3D Print

Faktuu

How come I cant find a single thread that deals with 3d prints
I know people do have them, but why are they hiding away

I`m asking coz I have hit a wall with sourcing raw plastics (pellets)
for filament extrusion.
Maybe someone knows of a company that would sell non recycled plastics in 25kg bags or less
oh and located in Ireland please.

smash

I have a sneaking suspicion that you're about to tell us where we can get some at a great deal...

Faktuu

there is plenty of places all over the world the problem is shipping of such quantities that makes the whole thing uneconomical
thats why i`m asking for a local supplier

i was looking at some plastics in US and on one ocasion I was quoted over 90$ for shipping of 10kg material at 25$ value
and its the same problem wherever i look

also there is plenty of supliers in china but the usual minimum order is 36T (a full 40 foot container)

Sir Arthur Daley

Buy the container load sure and sell the excess here is there is such a lack of pellets here.

SEPT 23 1989

could you 3d print the pellets?

Sir Arthur Daley

Even if you could 2d them and wear 3d glasses.

biko

Can't help with plastic pellets I'm afraid but I can get you rabbit pellets at a good price.

Faktuu

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

could you 3d print the pellets?

i think you mistaken pellets with pallets
and to answer question :yes you can print pallets but at much higher cost than other methods

smash

Bet the OP is printing out sex toys....

Rory28

Is it any use or is it still in its early days and just gimmicky?

Sir Arthur Daley

smash wrote: »

Bet the OP is printing out sex toys....

2d or 3d ones?

dmc17

Rory28 wrote: »

Is it any use or is it still in its early days and just gimmicky?

It's hit and miss. I was trying to print a new car for myself this morning and my printer got a traffic jam.

kjl

Place in rathmines has a makerbot, but it's a load of sh1te.

o1s1n

I was trying to print out a squid and it ran out of ink

SEPT 23 1989

Rory28 wrote: »

Is it any use or is it still in its early days and just gimmicky?

we cant even find any pellets to feed the poor yoke with

Faktuu

Rory28 wrote: »

Is it any use or is it still in its early days and just gimmicky?

It depends from a operator of a printer
for me it was and is pretty much straight forward but i know that there are ppl that have spent loads of money on a "premium"(meker bot is crap) product and still cant get it to work
even with manual in hand
also i`m producing printed parts for the bussines i work in at a fraction of cost of a genuine part, and a funny thing some printed parts might come out stronger than designed to break original ones

Rory28

Faktuu wrote: »

It depends from a operator of a printer
for me it was and is pretty much straight forward but i know that there are ppl that have spent loads of money on a "premium"(meker bot is crap) product and still cant get it to work
even with manual in hand
also i`m producing printed parts for the bussines i work in at a fraction of cost of a genuine part, and a funny thing some printed parts might come out stronger than designed to break original ones

Sounds like you could start a spare parts for anything business with one.

"Need a new part for your car/bike/boat/plumbing/sparks/spaceship/train?
Come on down to Faktuu's 3d print emporium."

Faktuu

depends from the complexity of such part as it might take loads of hours to design complex parts in software

in other words it does work but there is no really good 3D scanner on the market that would allow to skip that design process

and on the other hand i had 2 requests from lads i work with one was a filter for coffee machine and the other was part of suspension on a R/C plane that was few moths ago and they are still happy up to this day both parts ware very simple to design and i was done with the whole design and print in an hour.

so guess i could but i`m a IT guy and I don`t know how to deal with customers as they don`t come with a keyboard to input data

Frank11

Can you use the BB Gun pellets?

Capt'n Midnight

Lego is made from ABS but it would be a criminal waste of Lego.

Have you tried the ICI facebook page ?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/ICI-Plastics-Division/100996253275472

corner of hells

Faktuu wrote: »

depends from the complexity of such part as it might take loads of hours to design complex parts in software

in other words it does work but there is no really good 3D scanner on the market that would allow to skip that design process

and on the other hand i had 2 requests from lads i work with one was a filter for coffee machine and the other was part of suspension on a R/C plane that was few moths ago and they are still happy up to this day both parts ware very simple to design and i was done with the whole design and print in an hour.

so guess i could but i`m a IT guy and I don`t know how to deal with customers as they don`t come with a keyboard to input data

A R/C plane that doubles as a coffee machine ? Do that and I'd be impressed.

Tail Docker

Ring Hofeld plastics and talk nice to them, they have the pellets coming out their ears and are nice sorts. They have hundreds of tonnes in stock for themselves.

AndonHandon

What would it cost to print me a 3D wife with a fridge and tv built into her and no voice box?

