Ask Slashdot: For What Are You Using 3-D Printing? 266
An anonymous reader writes: I've been thinking about getting a 3-D printer for a while: the quality is rising, the software is better, STL files really do seem a sufficiently good standard ("sufficiently standard," that is — I'm not worried that printers are going to stop supporting it anytime soon), and prices have dropped quite a bit. Importantly to me, it also seems like less of a jumping-off-a-cliff decision, since I can get a completely assembled one from places as wild and crazy as ... the Home Depot (not that I plan to). However, even the stretchiest practical things I can think of to print can't truly actually justify the price, and that's OK — I hope not to require enough replacement knobs and chess pieces to necessarily *need* one, and playing around with it is the main likely upshot, which I'm OK with. But still, I'd like to hear what uses you have been putting your 3-D printer to, including printers that aren't yours but belong to a hackerspace, public library, eccentric neighbor, etc. What actually practical / useful tasks have you been using 3-D printing for, and with what printer technology? What playful purposes? It's OK if you just keep printing out those chess pieces and teapots, but I'm curious about less obvious reasons to have one around. (And I might just use the local Tech Shop's anyhow, but the question still applies.) If you've purchased a 3D printer, are you happy with the experience? If so, or if not, what kind did you get?
For What Are You Using 3D Printing For? (Score:3)
For what are you using 3D printing for?
At the moment, nothing. It has a use for some small, niche scenarios, but it doesn't do anything for most of us here, and I really wish we would stop seeing stories on it every other week.
Why isn't 2D printing ever talked about?
Re:For What Are You Using 3D Printing For? (Score:5, Interesting)
It has a use for some small, niche scenarios, but it doesn't do anything for most of us here, and I really wish we would stop seeing stories on it every other week.
With a 3D printer you could run a ~19th century machine shop from your own home. You don't use the 3D printed model. You use it to check fit up and then to turn it into molds.
You can melt iron with used motor oil even charcoal. Sand casting is still used almost everywhere for cast iron.
Give me a 3D printer big enough and I'll build you a tractor. Engine and all.
Re: (Score:3)
In your home?
At home some of us have garages, shops, driveways. If you can grill meat you can smelt iron.
No one is telling you to do this in your kids bedroom.
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I make 2D (graphene based) devices all the time...
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your comment viewed on the screen is a fine example of 2-d printing. Granted it's not permanent printing, but 2-d printing nevertheless.
Replacing hard to find spare parts. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're working in advertisement/merchandise production... you can make small prototype samples of what you want to have mass produced, this ensures that your oversea production don't get it wrong (and they always do, trust me!) Shipping a sample of what you want mass produced, is a dream come true, and fortunately for (me) most of my competitors have no clue that this can be done, so they still do it the old fashioned way (try to tell the production team with drawings and talk over the phone with a foreign team that hardly understands English).
Pictures say more than a 1000 words they say, well...a prototype object to hold in your hand says more than 1000 pictures.
3D printers are a godsend.
Re:Replacing hard to find spare parts. (Score:4, Insightful)
"They're quite useful if you know what you're doing."
So are oscilloscopes, doesn't mean everyone should rush out and buy one.
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Re:Replacing hard to find spare parts. (Score:5, Interesting)
And people don't explain what they want something to look like. They send a cad or other type of file that defines what they want, not some inaccurate poorly rendered result of a cad file.
Well, I've been working for YEARS in the merchandise/nick-nack/gift production industry and I know my competitors well, in fact...I got my job because everyone else does it the old fashioned way, and if there's something key accountants know...is the hardship of communicating their ideas to the production teams in e.g. China.
Cad files is what we have after visualizing a product anyway, but good luck sending that to the factory in China. Most often the factories and production facilities in China depend heavily old older software and huge machinery that can't even use our files. It's WAY better to send them a sample for them to copy, these people are EXPERTS at copying stuff.
Even little things like a logo on an USB stick, they will and can get wrong if they don't know exactly how it looks from all angles. You'd be amazed how often this happens.
Re:Replacing hard to find spare parts. (Score:4, Interesting)
Made brackets for the power-supply to my CNC mill so that it conveniently hangs off the side of the workbench but can be quickly removed for transport.
