A Reader Asked About My Adventures in 3D Printing

There is a lot that you can do with a 3D printer, but it can also sit around collecting dust.

A reader asked a great question about how I use mine. I’m not sure I can offer a very good or complete answer right now, but hopefully I can provide some input for anyone looking at holiday deals and wondering if now’s the right time for them to get started.

isosceles wrote:

Stuart, just curious – what would you say are the most useful things you print? Like many I am intrigued by 3D printing, and I’m sure I could come up with any number of fun or entertaining items to print. But I don’t think I’ve ever been in a tight spot or encountered a sticky problem etc. and wished I had a 3D printer so I could whip up a widget-solution. I don’t mean to sound glib or anything for what it’s worth.

Reading a thread the other day I came across someone who said he used his to print jigs for fabrication projects, which piqued my interest. I have some fab projects I’d like to start and printing out jigs to spec def seems like it could come in handy.

Rather than think this through and then respond, it seemed like a good idea to sort through my ideas as I wrote the response. As such, the following is written in train-of-thought format and is quite long and somewhat unpolished.

My choice was either to think of how to answer the question as I answered it, or push it aside for a couple of weeks – yes, the holiday season is that busy and chaotic for me.

I have a couple of projects where I will need custom enclosures or brackets for holding electronic parts. 3D printing allows for quick iteration in ways that isn’t really possible with other methods.

Here’s another one. I have 80/20 profiles that I’ll need to tap for a future project. I might need to re-drill the holes, and that will require a jig. A 3D printer will let me create a jig, and then easily recreate it for different circumstances.

At first I planned to make it out of metal. I made a t-slot aluminum drilling jig before, and it required a frustrating number of steps. Once I model things up, additional or replacement jigs should be easy to just print out.

I’ve printed some trinkets for the kits, as a way for me to get familiar with different settings.

Most recently, I started working on a robotic arm kit, as a skill-builder. They provide the 3D-printed parts for free – it’s open-source. I opted for the metal parts build, but there were still a ton of 3D-printed parts I needed to print myself.

The company recently partnered with a 3D printing service, and the package of parts is $300.

Benjamen makes all kinds of functional prints. See: 3D Printed Tool Storage and Organizer Accessories.

You can see more here: https://www.instagram.com/electronsmith/, and here: https://3dprints.electronsmith.com/.

I’ve seen people print out all kinds of elaborate workshop storage accessories.

For me, it’s about creating components for projects. I’m still working on that part – I’ve been slow to make progress on my 3D modeling skills, something I hope to get back after the holiday season.

It allows for inexpensive iteration.

Woodpeckers makes all kinds of router jigs.

That’s not something I could justify buying. But maybe I can print something out for a one-off project.

A search for 3D printed router radius jig turns up so many. Potentially, I can grab a free design and then modify it to suit my needs.

You can make something like that out MDF or other materials, but 3D printing a tried-and-tested template is easy.

A search for 3D print miter saw dust turns up lots of various adapters and connectors.

My creative projects have been on hold for a while, but I’m pushing my way back to it. Having a 3D printer means I’m able to roll over more road blocks than before.

Here’s the assembly progress on the robotic arm kit I bought. It’s been idle for a few weeks.

It’s given me so many ideas on how to work out some of the projects in my to-do list.

Scratch-building complex shapes or assemblies is something that’s new to me. I’m used to very rectilinear-type constructs, and making do with easily-accessible off-the-shelf parts.

Here’s a test jig I built a long time ago. I didn’t have the ability to quickly manufacture elegant brackets or custom components.

So, I made do with matching hole sizes and spacings.

I have large plate casters for a workbench I haven’t built yet. Once I get my mill up and running, or maybe set up my CNC router again, I can make my own aluminum mounting plates. Or maybe I can just get pre-cut plate stock and use a drill press.

A 3D printer won’t help with that, but could help me visualize how things will look. That’s something I’ve used wood for before, and iterations require making everything from scratch. A small tweak on a 3D printer would be easy, and help me test for dimensions or sizing before committing to pricier slabs of metal.

It took me a while to connect capabilities to potential, and I’m still not there.

Like other tools, things open up once you gain familiarity.

I had all kinds of ideas about how I would use my router table. The same goes for my drill press and other tools.

Let’s say I wanted to make a parts tray out of wood. There are a dozen of different ways I can make one in a couple of minutes. I’m not yet at the point where I can use a 3D printer in the same way.

I’m used to taking away from materials, or combining them in very specific ways. 3D printers have different constraints but also other areas where there fewer limits.

I didn’t buy my 3D printer, ToolGuyd did. The same will probably be true of the next one. As such, my journey is going to be a little different than any of yours, as I don’t need to fully justify my purchases.

