The 3D Printing Thread

[ExtraSlow]

Hey Andy or whoever, are there 3d printing filaments that are a little squishy? Like a reasonably hard rubber consistency?

[AndyL]

Yeah, know what shore hardness you need?

TPU, TPE, ninjaflex, there's a few hundred to choose from

[ExtraSlow]

Actually may have found something at Rona that will work just fine. Won't look as cool as custom printed shit, but if it works, I'm good. It's for trailer so I'll test this weekend.

[AndyL]

Awesome that you found something

Keychains seem to be my life these days

[AndyL]

Gotta test drive the nerf full auto Woozi WP-15m

Gonna throw a single pair of meishels in it (designed with afterburners - the game we play at has a 100fps cap - no point), with an old school hellcat (no neo or anything, just a plain old 180 hellcat) for the auto mech.

The plate of carbon fiber petg internals is on the tevo tornado right now.

- - - Updated - - -


Oh yeah and a bunch more keychains

[speedog]

Are key chains a money maker after you throw in the time you spend to design them, buy your raw materials and factor in the cost of the 3D printer and supplies/electricity?

[jacky4566]

Well for a while i was worried I would be getting a box of rocks but the Polish company Sinterit pulled through! We now have a functional SLS printer! It only took 3 months for delivery but who's counting....

The whole unit is quite heavy and the print area isnt spectacular but for the stuff we do it will save us a fortune on injection molded parts. Typically we do small batches of brackets and housings. The PA12 powder isnt really that difficult to work with as i have heard. The system is quite easy to use and the software is ok. They certinaly have many improvements to make but I think every small business in manufacturing should have a desktop sls machine like this.


Here is a quick imgur gallery of our setup.
https://imgur.com/a/1rOO4Fk

[AndyL]

Nice, see the announcement from basf about their 316L stainless filament?

Has to be forged after. It's an interesting intermediate solution. Only listed price I found was 1000$/kg of course...

[pheoxs]

My little 3d printing business has been quite the journey so far. Had someone try to patent one of my designs and then turn around and threaten to sue me, so thats been interesting to deal with.

But on a funny note, I had NBA legend Shaq buy some LED goggles from my store a while back, thought it was just someone joking and putting a fake name. Until he was DJ'ing in Croatia wearing them, so random.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Pkd3Ll...on_share_sheet

[AndyL]

Cool! Seriously? Ordered them under his own name? Lol I wouldn't have expected.

You'd think your years of previous sales and prior art before they patented would be a dead giveaway...

Mines going nowhere fast. EI said I couldn't write off filament. All the nuts bolts parts and pieces yes, not the raw materials... So it's been on hold for a while now. Still recovering from the 1200$ lost on a Nerf gun thanks to Canada post and Etsy (2 full builds, + refund + + +)

[D'z Nutz]

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My little 3d printing business has been quite the journey so far. Had someone try to patent one of my designs and then turn around and threaten to sue me, so thats been interesting to deal with.

What happened in the end?

[nzwasp]

I’m home most of summer @AndyL if you want to drop off my stuff

[pheoxs]

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Cool! Seriously? Ordered them under his own name? Lol I wouldn't have expected.

You'd think your years of previous sales and prior art before they patented would be a dead giveaway...

Mines going nowhere fast. EI said I couldn't write off filament. All the nuts bolts parts and pieces yes, not the raw materials... So it's been on hold for a while now. Still recovering from the 1200$ lost on a Nerf gun thanks to Canada post and Etsy (2 full builds, + refund + + +)

I looked up the address after and its for a management agency so guessing someone ordered for him. And for the legal stuff, you'd think that, but in the end people with more $ can dump more in legal fees and just keep sending takedown notices to screw with you. The DCMA system is pretty shitty for abuse.

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What happened in the end?

Still with lawyers but getting it sorted out gradually. Theyre a lot bigger than me so it might end up in a licensing deal and a lot more sales for me albiet at a lower margin. Sucks but should still mean more $ in the end.

[ExtraSlow]

Hey, how accurate can you guys get with these printers? Work might want a scale model of one of our tools, so we have all the specs and everything, but it's got to fit together right without too much fucking around. I guess first question, can people print parts with threads that screw together nicely without binding? Like a nut and bolt kind of thing?

[AndyL]

Accuracy - my primary is around 0.12mm (so +/- 0.06mm)

And threading depends on the thread and the strength required - lots of printed threads work.

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah, this just needs to screw together smoothly and not look like garbage. Need to discuss with the bossman if we want to send this out or build it. In-house from aluminum.

[Darell_n]

Would a tap and die still be able to clean up the threads in they are intensionally oversized?

[ExtraSlow]

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Would a tap and die still be able to clean up the threads in they are intensionally oversized?

Nothing that I have access to, as this would fairly large. It's going to be probably a 1/2 scale of a tool that screws into 4.5" nominal casing. So what's that, coupling OD of 5.5" and ID of 4.09". But half size?

[pheoxs]

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Hey, how accurate can you guys get with these printers? Work might want a scale model of one of our tools, so we have all the specs and everything, but it's got to fit together right without too much fucking around. I guess first question, can people print parts with threads that screw together nicely without binding? Like a nut and bolt kind of thing?

How big is the piece? You can print threaded stuff and it goes together pretty easy, though they are plastic threads so they'll wear over time. Also if you need even higher accuracy you can go to Fuse33 and use their SLA/laser printer which has much finer resoluition

[ExtraSlow]

Oh it's a demonstration peoce so durability isn't a major concern. We make the real tools out of hardened steel, but they are three feet long and weigh about 80 lbs, so something smaller our salespeople can bring around to meetings would be really helpful. The fact that we could color the parts differently for visibility would be handy too.