3D printer for camera accessories

Kyriacos Mosfiliotis · February 3, 2017

Hey guys,

Any suggestions on a budget 3D printer to print some camera accessories home?

Like monitor plates, adapters, lens caps and other mounting solutions?

Anyone that uses any specific model, suggestions, thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

JD Hartman · February 3, 2017

Do you know how to use CAD/CAM software to create 3D objects? From what I've read, that's what drives the software that produces the files which directs the 3D printer.

JD Hartman · February 4, 2017

In addition, they aren't anything like the "replicator" on Star Trek (or any of it's variants), you don't utter "cheese plate" and one appears in a puff of smoke and the process is painfully slow. The cheap 3D printers are also known to catch fire.

Phil Rhodes · February 4, 2017

There's some availability of off-the-shelf models available now. You can get lens gears, certainly.

I'd take the position that the current batch of deposition printers (squeeze molten plastic out of nozzle, etc) are something of a stopgap measure. In a few years we'll look back on them in much the same way we currently think of early-90s home colour printers, which, if anyone remembers, were pretty feeble. Now inkjets produce images which are competitive with direct photographic enlargements. It'll improve.

For now, though, yes, they're pretty feeble. The resolution is limited, they are tremendously slow. Well, I don't know. Half an hour to forty minutes for a lens gear. You couldn't machine one in that time, unless you were very specifically set up to do it.

Shouldn't really catch fire, though I wouldn't necessarily leave one unattended as it is a hot process.

P

JD Hartman · February 4, 2017

In the mean time: https://boingboing.net/2017/01/29/3d-printer-fumes-suspected-in.html

Sad that two pets died, but the two human were very deserving recipients of the Darwin award. In other news stories, it was reported that the same couple were also running an unvented gasoline generator in their apartment.

Jack OGara · February 4, 2017

In the mean time: https://boingboing.net/2017/01/29/3d-printer-fumes-suspected-in.html

Sad that two pets died, but the two human were very deserving recipients of the Darwin award. In other news stories, it was reported that the same couple were also running an unvented gasoline generator in their apartment.

poop journalists wrote that.

3d printers don't give of carbon monoxide.

Like you said. They had several dangerous things in their house that are probable cause. The 3d printers was not one of them.

They used "3d printer" just for the clicks. No wonder why people call"news" game nowerdays...

Edited February 4, 2017 by Jack OGara

Phil Rhodes · February 4, 2017

The generator seems reasonable (though I say no more than that.)

A deposition printer could produce toxic fumes if it ran too hot and burned the plastic. Normal use apparently releases some amount of volatile organics, phenol or benzene - which isn't good, but isn't carbon monoxide.

However, it was described as a "laser 3D printer." Stereolithography printers use lasers, but it's difficult to credit the idea of the laser getting so overpowered it was burning anything. The purpose of the laser in that situation is to cure resin, not melt or cut anything. I suspect they may have been talking about a laser cutter, and that absolutely can produce fumes that need to be vented safely. This would be very prominently warned of in the literature, is widely understood, and there would be practically no excuse for making this mistake.

Several things about that story don't add up.

P

Aapo Lettinen · February 19, 2017

I think one can get much higher quality parts faster by machining with manual lathe and milling machine than by using cheap ass 3d printing. Of course if low quality and relatively weak parts are good enough then the 3d printing will probably do. I myself prefer just using a chinese entry level mini lathe for making camera parts, much quicker and I can make them out of metal and most plastics with much tighter tolerances. I don't have proper milling machine yet but will purchase one later.

Making lens caps with 3d printing sounds quite uneconomic unless something very special is needed, the chinese stuff is so cheap that it is much easier to just buy better product from ebay. Or if higher quality is needed, machine one out of higher quality materials

Aapo Lettinen · February 19, 2017

* I am using a 300mm/180mm lathe with 600w motor, the unimat style micro lathe stuff does not work for any real stuff

Tristan Pemberton · March 17, 2017

I've found it's much more economical (time & money) to use 3D printer supplier. That way you have someone experienced who can check the designs for errors before you even start printing prototypes. Depending on the size of the part/object, it's not that expensive to have it printed in most plastics on offer. Also 3D printers designed for "professional" accuracy are very expensive, and probably give you much better quality prints than the entry level models.

I have experience using 3D/CAD, so creating the designs isn't too difficult for me. For someone starting out, that can be a huge disincentive, especially with the steep learning curve required to use most 3D/CAD software.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Tristan Pemberton