Faktuu

I was thinking about BB gun pellets and also there are plastic fillers of teddy bears and other crafts
but they never say what type of plastic it is.
And i don`t think that it would be a virgin material

you can use only up to 20% of recycled plastic mixed with virgin material for good strength of such material you can`t recycle plastics endlesly as they are composed of polymer chains that break every time they are processed just like cellulose in paper

SEPT 23 1989

When you factor in the price of your machine raw materials electricity your time etc are the parts you are making actually cheaper than a mass produced one?,i can understand doing it for a very specialised part that is no longer available

Faktuu

yes and no
at the moment if we are thinking about one of parts than the simpler the better or the more sense it makes
if you want few coppies
as there is still not a single affordable 3D scanner that could give you exact dimmensions when it comes to engineering parts
but for art sculptures than shure you can use even MS Kinnect and get very nice prints as it does not make any difference if lets say a hair line is 1% higher or lower but it does make a difference for engineering parts that must fit
just take a look at the pic below and you will notice the multitude of lost details of such process


makerbot-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Digitizer_4_700x380.jpg


also take a look at this site if you dont know it
thingiverse.com
it should give you an idea of what can be done, also you might notice that there is only few ppl that upload new projects and 95 % of users just gets the 3d objects from games and remixes existing projects

one more note,
what if you have something broken and they dont make replacement parts for it anymore ?
or just a little pin is broken and they want you to buy a whole new assembly plus the shipping
than the 3d print makes more and more sense and as the competition grows it will be less and less costly until a moment when if need of bowl for breakfast it will be easier to print and toss away than wash it.

hope i did not create to much confusion here

Faktuu

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

When you factor in the price of your machine raw materials electricity your time etc are the parts you are making actually cheaper than a mass produced one?,i can understand doing it for a very specialised part that is no longer available

a Big YES

you can have a printer from as little as 400 eur
electricity is almost nil
and the average price of fillament is 25eur/kg
and ammmmmmm you know (Scratch my head here) the time you spend on design

josip

AndonHandon wrote: »

What would it cost to print me a 3D wife with a fridge and tv built into her and no voice box?

Upfront costs are usually low but the maintenance and support contract will ruin you.

Faktuu

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Have you tried the ICI facebook page ?

they ware sold in 2007 to a company named AkzoNobel and it seams they do only paints now

Faktuu

printed buildings
youtube.com/watch?v=OYqBxEAtXZA
3ders.org/articles/20140826-minnesotan-world-first-3d-printed-concrete-castle-in-his-own-backyard.html

Chocolate and other pastes and ceramics
3ders.org/articles/20120417-from-chocolate-to-ceramics-3d-printing.html
youtube.com/watch?v=8WWHpWgaq7I

also you can use metals but a good printer costs a million or more

and timber like materials "Laywoo" ceramic like material "laybrick", silk, cotton, sponge like materials
and all kinds of plastics and there is infinite amount of those with all kind of properties like : foodsafe, flame retardant, flame retardant low fumes, heat resistant, carbonfibre carbon nanotubes and glasfibre infused ones, soft ,though,
on one ocasion i used nylon that is sold for grass trimmers (brilliant material very strong with a nice flexibility 40eur/kg )
stuff like this 3ders.org/articles/20141015-mit-lab-3d-printed-programmable-self-assembling-wood-and-carbon-fiber.html
and that is just the start coz they also print fully functional electronic circuts and touch screens as well.

and in some countries Police is starting to record crime scens with 3d scanners

Alun

What's needed for the problem of replacing stupidly expensive plastic bits and pieces that break is for the manufacturers themselves to embrace 3D printing. Most of the seemingly ridiculous cost for such things is not the part itself, but having to maintain storage space for them and all the paperwork / admin around it. It would be advantageous to the manufacturers to be able to just forget about all that and allow users to select parts online, have a 3D printer print them based on the CAD drawings they already have and send them by post. Either that, or for obsolete products, simply put the 3D CAD drawings into the public domain and let either the users, or small local 3D printing shops print them themselves.

Faktuu

Alun wrote: »

What's needed for the problem of replacing stupidly expensive plastic bits and pieces that break is for the manufacturers themselves to embrace 3D printing. Most of the seemingly ridiculous cost for such things is not the part itself, but having to maintain storage space for them and all the paperwork / admin around it. It would be advantageous to the manufacturers to be able to just forget about all that and allow users to select parts online, have a 3D printer print them based on the CAD drawings they already have and send them by post. Either that, or for obsolete products, simply put the 3D CAD drawings into the public domain and let either the users, or small local 3D printing shops print them themselves.

one thing buddy
patents and licences

the big companies know all about it and for example hypebeast.com/2014/10/panasonic-introduces-3d-printed-camera-covers-inspired-by-design-epochs

and they know very well about it
the idea they have for it is that they will hold the files on a server and allow you to print the object after a fee was paid, they are designing the systems in such way that a user would never ever have that file on computer rather the code will be streemed directly to a printer and you will pay per copy printed

also as the 3d printers are getting better and safer due to emerging standards and competition on parts for diy printers
There is more and more information getting on the web that a DIY printer will rape your wife ,bruise your kids till third generation, keep mother in law alive and burn your house to the ground.
HP announced they will start selling 3d printers next year
i wonder if that has anything in common

Alun

Well, yes, I'd assumed that at least for current equipment you'd have to pay for the part, or to be somehow able to pay to stream it to the printer in such a way that you couldn't copy it. I personally wouldn't have a problem with that if it meant I could extend the life of a piece of equipment without spending silly amounts of money.

