I know I have talked about the 3D printer a bit, mostly because I am having fun making stuff, but I just wanted to put some perspective out there.
The printer I got is the Voxelab Aquila, not an expensive unit at all at $160.00 ish on sale, and of course filament.
I have been knocking projects out trying to tidy up the house and finish installations for doo dads. Specifically my Echo Dots, get them off of table tops and such, replace the missing / broken mount for one of my security keypads, my WiFi mesh routers, My cable modem (I am doing a dual WAN setup as I work from home and need absolute reliability). And a couple of gift items, most notably the PS4 controller and headset stands (x4 of them).
I got to looking at what these items cost purchased commercially and found something interesting, I am actually saving money.
The PS4 controller / headset stands are currently averaging depending on the design about $20.00, for the really nice molded shape stuff like what I printed though, they go for $35.00 each. So $35.00x4 $140.00 just in PS4 controller / headset stands. Merry Christmas to certain family members! Yeah I know early...
The 3rd Generation Echo Dot Tie Fighter stand (my wife and younger brother in law are huge Star Wars fans) x2 are going literally with the design I printed for $59.99 each $10.00 shipping, so figure these at $70.00 each, or another $140.00
Eero Pro 6 WiFi mesh router wall / ceiling mounts. There are a LOT of designs, I did not want one that attached to the power / wall plate. Comparable ones are available on AliExpress not even gonna look at shipping, but they go for $35.99 so round the pennies and call 2 of them $72.00
3 more basic, clean Echo Dot 3rd generation wall mounts. And 2 basic, clean Echo Dot 2nd generation wall mounts. These are cheaper than the others, but they go for $6.00 each, So another $30.00
The Motorola MB8600 cable modem wall mount. Not really commercially available, couldn't find one except on Etsy and that maker wants $20.00 after shipping...
The mortiser chisel caps, which simply put, is not available anywhere so I would have had to rigged something up. Not a good option...
Lastly, The BT3x00 SMT fence caps. I believe they sell for something like $10.00 after shipping on Ebay. So $20.00 for 2.
So let's look at what I have in costs total so far.
Printer $160.00
3 spools filament $60.00
Total $220.00
Total value of products printed out $422.00
Yes, for several of the items there are cheaper alternatives, but there is a certain, look, and feel I am going for, some items are just copies of existing stuff I.E. the miter fence end blocks.
This does not include the save of the security keypad and the mortising chisels which IF the parts were avaialble would likely be cheap, but still add up...
Oh one last item I printed out before the order got cancelled. Raspberry Pi 4B full case with mount tabs. I want / need to run local DNS for "Daves.LAN" sort of stuff, and wanted to use Pi Hole DNS for its add blocking. I really don't want to dedicate the power needed for a regular desktop / server running Ubuntu so I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB, printed this out, and then got the notice the Pi was out of stock for the forseeable future. Rats!
The printer I got is the Voxelab Aquila, not an expensive unit at all at $160.00 ish on sale, and of course filament.
I have been knocking projects out trying to tidy up the house and finish installations for doo dads. Specifically my Echo Dots, get them off of table tops and such, replace the missing / broken mount for one of my security keypads, my WiFi mesh routers, My cable modem (I am doing a dual WAN setup as I work from home and need absolute reliability). And a couple of gift items, most notably the PS4 controller and headset stands (x4 of them).
I got to looking at what these items cost purchased commercially and found something interesting, I am actually saving money.
The PS4 controller / headset stands are currently averaging depending on the design about $20.00, for the really nice molded shape stuff like what I printed though, they go for $35.00 each. So $35.00x4 $140.00 just in PS4 controller / headset stands. Merry Christmas to certain family members! Yeah I know early...
The 3rd Generation Echo Dot Tie Fighter stand (my wife and younger brother in law are huge Star Wars fans) x2 are going literally with the design I printed for $59.99 each $10.00 shipping, so figure these at $70.00 each, or another $140.00
Eero Pro 6 WiFi mesh router wall / ceiling mounts. There are a LOT of designs, I did not want one that attached to the power / wall plate. Comparable ones are available on AliExpress not even gonna look at shipping, but they go for $35.99 so round the pennies and call 2 of them $72.00
3 more basic, clean Echo Dot 3rd generation wall mounts. And 2 basic, clean Echo Dot 2nd generation wall mounts. These are cheaper than the others, but they go for $6.00 each, So another $30.00
The Motorola MB8600 cable modem wall mount. Not really commercially available, couldn't find one except on Etsy and that maker wants $20.00 after shipping...
The mortiser chisel caps, which simply put, is not available anywhere so I would have had to rigged something up. Not a good option...
Lastly, The BT3x00 SMT fence caps. I believe they sell for something like $10.00 after shipping on Ebay. So $20.00 for 2.
So let's look at what I have in costs total so far.
Printer $160.00
3 spools filament $60.00
Total $220.00
Total value of products printed out $422.00
Yes, for several of the items there are cheaper alternatives, but there is a certain, look, and feel I am going for, some items are just copies of existing stuff I.E. the miter fence end blocks.
This does not include the save of the security keypad and the mortising chisels which IF the parts were avaialble would likely be cheap, but still add up...
Oh one last item I printed out before the order got cancelled. Raspberry Pi 4B full case with mount tabs. I want / need to run local DNS for "Daves.LAN" sort of stuff, and wanted to use Pi Hole DNS for its add blocking. I really don't want to dedicate the power needed for a regular desktop / server running Ubuntu so I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB, printed this out, and then got the notice the Pi was out of stock for the forseeable future. Rats!
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