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.<p>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").<p>If we wanted something like a bicycle accessory or camera mount we just <i>made</i> 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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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?<p>~~~<p>I don't mean to knock the technology itself. 3D printers are <i>really cool,</i> but I think titling an article "Ten Practical Things..." and coming up with the list they did just feels very shoehorned.
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Edit: The submission's title has just been changed from "Ten <i>Practical</i> things to make with a 3D printer"
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.<p>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.
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.<p>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:<p>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.<p>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?<p>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.<p>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.<p>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".<p>EDIT: Formatting.
I'm almost certain that you cannot 3D print functioning LEGO bricks. Considering they're plastic, those things are manufactured to extremely fine tolerances.
Many repairs of the sort mentioned are probably better made with a mold-able epoxy putty such as Sugru (<a href="http://sugru.com" rel="nofollow">http://sugru.com</a>)<p>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.<p>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!