That struggle is so real... Although, once you start to learn paremetric modeling, you stop having as much plastic waste around and a whole bunch of slightly different prototypes of a desk organizer or toilet roll holder that result from not measuring properly the first time.
That's ok, it will still come out wrong because of some issue that you never thought of.
This is why people share their models so freely online. It's not pride in what they've accomplished. It's because they've just spent 3 weeks and $60 in plastic to finally "correctly" print something that cost the original manufacturer $0.15 to print and would have worked perfectly if they had just stopped cutting corners when they got to $0.17, but saving that extra $0.02 per item made sure that it was definitely going to fail.
And by sharing it you pass the curse onto others and enable yourself to finally produce a print that is still totally fucked but just good enough that you are willing to call it done and start the cycle over with something else.
It’s because they’ve just spent 3 weeks and $60 in plastic to finally “correctly” print something that cost the original manufacturer $0.15 to print
Sure, but that's because the manufacturing is working in bulk while the hobbyist is doing a one-off. The original modeling likely cost a comparable amount. It was just amortized out over the production life. And there are plenty of instances in which the $.15/unit manufacturing just doesn't have the thing you're looking to make, because it is some kind of artistic eccentricity rather than a standardized widget.
The thing I see 3D printers used most commonly for are TTRPG models. And at that scale, it really doesn't hurt to just print off a two-headed Owl Bear with a scorpion tail, rather than hunt around on the secondary market for the weird thing you're looking for. Even the specialty D&D printing services aren't going to come in much less than $60 for that sort of thing.
I measure 3 times and still need to print at least 3 times to get something right.
I'm working on an outdoor hose grommet that's a custom fit to my house. I measured with calipers. I also took paper, traced the fixture and marked the holes before modeling and 3d printing.
I have a desk full of badly fitting prototypes. -or just bad because I forgot to set a print setting in the slicer.
I found my dad's old calipers and the inside of the case had disintegrated. I wanted to print a new inside mold for the caliper case. But that meant taking measurements of the calipers. So I bought new calipers to measure the old calipers.
It was actually very low effort! There are a number of image to STL converters. I used this one: https://imagetostl.com/
Like you can see it'll flub some stuff. I would have been better off filling in the areas of text and doing the emboss manually myself, but I just wanted to hit print. 2% infill, I think it was like 2.5g of filament and 20mins.
It's fun to screw around with that process. I'm tweaking one of my friends cabin to use to make a mold. My goal is cast concrete or something similar so I can pound some thin copper around it, and be left with a cool wall decoration.
Same. Started printing a few weeks ago (well, I initially did 13 years ago, but that's another story), and I'm currently working down a long list of issues that I solve with a printer.
After a while I can slowly refocus my printing towards a pet project that has been in the planning stage for 20 years.
Me 5 years after buying a 3D printer: been working on CAD'ing that one project for well over a year with probably about as much time left before it's ready for its first prototype.
(And that doesn't include all the time I was distracted with other projects, many of which were not 3D-printing related at all.)
I'll dust my printer off when it's time for that first prototype.
It just has a steep learning curve. Since the 1.0 release though I've had few problems with it. Nice addons and only freezes up for long periods when you are importing a massive mesh so far. I've gotten pretty good at taking one color stl files and converting them to multi color/extruder.
Recently just started my 3d printer back up. Had 2 full spools still in the box, opened it and just started breaking. The filament just explodes when it gets old.
Had to buy a brand new spool of filament for a $0.20 part.
And it has no automatic bed leveling, so it took like 6 attempts to get it flat enough.
53 Comments
Tenthrow@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 316d
That struggle is so real... Although, once you start to learn paremetric modeling, you stop having as much plastic waste around and a whole bunch of slightly different prototypes of a desk organizer or toilet roll holder that result from not measuring properly the first time.
Ediacarium@feddit.org · 24 pts · 316d
In my case it's a lot of 3d models and no prints
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 316d
Printing takes forever and I need to get it exactly right on the first go, so I'm just going to noodle on the diagram for another 40 hours.
Test_Tickles@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 315d
That's ok, it will still come out wrong because of some issue that you never thought of.
This is why people share their models so freely online. It's not pride in what they've accomplished. It's because they've just spent 3 weeks and $60 in plastic to finally "correctly" print something that cost the original manufacturer $0.15 to print and would have worked perfectly if they had just stopped cutting corners when they got to $0.17, but saving that extra $0.02 per item made sure that it was definitely going to fail.
And by sharing it you pass the curse onto others and enable yourself to finally produce a print that is still totally fucked but just good enough that you are willing to call it done and start the cycle over with something else.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 315d
Sure, but that's because the manufacturing is working in bulk while the hobbyist is doing a one-off. The original modeling likely cost a comparable amount. It was just amortized out over the production life. And there are plenty of instances in which the $.15/unit manufacturing just doesn't have the thing you're looking to make, because it is some kind of artistic eccentricity rather than a standardized widget.
The thing I see 3D printers used most commonly for are TTRPG models. And at that scale, it really doesn't hurt to just print off a two-headed Owl Bear with a scorpion tail, rather than hunt around on the secondary market for the weird thing you're looking for. Even the specialty D&D printing services aren't going to come in much less than $60 for that sort of thing.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 316d
I measure 3 times and still need to print at least 3 times to get something right.
I'm working on an outdoor hose grommet that's a custom fit to my house. I measured with calipers. I also took paper, traced the fixture and marked the holes before modeling and 3d printing.
