I'm still working my way through the 50-count bag I bought in 2018; evidently I don't actually encounter that many broken cables, they just exert an outsized effect on my psyche when I do.
(Kidding, I already know you justify them by printing bottlecap openers.)
(Yes, that is a monocular HUD on his face, it's his teleprompter. There are a bunch of videos on the channel chronicling the various iterations of it)
For 2D printers: they are just money pits due to the toner costs; and do everything they can to make sure you buy Their toner. Buy a name-brand color laser, use it sparingly, and it's a wonderful way to have the occasional color picture, graph, or research report w/color diagrams. (I have a Brother, which I like.)
Of course, you can upgrade them, but if you have an off-brand printer it can be hard to find good upgrades to fix the problems.
I started off with a clone of a decent printer, but the clones are iffy. I lucked out and got a good one! The next one I bought from that brand was crap.
I recently printed a Voron v0.1 and it's been decent so far, and I'm working on some upgrades. Luckily it's really popular and there are lots of known upgrades. The kit was more expensive than my other 2 printers combined, and it's a lot smaller... But I'm planning on using it to completely retrofit at least one of the other 2 now.
I find that when you 'dial in' the particular material (best speeds / feeds / temperatures) then yes, you get reliable performance.
But, I find that every spool of material -- especially PETG types --- require some experimentation to find when there is good adhesion to the glass plate, temps, speeds, etc.
And, yes, I printed this RJ-45 clip a little while ago in PETG that I know well, and the part looks good; I think I 'overbuilt' the supports because the center is packed full of material.
The XY2-Pro is actually an Ender 3 clone, and I think that's part of why it was so good. A friend of mine got a new Ender 3 V2 and it was smooth sailing for her. I definitely recommend the Ender 3 as the budget printer for newcomers. Prusa is another one, though obviously a lot less "budget".
They have problems, but they're usually easily solved, and you'll never fight with drivers.
Furthermore, the cheapest 3D printers are _made_ to use with generic supplies, it's not like the "give away the inkjet, sell the ink" model you see with 2D printers. They're almost universally based around open-source software and mostly-open hardware now, so there's a thriving ecosystem of mods and upgrades, which can be bewildering but you don't need any of that at all to get started.
The problem is that they're mindblowingly slow. A typical 3D print might run 5 or 10 hours, to make a functional object like a desk pen organizer. And because parts of the thing get hot, you don't want to leave it unattended -- fires are rare but they can happen. So, you have to plan your prints around your life, or vice-versa.
Mercifully, the default mode of operation is just to read files from an SD card that you sneakernet over to the thing. That gets annoying if you're doing a lot of small prints and tweaking things (and there are network options for that, or direct USB connection), but it's a godsend when your printjob is longer than your workstation's typical uptime...
Most cheap 3D printers are children of the reprap project, and the hacker spirit is still there.
3D printers are often made of cheaply available standard parts, and use the same type of filament. Not all printers can print all materials, but there are no technical measures preventing you from trying, and they tend to be mod-friendly. On the software side, they almost all run open source firmware, and take standard G-code. G-code is generated using a slicer, there are several of them on the market, also typically open source and compatible with all sorts of printer from many brands. Everything is interoperable, even when a brand has the whole vertical. For example Prusa makes filament, printers, slicer software and has a repository for models, and none of these are tied to the brand. No DRM, no huge drivers, no overpriced consumables, totally unlike 2D printers.
The flip side is that you feel like you are buying a new hobby rather than a tool. It is certainly a useful tool, but especially on cheaper printers, sometimes, things don't work right out of the box, you have to make some adjustments, understand its capabilities, know what parameters to use out of hundreds, etc... It is rarely "push a button and get your part", you have to know what you are doing, and even then, sometimes, it fails. That's how they are annoying.
I like your reasoning tho; I got mine when it was on sale, and just before the pandemic - so I have plenty of learnings about PLA, ABS, PETG, temperatures, glue or not, surface, and most of all -- plenty of piles of material creating 'modern art' rather than my planned masterpieces. '-)
Perhaps, distilled, it's this: having a 3D printer, by itself, won't turn you into a MechE. But, if you do have a 3D printer, you can learn the basics of ME and try out some practical ideas with real parts.
I specifically got my 3D printer to make gears. I do have a Sherline mill, as well as a 12" (Chinese) lathe; so I do have the specific tools to create involute gears out of metals. However, since I planned on doing so many different gears, as I wasn't really sure what I needed, AND the fact that with subtractive manufacturing, if you make certain mistakes, you throw the whole piece away and start over -- 3D printing makes creating new parts as trivial as starting it up again. The other total win of 3D is e.g. Thingverse where you can d/l a design -- it's the closest thing we have to Star Trek's replicator.
Lastly, Michael Faraday wrote an entire book on candles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_History_of_a_Cand... So much can be learned from little!
