this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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[–] Tenthrow@lemmy.world 66 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Ediacarium@feddit.org 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In my case it's a lot of 3d models and no prints

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

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

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.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ignotum@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's easy, just get a second 3d printer to print parts to fix the 3d printer

[–] KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I suspect more than a few of us are feeling called out with this comment.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most likely it's ... All of us.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

I'm prepared to be friends based on this anecdote.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago

“RANDOM BULLSHIT PRINT!”

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago

You miss all of the bullshit you don't print

~ Wayne "Not the one you're thinking of" Gretsky

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've pretty much settled on just printing flower pots and cute animals for my sister. Last one was this bulbapot

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nintendos ~~hitmen~~ lawyers are on their way.

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

They're gonna have to get passed ~~Boo~~ generic ghost though...

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago

They'd really love my "bowlbasaur" which is used to hold the bowl of my bong lol.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago

I have an Oddish pot I still need to get a plant for...

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You don't know me. Everything I've ever printed was critical.

[–] dingus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now this is dedication to the meme

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] dingus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Will you marry me

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wow, you put real effort in that. Do you need to separate paths for that or can you 3D print any random image?

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It was actually very low effort! There are a number of image to STL converters. I used this one: https://imagetostl.com/

Like you can see it'll flub some stuff. I would have been better off filling in the areas of text and doing the emboss manually myself, but I just wanted to hit print. 2% infill, I think it was like 2.5g of filament and 20mins.

It's fun to screw around with that process. I'm tweaking one of my friends cabin to use to make a mold. My goal is cast concrete or something similar so I can pound some thin copper around it, and be left with a cool wall decoration.

[–] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, well, learn using CAD and apply to house and job problems.

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Literally why I got mine. If you're losing motivation use 3d builder. Use blenders clay tug and pull function to make something hideous.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 3 points 1 month ago

I can recommend MatterControl instead of blender.

Blender has too many functions you don't need, so it has a steep learning curve.

Mattercontrol is literally drag and dropping shapes and cutting them out of each other. You can use prexisting stl files to do so.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Same. Started printing a few weeks ago (well, I initially did 13 years ago, but that's another story), and I'm currently working down a long list of issues that I solve with a printer.

After a while I can slowly refocus my printing towards a pet project that has been in the planning stage for 20 years.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Instructions unclear, health department was not impressed with 3D printed sandwiches

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Me 5 years after buying a 3D printer: been working on CAD'ing that one project for well over a year with probably about as much time left before it's ready for its first prototype.

(And that doesn't include all the time I was distracted with other projects, many of which were not 3D-printing related at all.)

I'll dust my printer off when it's time for that first prototype.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cover the printer up. Dust kills it.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Not cleaning them will do that.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Almost all my prints these days are ones I've created or modified in freecad.

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Massive respect, freecad is the dark souls of 3d design

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

It just has a steep learning curve. Since the 1.0 release though I've had few problems with it. Nice addons and only freezes up for long periods when you are importing a massive mesh so far. I've gotten pretty good at taking one color stl files and converting them to multi color/extruder.

[–] gerryflap@feddit.nl 7 points 1 month ago

I recently got a photo printer and the experience is surprisingly similar

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

I'm in this picture and I don't like it!

[–] Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

A person doesn't need so many benchies and effiel towers

[–] 5in1k@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

I generally do functional prints or iterative prototyping. Friends and family like the tchotchkes though so I do print them from time to time.

[–] scottmeme@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Recently just started my 3d printer back up. Had 2 full spools still in the box, opened it and just started breaking. The filament just explodes when it gets old.

Had to buy a brand new spool of filament for a $0.20 part.

And it has no automatic bed leveling, so it took like 6 attempts to get it flat enough.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

have you tried drying it? filament gets wet when exposed to humid air for a while, and one of the noticeable effects is brittleness

if you’re going to store any filament, an air-tight container (cheapest is a vacuum bag) with some desiccant

[–] scottmeme@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Was in a sealed bag with silica gel. Both spools did get heat cycles to over 100f a few times when the AC shit the bed... Multiple times.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

That was me in Skyrim hoarding Dwemer artifacts.

[–] Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I should learn how to use FreeCAD (or OpenSCAD) but unfortunately, my printer cannot print motivation...

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[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Sounds like someone needs a recycling extruder

[–] MissJinx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Wait you qre printing stuff 2 weeks after getting a 3d printer?!! You yungsters have it so easy

In my time we had to build, then spend a whole spool just trying until we got something not horrible

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's basically plug and play core xy printers now. You can grab a machine for under $200 and be printing within an hour of receiving it.

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