In same workshop, a cheap 8-port switch I bought for it turned out to not have wall-mount keystone holes. So made some clips which screw into the side of the bench and hook into the vent slots of the switch to brace it.
The most useful things for it tend to be the most pedestrian. Though my other use is for enclosures for custom electronics projects, which is also extremely useful.
Re:Replacing hard to find spare parts. (Score:4, Informative)
Sure, 3D printing isn't yet for everyone, and yes - it does take both knowledge and experience. One of those things are of course 3D modelling experience, the better 3D modeller you are...the better your results will be, and of course the faster you'll get it done.
Another thing you need to be somewhat experienced at, is how to model things FOR a 3D printer, this is because if you just "print" without any planning, you're most likely to end up with having to experiment so much that you'll make 10s of misprints, costing you a small fortune in ABS plastic.
You also need to know to remove bugs in your model, all STL files must be properly CLEANED before converted to an STL file. This means you need to understand how to make clean models, remove double vertices, double faces, edges etc. You also need to understand where to apply support for the various parts, most printers can't really print into thin air...so you need to model some temporary holders/molds that holds the printed object in place while printing. You also need to consider how to clean up the final model, most cheaper printers will leave some ugly looking stripes (due to the printing process), which you need to sand down later, if you have too many details, it'll make it pretty though to clean up later on.
The design process time depends entirely on the object complexity at hand. For example, a small cover for a battery can take as little as 1 hour to design (I'd probably do it in less than 10 minutes), but the printing process itself takes a lot longer. If you where to make a complex cogwheel construction, that could take hours to days. Nevermind a beautiful detailed statue that could take weeks. But hey, good art doesn't grow on trees, and this is up to each individual to master.
Yes, 3D printing isn't for everyone, but then again... that also makes it worth something to those who are willing to put the time and effort into the learning process. If it was for everyone, there'd be no business for people like me, but sure - 3D printing will improve tremendously over time, so please keep buying those printers!
Mostly replacement parts (Score:4, Interesting)
It's nice to quickly be able do design and print replacements for stuff I happen to break without having to visit a store and adhere to opening hours. A selection of stuff I've printed that have actually been useful: Oscilloscope foot, fire alarm ceiling mount, a new and better 3d printer + a bunch of improvements to it, spacer for the kitchen sink, sprint sled, microphone mounts, electronics boxes, speaker stands, a block to keep the kitchen drain pipe at a good angle and parts for an old and broken curtain system that are no longer manifactured or available anywhere.
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Fix your drain pipe for your sink properly and stop breaking shit.
Projects (Score:3, Interesting)
My 2 main projects I was planning to do with my 3d printer was make my own variant of the inMoov robotics project and also using PLA prints as a "lost wax" mold in aluminium casting (they would eventually fold into the one project after initial prototyping). However, I have an Ultimaker 1 and it is very unreliable so I haven't got very far. I am thinking about ditching it for a Flashforge Creator Pro but I'm waiting for the USD/AUD exchange rate to be more favourable to me.
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I've used some printers at a makerspace, including an Ultimaker2 (which crapped out 12.5hrs into a 13 hr print). Also an Orion which was fine, and then there are a bunch at the place that I didn't use because there was always something wrong with them.
Anyway, I recently got a printer and I was thinking of either the Flashforge or a Lulzbot Mini. The Mini has fewer features, but I swear, it's a "print out of the box" experience. It does a self-leveling routine that works great, the heated PEI surface grip
Cost effective for small things, or prototypes (Score:4, Interesting)
Making stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, the things that I tend to do most often is make my own tools for fairly specific tasks. One of my greatest eureka moments was when I realised that I can 3D print my own tool to open a watch case. It took a few iterations (plastic after all is weak), but I finally hit on something that's reliable enough, and it won't scratch the watch case. This was all because I took it in some years ago for a battery change, and the person kind of made a mess of trying to open it, they bent a strap pin, put tears in the leather strap, and scratched the case back. Fortunately it was my cheap daily watch, but still, I got paranoid after that, and had no intention of going to that person again. Now, I save a few dollars by buying my own batteries, and they're good brand ones too, and use a plastic tool to open the watch. No chance of marking it.
