
Things to Make with a 3D Printer - jheitzeb
http://www.hackthings.com/ten-practical-things-to-make-with-a-3d-printer/
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simonsarris
I just don't get it. Not that 3D printing is bad, just that these examples
seem mostly silly for being billed as practical. Nearly every post about 3D
printers reads like straight up satire.

I'm acquainted with two families that own machine shops, and my father was
very into handyman-ism. Another friend's dad works at the dump (or
affectionately, "dump mart").

If we wanted something like a bicycle accessory or camera mount we just _made_
one. Out of wood and wire and paracord. We just hammered and sawed stuff
together. Welders can't be that uncommon, and they're a few hundred bucks if
you can't find a used one.

Fixing things with plastic? That's called a glue gun and they're ten dollars
and existed since way back when Saturday Night Live was funny.

To be fair to the article though, we couldn't make our own LEGOs. We could
make our own boats and swords and (hairspray-powered) cannons, but not LEGOs.

Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer
just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and
fixing stuff?

~~~

I don't mean to knock the technology itself. 3D printers are _really cool,_
but I think titling an article "Ten Practical Things..." and coming up with
the list they did just feels very shoehorned.

~~~
cfinke
_Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer
just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and
fixing stuff?_

In the same way that C++ is just a verbose substitute for having friends that
are in to writing assembly.

~~~
fudged71
Yes, 3D printing allows people to get interested in DIY by letting them make
these parts without much effort. Most city slickers have no idea how to get
into DIY.

For a long time, 3D printing will be useful as a "close-enough" alternative to
more expensive models, parts, and replacements.

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AlexMuir
I've been calling overbuzz on 3D printing from the outset, and this story does
nothing to dispel that. These mostly aren't practical things - they're just
tat. And guess what? You can make tat a lot more cheaply, quickly and
creatively than with some complex device, custom raw ingredients and a load of
faffing around.

A 3D printed clock? Fuck off. It's just a clock mechanism attached to a disc
of 3D printed plastic - you can attach a clock mechanism to anything and make
a clock. Can the mechanism be printed? No, can it bollocks.

I think there are amazing industrial uses for these things, but there are
very, very few items which are made from a single colour of a single plastic.
I can't remember the last time I needed a replacement part for something and
it was just a monoblock plastic piece.

Edit: The submission's title has just been changed from "Ten _Practical_
things to make with a 3D printer"

~~~
cfinke
_I can't remember the last time I needed a replacement part for something and
it was just a monoblock plastic piece._

As the father of two young boys, I could make a full-time job of printing
replacement plastic pieces for broken toys.

~~~
AlexMuir
_...full-time job..._

In a way that's my point - it's probably a 5 hour job to print a replacement
plastic peg for some toy. 5 hours is $100 for anyone who can afford a 3D
printer. Plus the printer's cost. Financially it makes no sense. As a hobby...
brilliant and probably hugely rewarding, but the 3D printing lobby would have
you believe we'll all have one and nothing will be landfilled any more.

~~~
ColinWright
It might take 5 hrs to print it, but do you stand there and watch it the whole
time? Plus there are several items I've printed that I could have obtained in
no other way.

So 3D printers are great for me, and now I'm on the verge of it being viable
to buy rather than outsourcing the printing.

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IgorPartola
I am looking forward to being able to print cases for electronics. No, I don't
mean phone cases. More like Raspberry Pu cases, but with custom features. It
would be very nice to have an RPi, a powered USB hub, a power supply, and a
set of disc spots all in one case. That would make a very nice media center
box, as opposed to the current mess of wires, or cutting USB sized holes in
project boxes from Radio Shack.

Aside from that, 3D printing holds no special interest for me. In fact, if on
demand printing was cheap enough, I would probably just do that.

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kyzyl
It's interesting seeing the negative responses every time a 3D printing post
comes up. It seems a common sentiment that 3D printers are somehow just an
industrial thing, or otherwise only good for hobbyists. I disagree.

I've used several different models of 3D printers, from the cheapest, to home
brewed, to industrial grade, and even the fancy UV cured resin ones. Honestly
they really are great for a number of purposes:

1\. Quickly getting a near-full fidelity part to hold in your hand. Whether
you're engineering something or doing something around the house, there is no
substitute for having the thing in your hand.

