91–100 of 122 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The real question is - did you buy 10s of printers because you needed them for the business, or did you start the business to buy 10s of printers :P
I bought one , to try out some ideas, then it sat on the shelf for about a year, then suddenly there were five and so on.
One of the most useful things that I print is Gridfinity storage boxes and holders. I try to organize as many of my tools and supplies using it. I sometimes do a little leather working for fun and have a drawer full of hardware, all in their own bins. In my garage my sockets, wrenches, etc. all has a Gridfinity holder. I design my own as much as I use pre-made ones. A while ago I even saw a shop that used it to organ…
At first I assumed it's going to be this guy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGje7toBDzsiIrHIHG-eL...
My favorite model of all time is this digital sundial: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1068443 It's generated using code that knows the shapes of numbers and "punches them out" of a template object at different angles corresponding to angles of the sun/time relationships. It would be impractical to make in any method than additive printing.
One of the most useful things that I print is Gridfinity storage boxes and holders. I try to organize as many of my tools and supplies using it. I sometimes do a little leather working for fun and have a drawer full of hardware, all in their own bins. In my garage my sockets, wrenches, etc. all has a Gridfinity holder. I design my own as much as I use pre-made ones. A while ago I even saw a shop that used it to organ…
The A1 has a relatively small printing plate. How does it work for boxes that are larger ? You print them in pieces and click / glue them together ?
And in that sense it means that almost every design made by someone else you find will fit your machine. I rarely if ever find something on Printables or Makerworld that requires a larger machine than the A1.
Then you’ve got the A1 mini being ao popular that many times people will make variants just for the small plate on that machine.
I still have mixed emotions about 3D printing. I do love the idea of being able to print a part when I need it for something. But I do hate myself at the same time for creating more plastic junk. PLA is not really getting recycled, when it fails someone throws it in the trash and it goes to a landfill. Maybe some really diehard enthusiasts are ensuring all their failed prints and broken parts get properly chemically…
Let’s take 1kg of filament, which is enough for multiple print projects depending on the size of the items.
That is approximately the same weight of petrochemical material as 1/3 of a gallon of gas (making a bit of an assumption that the amount of processing per weight of both materials is roughly the same).
Every time you drive 10 miles in a car that gets 30mpg it’s like you are burning an entire roll of filament.
So the average American is using probably 1-4 rolls of filament just to get to work and back. The last time I bought a roll of filament was multiple months ago.
I’m not singling you out, I am really just pointing out that humans are terrible at understanding the quantities of things and what things actually use a lot of material and create a lot of carbon emissions.
This is especially true since cost is so detached from material use, waste, and carbon emissions.
A gallon of gas is an order of magnitude cheaper than the equivalent weight of filament.
Burning a bunch of BTUs of natural gas to make my house 4 degrees warmer and gain a trivial amount of additional comfort wastes a whole bunch of energy but costs me so little that I don’t even know what my gas bill is.
It’s cheaper for me to replace most of my home appliances with brand new ones than hire a repair service.
I can fly to Florida for $50 and burn 15 gallons of jet fuel.
If I put more garbage out in my bin I’m not charged more. I can even put furniture and appliances out there and I am not charged more.
These are all examples of waste and environmental impact where I don’t really see or feel the magnitude of them because our systems don’t show them.
Anyway I know this is kind of a huge tangent of a discussion. But really, 3D printing is the least of your worries.
One of the most useful things that I print is Gridfinity storage boxes and holders. I try to organize as many of my tools and supplies using it. I sometimes do a little leather working for fun and have a drawer full of hardware, all in their own bins. In my garage my sockets, wrenches, etc. all has a Gridfinity holder. I design my own as much as I use pre-made ones. A while ago I even saw a shop that used it to organ…
I think PLA is a lot stronger than people give it credit for, especially if printed at 100% infill. I finally had a chance to use the PLA-CF that came with my Bambu X1C for a replacement part on my tripod, and it's great.
I would encourage people who have never designed physical objects before to try to only print things they have designed themselves as an exercise. For perhaps a year or so. If you have never designed physical objects before it is really challenging at first. The learning curve is pretty steep and, at least in my case, I discovered that I didn't have a mental language for thinking about functional 3D and mechanical de…
3D printing has been humbling for me. I can express myself well spatially in code, but that doesn't help much in CAD where you have to figure out what combination of buttons and parameters will do what I want. I can manage dependencies well in code, but that doesn't help much in CAD. I continually struggle to design parts with geometry that is dependent on the spatial relationships and constraints of how multiple par…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think PLA is a lot stronger than people give it credit for, especially if printed at 100% infill. I finally had a chance to use the PLA-CF that came with my Bambu X1C for a replacement part on my tripod, and it's great.
I think it's cheating to say PLA is stronger and then talk about PLA with carbon fiber added.
I imagine metal printing will never be something that happens at home.