this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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3DPrinting

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3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (10 children)

That was my first thought, but it seems easier to run a few thousand more off the assembly line and make the original part than I'd think to have at least one person develop an adequate 3D part for an items that wasn't originally designed to be 3D printed.

Even for a relatively simple item like the trimmer guard shown, as someone who used those on their whole head for many years, they need to have decent rigidity coming from a number of angles so it cuts evenly, so someone needs to design a decent print, find what types of stock provide the right durability, flex, etc.

So it's doesn't sound that free for them or quick, but it's much cheaper than distribution for a bunch of random parts that may never get used.

I'm curious to see long term effects if this catches on. Will more original parts be made with 3D printing if they need to design prints anyway?

The big downside is even if this were available, I don't have a printer. I don't know anyone with one. I don't know where I could go to (?) rent time on one. So to me at the moment, this is as useful to me as no available replacement part! 😅

[–] tofubl@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

A Bambulab A1 Mini costs 200 bucks and churns out incredible prints with zero hassle. There's literally next to no barrier to entry anymore.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Isn’t that the company that requires subscriptions to use your own printer?

[–] Honytawk 2 points 6 hours ago

Yes, they had really great printers, but they enshittified so much since then.

They try to cover it by tons of marketing and sponsorships, but the community doesn't forget.

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