Fun with 3D Printing

DThomasC

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Come of think of it, one of my many unrealizable dreams is to build a house boat out of recycled plastic, mainly HPDE: milk jugs, detergent bottles, anything with a 2 inside a triangle on it. The obvious problem is getting milk jugs to turn themselves into a boat, but 3D printing might be the answer.
 

GAD

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Apparently HPDE doesn't 3D print well due to adhesion and warping issues.

I recommend just gluing a bunch of milk jugs together.
 

adorshki

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Come of think of it, one of my many unrealizable dreams is to build a house boat out of recycled plastic, mainly HPDE: milk jugs, detergent bottles, anything with a 2 inside a triangle on it. The obvious problem is getting milk jugs to turn themselves into a boat, but 3D printing might be the answer.
Apparently HPDE doesn't 3D print well due to adhesion and warping issues.

I recommend just gluing a bunch of milk jugs together.

If somebody can think of something, somebody out there's already a step ahead:
Making A Recycled Plastic Boat
 
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F312

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As much as I love that link, you gotta put that original pic back! It was perfect!

Yeah, those were nice jugs, they seemed to be holding up very well.

Ralph
 

adorshki

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As much as I love that link, you gotta put that original pic back! It was perfect!
OK.
08cf56c6a067c7c8a1aeaca1ebe51470.jpg

I just started getting a bit to convoluted (even for me, LOL!) when editing that original post, acknowledging that technically these aren't HDPE milk jugs, so went back to DThomas' original proposition.
:smile:
I was just thinking that probably the properties that make it poorly suited for 3d printing are also responsible for poor adhesion characteristics because all the pics of milk jug boats I found showed mechanical bonds:
39ebbe638deb0080ad582ada242c4f7a.jpg

Well, depending on the scale, at least:
260314_030a02.jpg

Yeah, those were nice jugs, they seemed to be holding up very well.
Ralph
There's a joke in there but I'm not touching it.
Like I said, a lot depends on scale.
UPDATE:
In the end DThomas' concept is validated albeit the constructors mentioned precisely the issues GAD mentions:
First 3D printed full-sized milk jug boat
And in the Atomic Shrimp article the issue of HDPE being highly vulnerable to UV degradation is brought up.
In the end I think that's the single biggest reason it'd be ill-suited for use in a boat OR a house, even if fabrication issues were solved.
And assuming that solving the UV degradation issue results in more environmental damage than it prevents.
 
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awagner

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I have another very Guild-related solution that I've created, but you'll have to wait for the review to be posted. :)

Let me guess. An exoskeleton designed to withstand the weight of your new Crossroads Doubleneck.
 

GAD

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Check this out!

One of my goals with the 3D printer is to print a functioning playable guitar. This is a 50% guitar (12.5% by volume, since each axis is 50%) and every single part was 3D printed. I glued the pieces together today:

IMG_1926_1600.jpg

It doesn't play or anything, but it was designed to be a test of printing the parts to see if they could be glued together. The neck was printed white and spray painted. The entire thing is glued together using either super glue or Goop. The body is four pieces because at full scale, a Strat body will not fit in my printer. Each of those four pieces took 6-12 hours to print. At full scale they will take 12-48 hours each.
 

GAD

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BTW I have another one in all black that looks like David Gilmore's Strat that I'll post tomorrow.
 

GAD

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Guitar Hero/Rock Band!!

How much for the materials to print this?

At that scale? Maybe $12, assuming you don't factor in the printer, the time spent learning how it all works, the time spent altering the model, the time spent learning how to alter a model, and so-on. Yup. $12. :highly_amused:
 

adorshki

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At that scale? Maybe $12, assuming you don't factor in the printer, the time spent learning how it all works, the time spent altering the model, the time spent learning how to alter a model, and so-on. Yup. $12. :highly_amused:

Now that you got over the learning curve, just imagine how cheap 1000 would be!
 

Bonneville88

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Damn nice 3D work GAD! I live in the opposite world
of subtractive manufacturing but I'm enjoying seeing
what you're doing with this - we haven't seen many
projects where 3D printing is viable from a production standpoint, but
as the machines get faster and the resolution gets better,
things may change...
 
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GAD

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Damn nice 3D work GAD! I live in the opposite world
of subtractive manufacturing but I'm enjoying seeing
what you're doing with this - we haven't seen many
projects where 3D printing is viable from a production standpoint, but
as the machines get faster and the resolution gets better,
things may change...

Thanks!

The tech definitely has its limitations. It's cool because I can print all sorts of materials like ABS, though I'd need an air handler for the fumes. It's definitely not the magic solution that the marketing tried to make us believe, and it's not something that the average person would need or use, but I've already used it to solve some problems I would have otherwise been able to solve.

The biggest problem IMO is that the process is SLOW. You can only move so fast when you expect layers of plastic to adhere to one another accurately. Ultimaker does an amazing job of making the process almost plug and play so long as you use everything from them, though.

There are metal filled filaments and I can actually print in metal, though I'd have to use a more robust nozzle as it's very abrasive. I think 3M makes a special metal filament that you print and then have to send out for sintering, but that's way too much for me. If I'm going that far I'll just buy a CNC machine.
 
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