at that

[Smiler.]

Insanity Magnet said:

CoolHands said:

I can't see the point. What could you possibly make that you need, that you can't buy? It will end up sitting unused in 6 months.

Depends...

I'm running one for prototyping and it's well suited for most of the jobs I stick through it, apart from really small stuff and dual material printing (which is a whole new level of WTF, setup-wise). A friend runs a Zortrax and an Ultimaker 2+ for prototyping and they are on almost constantly, rarely failing a print. If I wasn't convinced of the value of dual-material printing (think supports for overhangs and internal geom) I'd probably buy one of those.

If I didn't use them professionally I probably wouldn't buy one as there's a limit to the number of Yoda heads, dino skulls, frogs and multi-coloured lizards that I would want to print. Having said that, I have printed some interesting stuff for the house and my kids have printed out the odd thing for homework assignments...

What sort of stuff are you prototyping?

[julian64]

CoolHands said:

I can't see the point. What could you possibly make that you need, that you can't buy? It will end up sitting unused in 6 months.

I have a very small metal four axis mill. Cost about £1000.

Over its life its saved me countless time energy and money. Typical example. Bit breaks on my car. so either

1) Call any manufacturer ====== Endless being given one phonecall after another to chase parts, followed by we don't make that anymore
2) Talk to engineering shops ===== wow for a run of one that's going to be expensive in setup. We don't really want to do it but if you give us £1000 to set up we could try. Just write us a blank cheque. Then it gets given to the stupidest intern to do.
3) Bit turns out not to fit even with the mickey mouse instructions you've given, and god forbid if you try to improvise.

Or

Design it on google sketchup. Machine from block the same day over a hour or so, and if it doesn't work repeat every hour till it does. On the way you design new stuff which works better.

Of course if you lead the sort of vanilla life whereby your car is always mainstream with cheap parts, or when something goes wrong you just buy a new one, and you have no imagination to make anything that isn't already on ebay. Then it will pretty much sit unused in your house and this isn't the thread for you .

[Smiler.]

julian64 said:

CoolHands said:

I can't see the point. What could you possibly make that you need, that you can't buy? It will end up sitting unused in 6 months.

I have a very small metal four axis mill. Cost about £1000.

Over its life its saved me countless time energy and money. Typical example. Bit breaks on my car. so either

1) Call any manufacturer ====== Endless being given one phonecall after another to chase parts, followed by we don't make that anymore
2) Talk to engineering shops ===== wow for a run of one that's going to be expensive in setup. We don't really want to do it but if you give us £1000 to set up we could try. Just write us a blank cheque. Then it gets given to the stupidest intern to do.
3) Bit turns out not to fit even with the mickey mouse instructions you've given, and god forbid if you try to improvise.

Or

Design it on google sketchup. Machine from block the same day over a hour or so, and if it doesn't work repeat every hour till it does. On the way you design new stuff which works better.

Of course if you lead the sort of vanilla life whereby your car is always mainstream with cheap parts, or when something goes wrong you just buy a new one, and you have no imagination to make anything that isn't already on ebay. Then it will pretty much sit unused in your house and this isn't the thread for you .

I have just completed a 3+ year exercise bringing a product to the point of ready for market. I've invested £0000's in doing so far (far more if you cost my time). I did most of it in 2D CAD, then 3D once I'd got the hand of Inventor.

Item 2 above rings true, but on the scale of the product, I absolutely needed to work very closely with the fabricators. The product is one part of a sideline venture into which I'm trying to get more momentum.

Out of the 40 odd components that make the product, only one was a total fk-up. And that one is ideal for prototyping on a 3D printer. Would have saved me the few £000 I now need to spend to get the right part.

In fact, the fabricators made be a drilling jig for another component & I could probably prototype that too (as I'm already considering a design change).


To be fair to Cool Hands, not everyone has the engineering gene

[snotrag]

Smiler. said:

To be fair to Cool Hands, not everyone has the engineering gene

Which is entirely proven by the people saying 'wow I've got a 3d printer! Er what do I do now with it"

[simonrockman]

This is PH: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40257



It's the ecoboost block, contributed by Ford.

Simon

[Smiler.]

snotrag said:

Smiler. said:

To be fair to Cool Hands, not everyone has the engineering gene

Which is entirely proven by the people saying 'wow I've got a 3d printer! Er what do I do now with it"

Yep, that's the gadget gene.

