What do you use your 3d printer for?

[Dano]

I really want one but am aware it's going to be nothing more than a toy, are there any real practical uses you use yours for other than the odd headphone stand or part to repair something with?

I'm liking the idea of printing figures and getting into painting them just as something to relax with I guess.

 

[RevBillyG]

Mostly for figures but I have made other things.

Screw covers for my car interior (priced at 10eu. for 4 of them and I only needed 2)
A powerbank holder for my Quest 2
A VR gun holster (which I've never used )
A USB cable holder for my wife's tablet and phone
Bit's and pieces for my Sim rig

But, yeah, mostly silly things

Learning how to use the thing is most of the fun.

Oh and I forgot the most important thing. Printing parts to add to your printer

 

[montymint]

I really want one but am aware it's going to be nothing more than a toy, are there any real practical uses you use yours for other than the odd headphone stand or part to repair something with?

I'm liking the idea of printing figures and getting into painting them just as something to relax with I guess.

If it's mini's you want to get into printing, then 100% go for resin if you are comfortable with the extra work required.

 

[Dano]

I should have said I'm already 100% sure it'll be a resin printer, suspect the Elegoo Mars 3 will be available by the time I have room for one and a cleaning/curing station to go with it

Did you ever feel it was wasted money given it's effectively a toy?

 

[montymint]

I should have said I'm already 100% sure it'll be a resin printer, suspect the Elegoo Mars 3 will be available by the time I have room for one and a cleaning/curing station to go with it

Did you ever feel it was wasted money given it's effectively a toy?

Ermm I enjoyed mine (mars pro 2) the little time I got to use it - however I've been on home move alert since April and I've had it boxed since staging the house to sell (expecting to exchange soon).

If you live near Newcastle you can loan mine and the curing station if you'd like? I'll not have them out the box for a few more months yet.

 

[deuse]

Will none toxic resin ever be a thing?

I would buy one now if it was.

 

[Cadder]

I really want one but am aware it's going to be nothing more than a toy, are there any real practical uses you use yours for other than the odd headphone stand or part to repair something with?

I'm liking the idea of printing figures and getting into painting them just as something to relax with I guess.

I bought one when I started my business, hoping it would be a good money earner along with engineering services. I was wrong. It was fairly expensive, margins weren't great and the time spent troubleshooting was immense.
There were some good moments when successful prints came out nice, but there were stressful moments.
The worst was when I tried running a long print. Checked on it before I left the house and all was good, but at some point during the day, the print came unstuck from the bed and was picked up by the nozzle. This meant all the molten PLA was coming out the nozzle but being pushed up into the moving print head. I came back to a printer moving about like crazy with a huge plastic lump waving about. I had to drill into it to weaken it off but accidentally went through a heater wire. Eventually cleaned it up and replaced the heater.
That was just one story. Another I smashed a glass bed trying to remove a print that was too stuck. I've also had certain prints failing at the same point, hours in, despite changes in settings.

This was a Flashforge Creator Pro 2, back a few years now. About 70-80% success rate. Maybe now you can get better printers, software and materials. I couldn't say that, in the years I owned my 3D printer, it was relaxing.

Practical uses: a mate's speaker adaptor brackets on his BMW. A cog for an automated bin lid. A stationery holder. Most practical parts were upgrades to the printer itself, strangely enough.


If you're printing figures using an FDM printer, you're probably using ABS and/or PLA. Even with layers as small as possible, the surface won't be smooth, so be prepared to buy acetone for ABS prints or resin to coat PLA prints prior to painting.

My experience could be a few years out of date, since this industry seems to move quite fast.

 

[Haze]

I just print "stuff", only practical thing i have printed, was a fuel cap holder, that fits on the inside of the fuel flap/door

 

[Dano]

Ermm I enjoyed mine (mars pro 2) the little time I got to use it - however I've been on home move alert since April and I've had it boxed since staging the house to sell (expecting to exchange soon).

If you live near Newcastle you can loan mine and the curing station if you'd like? I'll not have them out the box for a few more months yet.

Thanks for the offer I'm nowhere near and in the same situation, moving in the next few months back to mothers for a few months before my place is available at the end of the year (I hope) so wont be buying one until then, just trying to find a justification other that 'I want one' lmao

 

[DrBombcrater]

I really want one but am aware it's going to be nothing more than a toy, are there any real practical uses you use yours for other than the odd headphone stand or part to repair something with?

I'm liking the idea of printing figures and getting into painting them just as something to relax with I guess.

They're definitely not toys, although plenty of people treat them as such. My 3D printers (three of them at the moment) are used for actual production. I build and sell retro-computing devices (mostly SD card interfaces) and the printers are used to manufacture cases for those devices.

This encourages a very different appreciation about what attributes are desirable in a printer; it's all about reliability and reproducibility. The printers are set up to make a small range of parts, time after time with as few failed prints as possible. Fancy prints and exotic filament are not a factor. Downtime, maintenance and failed prints all cost time and money and need to be avoided. One lesson I've learned is that the simpler the printer the better for this kind of use; the less to go wrong the better.

That said, I do use them for printing other stuff when there's time and they're amazingly useful once you get in the mindset of printing objects to solve problems. I've saved decent money using prints to do repairs, as well as custom designs to do something unusual - I recently printed a whole bunch of little drawers to hold electronic components, tailored exactly to hold the parts I use. Off the shelf drawers would have cost about £80, but I designed and printed better ones for about £20 of filament.

 

[Scougar]

Prototyping paintball parts at present.



This takes electric motor, gears, magnetic clutch system with drive cone.

Lots of other parts like the magazine adapter not shown, but just an idea. Pretty much created this with no CAD experience in about 2 weeks.





This was actually tested in anger at an event a couple weeks ago, and worked great. I have already improved the design for 'anti-jam' when using less than great paint. Otherwise, the system worked amazing and reliably. Extremely pleased. Just my PETG teething issues to deal with since I stopped printed 4 months ago.

I HIGHLY recommend Vision Miner Nano polymer glue if you print and get lifted/warping. This stuff is AMAZING.

 

[Zsolt Szabo]

I fly with RC Airplanes and its a great tool for it if i need anything extra

 

[ScoobyDoo]

I mainly print stuff for myself, bits and pieces for my oculus quest 2, some stands for remotes, vases, DIY bits n bobs.

I have sold a number of a certain stand on the bay and the proceeds have paid for my Ender 3 V2 now so the printer hasn't cost me a penny.

It was taking all my time printing stuff to sell so I'm now back to just printing stuff for myself

 

[Zsolt Szabo]

Ender is great. I still using my moded Anet A8 Fire starter

 

[ExoMale]

I've got an anycubic mega zero 2.0 printer which uses the pla plastic filament, I have had good and bad moments with it over the last few weeks I've owned it, but having never used one or seen one in person before I dont regret getting it.

I am a hobbiest for model railway, so I have used it to print off certain things for that, but I have also done some minor storage solutions and novelty stuff, but I also make stuff to sell as I have my own online shop.

They are worth it whether you use it for personal use or other. Family members have resin versions of from same brand and have had hit and miss moments, think its just the way it goes with these non big fancy industrial types. I would say resin tends to offer better quality and detail of smaller things and just in general, but they are obviously more expensive and have to dress up like your in a meth lab or something lol where as the plastic is safer to use and don't need any protection.

 

[Zsolt Szabo]

With using Fusion 360 it just life saver sometimes.