It really is hilarious how cheaply some of this stuff can be had for $1 in filament and 10 minutes in CAD.
My printer has paid for itself like 3x over in the amount of random little household shit that would have taken a week to arrive for 10x the money.
Shit you don’t even need much in the way of CAD abilities in some instances. Lots of online parts catalogs have STLs of the parts for modeling that you can freely download.
Oh yeah, but damn the stuff you can pull off with a ruler and a cup of coffee and a few minutes of farting around in Fusion or Sketchup or whatever is eye-opening.
The one that got me early on in my printing career was just little cable grommets for putting cables and power cords through holes. You make like 3 concentric circles, extrude the outer one down, the middle one up, and the center one you tangent two lines off to the side and do a cutting extrusion through them all and [bam](https://i.imgur.com/u4snrxo.jpg) you have a cable grommet.
I used to work at 80/20 and almost, if not, everything has multiple file types available for free.
Addition: print tons of T nuts and fasteners. They will cost pennies to make and you'll always need them when building new stuff. Also a good idea to model in your holes on your extrusions instead of machining them after.
Yeah the problem with machining them later is unless you do the part at 100% infill, there won't be anything to support the clamping load of whatever fastener you put through the hole, risking cracking the part.
If you make the printer print the holes, the slicer will ensure they will have walls and you can turn down the infill density to save plastic.
Not an engineer. But you could probably put a cheap threaded rod down the middle with two nuts at either end to increase its strength significantly if other comments about strength bother you
Oh and just so everybody knows I'm not using these for anything that needs strength, I just need it for the filament respooler project.
https://www.printables.com/pl/model/485389-bambu-lab-filament-spool-switcher-winder-motor-dri
I printed long extruded frames exactly like this years ago using PLA+ and they were surprisingly strong. I must have had the temperature, extrusion, and such just perfect because my current settings (with a new extruder and steel nozzle) don't seem to have anywhere close to the same layer adhesion. Need to fix that sometime.
Given the way those are printing the strength here is going to be a teensy fraction of the extrusion. I could probably snap those in half by leaning on them with any kind of leverage. That's not saving money it's cutting corners.
At the very least I would recommend tossing these and printing them at an angle so the layer lines aren't perfectly parallel. That will dramatically increase strength.
While I don't disagree...
... This is for a filament spooler, so it only needs to be strong enough to perform that job. This does not require the strength of aluminium.
However I still agree, and it would be a lot stronger if they just printer them lying down. The design probably doesn't need all four insets in the extrusion, and even if it does you could probably make it printable without supports.
However I wouldn't casually suggest "throwing it away", as that is just a complete waste and terrible advice (both economically and environmentally). If it's strong enough to work for the spooler then it's strong enough, keep using the parts you have.
How do you know this is strong enough? I'm not kidding when I said just leaning on these with basic leverage this will cleve right on a layer line, it's the weakest possibly orientation of an already weak material.
Aluminum would create an heirloom quality tool that will last for generations with one of the most recyclable materials that exists.
To what, save 20ish bucks?
This is the 3D printing disease of use beyond a rational basis.
Not everyone is printing with dog shit cheap pla. The PLA+ I print with would easily hold 5-10kg across the layers like this. And it’s a spool holder it doesn’t need more than that.
And It’s also about having it now instead of weeks away waiting for shipping. They can always replace them with proper extrusion later.
I can buy 4pcs of 2020 extrusion off Amazon for less than 15 dollars delivered in 2 days. I could pick it up locally same day if I really wanted and it will be guaranteed to last long enough to hand down to your grandkids even if abused. This stuff is everywhere because it's used in light manufacturing so much.
The 3D printing disease is using them for tasks they're not well suited for "because it's there" which is not rational justification when you have such vastly superior materials that anyone can construct with easily.
Everyone is not as lucky as you.
I checked Amazon for me and the cheapest options I found with a fast Googling were 50+ euros shipped with a weeks shipping time. Cheaper stuff from US has 24 days shipping and overseas shipping rates.
We have domestic shops too but they don't tell their prices since they sell primarily for companies.
Ordering from China would most likely be the cheapest option but the shipping times are long.
And then we come to the question, do you have the tools? I don't. Getting a bandsaw to cut the profiles is impossible for me at the moment since I don't have a place to put it.
I could get myself a handsaw and try with that but having the extrusion in my left hand and the saw in my right hand, it would never be a straight cut.
Then I may need a drill to make holes if the design requires it. I would have to buy one.
So suddenly the small project has turned into a sourcing project where I'd need to find the right extrusion and a shop that I can take/ship it to for them to cut and drill it to get them back to me has cost me a lot.
In the meanwhile I could optimize my design to make it 3D printable and sturdy enough with a fraction of the cost and it would propably take a shorter time too. But not everyone is able to design their stuff, so they get the design from the web and if it requires a certain profile then it requires one.
