3D Printing - Big Struggle Featured

Bob La Londe · 2025-12-01T19:58:35+00:00

I think I've been a victim of a constant pummeling of promotion, ignorant people asking if I 3D print, an onslaught of influencers, and being weak willed due to an oncoming sniffle.I ordered a 3D printer over the weekend. Now here is the deal. I can't think of a single think I "need" to print. Well, there are a couple things that I could print FOR the new printer when it arrives, but if I never ordered it I wouldn't "need" to print those things.I've done the math. For 99.99% of the things I make its cheaper and faster (time is money) to machine it from raw stock.3D printing is slow. Its not as good. It still requires a CAD model to start. There is one place where it may be a trade off. Using a slicer on a 3D model is semi automated, and it might be faster than doing CAM for a 3 or 3+1 milling operation for some jobs... I think.There is one area where it might have an edge. Material price. Hold on. Hold on. I know PLA starts at around $6 per pound on average and wrought aluminum at about $2-3, but the volumetric difference is huge, and with good 3D prints there is much less waste & much greater volume per weight depending on your machining strategy.After I get things figured out I'll probably be using much more expensive filaments. ASA and carbon fiber reinforced polymers among them. Maybe even some of the metalized filaments.I have some logistical problems.1. I don't really know squat about the basic nuts and bolts of 3D printing (filament printing).2. I don't have a good clean room (not lab clean room) I want to use for printing.3. I don't know what I want to print.I thought about mimicking some of the work by Print Shoot Repeat, but I have already machined receivers from metal. I'm not sure what would be gained by making a weaker if lighter receiver, and of course it only works for certain types of receivers where the force is mostly managed and contained within the upper like a Glock, AR, SR40, etc.I did have a customer once tell me to go pound...

Dec 01, 2025 Last reply: 9 months ago 43 Replies

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David Billington 9 months ago

A mate has had a thermostat housing for his car engine commercially 3D printed here in the UK and wants to get a metal print of another item but too expensive here, Hong Kong is a possibility he said as prices are much lower. the housing has been in use over a year without issue as I understand it.

The one he has had done is nylon base material IIRC and is a powder bed process where a layer of powder is spread and then that has a binder sprayed on the area requiring bonding and then it's UV cured IIRC. Overhang not a problem as the powder provides support. Not low end currently AFAIK but these things creep downwards.

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Jim Wilkins 9 months ago

I signed up for night classes in 3D CAD using OnShape, which I can't use at home with a cellular data limit of 10GB a month (no Cable). I downloaded FreeCAD 1.1 which I think works off-line. Is anyone familiar with one or both?

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Bob La Londe 9 months ago

On Shape is free sorta. It is strictly cloud based, and your models are public on the free plan from what I have read.

FreeCAD is free, and it runs completely on your PC, but you may want to be connected to download upgrades and modules that are specific to your application. Having an absolutely HUGE open source community there are a lot of them.

I use ViaCAD 2D3DPro64. Its definitely not free, but it its not the price of other high end CAD software, and its a permanent license. Not a rental agreement like many others.

I've also heard good things about Plasticity, and may get more involved with it since it has Linux compilations available. (also not free)

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