The point isn't so much that 3D printing is awesome, but it's really great when you realise that with this tool (3D printer that is) I can do things which I previously would never do. I'd never consider making a tool before unless it could be made with sheet metal and a hammer and file, and in some ways, the tool I made is better than one I could buy.
I don't have a 3d printer (Score:3)
If I had a 3d printer I'd custom design an Arduino case. I want to make one that looks like a tricorder, complete with slots for LEDs etc.
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If I had a 3D Printer,
I'd be 3D printin' in the morning,
I'd be 3D printing' in the evening,
all over this land...
Sorry. It just came to me. Now that I think of it...
If I had a 3D printer, some son-of-a-bitch would die... [youtube.com]
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Various whatsits (Score:5, Interesting)
I carry around a pipe caliper that I designed and 3D printed. A scissor-looking device that tells you the size of a pipe (up to 4") based on outside diameter. Useful on the job.
I designed and printed a custom flashlight holder for those cheap LED flashlights.
Custom replacement handle for a triangular file
Set of custom drawer knobs.
Custom hard drive mounting bracket.
Custom battery holder.
Custom shelf bracket.
~Three dozen clothespins.
3-axis tilt camera stand that mounts on top of a tripod. (replaces one that broke).
Custom 80:1 worm gear reduction for a machine I was working on, as well as a few spur gears and light-duty V-belt pulleys for same machine. Custom thrust bearing and ball bearing holders.
A full set of Meta-Chess [thingiverse.com] pieces.
A custom tool for aligning V-belt pulleys using a 3V line laser module and magnetic base.
Currently in progress is a mostly 3D printed racing wheel controller for my PC, which uses the guts from a dual analog game controller. The controller is unusable because the silicone pads for the buttons cracked, but the electronics are still good and with 4x analog axes I can get steering and three pedals plus 16 digital buttons. My hangup is I can't get the "feel" of the buttons right...
If I ever get off my ass and finish building the electric furnace I've been working on, and manage to melt some aluminum with it, I fully intend to try lost-PLA casting some aluminum parts. That's be awesome...
=Smidge=
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some cool things you've been making :) especially that racing steering wheel for pc :)
There are many websites devoted to answering that (Score:2)
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Or you could also combine 3D printing and knitting. [knitic.com]
Parts for physics experiments. (Score:3, Interesting)
I use shapeways stainless steel 3D printing to make parts for physics experiments. It's only useful when the parts are small and can have sloppy tolerances. But in these cases it saves a fortune. I recently had a dozen small parts made for $200 that would have cost $1000 made by conventional machining. You can make screw threads (1/4 - 20 and larger; 10-24 might work) by printing the thread and then chasing the printed thread with a die or tap before use.
Interested in 3D printer for music (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Interested in 3D printer for music (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, this is an excellent idea for a very limited, very niche application.
As a physicist and a (very out of practice) trombone player, this is a niche I can get behind!
If you don't have designs already (or they're just along the lines of "what if..."), you should definitely find someone who knows something about acoustics to collaborate with. That's the kind of thing I would have done for fun in grad school.
For 3D printing, you may want to find someone who can help you out commercially. I used the UPS store for some very high resolution prototype parts for a medical device. I can't speak for all the UPS stores, but the one I went to had a guy who was very experienced with 3D printing. He did some minor tweaking of my files (I generally design for CNC, evidently designing for 3D printing is a little different). He also knew all the high-end 3D printing services in town, and was able to contract with one of them when his in-store printer was insufficient for what I needed.
In my case, I wanted to get my parts made, I didn't want a hands-on tutorial about 3D printing. So this all worked very well.
Everything but Learn CAD (Score:3)
A 3D printer is great for people who know CAD. I love my little Afinia. Sure, I have printed out my fair share of toys and models. But where it comes in handy is when I need something very specific to solve a problem both at home and work.
