Would love to see some of your prints on here! When I was younger my dad and I built a 3D printer, and I loved it. Since then I haven’t had the funds/time/space to get back into it but as that was like 12 years ago, I know 3D printing has gotten much higher tech.
Printers are a lot easier and more repeatable than they were 12 years ago. In FDM the big advances are print speed, quality of life, and filament material. Home SLA printers are also a lot more available than they were 12 years ago, but the overall process here hasn’t changed (print, rinse, cure). The big question is if/when SLS will make it to a home user price point.
My prints are mostly self designed and functional. I’ll have to dig up some examples once I’m on a computer.
I can imagine - I used a Printrbot LC back in the day and it was so difficult to get consistent results. Great learning experience but sometimes it was more frustrating than rewarding hahah. Seeing some of these newer models that work right out the box make me excited! (Although building one yourself is always more fun if you’ve got the time)
Seeing some of these newer models that work right out the box make me excited! (Although building one yourself is always more fun if you’ve got the time)
You can have a bit of both! Build a Voron and wind up with a pretty darn reliable printer. I posted about mine here.
As promised earlier, here are some prints:
Made this for a friend for Christmas. It’s not a super detailed model or anything, but its probably my favorite. :)
I’m pretty proud of this. It’s for a gift.
I didn’t do the artwork work, Disney did that many years ago, it’s Disney Classic #8 book cover. But what I did do is worth through Hueforge for the background, and my own custom process for Alice. Which involved a quite complicated process of redrawing Alice in vector, separating the colors, and manually selecting the colors per layer to create a good contrast.
The frame was generated off my frame/shadowbox generator you can find on Printables. https://www.printables.com/model/1120635-frameshadowbox-generator
My first (and still my favorite) thing I designed from scratch is my Happy Mug.
found a 90 year old design for a cactus watering can from a local designer and had to print it for myself… tried out multiple sizes and colours
This is so cool
I’m terrible about taking photos of things, it just doesn’t occur to me until I need one.
This is the view from one of my printer webcams of a 2 day print that just finished about 20 minutes ago; its covered in supports because the walls are modeled like stone. A friend of mine of running Vecna: Eve of Ruin and asked me to print him a Death House (in about 16 parts - 11 beds full). In total this is going to be about 20 days of printing because I’m doing it at 0.1mm layer height - I’m not quite halfway through. This is the model and here is a reddit thread showing it painted.
Since that one is not much to look at, here’s a pic with a squirrel, from a recent blog post about how my 3D printed Bird/Squirrel feeder has withstood 15 months of weather and abuse.
Wow really cool idea for the d&d design! When I used to do this stuff I was using the Printrbot LC and it was literally impossible to do something this advanced. Since it was all made of wood I think it just constantly would shift with all the heated elements, and end up a hair off. It was great experience but I didn’t get to anything really advanced with it.
Also love the bird feeder. This is what I love about 3D printing!
This is one I’m particularly proud of. Makes for a really fun magnetic fidget.
https://www.printables.com/model/1145644-geometric-shapes-with-embedded-magnets-for-constru
That’s so cool looking! What did you print that on? Must be a pretty capable printer!
First functional print in a little while, got tired of fiddling with silverware year trays that didn’t quite fit so I modeled one to fit the drawer and my utensils perfectly.
This is what I carry my drink mixes in.
I mostly use mine for functional stuff, odd shaped brackets, pipe adaptors, electronics enclosures, so not very photogenic, but my two favourite things were a replacement door latch for the microwave, saved the cost of buying a new one, and a very nerdy bit of wall art 🖖
The wall art is gorgeous! How did you get that smooth final metallic look? Or is that just how it looks on picture?
Honestly that’s one of the coolest things about 3D printing - being able to create highly specific parts that could be impossible or impractical to source.
I’ve heard that 3D printers are used to repair those terrifying “iron lungs” that some people are still depending on to survive. This is because some of the parts that break on them are literally not produced anymore!
I’m not sure if your focus is on the printing or the designs. Personally, I’m really only interested in the designs. I’m not one of the people that enjoys tinkering with a flakey device trying to coax a result out of it. The printer is only a means to an end for me.
So, I’ve got some things I printed using my FDM printers, but generally what I’m most pleased with was printed through an online service.
So, here’s a ring I made a few years ago (printed via shapeways):
