My 3D printing journey - now under new ownership!
- Thread starter TB
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- 9,688
- Portland, OR
- Jump_Ace
- JUMPxACE
Cool thread @TB
My 3D printing story goes like this. *deep inhale*
Let's go in the way-back machine about 4-5 years ago. At the time, Lego just stopped selling the original UCS Millennium Falcon and the price tag for ONE 47996 was $200 easy. I had trouble sleeping one night and had the thought to 3D print this highly sought after and super rare lego piece and make some moolah.
So that night I got up and found a cad file for the lego piece and found out the actual Length to Height ratio was incorrect and needed to be modified, so I then installed a trial version of AutoCAD and found some YT tutorials on how to tweak the file so it'd be identical to the original piece. Luckily for me at the time I owned a Lego MF to verify the incorrect size.
I got the changes made and now the question was how to color match it to the Light Bluish Gray color lego uses. Trust me, after researching, no one wants a black one or a black one painted (chips off easily even with primer paint). So I scoured google and found a company in Wisconsin that makes colored filament (I don't recall the name, sorry). I shipped them a few big LBG colored lego pieces and got 5 spools in the mail. It wasn't 100% accurate, but 99% accurate, definitely close enough and better than I expected.
Question two, how should I make it? At the time I knew 3D printing was difficult, so I found a shop 1/2 mile from my work and had them make me a pair for $10. The mods I made to the cad file were correct, yay!
I quickly posted my product on ebay with comparisons to the original regarding size, color, shape, flexibility and with it installed in my lego MF. I sold them for $99/pair plus shipping. It was a booming success, I made just over $4,000 profit in about a year and some change. During that time I did get a Creative something or other model of 3D printer, but returned it soon thereafter because of numerous headaches and it's just easier to have someone else do it.
The money I made spawned another spin-off company to Lego (after I showed them the market opportunity) where they specialized in replicating Lego Star Wars UCS sets, on the cheap. Those were more legit knock offs where they actually used molds, etc, but the quality was sub-par I read online.
The wife and I went to the Bahamas and stayed at an all inclusive resort for a week when my son was about 1 (stayed with the grandparents). Not a bad way to spend a sleepless night
Jerome
My 3D printing story goes like this. *deep inhale*
Let's go in the way-back machine about 4-5 years ago. At the time, Lego just stopped selling the original UCS Millennium Falcon and the price tag for ONE 47996 was $200 easy. I had trouble sleeping one night and had the thought to 3D print this highly sought after and super rare lego piece and make some moolah.
So that night I got up and found a cad file for the lego piece and found out the actual Length to Height ratio was incorrect and needed to be modified, so I then installed a trial version of AutoCAD and found some YT tutorials on how to tweak the file so it'd be identical to the original piece. Luckily for me at the time I owned a Lego MF to verify the incorrect size.
I got the changes made and now the question was how to color match it to the Light Bluish Gray color lego uses. Trust me, after researching, no one wants a black one or a black one painted (chips off easily even with primer paint). So I scoured google and found a company in Wisconsin that makes colored filament (I don't recall the name, sorry). I shipped them a few big LBG colored lego pieces and got 5 spools in the mail. It wasn't 100% accurate, but 99% accurate, definitely close enough and better than I expected.
Question two, how should I make it? At the time I knew 3D printing was difficult, so I found a shop 1/2 mile from my work and had them make me a pair for $10. The mods I made to the cad file were correct, yay!
I quickly posted my product on ebay with comparisons to the original regarding size, color, shape, flexibility and with it installed in my lego MF. I sold them for $99/pair plus shipping. It was a booming success, I made just over $4,000 profit in about a year and some change. During that time I did get a Creative something or other model of 3D printer, but returned it soon thereafter because of numerous headaches and it's just easier to have someone else do it.
The money I made spawned another spin-off company to Lego (after I showed them the market opportunity) where they specialized in replicating Lego Star Wars UCS sets, on the cheap. Those were more legit knock offs where they actually used molds, etc, but the quality was sub-par I read online.
The wife and I went to the Bahamas and stayed at an all inclusive resort for a week when my son was about 1 (stayed with the grandparents). Not a bad way to spend a sleepless night
Jerome
- 35,268
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
That. Is. Amazing.
My goals for the printer aren't nearly as lofty, that's for sure!
How large is the piece you were having printed?
- - - - -
First piece cleaned up, second piece stacked on top. Cleaning out all those damn supports lead to sore fingertips and even drew blood.
Now just imagine them glued together and painted kind of a sandy color. And another three next to it.
Thingiverse link
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- 9,149
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
- 9,149
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
- 9,688
- Portland, OR
- Jump_Ace
- JUMPxACE
- 35,268
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- Cy-Fi
I saw it when you posted it then got sidetracked and forgot about it.Don't like my link for 3D printed doughnuts @TB?
If I'm going to spend money on a donut, it's going to be a real one, not a fake one.
Um... sure. Kind of.Oh you mean
I haven't seen that for ages. The film that is, not the fellow.
Piece three of eight is currently printing.
