3D Printer

Hi everyone,

does anyone here have a 3D printer and can share their experiences with it?

Best regards, Ina

....not yet 🙈
But my son (29) and I are thinking about getting one together. One of his teachers at vocational school has one (he’s an electrician), and they’ve already “printed” a few things there....
  You can make soooo many beautiful things with it. 😊 Decorations and useful items, too...
So far, our deliberations have “stalled” on the question: “Do we really need it? And if so, what for and how often...” 

A coworker of my husband’s has one. 

We’ve already received a toilet paper holder shaped like a Lego man, and he made a foot model for me for my knitted baby shoes. 

He prints a lot, from what I sometimes hear at dinner. But printing takes a very long time, many hours. 

Unfortunately, I can’t say any more about it. 

.... the LEGO minifigure toilet paper holder is a really good "pro" for a printer 🙈😂🙈👍

Hi, you two—thank you.

I’m in the same boat as Steffi; I’m still thinking it over. I actually got interested in 3D printers because I’m looking for clothes racks for my doll accessories. There are some made of plastic, but the only store that sells them is in Canada. They’re expensive, and shipping is pricey too. Since I couldn’t find anything else, I ended up buying them. But they’re actually very wobbly, and I’d really like to have better ones.

While searching for these things, I came across some visually very appealing dress forms. They look like large ones, even with a three-legged stand. But those were models made with a 3D printer. You could only buy the file and then have to print the parts yourself.

I watched a few videos on YouTube. It’s pretty complicated, and you have to invest a lot of money in the equipment and put in a lot of brainpower. I do like to be creative, but I think 3D printers are a bit too much and too technical for me.

  There are already companies online that handle the printing for you. But that’s very expensive. Maybe I’ll meet someone who has one and who can print these parts for me.

Best regards, Ina

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you....
If I/we manage to get one (someone in the next town wants to get rid of theirs), I’ll let you know.... 

We don’t have one, but my niece’s husband has one (or several???), and he makes some really great things with it.
Since my husband can’t leave the house anymore, he’s taken up model building. For his birthday, he got a ship model to assemble himself from the printer, and he’s currently working on it—what a wonderful gift!
I’ve already received one of those little wool bowls that keeps the skein you’re currently working on neatly unwound—so there are definitely a lot of possibilities.
But I myself have no idea how it works and don’t think I’d be able to do it; otherwise, it’s surely amazing—they’re even building houses with them these days.

It would also be interesting to know how much a printed part would end up costing (materials + file), since very few people would likely be able to create such a file themselves. And the prices for the printers vary widely, too. You really need to get good advice on which one is right for you. 

Good evening, everyone.

Here in our town, there’s a public service affiliated with the library. They have a few printers, and volunteers are on hand to help. It’s free to use—you just pay for the materials and need to be willing to learn the ropes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve made a note of it as a handy resource 😅 Maybe there’s something similar where you live, too

It would be nice if we had something like that here too... but out here in the “countryside,” that’s pretty unlikely 😞🙈
@Ruth, the files aren’t actually that expensive. You can find these files (SVG files) pretty easily and in a wide variety online.... 
Right now I’m debating whether to get a 3D printer or a plotter 🤔—ideally, of course, both 😁

Thank you so much for your additional comments and for sharing your ideas on this.

You’re right, Steffi—a file like that isn’t that expensive at all. My files cost an average of 10 euros. I live in a rural area, so there aren’t any publicly accessible 3D printers here. But things are developing rapidly. Maybe it’ll just take a little while longer here. You can’t just buy everything just because you need it once in a while. Other places and communities are already more advanced in this regard.

If I lived in Berlin, that wouldn’t be a problem at all. There are many companies there that offer this kind of printing service. I’ve already found a company that I’d like to contact when the opportunity arises. If anything new comes up regarding this, I’ll let you know here.

Best regards, Ina