It’s interesting to see all the kinds of different things others have been making with 3D printers.

Some people are now 3D printing miniatures and models. Others make toys. I’ve seen people make fixes for things around the house.

I bought mine to explore the tech from a ToolGuyd standpoint, and also for use in future projects.

I didn’t want another hobby. 3D printers are at the point now where they’re proper tools that don’t require a lot of futzing around. There’s a small learning curve.

The challenge for me is in minimizing the gap between what a 3D printer can be used for and what I am using it for.

You rely on the huge repository of free models and files within various online directories. But for my needs, I need to delve deeper into 3D modeling and engineering principles.

Once I can manage to do that – get back up to speed with 3D modeling principles – it’s only a matter of what I need to build.

3D printing is not a “now or never” type of technology. It’s only getting better.

There was a time when prices increased along with capabilities. Today, $400 seems to be a good entry point.

And yes, it requires time to learn. But the same is true with all tools.

I pushed back for the longest time, and my earlier attempts to gain 3D printing experience didn’t go so well.

You have to think about your goals and interests, and also look at what others are doing for inspiration.

For ME, 3D printing isn’t so much a tool to fix things, but a tool to create.

But it can be a way to just explore.

This is a hobby glue bottle holder from DSPIAE that you can buy. It prevents square hobby glue bottles from tipping over and making a mess on your workbench.

You can buy this one, or make your own. You can make one from wood, metal, or 3D print different types of setups.

There are lots of designs you can download, buy, or build off of – Google search for 3D printed hobby glue bottle holder.

What could you do with a band saw? Table saw? Miter saw? Lathe? Router table? Track saw?

Until I gained more time and experience, I wasn’t sure what *I* would do with a 3D printer. That picture has been getting clearer.

Back in 2017 I bought an Instant Pot from Amazon. I saw all the ways people were using them, and thought “Wow, I’d love to do that, too.”

There was a Black Friday deal, and I get all kinds of exhausted and purchase-happy that time of year. So I bought a small 3 quart model.

The Instant Pot sat on the shelf until I finally donated it. I wasn’t able to connect what I could do with it, and what I wanted to do.

That wasn’t the first or last time that has happened to me.

With tools, I don’t need full justification. Sometimes I buy different equipment to explore for ToolGuyd purposes. It usually works out, but not always.

There are some larger woodworking projects on my to-do list, and after that I’ll be thinking long and hard about whether I really need floor-standing tools.

The good thing about 3D printers is that there’s so much versatility outside of pure functionality.

Maybe I can make lanyard beads for my daughter or a paracord knotting project.

A GI Joe Classified-scale MMS is close to $80 on Amazon. The older Cobra version is $53 at Hasbro Pulse. Some folks made something kind of close and put the files on the internet for free.

I found this grabber toy at a gift shop. I wonder if I can make something a little nicer.

You can find grabber toys on Amazon for fairly cheap. What if I want mine to have lights? A specific shape or design?

No, you don’t need a 3D printer to make these things, but there are ways 3D printing can make the process easier or better.

I tend to be a visual napkin-design type of person. 3D printing can help with jigs or limited parts until I can eventually develop better design skills.

I keep bringing up modeling, but one doesn’t need to be a whiz at that to benefit from 3D printing.

Plenty of people are remarkable with what they can do with a 3D printer. Others have top of the line everything sitting on a bench collecting dust. It can be the same with woodworking, hobby metalworking, cameras, and all sorts of other stuff.

This time of year is a great time to save money on 3D printers and accessories. Or, simply gather inspiration and then buy when you’re fully ready.

I’ll be exploring 3D printing more for ToolGuyd purposes, mostly because it seems reader interest is higher than it’s ever been, but also because it’s an excuse to budget more time for creative projects.

I’m at the point where I’ve printed some useful things, but have yet to really dive into what I want to use 3D printing for.

Cabinet knobs or pulls? I can buy those. Robot motor brackets? Sensor housings? Test jig sensor bracket for holding a speed sensor?

For me, it’s about doing things in a easier, quicker, or more affordable way than otherwise.

I’ve changed the configurations of my organizer racks a couple of times. Shown above is one of them before the most recent changes. Getting the height spacings right can be a huge pain, and sometimes I mess it up. Next time I might quickly design and print custom spacers or positioning brackets.

I want to design a compact SD card holder with a small dust cover. That’s something that I could probably make out of other materials, but not as easily.

There’s lots of potential, and not everyone’s journey is going to be the same.

Once you gain experience, both with the machine and in designing your own parts or creations, that’s when it becomes easier to come up with more useful parts. Few people are going to get there on Day 1.