3D Printed Parts Thread

Who all has designed and printed 3D parts for our 3G Tacomas? If you care to share, please post them in here. I recently got a 3D printer and its basically my new obsession. Unfortunately I have no experience with design software or anything like it, so its going to be a long learning process, but I'm up for the challenge.

If you are ok with sharing your designs, feel free to post the files, if not, that's ok too. I completely understand that not everyone wants to give their work away for free. With how affordable these printers are now, this could really take off and become an even bigger thing than it is already.

 

Im a CAD instructor...if theres anything you want to print, let me know, ill model you anything you want so long as you dont intend to sell it.

 

Curious, what is the entry price point for the 3D printer space? Hobbiest level

 

they are very cheap these days..

bare minimum setup i would suggest something like this:

$169 Official Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Fully Open Source with Resume Printing Function DIY 3D Printers Printing Size 8.66x8.66x9.84"

https://www.amazon.com/Comgrow-Crea...29882817&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=ender+3d&psc=1

or for a little more you could step up to something like this:

HICTOP Creality Open Source CR-10 3D Printer All Metal Frame 12x12x15.5" Build Volume and Heated Bed Includes Glass Bed

https://www.amazon.com/HICTOP-Creal...881&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=cr10+creality&psc=1

both of those will give great print quality..and the cr-10 can print very large items.
I have a cr-10 as well as a few other printers..i use the cr-10 the most.

For some parts you might want to print with ABS in which case youd want to buy an enclosed printer. I have the qidi tech 1 which i use for abs prints.

 

Cereal? Sub 500?

That's amazing, what's in the 1500 range or is it a large jump?

Edit for spelling

 

@mesojdm

 

youd basically be getting the same technology with maybe some bells and whistles at that price..

for making parts for the tacoma, the strongest most structurally sound form of printing currently available for the home user / hobbyist is FDM printing...which is the little nozzle squirting plastic type. A more expensive version might give slightly cleaner prints but honestly, the cr-10 (and many other low price fdm printers) have a proven track record for quality prints.

No matter how much you spend on a FDM printer..if its not setup correctly the print quality will suffer. The learning curve with 3d printing can be steep but once you got it figured out its not too bad. Fair warning you will have about 10x more failed prints than successes..i have been 3d printing for 5 years and still have failed prints all the time ..either layer setting problems or a mistake in my slicer settings, run out of filament, filament gets bound up on the spool..so many things have to go right for a successful print to occur
this is not a user friendly hobby by any means..

 

I disagree. I run a multi jet fusion printer making nylon parts. Way stronger than extrusion type prints, id even put it up again injection molded parts.

 

Awesome info. Tnx

 

he said 1500 dollars dude


i know there is better tech out there



did you come in here just to say that?




(so teecotaco if you have 130k lying around there are other options)

 

I browsed through his post after I was tagged...“this is the strongest print style available”. Sorry, didn’t see there was a price budget. But yes, I did come here just to say that. I stay up all night hoping someone will post about a printer so I can paste my pre-scripted response.
I have an FDM as well and they aren’t bad printers. For hobbyist, I would stay away from the sub ~$4-500 stuff as it usually takes a lot of tweaking. Once you get into the ~1k+ they are pretty good. @micwillia has a few maybe he can chime in.

 

I use a Makerbot Replicator+ gen 5 at my local library for free. Prints seem pretty good and the website shows it's a $3500 printer. Still honestly not super impressed for results with that price printer.

Any advice for the best printer to buy? I'd prefer under 2k, but not if it's not quality. Or perhaps make models with a cheap one and order them for super quality parts when I got what I needed? If there's a trustworthy website that isn't a sleasy site recommending them because of kickbacks I'll take that too so we don't go too far off topic.

To stay on topic, thingiverse has a cool mount for 3rd gen that hooks on top of the main dash and you can alter or use a screw or whatever for anything uoi can think of.

 

I’m very versed in Solidworks software. Will it work with a 3D printer?

 

Yes just output the file to an .STL and it’s universal for all 3D printers.

 

What damn library do you go too?

 

Picked up a prusa i3 on the recommendation of 3D printer enthusiasts... I think probably one of the better ones dollar for dollar in the $500-$1k category. Although you can also do the sub $500.

 

One that is a public library shared with the local community college. Although they said all of them should be getting a printer in the next few months. They're in Virginia Beach.

 

That's cool and proactive, if only other local governments did the same. Does free mean you send the file and you can pick it up when its done or do you pay for the PLA when you get there? Do they have it setup so you can view it being made with the integrated camera?

 

you can setup any printer with a camera and remote printing using a raspberry pi and something called octoprint / octopi
IMO much more reliable printing this way..no worries about computers updating or any other things that might interrupt print.
Also allows viewing a webcam of your print and will even record a timelapse video of your print. I am going to see if i can dig any old videos up..

 

Completely free, I don't pay anything. They have a studio where you can build things or download from thingiverse or wherever. Literally after you do the 1hr orientation so they know you know what you're doing, I sign up for a time slot (1hr-all day) and I show up, put my thumb drive in and hit print. They have 10 different colors of PLA or so and continually get them in. They don't have the camera set up unfortunarely and they won't fix anything if it jams so you have to either wait around or hope it prints. I did a 5 hour print, left, and came back 6 hours later and thankfully it didn't jam or anything. That's about it.