this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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That struggle is so real... Although, once you start to learn paremetric modeling, you stop having as much plastic waste around and a whole bunch of slightly different prototypes of a desk organizer or toilet roll holder that result from not measuring properly the first time.
In my case it's a lot of 3d models and no prints
Printing takes forever and I need to get it exactly right on the first go, so I'm just going to noodle on the diagram for another 40 hours.
That's ok, it will still come out wrong because of some issue that you never thought of.
This is why people share their models so freely online. It's not pride in what they've accomplished. It's because they've just spent 3 weeks and $60 in plastic to finally "correctly" print something that cost the original manufacturer $0.15 to print and would have worked perfectly if they had just stopped cutting corners when they got to $0.17, but saving that extra $0.02 per item made sure that it was definitely going to fail.
And by sharing it you pass the curse onto others and enable yourself to finally produce a print that is still totally fucked but just good enough that you are willing to call it done and start the cycle over with something else.
Sure, but that's because the manufacturing is working in bulk while the hobbyist is doing a one-off. The original modeling likely cost a comparable amount. It was just amortized out over the production life. And there are plenty of instances in which the $.15/unit manufacturing just doesn't have the thing you're looking to make, because it is some kind of artistic eccentricity rather than a standardized widget.
The thing I see 3D printers used most commonly for are TTRPG models. And at that scale, it really doesn't hurt to just print off a two-headed Owl Bear with a scorpion tail, rather than hunt around on the secondary market for the weird thing you're looking for. Even the specialty D&D printing services aren't going to come in much less than $60 for that sort of thing.
I measure 3 times and still need to print at least 3 times to get something right.
I'm working on an outdoor hose grommet that's a custom fit to my house. I measured with calipers. I also took paper, traced the fixture and marked the holes before modeling and 3d printing.
I have a desk full of badly fitting prototypes. -or just bad because I forgot to set a print setting in the slicer.
I need to print something to repair my garage door rail. I have no idea how to get started on measuring that.
That's okay, though. I also need to fix my 3d printer before I can get started on the other project.
That's easy, just get a second 3d printer to print parts to fix the 3d printer
I suspect more than a few of us are feeling called out with this comment.
Most likely it's ... All of us.
I found my dad's old calipers and the inside of the case had disintegrated. I wanted to print a new inside mold for the caliper case. But that meant taking measurements of the calipers. So I bought new calipers to measure the old calipers.
I'm prepared to be friends based on this anecdote.