- 9,688
- Portland, OR
- Jump_Ace
- JUMPxACE
That is the one! But only in light bluish gray. The other colors it'd be like $2
Recently lego released the NEW MF and another set that uses that same light bluish gray piece so they fetch closer to $5 on bricklink now, IIRC.
I have the ebay listing pics I used somewhere, I'll try and dig them up.
EDIT: Well all the pictures were saved to photobucket and in a fit of rage (like everyone else when they blocked free image hosting on other sites), I deleted all of my pics. I forgot I did also make a checklist for those who Bricklinked their MF set (to help sweeten the deal). Oh, and the 47996 STL file I modified.
Jerome
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- 9,149
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- neema_t
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Expanding on my plans for this. I was planning on taking down about four random pieces of pallet wood to use as the face of a floating shelf but in trying to pick out which ones to use, I didn't like how they were laying out and also I felt like trying to commit to shelf spacing without really knowing how large anything was going to be.I still need to fabricate the shelves but that is absolutely the intent.
So the new plan is to take down the entire eleventh row from the ceiling and make the whole thing a shelf. Then once that fills up (things will be VERY spaced out) I'll have a good idea of the kind of real estate I'll need so I can then take down a couple of random boards down for additional shelves.
There are plenty of Lightsabers on Thingiverse and there is a Deckard's Blaster on myminifactory. I wasn't planning on the latter, to be honest, and the former was likely going to be a bit down the road as I'm building up quite a backlog with these 12-24 prints I've been doing. Never mind still needing to finish them. I'm going to be busy for a while.
Edit: I just got the call that campus is closed tomorrow so I should be able to get at least the idol and Earth stone epoxied then move on to the filler.
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- 4,910
- Bulgaria
It looks like this:The last piece of the element stones is finished printing. In needing a break from 12+ hour prints, I'm currently working on this:
View attachment 814390
Sorry for another difficult one to guess.
- 35,268
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
Obviously close but much simpler:It looks like this:
I made my first thing on Tinkercad this afternoon, too! Nothing even remotely impressive but it does the job:
In action:
I'm going to paint the stand and face of the Batarang flat black. The "sharpened" edge will stay grey.
New print that's going:
Don't bother guessing because you'll undoubtedly be wrong. It's basically a "look, it can print other things besides movie stuff to annoy you with" to my wife.
Thingiverse link
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- 35,268
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
It finished and was "installed" this morning. I haven't pointed it out to her yet. Let's see how long it takes for her to say something.Don't bother guessing because you'll undoubtedly be wrong. It's basically a "look, it can print other things besides movie stuff to annoy you with" to my wife.
Thingiverse link
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- 35,268
- Downtown North Dakota
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I can't even remember the last time I played a game that wasn't on my phone so that won't be happening.
- - - - -
The printer has had a break for the last few days until I get back to painting the prints that are done. Don't want the backlog to get too much. And I need at least one shelf done in the theater room to get them out of the office.
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I am shifting from Bondo to wood filler as the working time for the tiny batches of Bondo I'm mixing up is only a few minutes before it cures. I bought some but haven't tried it out yet. If it works as well as I'm hoping, I should be able to make short work of finishing the idol and all four element stones.
I did design (from scratch!) a very simple base for our soap dispenser so hopefully there will be less water sitting on the granite:
And mystery new print:
Hint: It's not for the theater room.
- 35,268
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Done.And mystery new print:
There is a fan on the top of a housing directly under the print bed. To keep something from falling into it, I printed a fan guard.
Before:
After:
Also, even with this filament guide, the angle the filament goes into the extruder is a bit too sharp so I just printed and installed this guide, too.
Before:
After (it's the tine grey thing hiding right where the filament disappears behind the aluminum upright):
A bit more rounded entry, which is great. My only slight concern is if both guides together will increase the resistance on the filiment enough to cause problems.
Edit: First post edited with links to the various items I've printed and those posts link to the Thingiverse files.
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- 2,677
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- Outspacer
I missed your tease, but I would've known that exact one
Shouldn't do, just watch out for the lower one starting to squeak on retractions! However, I'm not convinced about using a top guide and probably going to remove mine - I'm thinking it doesn't allow the filament to sit with a 'natural' curvature, and it's causing filament to break between the top and bottom guides. Not during printing, but some time afterwards. On your pic you can see that the filament is quite straight between the guides, and I don't think it (PLA) likes sitting like that.
This is the lower guide I used (or maybe I used the one it was remixed from, not sure), works really well:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3061551
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Question @TB.
Let's say that I buy an off-road R/C car, 1:6 scale and I want to build a replica of this car, scale 1:3. The parts I need to 3D print need to be bigger than the original parts, you know 1:6 > > 1:3.
Is it possible to scan the parts with a very good 3D scanner, upload the images into a 3D printer software where I can adjust the dimensions of the part to fit the 1:3 scale replica and print these parts with a 3D printer?
Let's say that I buy an off-road R/C car, 1:6 scale and I want to build a replica of this car, scale 1:3. The parts I need to 3D print need to be bigger than the original parts, you know 1:6 > > 1:3.
Is it possible to scan the parts with a very good 3D scanner, upload the images into a 3D printer software where I can adjust the dimensions of the part to fit the 1:3 scale replica and print these parts with a 3D printer?
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