3d printing adventures volume 2. Part 1: door stop. Random model I downloaded was too big for my printer, so I shrank it without measuring. Shrank too much, so had to design and print a little pad to glue on. Well it works.
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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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Wow, thanks. Much better than I expected. So, although right now there's the cost of the printer, computer and many hours of time needed to get to the point of "just print this random thing I need", there is a conceivable future for 3d printers. But how to get there from here?
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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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So all(!) we need is a software + ecosystem to allow non-geeks to browse on their phone for the door stop, lens cap, or photograph the broken toy part, and then tap "Print". Like Amazon but with Print instead of Buy. Maybe picked up at a local ~Kinkos 3d printer service.
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Easy to put a human in the design loop though. Send me a photo of a simple broken part from a couple of angles with a calibration artifact like a penny, and I could probably reproduce the design and printing for you. Maybe include 2 reprints for fit.
youtube.com/watch?v=2gqsA_ a commercial version of this already exists -> boutique shop that helps you design parts. I used them myself to get access to a printer before.
They opened up others in California
tctmagazine.com/prsnlz/blu-bin
Also shapeways as a sort of inbetween.
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