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Comment by Ajay-p | Hacker News Reader

I should buy a 3D printer. At university I knew a man who said any time the government wanted to make something illegal to buy he felt a compulsion to buy it. I think I see what he means now.

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It's definitely not a bad time to join 3d printing industry. Much more mature than what it was even 5+ yrs ago

What’s a good use for them? I have been on the cusp of buying or building one for many years, but outside of the occasional desire to 3D print a random replacement or enhancement part for something, such as a new back for my minidisc player, which I can do via mail order 3D printing, all the examples at say Microcenter are just admittedly neat-looking but ultimately useless chintzy plastic goods.

Gridfinity is an awesome organizational system you can print yourself, customized to your needs. I’ve also printed watch charging stands, a bottle drying stand, games, and gifts for other people. Will you save money? Probably not, but it’s fun.

Many public libraries have 3d printers these days. I don't see the appeal of owning one unless you're a serious hobbyist or cosplayer.

I had kinda the same feeling before I got my first 3d printer too.

The first real thing I printed was a case for holding camera batteries to prevent them from just rolling around in my luggage. It was in PETG and it felt super high quality, and not chintzy as all.

I'm currently holding a 3NM torque wrench, where the handle and torque mechanism was 3d printed, and it feels like something you want to use on a day to day basis. It's smooth and feels good in the hand.

The chintzy probably comes from low density printing/ low quality materials. I've printed out parts that were carbon fiber infused PLA and PETG and just look and feel absolutely awesome.

Board game organizers are my source of interest. Kickstarter-type games, especially, often need more efficient organizers than the designers included in the box. And it’s very difficult (in my experience) to get useful off-the-shelf organizers, particularly if you want everything to fit snugly in the original box.

How useful a 3D printer is depends entirely on how you use it. My recent projects were:

* Some prototype compressor wheels and housings for an RC vehicle

* Wargaming terrain

* A small enclosure for an oddly shaped LCD panel that I'm using as a dash in my racing sim rig

* A micro ATX PC case

They're useful if you've got complimentary hobbies, but if your reaction to a 3D printer is "I'd probably never use that", you're probably right. If you're not planning on designing your own parts, then mail order is fine for occasional use.

Lots of things! See the functional print subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/functionalprint

(There is a new community on lemmy or madtadon, I'm sure its nicer but I don't remember the address)

Mail order 3D printing is just extremely expensive.

Honestly, I’ve enjoyed designing custom pieces for board games.

Emitting microplastic dust into your home.

What is a good 3D printer?

I've had a Prusa Mk3s+ for four years. I bought the kit and assembled it. The only problem it's ever had was the result of a mistake I made during assembly, which I was able to correct. Sometimes I use it a whole bunch for a project and it gives me no trouble. Sometimes it sits untouched for six months. The moment I need it, it works.

I did modify a Ikea LACK table to sit it on to reduce vibrations. I also modified it by removing the power supply where it typically sits and placing it beneath the table. I did this because I cover my printer with a pop-up photo tent to keep heat in and enable printing in ABS. It also keeps dust from collecting on my printer.

A Prusa is more reliable but more expensive than the entry level printers you'll see.

If you want a great DIY printer then VORON is the one to beat.

Lots of people love the Bamboolabs printers.

If you want a tool, buy a Prusa. If you want a project, build a Voron.

I have an Elegoo Neptune 2 because it's basically the cheapest decent printer you can get. Main complaints are lack of auto bed leveling, noise, and lack of direct drive filament feeder. Overall I have gotten quite a lot of value from it though. Printed tons of 40k figurines as well as functional stuff, including some stuff like handles and brackets I modeled myself.

Depends on what you want to do with it. For small hobby projects, I like my Ender 3 Pro. There are some better ones with more features, but this one is cheap.

Honestly, it depends on your budget and the features you want. My main workhorse right now is a Sovol SV06, one of the "it girl" printers of 2022. I own the Sovol, an Ender 3 v2, a Mingda Magician X and an AnyCubic Kobra Go. All of these printers work for me now, but that's because I've suffered the frustrating learning curve of 3D printers. For a newer 3D printing hobbyist I would latch onto a brand that offers a 90% or 100% assembled printer -- with a large community for aftermarket add-on buys or prints. Ender, Sovol, AnyCubic, Elegoo -- just look for the brands with massive communities. They tend to keep manufacturers accountable and creative.