[julian64]

I have to say on the subject of that block. If it was an 'art' project, I would take that 3d printing of the ecoboost block out to my garage, deposit it in greensand to make a mould then pour molten aluminium in it.
It would look so much nicer as an aluminium sculpture.

Besides I tend to lean toward 3d printed objects which move/work. Was looking a tourbillon clock the other day. Might be a bit above me as I don't know how my 3d printer is gong to perform.

[wildcat45]

Is there was of 3D scanning things? If for example II had a small model aircraft, a plastic switch for my car, something like that that I wanted to make a copy of, would that be possible?

[julian64]

wildcat45 said:

Is there was of 3D scanning things? If for example II had a small model aircraft, a plastic switch for my car, something like that that I wanted to make a copy of, would that be possible?

Good question. On my CNCmill you can get a digitizing head which is a little electrical contact that when it touches something it reports back, this can be used to scan an object at high resolution but it would take a very very very long time to get an useful item.

Something like google sketchup is very quick and easy to learn and would have to making small switches in a few hours

[simonrockman]

For scanning - big things like people rather than switches http://reconstructme.net/ is good and free, I've not played with it for a few years and drivers were a real pain but I'd rather hope they have that sorted now.

Also have a look at http://www.123dapp.com/catch which I didn't have such great results with but again it was a long time ago.

Simon

[julian64]

simonrockman said:

For scanning - big things like people rather than switches http://reconstructme.net/ is good and free, I've not played with it for a few years and drivers were a real pain but I'd rather hope they have that sorted now.

Also have a look at http://www.123dapp.com/catch which I didn't have such great results with but again it was a long time ago.

Simon

That's kinda fascinating

[Insanity Magnet]

Smiler. said:

What sort of stuff are you prototyping?

Typically casings such as cordless drill body shells (ergonomics and eyeballing 'in the flesh' rather than functional) and some more functional bits (eg articulated plastic hooks max. 200mm long). Managed to prototype some small, working, living hinges using PLA a few weeks ago - rather proud of that...

I'm much more likely to prototype more complex stuff now than dither about ordering through Materialise or one of the UK bureaux (bureaus?). Also, my modelmaking skills and patience have their limits.

[bucksmanuk]

CoolHands said:

I can't see the point. What could you possibly make that you need, that you can't buy? It will end up sitting unused in 6 months.

I can only speak for myself here, but I bought mine for a number of reasons. I’ll tell you what I have made on it so far:-
Desk pen holder with g/f name embossed onto it – as mentioned above.
1/18 scale wing mirror for one of the cars in the (small) collection.
New Scalextric Ford Falcon rear wing.
Prototype novel phone holder thingy – watch this space.
New power connector device type thingy – going for patent next year maybe.
Adjustable fluid film bearing- in discussion with patent people right now – this afternoon in fact. Jeez, they’re expensive.
A few items which started off great and are now weird looking piles of plastic vermicelli
Prototype valve flow paths for R&D at work. Quite why work doesn’t buy a 3-D printer - I have no idea….
I would love more workshop goodies, like a CNC mill mentioned above, but funds and space dictate otherwise.

[Smiler.]

Insanity Magnet said:

Smiler. said:

What sort of stuff are you prototyping?

Typically casings such as cordless drill body shells (ergonomics and eyeballing 'in the flesh' rather than functional) and some more functional bits (eg articulated plastic hooks max. 200mm long). Managed to prototype some small, working, living hinges using PLA a few weeks ago - rather proud of that...

I'm much more likely to prototype more complex stuff now than dither about ordering through Materialise or one of the UK bureaux (bureaus?). Also, my modelmaking skills and patience have their limits.

Thanks. I'm a serial dabbler/tinkerer but recently curtailed due to lack of resource. A 3D printer might be the way forward. I seem to be spending more time 3D modelling stuff these days.

bucksmanuk said:

Very interesting stuff

Are you a Mechanical Engineer in the Building Services sense or in another discipline?

[noell35]

wildcat45 said:

Is there was of 3D scanning things? If for example II had a small model aircraft, a plastic switch for my car, something like that that I wanted to make a copy of, would that be possible?

Makerbot do a 3D scanner, we got one as a package with our 3D printer. I've not had great success with it though but it could be operator error!

[bucksmanuk]

Smiler. said:

Are you a Mechanical Engineer in the Building Services sense or in another discipline?

Mechanical engineer - yes
discipline - rotating equipment and weird pressure vessels

[M.J.S]

How about a replacement limb for someone? Cool and Worthwhile.

http://3dprint.nih.gov/collections/prosthetics