What are you 3D printing today?!?

Mike Labbe

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Today I am doing an 11 hour difficult print, that should be a flexible steam punk octopus by tonight after work.

OctoA.png


More pics to come...
 
Earlier this week, this was a one piece print. Nothing had to be assembled and it came off the printer exactly this way, complete with the printed "spring", release, and gears
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I printed some holiday ornaments this week, too, but be warned they are a bit vulgar. Click at your own risk :)

F2020.png
 
Nice. The same kind of product?

I did print about 1000 face mask ear guards and about a dozen face shield housings, but that was it for PPE. Grumble sponsor members received them customized for their shops, we give them out with our shop name to customers, and we donated a whole bunch of them to local nursing homes.
 
A family member and his wife quit their jobs (he is an engineer and she has an Ivy League law degree) because their 3D printing business making reptile accessories is going bonkers.
 
I see a lot of ads this week with "2020" 3d prints, such as the dumpster fire ornament. People are selling them for profit. It probably takes 14 hours each to print them, so it can't be too profitable - unless you have a room full of printers :)
 
Haha, yeah that’s exactly what those folks I mentioned have - a room full of printers, lol!
 
We only have two at home
 
A family member and his wife quit their jobs (he is an engineer and she has an Ivy League law degree) because their 3D printing business making reptile accessories is going bonkers.
Um. Reptile accessories? Do tell.
 
Mike, the machine is not suited for making PPE. The machine uses carbon fiber reinforced nylon or fiberglass reinforced nylon and other high strength materials. Pla, etc. is not viable in this machine.

I have 2 other machines that I can print PPE in pla or petg etc. One has a 400x400 mm bed and the other has two nozzles so I can use two spools of filament at a time.
 
It is called a Steampunk Octopus, and is pretty cool. The legs are all jointed and move like a chain.

It was a single print and nothing needed removal. It lifted right off the bed fully ready to go.

The spring loaded box I showed in a previous video was the same way, too.

Today I am at the frame shop, but the printer at home is printing a 2020 dumpster fire ornament. ha
 
Quit posting these disgusting prints........... I am so jealous. :( I want to fire all my pesky customers that keep ordering frames and keeping me from what I want to do; building my 3D printer. A pox on you all that are building stuff.

a-pox-upon-both-your-houses


3d-printers
 
15 Frames to build today if my back holds out. Eight down,packed and ready to ship; 7 to go. Now if I could 3d print the rest.
 
This may be helpful, too

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For my first print, I decided to do a recorder, the only reason being it was the first one on my memory stick, it has started off well (I think), I will go see tomorrow and get something else going.
 

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We have these on our design counter, and most customers take one or two.

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That dumpster fire ornament is my next one, I have the file ready to go :)
 
Do you mean your printing the parts to build a recorder (the musical instrument)?
I really like that idea.
Yes, it should be finished by now, but I have the printer at work so I won't know if it was successful until morning.
 
Haha. Do an image search for “reptile habitat accessories”.
 
Yesterday, we printed a cable chain guide to house the cables connected to the moving bed. Lots of pieces...
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I didn't finish installing it yet, but it will look like this:
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This is how flexible the Octopus print is:

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Today's print was an experiment, and something new. It exceeded my expectations!

I printed a 3d lithophane print, on to a holiday ornament, using white filament. The source was a real photo of my dog, Maddie. I put a holiday tree light inside, to back light it.

If anyone wants to play with this type of thing, you can generate them at: Image to Lithophane Generator https://lithophanemaker.com/ In my case, I took the "snow globe" ball design, tweaked the settings, and flipped the picture upside down. (to make it look like a tree ornament)

Mike
maddielitho.png
 
The obnoxiously rude cousin of Mr Octopus graced us overnight. Be warned, this f*ctopus is very vulgar!
fuctopus.png
 
The obnoxiously rude cousin of Mr Octopus graced us overnight. Be warned, this f*ctopus is very vulgar!
This F-topus is F-antastic! 🤣

I really am so so close to ordering a 3D printer myself.
Technical question...I notice some burrs and rough edges.
I assume this is usual, fresh off the bed.
What do you use to smooth them out?
Sandpaper? Small file? Another method?
 
This F-topus is F-antastic! 🤣

I really am so so close to ordering a 3D printer myself.
Technical question...I notice some burrs and rough edges.
I assume this is usual, fresh off the bed.
What do you use to smooth them out?
Sandpaper? Small file? Another method?
I didn't really clean that up, for the photo. Usually that isnt necessary, but the ummm fingers, are small. I have a snipper to trim anything, and a nail file. When things are painted, it usually fills in any texture.

We have a RESIN 3d printer, also, which prints in far greater detail. Andy uses that one, I use the cheaper filament printer. I can show some pictures of things he has printed, if you want to see the difference. The resin printer uses uv light to print things upside down, in a pool of liquid resin, one layer at a time.
 
I didn't really clean that up, for the photo. Usually that isnt necessary, but the ummm fingers, are small. I have a snipper to trim anything, and a nail file. When things are painted, it usually fills in any texture.

We have a RESIN 3d printer, also, which prints in far greater detail. Andy uses that one, I use the cheaper filament printer. I can show some pictures of things he has printed, if you want to see the difference. The resin printer uses uv light to print things upside down, in a pool of liquid resin, one layer at a time.
During my research, I did look at resin printers as well.
They sure do look like they produce a superior finished product.
It looks like those printers are messy and stinky to operate, and require more space for preparation and clean up.
For what I would be doing, (and my small living space) the ease of use of filament printers is probably a better choice for me.

But yes, do you have samples of the same item having been printed on both a filament and resin machine?
That would be an interesting comparison.
 
Lots of these for my kids, this is just one of the Among us characters, the video game maker provides the files via thing universe.
 

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How about some new Monopoly tokens?
No problem




 
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Will see if framing customers want to buy them. Ha
 
This might be my next item to print. A back support for a framers vise. Made from carbon fiber reinforces nylon.
If you do those supports, please do share your experience.
I got a new framers vice a few months ago, it works great on wide flat mouldings.
However, I'm disappointed how shallow the clamp is, it's not very useful for tall/shadowbox frames.
Is that what those supports would be for?
 
I printed one in PLA yesterday, it is very rigid. It would be even stronger in nylon/carbon fiber. I did some calculations on a selling price with the nylon/30% carbon fiber and came up with $105 a pair based on just the overhead and cost of materials with no design fee (about 5 hours plus printing a prototype) worked into the price. What do you all think regarding that price? The print time would be about 11 hours for a pair with a spool of this special filament from the machine mfg., to stay in good standing with the warranty of the machine is $180+shipping.

BTY, the drawing is parametric, that means that I can change the height and width to fit any vise (Stanley, a Stanley copy or the 7" *** mfg.)
 
Your time is worth money, too. For a custom engineered piece, I think that is a fair price.
 
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