I am currently subscribed to a few different RSS feeds that provide news articles about 3D Printing. A few articles that I have read recently were talking about 3D-printed houses. I think these are great. I was researching them more out of curiosity than anything else, but found out there is a company local to me that does 3D printed housing in my area. This is definitely something I want to look into further at some point. If you can 3D-print a two story house, I am definitely interested.
This conversation came up at work as well and eventually progressed into another great conversation that I want to talk about today. I briefly spoke to one of my coworkers about 3D-printing and how it is one of my main hobbies. He makes music and myself being someone that listens to music all the time, I showed him the two pair of headphones that I have 3D-printed.
I have a phone stand that I printed that folds up pretty flat and I keep it in my backpack and use it at work. Most of my work is sitting at a computer doing various tasks so I am able to put hockey games on my phone and listen to them while I work.
I was doing this the other night and this same coworker had mentioned that he hasn’t really looked at anything 3D-printed up close. I let him look at the phone stand and as he was looking at it, he was asking questions about it. This phone stand printed in place and did not require any supports. It had the hinges built in and he asked me about those specifically. Whether or not I had to do any assembly with the stand and I told him it printed just like that.
His reaction was something along the lines of “I can honestly see 3D-printers becoming a household appliance in the future similar to a microwave.” I haven’t stopped thinking about this statement since he said it. Nobody can say whether or not that will be true, but I personally think the benefits of a 3D-printer in homes could justify this statement.
For example, I have two small children, and one of them likes to get into the kitchen cabinets. While doing so, He managed to break one of the dowels that is used to hold the shelf up in the cabinet. We did not have any more dowels, and rather than ordering some of having to go to the store and buy some, I printed some replacements.
I took the broken dowel and put it back together to measure the length and diameter. I wouldn’t trust this to hold a shelf anymore but I was able to get an accurate measurement of the dowel and using a free piece of software, I created a simple cylinder that matches the size of the wooden dowel and printed several of them in about 20 minutes.
This is one very small job that fixes a simple problems rather than having to go somewhere and buy dowels. I have also found a model of a bucket that you can put up against your kitchen counter and sweep stuff into it to throw away. This model is invaluable if you have children. I have also printed decorations and other useful things that I use around the house regularly.
The possibilities with 3D-printers are endless. They give you the ability to make your own decorations, and fix things quickly while often being cheaper that buying a replacement.
Whether or not 3D-Printers do become a household appliance or not, you could make a case that they are useful for everyone in one form or another. I currently have two 3D-Printers, and one day will have more. I enjoy this hobby and enjoy doing it and learning more about it. Making a dowel for a kitchen cabinet is incredibly simple but I want to learn CAD so I can make more complex models and really take this hobby to the next level.
So far I can print just about everything unless it is big. That will be the next 3D-Printer I acquire. A Prusa XL that is capable of printing much larger models than the two printers I have now. This is all I ask for for Christmas and pretty much anytime my wife asks me “What would you like for….<Insert Holiday Here>? Maybe one day I will get one without having to buy it on my own. I am never giving up on this.
I watch a lot of videos and read to learn new skills with CAD. I just got a bundle on Humble Bundle that has a lot of video courses to learn 3D modeling in Blender. I work on it a little bit at a time. I also take notes so I remember what I learn.
Taking notes is something I plan to discuss in the future. I am working on putting that post together and will get it out sometime.
Until next time.