2\. Fast "create and forget" replacements. Handle on your workbench
broken/missing/shitty? Print one that fits, screw it on and forget about it.
No driving to the hardware store, browsing around, paying, "oops the screw
holes are too far apart" etc. How many times have you been making something
out of wood at home and only gone to the hardware store to get a
handle/hinge/pin?

3\. Making 3D parts that would be a huge pain, or impossible, to machine by
hand or via cnc. Really, anybody who has spent some time machining parts will
tell you that there is more to making a decent part than just designing it and
hopping on the mill. Do you have the right tooling? How are you going to hold
it? Do I have enough material to hold? What speeds and feeds do I need to use?
CNC machining adds an entire extra layer of CAD, and then you still have to
worry about most of that stuff.

4\. Making several different versions of something, because you aren't sure
which one will fit best, look nicest or suck the least. It's pretty rare to
see people machine (or even wood form) 5 parts that are identical except for
the position of some groove. It just takes too much time, and it's boring.

Don't get me wrong, there's still tons of room for improvement for additive
processes, and sometimes a mill or a table saw is a great tool for the job,
but enough with this "overbuzz" business. No, you will not be printing out
CPUs any time soon, but that doesn't make 3D printers all "buzz".

EDIT: Formatting.

~~~
jlarocco
You start off saying 3D printing isn't "just an industrial thing," but then 3
of the 4 items in your list presume an industrial setting.

And I would claim item number 2 doesn't happen often enough to justify the
costs of 3D printing for most people. A new handle is less than $2 at Home
Depot and takes 20 minutes to go buy. A 3D printer is a several hundred dollar
investment, the printing material is another big cost, and the printing time
itself is longer than it'd take to drive to the store.

Nobody can deny 3D printing will be great for prototyping and some kinds of
custom manufacturing, but I've yet to see a convincing argument for consumer
3D printing.

~~~
kyzyl
How do 3/4 of my points presume an industrial setting? (1) Specifically says
otherwise, and why would quickly getting something in hand have anything to do
with your setting? I suppose (2) varies from person to person, but I've
definitely done a heck of a lot of hardware browsing where I ended up with
some crappy part from china that was the only thing they had that fit what I
wanted. And then it broke, and then I went back and returned it, etc., etc.,
etc. There is something to be said about designing your hardware to fit your
job, not the other way around.

(3) Also doesn't presume anything. Yes, most people do not have CNC machines
(although I know several who do), but you might surprised how many people have
wood/metal shops in their garages or basements. One of the other comments on
this very story has someone talking about how having a buddy with a metal shop
and a dump is just as good a FDM machine.

Again, (4) has absolutely nothing to do with setting. How does being able to
cheaply whip off multiple variations of a model having anything to do with
industry? Aside from the fact that such methods are often used in industry,
because it's a smarter way to do things. Most home-hacking happens one part at
a time for exactly the reason I mention.

~~~
jlarocco
Well, I agree that 3D printing is going to be a big step forward for the type
of people who own CNC machines and own wood or metal shops.

But I think that's a pretty small group, and I don't it's big enough to
justify all the overblown talk of 3D printing revolutionizing the world in
general.

~~~
loup-vaillant
Depends if you talk about the present or about one or two decades ahead. Some
day, probably less than 20 years from now, most people _will_ have a practical
desktop factory that will make lots of useful things for them.

Current 3D printers are not revolutionizing the world _yet_ , but the next
desktop factories will.

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robertskmiles
I'm almost certain that you cannot 3D print functioning LEGO bricks.
Considering they're plastic, those things are manufactured to extremely fine
tolerances.

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Isamu
Many repairs of the sort mentioned are probably better made with a mold-able
epoxy putty such as Sugru (<http://sugru.com>)

A 3d printer is killer for things like: a small, intricate, complicated
prototype that is easier to model with software than to sit down and carve,
make out of clay or paper.

In fact I don't know why I didn't think of this when my daughter proposed to
me a complicated jewelry piece that clearly would need a lot of moving pieces
and would be difficult to prototype in metal. 3d printing services FTW!

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vidoc
yet another article with a "<number> [best|top]" kind of title :)

