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Things to Make with a 3D Printer

57 points by jheitzeb 13y ago

AlexMuir 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    ...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 13y ago
      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.
    - jheitzeb 13y ago
      So do you think you'll feel this way in a year? 2 years? 5 years?
    - jessriedel 13y ago
      It doesn't make sense to fold in the owner's time when the machine is printing on its own. The real cross over point is when it takes less time to find the part online (not trivial) and get the printer started than it does to drive to the store and find it (if it exists). Then, the cost of the owner's time cancels out. If you live outside a major urban zone, this driving and finding time can be substantial.
- pilgrim689 13y ago
  just yesterday I wanted to repair my phone but I needed a prying tool to pry some parts off of the chip. I could've just printed something like http://daydealx-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/images6/prytool.jpg http://daydealx-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/images6/prytool.j... A week ago, something broke in the toilet (the refill valve I think it's called... a long plastic tube that refills the tank after a flush). I could've just printed a new one. I also needed a screwdriver recently, and since domestic 3D printers will eventually be able to print metal just as easily as they can print plastics, I will be able to just print one. And these are just recent examples off the top of my head...
  - jackpirate 13y ago
    If you want to shape metal, you need a real cnc machine. "Printed" metal simply cannot have the right internal crystalline structure for a lot of tasks.
    - pilgrim689 13y ago
      Do you have a citation on that? That you cannot print metal? What about all the mentions of being able to print metals using various techniques on Wikipedia [1]? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Additive_processes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Additive_processes
      - nnnnni 13y ago
        You can indeed print metal using SLS methods, but it uses a powder. The weakness is in the binding agent...
    - F_J_H 13y ago
      Careful there...GE recently bought a company that is "printing" metal jet engine parts: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-manufacturing http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-m...
- blhack 13y ago
  There actually are 3d printed clock mechanism. Search 3D printed clock mechanism MIT media lab. I saw one there a couple of years ago while visiting a friend there.
- jessriedel 13y ago
  Your comment has a couple constructive points. Why the vitriol? It doesn't help the discussion, and it's really not appropriate on HN.
simonsarris 13y ago
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.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  It's partly a fixed cost versus variable cost argument. Once you have access to a 3D printer and learn how to use it, you can make (some) things much better and faster than you could by hand. Perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of crafting stuff with your own hands. That's great. Some people may get a similar pleasure from designing stuff onscreen and seeing it take form in their printer.
- mokkol 13y ago
  You can download products and print it without any experience. Quite powerful.
  - jlarocco 13y ago
    I just don't think people buy many items that are 3D printable. Using myself as an example, there's not a single thing in my Amazon purchase history that would be 3D printable. Even looking around my office for items which might be 3D printable (coffee mugs, drinking glasses, plates,...), I can't imagine it being more efficient or cost effective to 3D print them than simply ordering them off Amazon or running to the store. I think 3D printing is a great prototyping tool, and I'm sure it'll really speed up some manufacturing processes, but I have trouble seeing it as a break through with directly for consumers.
IgorPartola 13y ago
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.
vidoc 13y ago
yet another article with a "<number> [best|top]" kind of title :)
Isamu 13y ago
Many repairs of the sort mentioned are probably better made with a mold-able epoxy putty such as Sugru (http://sugru.com 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!
kyzyl 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
robertskmiles 13y ago
I'm almost certain that you cannot 3D print functioning LEGO bricks. Considering they're plastic, those things are manufactured to extremely fine tolerances.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

57 points by jheitzeb 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  ...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 13y ago
    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.
  - jheitzeb 13y ago
    So do you think you'll feel this way in a year? 2 years? 5 years?
  - jessriedel 13y ago
    It doesn't make sense to fold in the owner's time when the machine is printing on its own. The real cross over point is when it takes less time to find the part online (not trivial) and get the printer started than it does to drive to the store and find it (if it exists). Then, the cost of the owner's time cancels out. If you live outside a major urban zone, this driving and finding time can be substantial.
pilgrim689 13y ago
just yesterday I wanted to repair my phone but I needed a prying tool to pry some parts off of the chip. I could've just printed something like http://daydealx-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/images6/prytool.jpg http://daydealx-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/images6/prytool.j... A week ago, something broke in the toilet (the refill valve I think it's called... a long plastic tube that refills the tank after a flush). I could've just printed a new one. I also needed a screwdriver recently, and since domestic 3D printers will eventually be able to print metal just as easily as they can print plastics, I will be able to just print one. And these are just recent examples off the top of my head...
- jackpirate 13y ago
  If you want to shape metal, you need a real cnc machine. "Printed" metal simply cannot have the right internal crystalline structure for a lot of tasks.
  - pilgrim689 13y ago
    Do you have a citation on that? That you cannot print metal? What about all the mentions of being able to print metals using various techniques on Wikipedia [1]? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Additive_processes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Additive_processes
    - nnnnni 13y ago
      You can indeed print metal using SLS methods, but it uses a powder. The weakness is in the binding agent...
  - F_J_H 13y ago
    Careful there...GE recently bought a company that is "printing" metal jet engine parts: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-manufacturing http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-m...
blhack 13y ago
There actually are 3d printed clock mechanism. Search 3D printed clock mechanism MIT media lab. I saw one there a couple of years ago while visiting a friend there.
jessriedel 13y ago
Your comment has a couple constructive points. Why the vitriol? It doesn't help the discussion, and it's really not appropriate on HN.

simonsarris 13y ago

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.

auctiontheory 13y ago
It's partly a fixed cost versus variable cost argument. Once you have access to a 3D printer and learn how to use it, you can make (some) things much better and faster than you could by hand. Perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of crafting stuff with your own hands. That's great. Some people may get a similar pleasure from designing stuff onscreen and seeing it take form in their printer.
mokkol 13y ago
You can download products and print it without any experience. Quite powerful.
- jlarocco 13y ago
  I just don't think people buy many items that are 3D printable. Using myself as an example, there's not a single thing in my Amazon purchase history that would be 3D printable. Even looking around my office for items which might be 3D printable (coffee mugs, drinking glasses, plates,...), I can't imagine it being more efficient or cost effective to 3D print them than simply ordering them off Amazon or running to the store. I think 3D printing is a great prototyping tool, and I'm sure it'll really speed up some manufacturing processes, but I have trouble seeing it as a break through with directly for consumers.

IgorPartola 13y ago

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.

vidoc 13y ago

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

Isamu 13y ago

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

kyzyl 13y ago

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 13y ago
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.

robertskmiles 13y ago

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

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]