For instance, I bought my grandma a weather station for her birthday. However, there was no place to mount some of the sensors. After about a half-hour of design work and about 45 minutes printing time, I had some quick plates that I could glue to the shed and screw to the fence posts to mount the temperature and wind sensors. Sure, I might have went to the hardware store and looked for a solution, but that would have taken much longer than the hour and 15 minutes it took me to design and print something.
Simply put, if you know CAD or are willing to learn, 3D printers are great. If you are only going to print what other people have made, don't bother. After the toys and other tat, you will lose interest and probably feel like you wasted your money.
A/C Louvers (Score:2)
Use for 3D printing (Score:4, Interesting)
Custom Model Rockets
Movie Props (Make your own light saber) [youtu.be]
Prototypes
Inventions
Robot Parts (FIRST Robotics)
Phone Cases (with gears)
Thingiverse [thingiverse.com]
Custom connectors for Legos [thingiverse.com]
The biggest questions you have to answer are 1) what material do you want to use, and 2) what the max size of your part? Personally, I like ABS. It is flexible and more forgiving and assembles easily with acetone. My favorite lowend 3D printer is the Makerbot 2X, however you won't get an iron man costume out if it with the 6x9x12 build volume. However, with a few mods you can print, ABS, Ninjaflex, and even PLA.
The Ultimaker 2 is a great printer for PLA, nice resolution, however it uses 3mm filament which is not as common as at the 1.7mm that most of the other printers use.
My lease favorite low end 3D printer is the Makerbot Z18.
It's all good fun, go for it!
I've no use for one (Score:2)
While I find the technology interesting, I've never thought of a single thing I'd want to use one to manufacture or build. I am completely bereft of ideas for things I need (other than a new computer.)
Life is ever so much less stressful when you don't have a long list of "needs". :D
small wind turbine (Score:2)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rmrdtech/a-small-wind-turbine-for-a-big-difference/description [kickstarter.com]
Made possible by 3D printing. Kickstarter only has 10 hours to go.
Nothing important or expected to last (Score:2)
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no wonder your prints are not lasting, you are using PLA :)
Also, even ABS is best printed with strong cooling at around 280C+
Very strong layer bonding, less warping. Those parts last better too.
I 3D print things quite often (Score:5, Interesting)
The things that I print range pretty widely:
- 3D printed prosthetics for people. See http://www.enablingthefuture.o... [enablingthefuture.org] . Yes, home printers can make prosthetics that hold up to real world use, and for a lot of people (particularly kids and uninsured) the difference between $50 and $5,000 is insurmountable. Of course you should work with a professional if you can, for obvious reasons, but they're getting into 3d printed prosthetics.
- Parts that you can't buy. For example, a clip in my dishwasher broke, and the manufacturer only wanted to sell the whole drawer assembly for $400. So I printed my own, which have lasted for years. (Nylon)
- And parts that you can buy, but it's more fun (or cheaper) to make your own. Like a replacement watch band for the Pebble.
- Scans. I have a portable scanner (structure.io) and I scan people at Maker Faires and F&SF Conventions. Fun to share and print.
- Art. I like designing things and printing them because they look cool. And there's tons of great art to download.
- Personalized/unique stuff. I've published tons of designs using Thingiverse Customizer, that let you personalize or randomly generate a unique pen, your wallet, minions, snowflakes, etc.
That being said, I don't think 3d printing is quite at the level to be ready for people with no technical or artistic interest, because there's little for those people to do with a 3d printer. They can download and print other people's designs, but I'd think they'd get bored of that after a while. Designing your own stuff is a lot more fun!
Wide and varied things I have printed: (Score:2)
- A new indexing pin for the adjustment of a 15 year old discontinued coffee grinder. Part no longer available.
- Custom cases for my electronics projects.
- A focusing mask for my telescope.
- A Dremel routing accessory on a Sunday when all the shops were closed and when I didn't feel like forking out $60 for 1 part needed for 1 job.
- A new mounting bracket to allow me to mount a gimbal upside down.
- A hose adapter allowing me to attach a different vacuum hose to a vacuum cleaner.
