Now Printing

[gte718p]

I picked up a cheap 3D printer on a whim a couple of months ago. The Monoprice mini came poped up as an Amazon ad for $180 bucks. I figured it was a toy, but I had been wanting one. It is a toy compared to some of the machines I have used in the past, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite tools. It doesn't take up a lot of space, it is self contained, and print quality is decent. It is not going to compare to a $10k or even a $5k machine, but then again you can't reasonably expect it to.

My little Mini:

I have been looking for some trim clips to put the plastic molding back on the B pillar of my 4Runner. I didn't think these things should be hard to find. The dealership doesn't have any stock, and I have been sent the wrong ones several times ordering them online. The one guy who has the correct ones locally wants $10 a clip. That is ridiculous.

Yesterday I whipped up a design in Fusion 360 and printed my own. It took two attempts as I made the shank to long on the first ones, but after that they were perfect.

I forgot to take pictures of the final products, but 28 minutes and $1 in plastic later I had 5 perfect clips and the molding is back on.

What are you printing?

 

[jp828108]

That is awesome. Would love to see some photos of the completed work. I will have to keep an eye out for a similar deal. I have no idea where I would use it, but when you need it you need it, and it has already saved you some money, so that is awesome.

 

[gte718p]

That is awesome. Would love to see some photos of the completed work. I will have to keep an eye out for a similar deal. I have no idea where I would use it, but when you need it you need it, and it has already saved you some money, so that is awesome.

I really should have taken some pictures, unfortunately they are now concealed behind a piece of plastic.

I spend 25 minutes drawing and 8 minutes printing the first draft, and 28 minutes supervising a printer for the final draft. With my hourly freelance rate, I probably did not come out ahead monetarily. However it was satisfying to do it myself and to deny someone the chance to exploit me. If hobbies made sense, they wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

 

[landlord30]

Sweet!!!!

 

[Earp69]

i bought an anet a8 about 5 months ago for 150 bucks shipped.i can not believe the quality of prints I can do with this thing. the build platform is about double that by looks.220x220x240 tall. just starting to play with fusion 360,i had only printed things already designed off of thingiverse before.

 

[Musicinabottle]

We have one at work. They sure are neatoh!

 

[gte718p]

I ordered a variable voltage power supply from china. Incredibly reasonable price for a 0-48 volt dc supply. It is definitely not by $400 lab grade power supply, but I'm finding situations I need a bunch of different voltages but don't necessarily need them to be accurate to 4 decimal places. The case for the circuit board was twice the price of the board and had bad reviews.

No problem.

A little Fusion 360 work:

Nine hours later: