3-D printer uses?

[capncarl]

I was recently involved in a discussion about 3-d printers with my neighbor. He has one and is using it to mfg. parts for his CNC router build. This guy is having a ball building parts and doing his build thing, and makes the statement that I would find a lot of uses for one. I challenged him to name one use I would have for it and he could not think of one use. My thoughts that it is good for making plastic items that do not have much stress put on them. I guess I could make my own Plano storage boxes? What else? Have I missed something with this machine?
capncarl

[atgcpaul]

We have 2 Makerbots at work. You can make some really cool things if you've got the imagination for it and a yen for designing the part in some kind of 3D software. The parts can be strong and we use them for various jigs and fixtures at work. The one guy who was in charge of them left so they don't get too much use anymore. They can be a little finicky if they get out of calibration and the rest of us with our full time jobs don't have the time to constantly dial it in. The material also has a tendency to warp which I have found to be the biggest weakness. Parts you intended to be flat can come out looking a little like potato chips--not that extreme, but still a huge waste of time and material.

I think printing a Plano box would be a poor use of the technology for a couple reasons. The first is price. I just saw a Plano box at Grainger for $30. This also has metal latches, etc. It weighs almost 5lbs. You'd be paying over $50 for the plastic material alone for 3D printing. The second reason is strength. I think you'd have a pretty weak box if you printed to the same thickness as a Plano box. If the printed layers aren't sufficiently bonded, when you picked up your printed box, the layers can separate pretty easily.

There are some fantastically creative people out there. You can go to Thingiverse and look at all the 3D printed objects you can download and print yourself. If this is a really good neighbor, my suggestion would be to offer to buy your own material and ask him if he'll print them on his machine. Maybe even give him some extra to keep to account for wear and tear.

For really high quality prints, I have relied on a central service that prints on their several $100K machine. Those parts are awesome and are probably as good as they get. The material is not cheap, though.

The other guy who left also bought one of the laser cured 3D printers. I still can't figure out what his job roll was other than to spend money and print toys for his kid. Anyway, I don't think he was ever happy with that printer and that one never gets used.

Our laser cutter is getting some good use from another guy (the previous guy's dad, no less) but he's just mostly messing around with pet projects. I haven't had a chance to learn it yet--again, work gets in the way, but he's made some really nice stuff for me that I described to him. Assembling the laser cut pieces is more work but because everything starts off as sheet plastic, the finished parts are nice and smooth and the final products look pretty nice, too.

[atgcpaul]

I was watching YouTube this morning and someone mentioned this site that connects customers with 3D printing services.

Not sure about your area, but turns out there are a bunch of people in my area offering this service.

If you use the code "MAKESTUFF" at checkout, you'll get $10 off your first order.

https://www.3dhubs.com/?coupon=makestuff&utm_source=i-like-to-make-stuff&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=website-link

I'm not affiliated with these guys and I have not used their service.

[Carpenter96]

Lee Valley Tools uses 3-d printers to prototype their tools. It is one thing to look at an item on a screen but quite another to be able to hold it in your hand. For my self I would not get much use out of one. I would however get a lot of use out of a small but powerful CNC router, only because I do some production runs on projects.

Regards Bob