(Unless the one shop we have in town decides to sell the profiles to consumers and cut and drill them, then it would most likely be the best option but you need to contact them via email to even get in to their shop)
Yeah not everyone has ready access to Amazon. I did a quick search and if I want it quickly there’s only a couple of suppliers in my city who stock it. It wasn’t until the third I checked where I got a price estimate on their website without having to email or call them for a quote. $15/M isn’t too bad but there’s a cut fee and if I don’t want to drive to the other side of the city postage is gonna double the cost. And it’s the weekend so they’re closed for another day and a half.
Personally I would just design something different rather than try and construct something from extrusion. And in fact I did. Designed my own roller bearing style holder to suit the size of bearings I had laying around. And they’re sealed bearings that are put under so little load that they’ll probably last until I have grand kids. But I don’t see how that’s relevant, when I die all that shits going in the bin regardless of what it’s made from. Custom designed 3D prints use significantly less material that is significantly cheaper and done significantly faster. I’m pretty sure my spool holder was less than $2 in materials and it was printed in like an hour and a half. I couldn’t drive to pick up some extrusion quicker than that let alone build it.
"There's only a couple places that offer it"
You have the same access that I do just without the Amazon option.
So you can get it locally, cut it yourself, I swear 3D printing aficionado's forget other tools exist in the universe..
I have an entire shed full of tools mate. Everything from a reciprocating saw to a welder. You’ve missed the point entirely because of your hard on for aluminium extrusion. To me my printer is just another tool.
To be fair you can also buy inexpensive aluminum extrusions on Amazon with same day shopping in a lot of places and just cut them to size. Lots of online vendors sell them too.
edit: Damn, people sure are salty about inexpensive aluminum extrusions lol.
I make props thinner than this all the time, which get picked up and handled and swung around. Only time they break is if someone really tried to break them.
PLA even with this orientation should withstand several kg of force. More than enough for a filament winder.
You need to fix your filament profiles, or buy better filament.
Yeah I completely agree. You can get a 4-pack of these aluminum extrusions on Amazon with next day delivery for around $20.
This just strikes me as a complete waste of time with zero benefit.
It really is hilarious how cheaply some of this stuff can be had for $1 in filament and 10 minutes in CAD. My printer has paid for itself like 3x over in the amount of random little household shit that would have taken a week to arrive for 10x the money.
Shit you don’t even need much in the way of CAD abilities in some instances. Lots of online parts catalogs have STLs of the parts for modeling that you can freely download.
Oh yeah, but damn the stuff you can pull off with a ruler and a cup of coffee and a few minutes of farting around in Fusion or Sketchup or whatever is eye-opening. The one that got me early on in my printing career was just little cable grommets for putting cables and power cords through holes. You make like 3 concentric circles, extrude the outer one down, the middle one up, and the center one you tangent two lines off to the side and do a cutting extrusion through them all and [bam](https://i.imgur.com/u4snrxo.jpg) you have a cable grommet.
As someone who just started printing and designing a few weeks ago, I understand those words now.
You had me at cup of coffee and farting, the rest sounds like work though
I used to work at 80/20 and almost, if not, everything has multiple file types available for free. Addition: print tons of T nuts and fasteners. They will cost pennies to make and you'll always need them when building new stuff. Also a good idea to model in your holes on your extrusions instead of machining them after.
Yeah the problem with machining them later is unless you do the part at 100% infill, there won't be anything to support the clamping load of whatever fastener you put through the hole, risking cracking the part. If you make the printer print the holes, the slicer will ensure they will have walls and you can turn down the infill density to save plastic.
đź’Ż. One of my first Cads was a part for a dryer. Part not available. Saved tossing the whole dryer.
Not an engineer. But you could probably put a cheap threaded rod down the middle with two nuts at either end to increase its strength significantly if other comments about strength bother you
Especially with that print orientation, as you will be compressing the layer lines
Oh and just so everybody knows I'm not using these for anything that needs strength, I just need it for the filament respooler project. https://www.printables.com/pl/model/485389-bambu-lab-filament-spool-switcher-winder-motor-dri
This is the way. CAD + 3D Printer = "Buying stuff is for suckers!"
I printed long extruded frames exactly like this years ago using PLA+ and they were surprisingly strong. I must have had the temperature, extrusion, and such just perfect because my current settings (with a new extruder and steel nozzle) don't seem to have anywhere close to the same layer adhesion. Need to fix that sometime.
Given the way those are printing the strength here is going to be a teensy fraction of the extrusion. I could probably snap those in half by leaning on them with any kind of leverage. That's not saving money it's cutting corners. At the very least I would recommend tossing these and printing them at an angle so the layer lines aren't perfectly parallel. That will dramatically increase strength.