Mechanical engineering consists of learning tools for analyzing designs, such as fluid mechanics, materials, solid mechanics, thermodynamics, statics and dynamics, control system theory, etc.
I think you can really pick up Fluids, vibrations, and advanced mechanics on your own with that background, if you end up needing it. But to the larger question, yeah you need calc 1-3, ODEs, and actually a good bit linear algebra to be able to understand and apply 300-level engineering and beyond.
Becoming a wizz at industrial design was never my goal. There's universities for that. But it's wonderful to see how everything comes together.
Also, imagining something only in your head and then seeing it come to life on the screen and then in the real world is a magical thing.
I guess carpenters and sculpters etc get this all the time but I totally lack the manual skills needed for that. The 3D printer solves my handicap of having two left hands.
Most people that buy a 3d printer download some models from thingiverse and then get bored with it. It's when you learn design that it really becomes amazing. And it's not all that difficult at all.
Obviously this is not a super important thing in the scope of our world and my day job. But still, it feeds my curiosity (as does this site) and that alone is more than worth the investment to me.
Also, being able to design and manufacture a plastic part in a matter of hours any time of day or night has become a really useful tool. Only a few days ago the window latch on the front door of our apartment broke off and we've already had too many break-ins. It was too late in the day to go buy a new one but the printed one works really nicely.
Sorry for nit-picking.
On the other hand, no better way to learn an STM32 and automatization than looking into Prusa Mini firmware github ;-)
At less then $200, it is well worth it.
I think you should tell more about the 6ft auger though! :)
To me it’s the opposite: printing dust-gathering figurines and other baubles with a 3D printer seems rather unappealing.
To each their own!
I printed a set of new hinges for a large outdoor plastic storage unit. It has my lawn mower, strimmer etc in it. It would have been skipped years ago because the doors kept falling in or out. Bit embarrassed that we bought the bloody thing in the first place but printing new hinges has avoided landfill and a replacement. The new hinges have lasted four years and counting. SW UK, local unofficial temp range -5C to 35C in that time, so not too nasty. The PLA has discoloured a bit due to UV but not gone brittle.
I also have some little tanks on my desk and a dragon. There's some phenomenal models on Thingie.
And you got things wrong, 3D printers don't print bottlecap openers, they print little boats ;)
Half an hour in CAD and another half an hour of printing a dozen of them, and now I can replace them any time they break.
I also printed some curtain clips for my wife rather than drive to the DIY shop or wait for Amazon to post me some; Perhaps not cost effective, but better than driving a couple of miles for £1 of plastic clips?
I have young children so I occasionally print aesthetic things, but as a rule, I reserve 3D-printing (or "printing" as my daughter knows it because she's never known printing to have fewer than 3 dimensions) for practical things.
It's funny, my wife has never been on board with my hobbies so much as she is with 3D Printing.
They're about 4 cm in diameter and just cover the center of the wheel. They're not full hub caps. The dealer wants $20 for one cap. Yow!
I printed a couple of sets for probably less than $1.00 in filament.
For price comparison a pack of EZ RJ-45 (Cat6 rated) is around $20 and a pass thru crimper is about the same. Even cheaper if you go old school.
I hope the ratchet is good; I just had the ratchet blow out on that Klein that everyone recommends, and I went back to my trusty Ideal Telemaster.
Below is my favorite. Caveat, it takes some getting accustomed to if you're used to the standard plier style(They make those, too).
edit:plier handle style, not wrench
https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/cable-tools/ratcheting-ca...
(The second is the Iwiss IWS-2820M, for open-barrels with a short wire-grip section, 2mm or below. That's basically most JST styles. The Iwiss crimper has all the same nest sizes as the Engineer PAD-11 but is much better made, smaller, and cheaper to boot.)
There are, of course, countless $300-and-up official tools for specific terminals, but as far as generics go, these two are the cream of the crop.
Beware ebay triangulation scams with the 63811-1000. It should cost $55-65, any less and you're being lured. Safest to get it from one of the vendors listed on Octopart. For the Iwiss, as much as I hate to say it, just go to Amazon.
* Not for use with standard (non Pass-Thru™) connectors
...what does that mean ? Standard dime-a-dozen connectors won't work ?
edit: expanded
But yeah, pass-through RJ-45 is great.
Carrying around a crimper, stripper, scissors, and a baggie of ends would certainly fit my character, but realistically it's bulky and heavy enough that I'm gonna take it out when I think I won't need it. Which means I won't have it when I actually do need it.
It's less of "save a day" and more of "don't have to bring the replacement cable next time to fix it"
....you do test the cables you've crimped right ?
I started with an Anet A8 which taught me a lot about 3D printers (and even more about how they fail!). My Prusa Mini just works, and it's rare I need to reprint anything.
Replacing nozzle is a bit of an ordeal as well.
Otherwise it's a great printer.
Sounds like an excellent argument for just printing one when you need it.