Comment on Hot take: 3D printing toys kinda sucks
Evotech@lemmy.world 5 weeks agoYeah, most of the time it’s not necessary. It’s just generating trash because they want to print stuff
Is it fun? I guess. I never saw the appeal.
“Wow, you mean I can spend more time and headaches to “create” my own parts instead of knowing a supplier’s offerings? And still end up with an inferior product that took all night to print? And it’s just simple CAD software like for the last 40 years but now it requires Windows 11 and 64G of RAM? Joy!”
“Sure! Why do you want to limit yourself to gears and enclosures from professional companies that have been doing it for 50 years?”
It really comes down to the user, as with any tech.
I use mine to exclusively print functional parts to keep old things around the house functioning. But I also took mechanical drafting for 3 semesters and feel both comfort and enjoyment from drafting my own models. That’s not the case for everyone.
My functional prints are almost all still in operation, some for years. Many of the parts literally do not have commercial replacements, or solve issues that exist in the commercial versions.
I understand that I am an outlier though
I’m curious about these old things around the house you keep functioning.
I’ll give an example of an old thing I want to keep running: a 1980s cassette deck.
Between the metalized plastic buttons, the belts, the wheels, the gears, the pressure rollers, there is nothing that can be 3D printed that even remotely approaches the finished look or function of the parts I’d need.
That definitely sounds like an intensive project
I have some simple buttons and knobs, drawer handles, drawer slides, dryer pest guards that no longer seem to be made, cabinet shelf supports for weird old peg sizes/shapes, plugs for holes to block sharp edges, etc
Your example is going to be really tough in part because the tape itself is fragile. I would absolutely not print things that will touch the magnetic tape itself if you care about the tape.
But the buttons, and possibly even the gears can likely be functionally printed as long as the features arent too small. That’s the biggest issue your example has most likely: minimum feature size
Metalized youtube.com/shorts/wnUjFzN3by8
Gears: depends on pitch. Cf nylon on a good printer can go relatively fine. youtu.be/S12MAkV29sQ
Belts: There’s TPU at a variety of shore hardness to match the original.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Honey, that you?