Being new to the act of 3D printing, there was a world of difference between my impression of this and the reality. In the past, much has been reported about these tools either printing illicit gun parts or Batman figurines. I knew there was more to the story, but this needed a hands-on time to understand. Yes, non standard things are happening with these printers, but there are a ton of practical uses to these tools, and I’ll go over some of that. Having recently gotten a Creality K1C printer, this world of creation opened up. Here are some of the practical things I’ve been able to do.
Improving Exiting Tools
When new worlds open up, it can be a bit overwhelming. As an installer of a ton of Unifi products, their tools and options have, at times, been limited. Unifi has improved greatly over the years, but having a specific camera view when needed can be a daunting task. There are so many surfaces, and only so many options in the box. But with 3d printing, one can expand those options many fold. In one case, I needed to mount a G4 instant camera in an unorthodox location. The camera features a standard mounting screw found in tripods; so that could have been an option, but there was a fascinating articulating option I went with. This, with about a dollar of PETG filament and I had a ton of new ways to use this camera.
Take the Unifi Gateway Fibre, I needed to mount it in a cabinet, but there was nothing out there I could find to do so. Enter a 3D printed base that allowed me to mount that perfectly vertical and out of the way.
Organization
3d printing is becoming known for the type of organization tools that can be printed. It’s still mostly undiscovered country for me but I’ve made use of shelf baskets, drill mounts, and under desk shelf to store my wireless keyboard when not in use. The real power comes in when using Gridfinity to print modular containers for tools, though I haven’t even dipped my toe in that proverbial pond. In one example, I took a bin of assorted type of new batteries and used the gridfinity tool to go from chaotic to much cleaner. This took some time to print all of these out, but the final result was easier to access something the replacement batteries I need to get often. An added bonus was using these baseplates to get it on my shelf.
Another means of organizing my space was to make my desk more versatile. This lead me to printing a mount for a keyboard and one for my current laptop. Here’s a short timelapse video of those rails printing out:
Saving Money
There was the story of a simple cup holder. The specific cup holder we used on our stroller was about $60.00 when we purchased it. Having a place to hold a cup of coffee while pushing a stroller frees your hands in major ways. Over time, this cup holder we had was lost. It was now a matter of buying another, or 3d print one. The result was a useful tool, if not imperfect. Sure the printed cup holder was a bit wobbly, and not meant for my specific stroller, but that’s a problem waiting to be solved. My cup of coffee is held well in the tool, frees a hand, and this was printed with what amounted to less than a dollar of PETG filament. This worked out so well, I printed another one for a friend.
Fun
While it is surely fun to print a cup with Batman’s face on it, I gravitate to the practical sorts of fun things. When a client asked me to look into printing a puzzle/vault sort of solver for a presentation they were giving to kids, I thought the 3d printer might make something cool. This was, in fact, the first thing i would ever print, my. first multi-coloured print job and first attempt at something practical. I landed on the four digit secret box. This was going to need sever prints, a manual change in colour and even editing plates; something new to me. and at the end of printing all these parts I needed to glue them together.
Closing Thoughts
It’s clear too that getting into 3D printing means buying all t those other things like a filament dryer, plate glue and tiny magnets. The list of do-dads and little screws is growing to support all the things that have to be assembled. This isn’t for everyone, but there are a ton of practical things you can do with a 3D printer. As I continue to explore and experiment, there is much more to say about these tools.