I have a desk full of badly fitting prototypes. -or just bad because I forgot to set a print setting in the slicer.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 316d
I need to print something to repair my garage door rail. I have no idea how to get started on measuring that.
That's okay, though. I also need to fix my 3d printer before I can get started on the other project.
ignotum@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 316d
That's easy, just get a second 3d printer to print parts to fix the 3d printer
KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 316d
I suspect more than a few of us are feeling called out with this comment.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 316d
Most likely it's ... All of us.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 316d
I found my dad's old calipers and the inside of the case had disintegrated. I wanted to print a new inside mold for the caliper case. But that meant taking measurements of the calipers. So I bought new calipers to measure the old calipers.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 316d
I'm prepared to be friends based on this anecdote.
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 56 pts · 316d
“RANDOM BULLSHIT PRINT!”
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 316d
You miss all of the bullshit you don't print
~ Wayne "Not the one you're thinking of" Gretsky
batmaniam@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 315d
You don't know me. Everything I've ever printed was critical.
dingus@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 314d
Now this is dedication to the meme
batmaniam@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 314d
dingus@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 314d
Will you marry me
hakunawazo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 315d
Wow, you put real effort in that. Do you need to separate paths for that or can you 3D print any random image?
batmaniam@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 315d
It was actually very low effort! There are a number of image to STL converters. I used this one: https://imagetostl.com/
Like you can see it'll flub some stuff. I would have been better off filling in the areas of text and doing the emboss manually myself, but I just wanted to hit print. 2% infill, I think it was like 2.5g of filament and 20mins.
It's fun to screw around with that process. I'm tweaking one of my friends cabin to use to make a mold. My goal is cast concrete or something similar so I can pound some thin copper around it, and be left with a cool wall decoration.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 315d
I've pretty much settled on just printing flower pots and cute animals for my sister. Last one was this bulbapot
Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org · 4 pts · 315d
Nintendos
hitmenlawyers are on their way.PieMePlenty@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 315d
They're gonna have to get passed
Boogeneric ghost though...fishy@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 314d
They'd really love my "bowlbasaur" which is used to hold the bowl of my bong lol.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 314d
I have an Oddish pot I still need to get a plant for...
varyingExpertise@feddit.org · 25 pts · 316d
Yeah, well, learn using CAD and apply to house and job problems.
batmaniam@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 316d
Literally why I got mine. If you're losing motivation use 3d builder. Use blenders clay tug and pull function to make something hideous.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 316d
Same. Started printing a few weeks ago (well, I initially did 13 years ago, but that's another story), and I'm currently working down a long list of issues that I solve with a printer.
After a while I can slowly refocus my printing towards a pet project that has been in the planning stage for 20 years.
Honytawk@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 315d
I can recommend MatterControl instead of blender.
Blender has too many functions you don't need, so it has a steep learning curve.
Mattercontrol is literally drag and dropping shapes and cutting them out of each other. You can use prexisting stl files to do so.
edgemaster72@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 316d
Instructions unclear, health department was not impressed with 3D printed sandwiches
TootSweet@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 316d
Me 5 years after buying a 3D printer: been working on CAD'ing that one project for well over a year with probably about as much time left before it's ready for its first prototype.
(And that doesn't include all the time I was distracted with other projects, many of which were not 3D-printing related at all.)
I'll dust my printer off when it's time for that first prototype.
marcos@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 316d
Cover the printer up. Dust kills it.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 315d
Not cleaning them will do that.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 316d
Almost all my prints these days are ones I've created or modified in freecad.
pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 315d
Massive respect, freecad is the dark souls of 3d design
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 315d
It just has a steep learning curve. Since the 1.0 release though I've had few problems with it. Nice addons and only freezes up for long periods when you are importing a massive mesh so far. I've gotten pretty good at taking one color stl files and converting them to multi color/extruder.
gerryflap@feddit.nl · 7 pts · 315d
I recently got a photo printer and the experience is surprisingly similar
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 316d
I'm in this picture and I don't like it!
Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 315d
A person doesn't need so many benchies and effiel towers
5in1k@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 316d
I generally do functional prints or iterative prototyping. Friends and family like the tchotchkes though so I do print them from time to time.
hakunawazo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 315d
That was me in Skyrim hoarding Dwemer artifacts.
Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 314d
I should learn how to use FreeCAD (or OpenSCAD) but unfortunately, my printer cannot print motivation...
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 314d
FreeCAD is awful
Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 314d
I'll make sure to ask for a refund then.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 314d
point ..
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you
scottmeme@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 316d
Recently just started my 3d printer back up. Had 2 full spools still in the box, opened it and just started breaking. The filament just explodes when it gets old.
Had to buy a brand new spool of filament for a $0.20 part.
And it has no automatic bed leveling, so it took like 6 attempts to get it flat enough.
pupbiru@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 315d
have you tried drying it? filament gets wet when exposed to humid air for a while, and one of the noticeable effects is brittleness
if you’re going to store any filament, an air-tight container (cheapest is a vacuum bag) with some desiccant
scottmeme@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 315d
Was in a sealed bag with silica gel. Both spools did get heat cycles to over 100f a few times when the AC shit the bed... Multiple times.
outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 315d
Humidity.
rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 314d
Sounds like someone needs a recycling extruder
MissJinx@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 315d
Wait you qre printing stuff 2 weeks after getting a 3d printer?!! You yungsters have it so easy
In my time we had to build, then spend a whole spool just trying until we got something not horrible
fishy@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 314d
It's basically plug and play core xy printers now. You can grab a machine for under $200 and be printing within an hour of receiving it.
MissJinx@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 314d
oh the dream