Faktuu

there is no reason to think that large commercial companies would ever allow customers to fix any device with printed parts of projects supplied by them payed or not, thats not how it works, everything (unless DIY or pre 20 century) is built not to last so they could sell you a new one.

When it comes to stuff like cases of various kinds i think they should by free after all you don`t need one without the device.
Also good for sales where one could buy basic/standard version and than tweak to own needs.
If i remember correct, some car makers announced that they will allow for some parts to be printed by user of free files but these will be for interior tweaks only not actual mechanical parts that car needs to run.

Some companies already go that road, example:
pcgamer.com/roccat-nyth-mmo-mouse-supports-3d-printed-buttons-in-a-fully-modular-grid/
Brilliant mouse that i want when it comes out.

The real problem is that large companies really like to claim ownership of open source projects whenever such opportunity arises, no point to blame them for that, money are money and i would do the same in that position ,
there are examples of that out there like this one
traverseda.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/makerbot-blatently-steals-and-patents-a-community-design/

Also since in the near future it will be possible to scan and print almost perfect copy of part than such act might become illegal as there is to many businesses that make money on parts only (Car makers as an example, there are printers that can do metal though very expensive at the moment) or maybe it`s not gone be all that bad as maybe just maybe we will see drop in cost of parts as there will be no need to stock them rather print as needed by authorized dealer.

So will see what the future brings

P.S. still looking for raw material

wandatowell

I ran out of paper this morning, could you fax me up some??

scamalert

Faktuu wrote: »

Also since in the near future it will be possible to scan and print almost perfect copy of part than such act might become illegal as there is to many businesses that make money on parts only (Car makers as an example, there are printers that can do metal though very expensive at the moment) or maybe it`s not gone be all that bad as maybe just maybe we will see drop in cost of parts as there will be no need to stock them rather print as needed by authorized dealer.

So will see what the future brings

P.S. still looking for raw material

Car parts are already being done by machines,not so much as you would call them printers,but concept is materials are loaded and machine cuts measures bends and all that,so i dont think there is any threat to such industry,as anyone could buy such tech-but cost vise it would take forever to pay off for individual or some business alone. As for printing cases and what not items that are small and not so complex-it will be case as someone making design and releasing it for free to download-same as we have battles with illegal downloads,music tv industry tries to protect their rights to ownership but go to any torrent and get it for free,its illegal but most don't really care.

Faktuu

first
3d printers are much much simpler, less costly and way more versatile than a single cnc router that often cost the same or more than a printer and i`m talking about high end 8 axis router where a printer can do a better job with just 3
when talking about DIY than printers also win

When it comes to everyone can buy one and do it, well cnc routers exist for decades and only few have them why ?
coz they are just not good enough for anyone to use. they requaire way more training and material knowledge

about the torrents most is not all and you only think that it`s for free. Let me tell you that we are all paying for so called free torrents only ppl are to blind to see that it is payed for elsewhere.
also as a business you can not allow yourself to be summoned to court for something silly like piracy
and if you are so clever why don`t you scan and print money?

scamalert

Yeah then go ahead and print some pistons if your so smart here
As it seems you go mixing business with large factories that use multimillion machinery with home DIY printers then go rumble about business and cost that doesnt make sense on what items can be produced ,and ones that can be used in general as being reliable and cost effective.
If you want to make door knobs and curtain hangers any 3d printer can do that,if you want to showcase some hexagon shape printed just because it looks cool but has no use its cool with me.

Just dont go rumbling that any 3d printer that can use plastic mostly is superior to any machinery that uses different materials and metals as now you make it sound like everything is made of share plastic only.

Faktuu

scamalert wrote: »

Yeah then go ahead and print some pistons if your so smart here
As it seems you go mixing business with large factories that use multimillion machinery with home DIY printers then go rumble about business and cost that doesnt make sense on what items can be produced ,and ones that can be used in general as being reliable and cost effective.
If you want to make door knobs and curtain hangers any 3d printer can do that,if you want to showcase some hexagon shape printed just because it looks cool but has no use its cool with me.

Just dont go rumbling that any 3d printer that can use plastic mostly is superior to any machinery that uses different materials and metals as now you make it sound like everything is made of share plastic only.

well than just f^%$ google it do some research and than will talk

superMarco

Sorry for the up, but where did you buy your printer ? and which model do you have ?

ScumLord

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

When you factor in the price of your machine raw materials electricity your time etc are the parts you are making actually cheaper than a mass produced one?,i can understand doing it for a very specialised part that is no longer available

It's probably cheaper to print some small part than to go out and find a source yourself, if you buy online you have to pay for shipping and wait a few days. 3D printer can have it to you in a matter of hours.

The consumer ones seem to have a problem in that they are heating up plastic and it's shrinking at random rates in different parts of the print so it won't be as uniform as a molded part from a supplier. I've seen videos of guys doing a lot of extra work sanding or reprinting because it cooled in a weird way.

I think we may see commercial units in suppliers printing licensed parts from a well maintained machine that can be super accurate but I think it will be a while if ever, before we'll see really accurate available to the consumer.