A box of parts/wires/circuit boards

[Stay Sharp]

Its going to take about a week to assemble this huge 3D printer. Its larger in size than 2 washing machines (proving Americans will use any unit of measure other than the metric system) A ton of boxes of tiny parts (structural parts,nuts, bolts, wiring, circuit boards, stepper motors, etc) After two days of assembling it, Im not even half done. When finished it will be about 65" x 40" x 48" tall and will be able to 3D print parts as big as 47" x 24" x 24". I love my job. This will eventually be used to print large scale prototypes for life saving, diagnostic imaging/medical devices but first (after I finish building it), I get to play around printing non-essential stuff to master the tool, its features and software.

This 3D printer is for my employer (a diagnostic imaging/medical devices company) but I have 7 smaller 3D printers at home for my own use as I am a additive manufacturing/techy geek.

Thankfully the maker provides great instructions including the written word, video, 3D rotating imagery.

 

[noharleyyet]

Gotta admit, for a MacGyver moment I thought you were making it yourself....first thing I'd do is lose (throw) the instructions away.

Pretty cool sir.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Its a giant erector set. Ive built many 3D printers (most are about 2 ft sq in size) Because NOTHING from this device is pre-assembled, the instructions are key.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Good thing they didn't send you IKEA type instructions,that project would be your life's work!
I guess you could always "Rube"it. 〽

 

[kansasdad]

It is truly mind blowing where 3D imaging, scanning and printing is headed in the dental/medical world. Completely changing the way to proceed with diagnosis, treatment planing and restoration of physical structures.

 

[RemingtonRules]

Can you use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer?

 

[Stay Sharp]

Can you use a 3d printer to make a 3d printer?

Yes. Many of the parts for this 3D printer are 3D printed parts. Ive modified or repaired my own 3D printers with parts I designed and printed on another 3D printer in my shop. 3D printers can be used for junk and toys or they can be used to make amazing things.

Ive printed myself many phone cases I designed for myself. I destroy them on traveling hunts but the phone is protected and when the case gets ruined, I just print another for pennies.

And then I designed and printed a mount for the Iphone to do self filming with my bow. And the other mount of the UPA cam (like a go pro but better)

NONE OF THIS STUFF IS FOR SALE OR PART OF MY PRODUCT LINE SO IM NOT ADVERTISING
(That disclaimer was for the handful of members here that will trip over themselves to hit the report button to complain to the admin. They know who they are)

 

[Stay Sharp]

Ive finished building this huge 3D printer. Ive made several modifications/improvements and then added a live streaming web cam so I can monitor really large print jobs remotely. Now to get to the Raspberry Pie portion and the cameras web link up. This printer will make parts that are 4 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I needed to do a test print on this new 3D printer. I wanted to test about 6 diff. things so I selected this as the test model. Then after it finished, I threw some paint on it. It will hang on the wall next to the printer.

 

[Stay Sharp]

More fun with 3D printing. Yesterday I fooled around with converting 2D photos into 3D printed parts. Here are the first parts I printed. I need to work on improving the quality. One of the photos is of my WI buck from 2019

 

[Stay Sharp]

More Playing around with turning photos into 3D printed parts.

Then with a light held behind it.

How about a valentines gift in the form of a night light??

Start with a photo of a handsome couple.

Then add light behind the 3D printed part.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Today I designed and printed a spool dust cover for the new printer. Then I added a softer "mud flap" because this printer has the enclosure with swinging doors and the doors will hit the mud flap as a soft stop without damaging either the spool dust cover of the clear doors. The yellow tool hanging from a string above the spool is an SD card puller I designed and printed since there is so little of the SD card sticking out of the control box that I cant pinch the card to pull it out.

Then I added a piece of open cell foam that I slit that swipes/wipes the dust from the filament before it enters the guide tube. This printer is not in a clean environment.

Then I added a large maple top work bench for post processing printed parts. Just about ready to start making large 3D printed parts.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

You get run off on other sites and ignored on this one. Kinda funny

 

[rjthehunter]

Interesting! With them becoming more affordable, an average guy could pick up a 3d printer and make various things with it for under 1k!

 

[Stay Sharp]

Interesting! With them becoming more affordable, an average guy could pick up a 3d printer and make various things with it for under 1k!

I have 7 of them at home. Yes, they are affordable and I use mine for my business so they are profit centers that pay for themselves in under a month. When I finish setting this really big printer up it will be around 8K.

 

[Stay Sharp]

Interesting! With them becoming more affordable, an average guy could pick up a 3d printer and make various things with it for under 1k!

I have a small 3D printer I picked up for about $250. Then I used it to print just one specific archery part (and Ive sold many of them) Ive sold about $6,000 worth of that one part (about the size of a dime) so they are a good investment and pay for themselves fast.

With The other printers I have running (on average I pay under $500 for a printer) Ive made bowhunting products that ive sold for many 10's of thousands of dollars for my company and several other bowhunting companies. Those bowhunting products then need to be field tested so I get to travel the globe bowhunting with 3d printed parts and products and designs that I was paid to invent. Its a good life.

Its been my experience that if you created the proper business model, a 3D printer is essentially a license to print money.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I built This huge Modix printer in the engineering lab that is about 7 miles from my house. I installed a live feed web cam but the lights in the lab auto-power down at 8:00pm and dont come back on until they are manually switched on when entering the lab. There are no windows in the lab. If Im doing a multi day print job that I want to monitor remotely, Im unable to see anything when the shop goes dark. Tomorrow, Im going to fix that. I picked up 5 meters of bright white LED's that I will attach to the inside of the enclosure to light my way.

An enterprising soul could envision a scenario in which a company that makes aluminum cast parts for the outdoor industry would be faced with spending lots of R&D dollars and time to investigate and then pay another to machine a sand cast mold positive and then repeat that expensive task over and over as they refine the design when they could save a lot of money if they had access to a large format 3D printer to print the mold positive very fast and at a very low cost. So fast and at such a low cost that they could afford to do several versions or iterations to maximize and refine the design rather than stopping because they ran out or time of money to further improve and then pay to have somebody machine such a thing out of plate steel or aluminum. Saddle hunters with their tiny foot prints would also do well to take advantage of rapid prototyping tech to work smart, not harder.

 

[Stay Sharp]

You get run off on other sites and ignored on this one. Kinda funny

Im sorry, I didn't see you sitting there and pouting. Here.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

OK, if you must.

Poach lately?
Illegal bait lately?
Pawn more fenced elk as free range?

Google shows this and more.

Wanna keep going?

 

[Stay Sharp]

1. No. Never have. Ive not poached any game in all 46 years of my hunting life. (But I like poached eggs. does that count?)
2. Nope never have. (recall I got a citation nearly a decade ago for FEEDING. (But nice try.)
3. Nope.

Its clear you didn't arrive here to stay on topic and talk about 3D printers.. You have an agenda hoping to talk about some other stuff not related to the thread.

Thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you and a copy of our home game.