If you have to ask... you probably don't need one. (Score:2)
Simpler & cheaper to use someone else's (Score:2)
For What Are You Using 3-D Printing? (Score:2)
For drone parts of course!
They're not for you. (Score:2)
They're for your kids. I'm shocked at the number of Slashdotters that are talking about 3D printers like this.
Our local library bought one through Grand money and there are kids in there every week trying to learn to use it. MakerBot and Thing Verse work really well together.
It's how I learned how to Program. First I copied someone's program. Then I modified someone's program. Then I wrote my own programs. Kids are printing things out. Some get bored with it, some spend a lot of time with it. Guys are maki
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"Grand" money? What's that?
Typo, Grant money.
What nonsense. 15 years ago was the year 2000. Has human genetics changed? Have computers changed so much?
What does anything have to do with genetics? And computers have changed. You don't need a multi-thousand dollar AutoCAD or CATIA license to do modeling.
Why do you post such utter nonsense?
Why do you post as AC?
It's hard to know til you have it (Score:2)
A lot of the stuff I've used it for are things I didn't plan on using it for, i.e. it's not until it's an option that you start to find some uses for it. Anyway, I'm not a very good 3d modeler but I've used my printer for:
- a custom laptop stand
- replacement knobs for washer, dryer, etc. (not sure why so many broke off, but kinda cool to print replacements)
- mods for my kids' toys (e.g. an equipment connector for Nerf guns)
- wall mount for a quadcopter so I could get it off my desk
- computer speaker mounts
-
Parts for a 3D printer (Score:2)
Depends (Score:2)
Decades ago I paid 12.000$ for a Postscript Laserprinter and a bit later almost 1500$ for the first color Deskjet HP500C, because I _needed_ them.
According to your question, you don't _need_ a 3d printer, you just _want_ one and you have money and time to burn.
a lot of small things (Score:2)
cases (avr-dragon, beaglebone)
replacement parts (e.g. knobs for scope, handle for a valve, dust cover for a bicycle pedal ...)
coil spools
holder type things (e.g. PSU holder, HDD holder, CPU water cooler holder, ...)
toys for kids (e.g. a planetary gear assembly to teach them how it works)
improvement parts for the 3d printer itself
prototyping stuff (e.g. usable ergonomic contoured keyboard case [deskthority.net])
prototyping for devices in magnetic fields (Score:3)
Re:plastic is for junk (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a trained CNC machinist with a 3D printer and I think your attitude is stereo-typically ignorant. Same type of argument usually made by people who drive pickups with a perfect paint job and refuse to buy tools from harbor freight.
Most of the idle crap people want from life can be accomplished with ABS plastic filament. This is true at least for anyone who doesn't work with their hands.
The home inventor personality is usually obsessed with achieving marginal improvements in efficiency which are typically too niche to already have products in existence solving the problem. Sword-chucks and triangle shovels are just a special type of arrogance from people who like to blame their deficiencies on the lack of their poorly thought through silver bullet solution.
If you have to sweat and bleed to get your pipe-dream produced in Aluminum or Steel, people will normally change their "only a carbon-fiber spork will do" attitude when differentiating themselves as having an "eye-for-quality"(aka ham fisted over-engineered for the situation's merits) becomes too costly.
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you're funny, with its 105 degree C transition temperature ABS can't even be safely used for a stove knob or a light fixture or under the hood of a car.
Makes great yoda heads though, or other toy models
Re:plastic is for junk (Score:4, Insightful)
Most stuff people interact with don't get 105 degrees C though. If you needed to make an enclosure for something or fix a piece of existing ABS/PLA plastic that broke, that's what you use a 3D printer for. You can also make prototypes for objects that you then send to a commercial printer, laser cutting facility or CNC mill to get created in the appropriate material.
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You can just give the prototyping shop a file, don't need to make a plastic model.
As for making enclosure for abs plastic thing that broke, that's largely nonsense. The cost comparison for just ordering normal molded replacement vs. the time to CMM out and print a thing is enormous. Try making even a "skin" for your cell phone and get back to me.
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and they are researching into making 3d printing CHEAPER than injection molding, and they are already getting pretty darn close!
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and they are researching into making 3d printing CHEAPER than injection molding, and they are already getting pretty darn close!
That will never happen for any kind of quantity because of the time required to melt and freeze (or UV activate or whatever other technology) the printed part. It's easy to get an injection molder to produce 1000 parts/hour. This is the point: 3D printing is great if you need a small run of a unique shape, or if you can't adopt a commodity shape. Or if the shape you want is no longer being manufactured. That mostly means toys, art, and legacy repairs. If you're doing anything "real," meaning 1,000 or 1
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Etching a PCB (well, actually, letting somebody like expresspcb do it) instead of testing a circuit on a breadboard first is something I do all the time.
If you're ready to accept a breadboard, that means you're willing to accept one or two for a start, and they don't have to be pretty, which means that
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Fine if you're a commercial site and your client knows your job will take 2-3 weeks and cost a few thousand. If you're just looking for a quick fix, there is no 1-day PCB turnaround under $100. If all you need is 1 print and you're a hobbyist or need something one-off, that is unacceptable.
Even for most commercial one-off jobs this is unacceptable and a big reason we all get our parts from China and waste massive amounts of energy on building COTS systems instead of having everything precision-customized lo
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Eh, did just that and could "fix" small errors in prototypes the olde fashoined way, cutting and patching and grinding etc.
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"don't get 105 degrees C"
Yes, but unfortunately most materials don't go straight from solid to liquid. Think chocolate, at 75F it usually is perfectly solid, at 85F you might get a little on your hand but not bad and at 95F it may hold its shape but will practically fall apart in your hand. ABS plastic is probably similar. Sure it may turn to liquid a 220F and be pretty solid at 90F, it may be seem pretty decent at 110F-130F sitting on a shelf but it could be wearing pretty quickly if being stressed beca
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You're screwing up Fahrenheit and Celsius here. 105 Celsius is before the plastic becomes slightly malleable and that is a little over the boiling point of water. So if you regularly handle steam without serious burning, let me know. Actually melting the stuff as it happens in the printer happens at ~200-250C.
Sure, you wouldn't be using it for friction pieces or things that are exposed to extremities, but for most of the objects in our environment we interact with, it's perfectly fine.
Re:plastic is for junk (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you ever had a LEGO brick turn squishy on you? Because that's what they're made of, ABS plastic.
It's a plenty tough enough material that I used it to manufacture parts for a geodesic dome for outdoor use as a greenhouse, and it held up fine. I also manufactured gears for a friends high end RC car after the manufacturer had gone out of business. Those gears see a lot of stress, and they held up fine.
ABS is a great material, and so is PLA.
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lol. Quite to the contrary.
True - ABS has limited heat cycles, and lowish glass transition temperature, but it's not immediately liquid @ 105C.
I've been using velocity stacks made from ABS on a race car for almost a year now - no issues what-so-ever, even tho it's the cheapest kind of ABS and isn't chemical resistant. They work brilliantly.
Nylon parts i've been using as well, harder to print due to the prep tho, but from Nylon which has even lower glass transition temperature car manufacturers make intake m
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true not immediately liquid, it doesn't have a true melting point but goes more and more to jelly.
well we can talk about nylon intake manifolds, Ford made them for quite a few years but customers found they'd crack. So Ford replaced them with one that had aluminum in a few strategic places. cost reduced crap, that's what our civilization is all about.
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Your stove knobs get to 105C? You should have that looked at.
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if you have a self cleaning oven, it gets really freaking hot. I don't doubt that the internal metal parts (like the metal shaft that touches the plastic knob) can get up to 105 C.
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Who cares? I want my plastic to melt at 105C. I want it to melt at just above room temperature.
I can make molds. Anything I can think up to print I can turn into a mold for metal. With a furnace and some wax I can cast iron.
9L+ diesel engines are still cast. If your bed as large enough you could 3D print yourself a small 2 stroke engine, check for fitup and then build yourself an entire engine from scratch.
"Die Cast" used to be a marker of quality. With a 3D printer at home you can make anything the average
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A lot of stuff under the hood of any car from the last 3 decades is made from ABS.