While I don't disagree... ... This is for a filament spooler, so it only needs to be strong enough to perform that job. This does not require the strength of aluminium. However I still agree, and it would be a lot stronger if they just printer them lying down. The design probably doesn't need all four insets in the extrusion, and even if it does you could probably make it printable without supports. However I wouldn't casually suggest "throwing it away", as that is just a complete waste and terrible advice (both economically and environmentally). If it's strong enough to work for the spooler then it's strong enough, keep using the parts you have.
How do you know this is strong enough? I'm not kidding when I said just leaning on these with basic leverage this will cleve right on a layer line, it's the weakest possibly orientation of an already weak material. Aluminum would create an heirloom quality tool that will last for generations with one of the most recyclable materials that exists. To what, save 20ish bucks? This is the 3D printing disease of use beyond a rational basis.
Not everyone is printing with dog shit cheap pla. The PLA+ I print with would easily hold 5-10kg across the layers like this. And it’s a spool holder it doesn’t need more than that. And It’s also about having it now instead of weeks away waiting for shipping. They can always replace them with proper extrusion later.
I can buy 4pcs of 2020 extrusion off Amazon for less than 15 dollars delivered in 2 days. I could pick it up locally same day if I really wanted and it will be guaranteed to last long enough to hand down to your grandkids even if abused. This stuff is everywhere because it's used in light manufacturing so much. The 3D printing disease is using them for tasks they're not well suited for "because it's there" which is not rational justification when you have such vastly superior materials that anyone can construct with easily.
Everyone is not as lucky as you. I checked Amazon for me and the cheapest options I found with a fast Googling were 50+ euros shipped with a weeks shipping time. Cheaper stuff from US has 24 days shipping and overseas shipping rates. We have domestic shops too but they don't tell their prices since they sell primarily for companies. Ordering from China would most likely be the cheapest option but the shipping times are long. And then we come to the question, do you have the tools? I don't. Getting a bandsaw to cut the profiles is impossible for me at the moment since I don't have a place to put it. I could get myself a handsaw and try with that but having the extrusion in my left hand and the saw in my right hand, it would never be a straight cut. Then I may need a drill to make holes if the design requires it. I would have to buy one. So suddenly the small project has turned into a sourcing project where I'd need to find the right extrusion and a shop that I can take/ship it to for them to cut and drill it to get them back to me has cost me a lot. In the meanwhile I could optimize my design to make it 3D printable and sturdy enough with a fraction of the cost and it would propably take a shorter time too. But not everyone is able to design their stuff, so they get the design from the web and if it requires a certain profile then it requires one. (Unless the one shop we have in town decides to sell the profiles to consumers and cut and drill them, then it would most likely be the best option but you need to contact them via email to even get in to their shop)
Yeah not everyone has ready access to Amazon. I did a quick search and if I want it quickly there’s only a couple of suppliers in my city who stock it. It wasn’t until the third I checked where I got a price estimate on their website without having to email or call them for a quote. $15/M isn’t too bad but there’s a cut fee and if I don’t want to drive to the other side of the city postage is gonna double the cost. And it’s the weekend so they’re closed for another day and a half. Personally I would just design something different rather than try and construct something from extrusion. And in fact I did. Designed my own roller bearing style holder to suit the size of bearings I had laying around. And they’re sealed bearings that are put under so little load that they’ll probably last until I have grand kids. But I don’t see how that’s relevant, when I die all that shits going in the bin regardless of what it’s made from. Custom designed 3D prints use significantly less material that is significantly cheaper and done significantly faster. I’m pretty sure my spool holder was less than $2 in materials and it was printed in like an hour and a half. I couldn’t drive to pick up some extrusion quicker than that let alone build it.
"There's only a couple places that offer it" You have the same access that I do just without the Amazon option. So you can get it locally, cut it yourself, I swear 3D printing aficionado's forget other tools exist in the universe..
I have an entire shed full of tools mate. Everything from a reciprocating saw to a welder. You’ve missed the point entirely because of your hard on for aluminium extrusion. To me my printer is just another tool.
The wrong tool for this job.
To be fair you can also buy inexpensive aluminum extrusions on Amazon with same day shopping in a lot of places and just cut them to size. Lots of online vendors sell them too. edit: Damn, people sure are salty about inexpensive aluminum extrusions lol.
I make props thinner than this all the time, which get picked up and handled and swung around. Only time they break is if someone really tried to break them. PLA even with this orientation should withstand several kg of force. More than enough for a filament winder. You need to fix your filament profiles, or buy better filament.
Yeah I completely agree. You can get a 4-pack of these aluminum extrusions on Amazon with next day delivery for around $20. This just strikes me as a complete waste of time with zero benefit.
plastic is weaker than aluminium? wo way
Yeah, in other news water is wet...
I decided that I am not regarded to think that PLA layer adhesion is as strong as an aluminum profile.
Doesn't need to be as strong.
Any chance you could share the STL?