3d printing helped me stop carrying an idea in my head

Meet Our Producers Mosin Virus
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For the longest time I have been nursing a couple of ideas.

Drew up some stuff in illustrator, photoshop, etc…
Then I remembered about 3d printing.

And what do you know, there are free CAD programs that will let you make 3d models of your ideas.

And then there are companies that will 3d print those prototypes pretty cheap. This new set of parts are being printed in steel (not really anything that will come near the bar stock milled part, but stronger than plastic)

This post is simply to remind everyone that if you are keeping something in your head because you may not have the tools/machinery/etc… dont wait. Prototype them in plastic.

The company I am using is shapeways.com.

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Many hobbists rave about shapeways.
I restore some old toys.
Shapeways parts have been quite helpful

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Just designed a little jig for comparing my parts to originals.

My steel parts are still in production so won’t be ready until end of next week.

The parts I designed today are also going to be ready by end of next week (plastic).

To my huge surprise, one of the shipping options was “send with ####### order number” for previous order. Very pleasant surprise.

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Good idea Brother. Put up pictures when you can.

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Yes, please share a pic or two.

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Thanks guys.

First need to see if it is even worth sharing.

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It is. Trust me Brother.

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Removed for now.

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Reviving this one… What’s the average cost on a smaller item?

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Here is a screenshot for example of costs. This is one of the models I had them print.
You can see dimensions below the model and on the right you can see material choices and cost to print that model in each choice.

shapeways
shapeways1281×780 84.3 KB

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wow that’s really neat - not too pricey either unless you go platninum heh - sandstone is an interesting option also

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I ran into a search for a part for my old dishwasher a while back. There were companies offering to 3d print the part which I thought was kinda neat, but I ended up finding one cheaper and buying that. It is definitely a possibility though for discontinued things. I wonder if you can video it at a bunch of different angles and they print it from that, would be neat

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They would still need dimensions and to model the part from the supplied video or pictures. They have design services that would do it, but it will be pricey.

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