36
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
36 points (92.9% liked)
3DPrinting
15817 readers
87 users here now
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Getting a part injection molded is a pretty involved process. You have to find a manufacturer who will work with you, have a prototype mold made, do a test run, correct the mold/material/process, have a new mold made (iterate as necessary), then do a full production run. Making the molds is usually pretty expensive by itself. It's all fine if you're making thousands of units, but if you only need like 100 of something it's usually not worth the time or money.
It's a lot faster and easier to work through prototypes by 3D printing them (it is what they were originally made for), and if you need a relatively small batch it might be more efficient.
Working in a niche field I see this a lot. For example, we needed an adapter for an amplifier from a small research equipment company. The provided us with a 3d printed component MacGyvered with existing hardware. I would imagine the total number they will ever need to make would be less than 100. I can't imagine a better use for 3d printing.