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Part 2. Needed an extra bracket/brace thingie to clamp the top of my whiteboard which was wobbly (came with 2 both of which I used for the bottom edge). So took off and measured one of the existing ones with callipers.
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You’ll notice it’s a z-shape with 2 triangular braces which won’t print without supports. So designed and printed one with just 1 brace, but a thin triangular support ridge at corner. Since this is going on top edge figured it’s good enough.
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Drilled a hole. Managed to get it off center. This extended 3d printed ribbonfarm universe is not very symmetric is it?
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Installed... but le sigh... guess I measured badly. Off by like 2mm and didn’t clamp. BUT had this random bit of scrap plastic lying around because I’ve been lazy about tossing stuff. This was tie down strap for a set of socket wrenches I bought recently and only just opened.
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So cut off one of those stemmy bits and jammed it into clearance space. Perfect. The whiteboard even happens to have grooves there that make it fit neatly.
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The doorstop works out to $1 marginal cost
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Replying to @mikemee
It’s $23 for 1kg roll of filament, and the piece weighs 33g. Let’s say 7g for losses/scrap. 40g works out to $0.92. Max power consumption is 120w, and this was maybe 3h total for printing the two parts. So 0.36kwh. CA average is 0.16c/kWh so 0.0576 =~6c. Add 2c of glue: $1 total
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Even with a reasonable printer amortization schedule over 10 kg, still works out pretty cheap. $1.82
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Replying to @mikemee
The printer was $219 entry level. Plus maybe $30 for tape and scraper. So not much... I’ve printed 100g maybe in 2 weeks. If I get to say 10kg before it dies, printer cost will amortize to ~2.5c/g. My door stop would be around $1.82.
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Replying to
Even I have been fancying dabbling with 3D printer (in India) mainly to assuage my desire to get into robotics. The parts are somewhat expensive in small quantity. How steep is the learning curve on 3D printing? For example, rover chassis, some small gears, linkages, maybe?
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Replying to
If you have some existing CAD experience, pretty short. OnShape is free. I’m a mechanical engineer by training, but this is the first time I’m touching the tools in 23 years, got back in fairly easily. The print process is fiddly and takes some trial and error to learn.
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Many thanks! I guess I should probably get started slowly and build some hands-on knowledge on CAD tools before investing in the printer itself. (The purchase most likely will happen as an impulsive buy if the enthusiasm with CAD tools boils over :-P)
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