When working with a fringe hobby such as mine and using a 3D printer, I often get comments like "Isn't that part like $19?
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When working with a fringe hobby such as mine and using a 3D printer, I often get comments like "Isn't that part like $19? Why bother fiddling with a 3D printer". While technically true, I'm not really after the money saving angle here. A pinball machine has a LOT of parts and owning over 30 of them means pretty insane parts stock.
What usually breaks or wears out is very well known and a lot of it is compatible with a wide range of machines, such as coil sleeves and rubbers. Those I buy. But then there are unique parts, that were used only in a specific machine. Often those parts can be found with a web search, but they're not in stock anywhere or they'll take up to a month to arrive in this corner of the world. There's also cases where a tiny plastic part can fail, but you can only buy the whole assembly for $200.
Being able to just print one means the game is back in the action often in hours and at least in my designs I don't just clone the parts, I also try to see why they break and make them sturdier and easier to install. I also hope more people would be inspired to share theirs, so there'd be a printable parts library out there when needed.
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When working with a fringe hobby such as mine and using a 3D printer, I often get comments like "Isn't that part like $19? Why bother fiddling with a 3D printer". While technically true, I'm not really after the money saving angle here. A pinball machine has a LOT of parts and owning over 30 of them means pretty insane parts stock.
What usually breaks or wears out is very well known and a lot of it is compatible with a wide range of machines, such as coil sleeves and rubbers. Those I buy. But then there are unique parts, that were used only in a specific machine. Often those parts can be found with a web search, but they're not in stock anywhere or they'll take up to a month to arrive in this corner of the world. There's also cases where a tiny plastic part can fail, but you can only buy the whole assembly for $200.
Being able to just print one means the game is back in the action often in hours and at least in my designs I don't just clone the parts, I also try to see why they break and make them sturdier and easier to install. I also hope more people would be inspired to share theirs, so there'd be a printable parts library out there when needed.
@apzpins time savings is by far the biggest win I see with a 3d printer. sure i can get that part for $19 but its a week away, it would be $50 for overnight and it will still be 3 days at best. 3d printer? i can have it in a few hours that day.
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When working with a fringe hobby such as mine and using a 3D printer, I often get comments like "Isn't that part like $19? Why bother fiddling with a 3D printer". While technically true, I'm not really after the money saving angle here. A pinball machine has a LOT of parts and owning over 30 of them means pretty insane parts stock.
What usually breaks or wears out is very well known and a lot of it is compatible with a wide range of machines, such as coil sleeves and rubbers. Those I buy. But then there are unique parts, that were used only in a specific machine. Often those parts can be found with a web search, but they're not in stock anywhere or they'll take up to a month to arrive in this corner of the world. There's also cases where a tiny plastic part can fail, but you can only buy the whole assembly for $200.
Being able to just print one means the game is back in the action often in hours and at least in my designs I don't just clone the parts, I also try to see why they break and make them sturdier and easier to install. I also hope more people would be inspired to share theirs, so there'd be a printable parts library out there when needed.
@apzpins Another fun thing is realizing how many things have been created with snap enabled.
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
