Asklemmy

52020 readers

343 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

What are some useful things to create with a typical 3D printer? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by comfy@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm going to have access to a 3D printer for a few days. I know two friends who've used them, but it's only been for art and figurines, or professional purposes.

Are there any other cases you can think of where a custom-printed item is better than the myriad of mass-produced plastic items?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] lemmyman@lemmy.world 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I generally come across specific things that prompt me to print a custom solution for my life. I wouldn't be surprised if there literally isn't any truly useful better-3d-printed-than-purchased thing that someone can recommend for you. (But maybe I'm just not imaginative enough :))

Maybe the biggest category of things is replacement parts for stuff around your house. The $7 doohickey might cost you $1+time to print instead.

That said, here are some things I've printed for use around my house, which might give you some ideas for your own life:

drain spouts with hose connection to route water from my gazebos "gutters" to the ground instead of just splashing down out of a hole
a cover for the switch on my floor lamp so the light can only be toggled with the wall switch instead of in 2 places
wall mount for my cable modem/router
temporary oil cap replacement for my car when I accidentally lost it after changing the oil
custom tool holders to 5-S my workspace
large v block clamps for my drill press
riser for my bench top power supply, to tilt it at a better angle for viewing
infinite toys for my kids
replacement part for a model kit that my kid accidentally broke
handlebar basket custom sized for my kids bike
replacement latch clip for my car's fuse cover

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What is 5-S?

[–] lemmyman@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's a whole process for streamlining production environments, but I just meant it as shorthand for organizing my tools, specifically giving each one its own dedicated place so I can tell at a glance whether everything is put away, and if not, what's missing.

A couple examples of the concept

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Cool, thank you! Based on that I also found it on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S/_%28methodology%29

These terms are often translated as 'sort', 'set in order', 'shine', 'standardize', and 'sustain'.