Hacker News Reader

That's a good use for 3D printing, assuming someone knows and can publish the appropriate measurements for the gauge block.

View on HN

The problem is that no one (myself included) wants to do the work for the measurement. You need to retime the machine in front of you, and once you do, you don't really have any need to make up the gauge... Also, this is probably going to need to be more accurate than I understand 3D printing to generally be. I probably don't need to use my set of Starrett Grade A gauge blocks, but I probably want more accurate than your average ruler.

I have a desktop, sub-$800 printer and can print to 0.1 mm thickness without extraordinary measures and using inexpensive calipers, you can measure down to below 0.01 mm. (Thereby getting potentially more than native precision by repeated attempts.)

Thermal expansion of the plastics being different than the machine is a small issue, which could be solved by measuring, calibrating, and adjusting all at a given temperature.

Your point about limited motivation is spot-on, of course.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com