Have you made anything useful?

I'm really curious to see what people have made which have a genuine use (Excluding printer parts / upgrades). I love all the things that people make for fun, print quality etc but I'm fascinated to see functional parts that you would either struggle to make in another method, or would be cost prohibitive. Pictures would be good as always!

I'm part way through a print now which I will post assuming it's successful

Thingiverse has plenty of customized gifts for loved ones.

Andy

Gimbal for a SteadiCam
Parametric Chair/Table Foot
Parametric Remote Control Holder
Parametric LOGO Smart Phone Stand
Replacement drip coffee maker valve
Key Turner Tool
Table leg clamp
Customizable Object Holder

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Now that's the kind of things I'm talking about! Very nice

I just saw a post on Hackaday.com where a guy designed a muffler for an air compressor and printed it. That seemed pretty cool and very useful to me. I suspect that the best use for 3-d printers is for designers that want to mock something up to test it, or actually make a functioning part for something. Most people don't really design things, and so a 3-d printer doesn't seem useful to them. It isn't really worth buying a 3-d printer if all you are going to do is print stuff that is on thingiverse. Why not just buy the printed part from someone? But for makers, like there are on this site, it is an awesome tool that can be used to quickly create very specialized and otherwise impossible to make parts.

Yes, to be honest that's why I got mine, albeit for hobby projects... Pics as promised anyway:-





Not too dissimilar from printer parts I guess, but for an unrelated project in any case! Very interested in other peoples print trials...

Great question. Obviously there is a lot of child-oriented "check it out/cool factor" parts, and recursively self-justified reprap parts, and perhaps some gimmicky looking things, but I hope you don't think that is all there is for FDM printers. We are SO close to breaking out into a world of real replicators. What you will see in 2013/14 with blow away all the past years combined. I'm thinking about that hardware store printer that spits out a screw or parts of any size, art that begins to blow you away, of course, there will always be hobby, research, props, prototypes, and other one-off parts. Eventually we will see more 3D printed parts hidden inside real consumer products (direct digital production).

I predict in 3-5 years a true "killer app" product for home and commercial use. I'm thinking something like disposable razor cartridges that you print, or disposable food grade cups and silverware you can print recycle (think of the obvious office cafeteria need here). The list can go on, but from what I saw at the 3DEA pop up store in NYC, reprap parts are the most gimmicky, with some freeform art starting to looking very impressive in white color (least obvious Z-layering).

3D printed jewlery is what I consider the first successful killer app, truly innovative, highly enabling, with mass appeal, and disruptive possibilities

I'm in the process of doing a proof of concept for my pellet extruder (Pellet deposition modeling/ Fused plastic fabrication??) by making 3D printed CROCS (yes shoes). Its going to take a while to perfect , but stay tuned for a super cool app if that works, $3 shoes for anyone, and even more people will "get it" about this super young field of 3DP. the rubber is Kraton G series polymers

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2013 09:36PM by Simba.

I made new shelf holding brackets for my kitchen cabinet. I could not get them anywhere, so printing them saved the day

i made this pedal for better pedal grind on my bmx bike.
all bmx pedal are concave to make it easier to catch on tricks, but i wanted a flatter side for grinds.
works perfect.

Simba, yes that was the idea of the thread really. As I'm still new to this it's easy to lose sight of the big picture by printing gimmicky items just for the hell of it. I am 100% with you on the future of the technology so I'm fascinated to see what people have done so far.

I've yet to print anything which I need 'off the cuff' (like shelf brackets!) but I've planned a few things and they've come out pretty good. I'm around 0.2 mm out in my dimensional accuracy at the moment which make it a little more awkward but I'll get there.

Possenier, that's a great use of the printer. I guess it's cheaper than buying the originals too?

Wow @ bike pedal. Wouldn't trust the strength of that myself... But it should be doable.
What program was used to make the design

Simba Wrote:
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> Wow @ bike pedal. Wouldn't trust the strength of
> that myself... But it should be doable.
That was my thought too. I'd like to see a picture of the printed part.

the originals are cheap as well since you can buy the plastic halves for like 5$ each, and they last longer.
it's just that everyone likes his pedals just a bit different, and a 3D printer gives me that option.

Last Monday, I ended up upgrading my iPhone to the latest iPhone 5 - not so much through choice but because my 4 was getting too unreliable. I digress ....As you may know, Apple have changed the docking/charging connector on their latest devices to something they call a "Lightning" connector. This meant that my Brodit holder in the car was now useless. Three choices: buy another "Active" Brodit holder, remove the 30 pin cable from the existing Brodit holder and charge the phone at home or make parts to upgrade my existing Brodit holder to one which will accommodate my new fancy iPhone 5.

At around £50 for a new one, I think you know where I am going with this ...... I spent today making parts for the conversion - custom made RepRap parts. Total cost including my EBay lightning cable was less than £4. Result!

Alan

and the pedal was made with google sketch up.
i took a original halve of the pedal, put it on my scanner, import in sketchup and redraw it like i wanted it.
it works perfect for bmx, and i put way more stress on it that you probably ever would on a normal bike, so it's strong enough for day to day use on a normal bike.
pictures are on thingiverse (some you need to look at full size, but they are on there)

Nicely done!

Alzibiff Wrote:
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> Last Monday, I ended up upgrading my iPhone to the
> l.................... Total cost including my EBay
> lightning cable was less than £4. Result!
>
> Alan

I made some miniature carabiners for attaching rubber loops to caravan awnings, once the original rubbers break the only way to attach more is to tie with string, try to loop the new rubber through itself or have them professionally redeem in at cost.

My 3D printer is keeping my dads holiday choice looking smart (ish).

Well lets see now.

Pulley upgrade for my printer.

Functioning improved whilst design.

Parts for obsolete automotive switches.

Christmas decorations.

Headphone replacement parts.

Phone case with closing lid.

High tension coil cases for obsolete ignition systems.

Gift boxes including one I proposed to my soon to be wife with.

Prototyping parts to see fits before sending to be cnc machined.

An equatorial mount for a camera to photo night sky.

And commercial 3d printing I use all the time to make parts for obsolete HT electrical equipment. Including now unobtainable copies of special ignition coils. Metal parts and gears.

Custom jewellery too.

Theirs probably more but I can't think of it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2013 07:07PM by Madkite.

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The bike pedal is nice. Many like me were unconvinced of the strength of printed parts. I think this is mainly because we tend to print them with reduced % infill.

I printed a pair of adapter brackets for my rear bike carriage. 100% infill makes very strong functional parts. They haven't failed yet after 8 months.

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