Gone down the 3D printing rabbit hole

[Lyrebird Steve]

Wondering if anyone else has 3D printed faceplates for their winding gear. I have inserted a Neo mag into the hole visible on the photo to help attach the bobbin to the faceplate ... no double sided sticky required.






Printing all sorts of kit ... motor mounts, tensioners, wire guides. Anyone else ? Happy to swap STL files if interested.

Cheers
Steve

[J M Fahey]

Hey!!! Great idea and implementation
Congratulations.

[xtian]

Nice. If you haven't already, check out thingiverse.com--great place to share designs. Here's mine: https://www.thingiverse.com/aaronlyon/designs

[CheopisIV]

Oh yeah, been into the 3D printing world for a few years now. I did up some faceplates for my lathe winder. The beauty is you just have to do one base design then change the mounting 'hole' to fit your flatwork on each new plate. I don't have the plates up but here's my Thingiverse profile as well.
https://www.thingiverse.com/cheopisiv/designs

[Wired]

I'm just shopping for a 3D printer at the moment, so I have loads of questions, lol.

Have you guys printed bobbins? or cosmetic parts? Covers, knobs, switch tips etc.

I'm interested in the newer machines with high temp heads for PETG and Nylon. Should I bother? or have you found PLA to be strong enough for jigs, brackets and general workshop bits and bobs?

Which cad and slicer software are you using?

Cheers.

[CheopisIV]

I'm just shopping for a 3D printer at the moment, so I have loads of questions, lol.

Have you guys printed bobbins? or cosmetic parts? Covers, knobs, switch tips etc.

I'm interested in the newer machines with high temp heads for PETG and Nylon. Should I bother? or have you found PLA to be strong enough for jigs, brackets and general workshop bits and bobs?

Which cad and slicer software are you using?

Cheers.

Unless things have significantly changed, you won't be printing fashion parts. Even on a resin printer, you're going to have brittle parts (although much prettier but also much harder to develop). Injection molding is still the best option for looks and durability.

I've used all materials but have gone to mostly PLA for my prints as it's much easier to work with, no noxious fumes and does the trick for most applications. If I need a little more springiness in a part then I'll use PETG. I used to work with ABS almost exclusively but the smell is terrible if you dont have a good ventilation system.

CAD, I use Google Sketchup. I hate it but it's what I have for now. Slicer, I went with Simplify3D because when I started, it was the best I could find. There are a ton of options now that are likely comparable and free.

[Wired]

Nice one. Thanks for your response.

[Zozobra]

I'm just shopping for a 3D printer at the moment, so I have loads of questions, lol.

Have you guys printed bobbins? or cosmetic parts? Covers, knobs, switch tips etc.

I'm interested in the newer machines with high temp heads for PETG and Nylon. Should I bother? or have you found PLA to be strong enough for jigs, brackets and general workshop bits and bobs?

Which cad and slicer software are you using?

Cheers.

For CAD check out onshape - free license for hobbyists and runs in-browser. It's basically the next iteration of solidworks.
I use Superslicer as it is a lot more tunable than Cura.

Nylon is a pain to print without a fancy setup as it really needs an actively heated chamber to print reliably. PETG will print fine at 220-230°C, so should be fine with a run of the mill PTFE lined hotend like is standard on the Creality machines.

I don't see why you couldn't print a bobbin with PLA. It's more brittle than than ABS/PETG/ASA, but if it's not under any stress/load then it'll be fine.

How much are you looking to throw down on a printer? Creality stuff is ok if you don't mind having to tinker with it and is cheap. The Prusa stuff is solid, if a little expensive. Bambu have just released a new system which looks to be great and should be the most plug and play of anything currently available: https://uk.store.bambulab.com/products/p1p