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Bad news - look under the hood of your car sometimes. Quite a few components have the ABS recycling number on them.
=Smidge=
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I'm a trained CNC machinist with a 3D printer and I think your attitude is stereo-typically ignorant.
Funny all the trained CNC machinists with 3D printers are all anonymous. The non-anonymous ones readily admit that if a thing you want is all of cheap, fragile and made of cheap plastic then a home 3D printer would suit you just fine, otherwise get a cheapie mill or lathe, or pay 10-20 times that amount for a decent 3D printer.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Actual machinist doing some destruction testing on a 3D printed part. $2200 printer is not "10-20 times" the cost of a cheap mill either.
=Smidge=
Re:plastic is for junk (Score:5, Interesting)
So, you see your truck as more of a "lifestyle" purchase than a utilitarian one? I'm genuinely curious, because I see a lot of people with big shiny pickups with cargo beds that have never been exposed to the elements, much less scratched by having something placed in them. Their towing hitches are perfectly chromed and have obviously never seen anything like a trailer.
I see some of them commuting into downtown Chicago for their jobs in the financial district and wonder what went into their decisions to purchase such vehicles.
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Where I grew up, it was the same but the dick contest was with off road vehicles. The biggest, shiniest off road vehicle they could afford with the largest tires. They never went off road, but that wasn't the point.
SOME guys went off road - but their trucks looked like they had rolled over (and they had).
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Where I grew up, we had our dick contests using our dicks. And let me tell you, that river's not only cold, but it's deep, too.
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SOME guys went off road - but their trucks looked like they had rolled over (and they had).
Ironically, most of the off-road enthusiasts I know preferred older vehicles because of that reason. A new vehicle getting rolled is a tragedy, while some old truck/jeep rolling is no big deal. And roll overs are a way of life in off-roading (hence why they have roll bars). So it doesn't make much sense to buy a brand new shiny jeep if it might get rolled on it's first outing, it is a better idea to buy an old beat up jeep and build from there.
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that's not the reason to buy an old Land Rover over a new one. The reason is the build.
The new LR (the "Sport") has racing rims and tyres thinner than your thumb. Try taking that offroad, you'll tear the tyres to shit in about three seconds.
The new LR has dropped suspension and skirts that make it grip flat road. Try taking that offroad and you'll break the shocks and tear the skirts off before you get ten feet.
The new LR has a high mounted tank and a similarly mounted engine, which brings the centre of gra
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(if you want to see what an old LR can do that a Sport can't, check out what Richard Hammond did with an old one - used its winch to stop it sliding and used the engine power and tyre grip to haul up the VERTICAL face of a dam! The winch can't do that on its own, anyone who uses a vehicle winch'll tell you that something rated for half a ton can't lift one and three quarter tons, winching a vehicle still very much depends on the drive axle finding a grip. The Sport went up unmanned and basically... well, fa
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Exactly my point: real off-roaders build for practicality, posers build for looks.
Re:plastic is for junk (Score:4, Insightful)
I see some of them commuting into downtown Chicago for their jobs in the financial district and wonder what went into their decisions to purchase such vehicles.
Conspicuous consumption [wikipedia.org] mostly, with a hint of posering. They see that ranchers and cowboys are seen as manly, and want to be seen as manly too. So they buy a truck, which is what cowboys and ranchers drive. And of course only the latest and most bad ass will do, so it gets the full treatment: Lift kit, over-sized tires, brushguard, fog lamps, the whole works. Of course they will never use even a quarter of the features they bought, but that doesn't matter cause it is all about appearances.
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And some pedestrian-pounder bars at the front.
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All hat and no cattle...
Yup, pretty much.
"Like the look" (Score:2)
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Anyone who deems any kind of material unsuitable, not useful, or junk without knowing the intended application is quite frankly extremely ignorant. Plastic has it's uses, just like various woods, or metals.
Also what plastic things are you making out of wood? Are you suggesting molding? You do realise that each manufacturer technique has it's benefits and drawback too right, or are you ignorant about that too?
at our biotech com pany (Score:2, Interesting)
where we get parts from engineers, so they cost something, most our parts (ymmv) are cnc out of acrylic with a Tomach machine
occaisionally it is cheaper to make things from the 3D printer
however, most of our parts require some smooth surfaces, and the CNC works better for us
Re:make-your-own-dildo (Score:5, Informative)
They have had kits that do not require a 3d printer for that for a long time now. There are a few different companies offering it. Here are a couple that I know of.
http://www.willykit.com/ [willykit.com]
http://www.createamate.com/ [createamate.com]
And I there there is a clone a willy kit somewhere but cannot remember the URL for it. All of these options are much cheaper than a 3d printer and you can put vibrators in them as well as glow in the dark colors and even lights. Lots of fun- just don't make a bunch of them and hand them out in the secret Santa at work next year. Trust me, it's not as fun or funny as you might think.
Re:make-your-own-dildo (Score:5, Funny)
They have had kits that do not require a 3d printer for that for a long time now. There are a few different companies offering it. Here are a couple that I know of.
http://www.willykit.com/ [willykit.com]
http://www.createamate.com/ [createamate.com]
And I there there is a clone a willy kit somewhere but cannot remember the URL for it. All of these options are much cheaper than a 3d printer and you can put vibrators in them as well as glow in the dark colors and even lights. Lots of fun- just don't make a bunch of them and hand them out in the secret Santa at work next year. Trust me, it's not as fun or funny as you might think.
It's....interesting how...well informed you are in the matter
Re:make-your-own-dildo (Score:5, Funny)
I guess he's been told to go fuck himself too many times.
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There is a printed mini cnc called the "cyclone" designed for producing isolation routed pcbs.
http://www.cyclonecnc.4fan.cz/ [4fan.cz]
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But 3D printers are more useful for making enclosures to said circuit boards, not for fabbing them.
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OSH Park. Why even bother with the decades-old milling and/or toner transfer method? I get plated vias, soldermask and silkscreen.
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I second OSH Park. [oshpark.com]
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Are you on the correct site?
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Why not print something you can use?
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Why can't he use them? Does he not have any high ranking federal government officials within reasonable traveling distances? :)
Strat
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No, it's because a 3D printed gun is not anywhere near as good as a gun made by a gunsmith. I guess if he has a need for a gun that will pass a metal detector or something (though a 3D printed gun probably wouldn't) then I guess he would find some actual use for one, but 3D guns are still not practical. If you want to shoot reliably, would you choose a 3D printed gun over somethin
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No, it's because a 3D printed gun is not anywhere near as good as a gun made by a gunsmith.
Not really so true anymore, currently it's the price per copy.
http://3dprint.com/21109/3d-pr... [3dprint.com]
But as 3D metal printing technology advances (and it won't be long, as it was only a handful of months ago that all there was out there was the Liberator plastic single-shot and now there's metal 1911-style semi-auto pistols being produced.), expect the cost/time required to drop dramatically and for quality to keep pace.
Can you think of a legitimate application for which a 3D-printed gun would be superior to a weapon made by a real gunsmith?
"Superior"? Probably not for a little while yet, but at the same time it will not be long at t
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I have made practical, durable, every day objects. :D Yes, i actually race it, and have used those parts for a year now and they are holding up just fine and the car is rather quick actually, thanks for asking.
From small things like keychains to maxing out the envelope of a usual 3d printer. Hell, i even have 3d printed parts under the hood of my race car
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aren't some of the Formula E components 3-D printed? I'm thinking coachwork more than engines, but whatever...
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What do you mean, "once the resolution gets better"?
Do you still think that all 3D printers use FDM? [wikipedia.org]
Search "photopolymer 3d printer", there's already a lot of models.
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Roomba accessories? WTF are you doing with your vacuum cleaner?
Roombas break in certain, specific ways. For example, the (outer case of the) gear box often develops cracks. I'd like to be able to print out a new cover, because that's the only thing broken right now. Getting it replaced involves buying a complete swiper assembly, $100-150 or so.
Great thing about the Roomba is that these problems are well-known. I've been keeping mine running 7-8 years, replacing infrared LEDs, ball bearings and probably the outer gear box this year.