Do you have any favorite 3d printed builds that you have done lately?
At the moment I am looking at this project:
https://www.printables.com/model/268580-hadley-telescope-official-metric-remix
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Here is a comprehensive list. And let me tell you, life’s too short!
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Haha, you were the thread starter on the linked topic as well!! I’ve recently printed the tarmo5, and it’s impressive, a little rough around the edges, but great fun.
Yeah, the threads are similar. However, in the last thread there were mostly suggestions based on other people. In this thread I am looking for projects completed by members here.
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Most of my 3DP projects are small but I build lots of bigger things with 3DP parts. Sadly they don’t add up to “projects for others to build” necessarily.
I’ve just finished a campervan with a lot of printed detail (anyone need a clip in stand for their hearing aid charger?) Everything from the frames for the clothing pockets, the hatracks, mount for the light, drawer catch covers and trims and even the ventilation grille beside the fridge is printed. (and the binnacle for the GPS screen)
Little things like flanged covers where cables exit from places where they arent hidden (above) and below, detail of the storage pockets. (None of this is on Printables yet as it takes quite some time to document!)
My latest of course is the shopvac camlock system, which I’m developing more fittings for instead of getting on with the LR3.
The largest and most satisfying (in my mind at least) is my furniture system - side tables and shelving units which happily mix it with “proper” furniture in our house. The tables are already on a thread round here somewhere. the bookshelves are nicer IMHO and are guaranteed to keep your printer busy for a bit.
I won’t post pics of those but if you are curious you just need to scroll down my Printables page to find them and get a bit of the flavour of my procrastination! 
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I don’t do a lot of big 3d printed projects unless you count the mpcnc and MP3DPv4.
Most of the 3d printing I do are for custom mounts and fixtures for various things.
I do want to start a 3d printed airplane once I have the new printer done. I want something I can fly in the field behind the house.
Hoping to use some lw-pla.
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3D printing is so much fun I am a bit obsessed.
I did a cool thing for a give away at a convention for work.
Mininscrewdrivers with Phillips bit and a dime in the other end for use on dzus fasteners.
Also has a keychain loop. They tested to 75inlbs before break. Total cost was .82$ per unit.
Also a 11/16 socket could fit over as well.
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@niget2002 (or anyone): Have you tried any LW-PLA yet?
I am considering picking up some to play with. There aren’t too many options, but enough that I’d take some advice if someone has had success…
Not yet. It’s pretty expensive to just play around with. Still building up the courage to do that.
The stuff I’ve seen is about twice the cost of the pla I usually get, but it’s supposed to weigh half as much when printed so the cost per volume might be similar - if it works. That’s a pretty big if in my mind though, it looks like a fair amount of trial and error to dial it in with no guarantee it will ever work satisfactorily.
I’m similarly reluctant to committing to a kg. I was hoping you did the hard part already 
The colorfabb I’m looking at is $50 for 750g. The PLA I buy is 23 for a kilo.
So the colorfabb is more than double the cost by weight.
3dlabprint sells an lw-pla.
It says regular price is $50/kg but they are currently selling for $35. (They only have a few colors in stock.)
I downloaded their free Piper Cub model and started printing the first piece of the fuselage in regular (overature) pla. If the first few pieces print and assemble okay in that I might bite on the LW stuff.
I printed one of their planes many years ago for a friend of mine out of regular PLA. It was the Zivko Edge.
The plane flew great. His first landing was rough and he ripped the tail feathers off.
That’s a good price for LW PLA. I’d be willing to give it a shot at that price. A lot of reading I’ve done says that you should use the LW PLA that the designer designs a plane for. Not all LW PLA has the same properties, and whatever the designer tests with is what you should use when you print it.
The plane I want to print uses the colorfabb stuff.
Well, I decided to pull the trigger, but then the shipping charges (from the Czech Republic) appeared - ouch; I might be starting to appreciate Ryan’s challenge with international orders.
I’d like to support the 3DLabPrint effort, but may have to do it through a purchased download.
Instead I ordered a 800g spool of “pre-foamed” Polymaker LW-PLA for $35ish delivered. Apparently pre-foamed variants are not as light, but it sounds like it is amenable to conventional PLA settings and therefore easier to print as a transitional experiment. Reviews were favorable and didn’t look AI generated…
I’m not sure when I’ll get to it - many other competing priorities, but loading a model and hitting print is something I can usually squeeze in which is what sold me on the pre-foamed. I’ll share when I have some experience / a comparison.
If someone gets that lwpla I wanted to see if it would burnout in a mold better than pla.
Since it’s a foam etc. maybe even it could be melted out. Sorry to hijack
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Continuing the hijack but this could be a fun project…
Do you know about polycast filament?
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Yes I was just thinking lower temp burn out, and less material bc of the foaming aspect.
Maybe even if it’s meltable with acetone for some kind of wash out.
I suppose that’s an option too, instead of “lost PLA casting” use “lost ABS casting” and instead of spending 2.5x the cost of PLA on the polycast filament, spend approximately the same amount on ABS, and dissolve it in $0.25 worth of acetone. On the surface, it works, except that the acetone will also attack the plaster.
I printed a couple of parts for the 3dlabprint piper cub: https://3dlabprint.com/shop/piperj3cub/
in regular PLA. I was super impressed with how well they printed and fit together, so I ordered an 800g spool of polymaker LW-PLA. While that was shipping I printed some more of the cub in regular PLA. I have most of the parts now and will try a full glue up before I waste the more expensive LW-PLA.
One lesson learned is that it is probably best to build one part at a time as painfully slow as that will be (lots of parts).
- many of the parts have variable layer heights, so while you can find ones with similar transitions you do need to be careful.
- The walls are very thin and without careful attention to seam locations, I got some blobs/imperfections where the print head moved between parts. Not terrible, but not nearly as nice as when I did single parts.
My kids would love to do some casting. Once I load the LW-PLA I might try to find something interesting to try. I have yet to have much luck printing ABS - lots of warpage, though I haven’t tried recently; since I mostly enclosed my V3 Repeat and added a decent PEI surface.
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I have a bunch of extra bismuth/tin laying around. I should make a 5 lb metal benchy. (I’d use more traditional investment casting methods though, since bismuth/tin is probably not hot enough to vaporize the plastic.)
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