Examples of truly practical/useful prints?

[chrisr 18]

In my products, it try to use 3D-printed parts as much as possible. It gives me the possibility to design the product how I want without expensive machinery.

http://www.puremoco.com/pages/slider.php

http://www.puremoco.com/pages/pantilt.php

As you can see, I am printing belt wheels, brackets for belts, guide pulleys etc. Also, I am planing to print housings for my PCBs:

http://www.puremoco.com/pages/motioncontroller.php

Without having a 3D-printer, those products would be unaffordable and maybe not even possible to design.

 

Very interesting! :-)

 

[puremoco 15]

Here is a little update:

(Had to create a new accout because of the website update)

[mfknjohn 6]

We just purchased the Ultimaker 2 Extended for work and we mostly use it to produce prototype parts before mass production. These Printers are amazing and everyone in the office is always circled around.

[puremoco 15]

Motorized carbon-pipe-slider for timelapse photography:

(more info and picture on http://puremoco.com/pages/sliderCarbon.php)

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[DarthBilly 0]

That's awesome and Beautiful!

[francfalco 37]

A Loft window bracket i created ages ago and still does the job everyday:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:405401

[ErikDeBruijn 15]

I designed and printed lots of things that were practical. Door stops, holders for baby monitors, window drapes, etc. etc.

Most useful: And e-Nable hand for a 6 year old girl in the neighbourhood.

Apart from that, curtain holders:

And for the sake of recursion, it's fun to know that Ultimakers have been made with the help of printed parts, even from the earliest beginnigs:

A label dispenser that has helped bootstrap the company (and keeping the dull task of making kits a bit more fun:

 

Another one of these tiny prints saved me and my girlfriend many many hours of work:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/wire-twisting-tool (see the video and you'll see why doing it by hand would have sucked).

And a few sets of RepRap parts for RepRap Darwins and a Huxley.

A part that would otherwise be 30 euros+ but now cost less than 2 euros and a bit if fun designing it:

EV plug holder (on YouMagine):

[jens 9]

Not sure if stuff related to wet shaving (you know, real soap and all that) is disqualified by definition ...

Brush handle with an excessive amount of finishing work (still only looks rather used/vintage at best); Minimalistic shaving mug with some rough sanding and torch smoothing (except for the really bad cellulite, the inner surface is very rough for practical reasons)

(Sorry, I can't make decent photos with my phone ... nor any other device)

[ignatius 23]

Wich practical or useful prints can I do it´s a question that comes to my mind all the time, and the answer use to appear every time that i´ve broke something.

For example, once I was cleaning my turtles filter, when suddenly during the process I just broked up a tiny part. Without it, the filter was not able to canalize the water anymore. In addition, was sunday morning and all the shops where closed, so I had no chance to buy a new filter, and the turtles couldn´t wait until monday to have clean water. The printer helped me not only to repair the filter, but to keep my turtles happy and to save around 30€.

I have two other examples with a picture each.

This is a figure of an angel that my girfriend broke up several times, and instead to repair it again, I´ve just drawed and printed new wings for it:

And this is a Wakeboard holder that my boss needed for his holidays. My printer was his last resort and possibility to repair it.

It worked out:

[chrisw 70]

For about 5 years I've been manufacturing gloves that have cameras attached to them, specifically designed for use in skydiving. We keep the design as snag-proof as possible to avoid interference with the parachute system. Before I bought my UM2 I was limited to only supporting one type of camera, the GoPro (I was using injection molds, and the tooling was far too expensive for me to offer much variety).

With my UM2 though, these days I'm only limited by my ability to design and time available to do it. A few camera mounts that I've released over the last several weeks:

There was quite a steep learning curve for me to be able to make these parts reliably. Each model has at least one nut captured inside, and a SS plate embedded about 4mm off the floor to reinforce the mount holes. I was sure I must've broken my UM2 a couple times when the nozzle crashed into the steel plate because it was at a slightly wrong height. The print was toast each time that happened, but the printer didn't seem to care. It's still working great.

Skydiving is a harsh environment, so I figured these count as evidence of real-world use for printed goods.

Chris

[jens 9]

...

I was sure I must've broken my UM2 a couple times when the nozzle crashed into the steel plate because it was at a slightly wrong height.  The print was toast each time that happened, but the printer didn't seem to care.  It's still working great.

...

 

For those situations, I usually leave holes in the part to press-fit/glue whatever (usually nuts or similar metal pieces) in. But just printing around the metal part is neat. How did you get the metal insert properly aligned on the bed? Pre-printing some thin "orientation lines", place the insert and start the actual print?

[chrisw 70]

How did you get the metal insert properly aligned on the bed? Pre-printing some thin "orientation lines", place the insert and start the actual print?

 

Yes, exactly. I made supports that print on the glass. It has a few lines and then small cylinders that poke up through the screw holes to align the holes pause the print. The center round shape is one of the supports. It's wide below the plate, then continues up through a small hole and becomes part of the structure above that plate, basically tacking the plate in place.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Repaired a pancover handle... looks better than before thanks to @flowalistik

[ultiarjan 1,223]

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/vacuum-cleaner-drill-aid

[valcrow 144]

Repaired a pancover handle... looks better than before thanks to @flowalistik

 

ha looks great! Be careful though! that particular model is weak where the wrists are and where the legs connect. If you printed it mostly hollow and the cover is heavyish it will likely break it along the seams there. I broke a few getting them off the buildplate.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

no worries I used plenty infill ....

[LePaul 321]

Motorized carbon-pipe-slider for timelapse photography:

(more info and picture on http://puremoco.com/pages/sliderCarbon.php)

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I was thinking of this when I found this Bluetooth/3d Printed camera slide!