So many companies are putting out "out of the box" wonder printers right now that I would just engage in a few weeks of YouTube watching. A printer release could come out tomorrow that completely changes the value proposition of whatever you were looking at. Funny enough, size matters -- if you want to print helmets in one piece, you have to look at larger printers.

One that doesn't create millions of bits of floating microplastics in your home and lungs.

You've mentioned this a couple times. I don't have an opinion on the subject, and a random comment doesn't really tell me anything. It would be good to link some solid studies so people can understand the risks. If you don't have those, maybe reconsider your point.

I don't feel the need to do so at this point, but I do feel the moral imperative to spread the alarm on a disastrous industrial process (when precautions are not taken) that many in the maker movement are woefully unaware of, the same way I would if I suddenly became aware of the dangers of asbestos and was on my way to work when I overheard a conversation among hobbyists about spraying asbestos foam around in their bedrooms without much knowledge of it.

Raise the alarm with convincing evidence. Nobody is going to do anything if you don't bring evidence to the table (as you say, makers are woefully unaware of this). If you're just trolling, I highly recommend this defcon talk on how to do it better: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vcAHbvTlpKA

Be aware that many or most 3D printers create an incredible amount of plastic dust and microdust that floats in the air, pollutes your home, gets in your lungs, etc.

If you've ever given a shit about microplastics, do your research when shopping for 3D printers. And if you don't care about the environment but do care about your health, take precautions as far as PPE/where you use the machine.

That’s the vestigial spirit of your American heritage right there. Embrace it. Not American? Either way, I say embrace it.

Honestly I did the same thing with guns. All that propaganda about obama coming to take our guns had me hook, line, and sinker.

Think how foolish you'd feel if a Beto O'Rourke got elected and then actually did what he said he'd do.

I mean, if they tell you what they're planning to do (and they usually do), and you don't believe them...

I would feel a little foolish. But I really don't see the government doing a "give us your guns (property) or else." Every time I get a call from the NRA to donate because they're coming for my guns. I ask them jokingly "If they will give them up if the government comes knocking?" Then I jokingly tell them that I'm not concerned and The government doesn't want that smoke.

It’s definitely starting to look like some of the gun rights groups are just an advertising arm of the gun manufacturers.

That’s a bit like calling the (old school) ACLU an advertising arm of the book printers.

This is an interesting admission to me... Does recognizing it as propaganda not take away some of the power it has over you?

I can admit it only because I'm not right-wing at all. But I can see how I was convinced.

>Does recognizing it as propaganda not take away some of the power it has over you?

I would say now it does. I didn't recognize it as propaganda at the time. The way it was presented "seemed" logical at the time. There are large organized groups that are sort of trying to enact common sense gun laws and sometimes they suggest things that go a little to far but really don't seem to address the issue of criminals using guns. At the time I was seeing that and recognizing that as a threat.

I suppose I recognize it for what it is now 10 years later after my initial gun fever wore off. I'm a little smarter to advertising tactics now and much more conscious about my money. and then I saw how easily it was to dupe me, I sort of understand why so many people who aren't extreme right-wing can watch something like Fox and be "converted".

But I also can watch my local fox news and see how they're are running stories that are trying to convince the viewers that the city is crumbling, schools are shit, and crime is out of control.

> common sense

What is "common sense?"

Why is it a foregone conclusion that whatever proposal is automatically "common sense?"

In some cases, not all, The bills don't seem to address the crux of the issues. Instead, like most politicians do, they try for legislation that sounds good but don't address the problem of people already with guns and criminal enterprises that are making them[1] and selling them.

For instance, in my state, they changed the laws of where you can and can't carry. It's now more illegal to carry a gun on, say, for instance, school property. But it was already illegal. If our goal is to prevent gun deaths. This law does not prevent that from happening.

[1]https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ghost...

Thanks for your very reasonable response :) I think recognizing these things - and more importantly how they affect us - is really important, so good for you

Gun sales spike whenever a anti-gun-rights politician wins an election it's well documented.

Also whenever there is a mass shooting

Obama was the gun industries biggest salesman.

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