Print your own parts

[Paul Hannaby]

My son Lewis persuaded me to buy a 3D printer last year, which he uses to make all sorts of things. I recently decided to do something useful with it too!
The table insert on my bandsaw is a plastic disc and a replacement one costs £17 or so, which for what it is I thought was extortionate! (maybe that's an age thing!). Anyway, I decided to make my own. I produced the drawing, converted it for the machine and the result is in the photo below! Next time I want one, I can just print it!

The black one is the original and the white one is the one I "printed". 

[Derek]

That looks just like mine and i know how much they are. Be interesting how well it holds up compared to the original

[fuzzyturns]

£17 seems extortionate, granted. Until you add up all the costs required to make these in comparatively small numbers (a few thousand a year). The injection mould alone would have cost the best part of 20k. Add shipping, distribution costs, markup by importer, markup by retailer, VAT, and it's no surprise you arrive at that cost. The plastic itself is probably less than 5p.
However, you have just demonstrated how this entire business model will become obsolete in the very near future: We don't need to make stuff anymore and buy it shops and all that malarkey. We simply make it when we need it!

[otterbank]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

[seventhdevil]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

that's exactly what i'd do...

[APH]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

+1 works for me.

[Les Symonds]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

Surely that would have such short grain at some point, that it would be too delicate to be effective......chocolate teapot scenario! Maybe a piece of Tufnel would be better.
Les

[Paul Hannaby]

On my old  bandsaw I used to make wooden inserts because I couldn't buy new ones. This one is only 5mm thick so a wooden one would probably not last too long. I did make one from corian a while back but it didn't last too long. The plastic one I made is made with PLA, which seems fairly tough. I'm planning on making some more with ABS, which should be tougher but I will see how well the PLA one lasts.

I'm thinking what else I can use the machine for next. Things that have come to mind are indexing wheels, grinding gauges, go/no go gauges. No doubt there will be other things too!

There is also a wood fibre based plastic so I may even be able to print a bowl

[seventhdevil]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

Surely that would have such short grain at some point, that it would be too delicate to be effective......chocolate teapot scenario! Maybe a piece of Tufnel would be better.
Les

if you pick the right timber les then there are plenty of timbers that would do the job at 5mm thick. there are some construction timbers that are very interlocked and would easily last the life of the machine.

i'll concede to having to not drill the two holes behind the blade groove though. they would make it too weak then.

[APH]

Or you could make a wooden one 😉

Surely that would have such short grain at some point, that it would be too delicate to be effective.....

I made one for my Startrite 301 from a scrap of Brazilian mahogany five years ago and it's still working perfectly.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

This is very well done Paul and probably a demonstration of things to come.
  Just because the original insert was 5mm thick it does not mean that a wooden one has to be the same thickness, the "indent" where it fits is 5mm but the thickness of the timber/plywood used could be thicker than that. (mind you it needs to be set in flush with the bed not the other way round)

[otterbank]

In all honesty I'm just a little bit jealous. Just can't find an excuse to buy a printer. I've only used about 2 inserts in the last 15 years so I don't think I can go down that road 🤔 Think they will become the norm in years to come, lasers have come down in price and I assume printers will too. Can see them being useful for developing jigs and chucking applications. Now then how to convince the Mrs.
Cheers
Michael

[Redtails3]

Why fuzzy would you want take the expensive route of injection moulding ?
your tooling costs would take away any profit you managed to make.
Wire eroding perhaps?
CNC machining is possible the best way, working off stock material in multiple repeat cycles

[fuzzyturns]

Redtails3: This is traditionally the way pieces like that are made. With injection moulding there is essentially no waste material, and the mould is a one-off cost for tens of thousands of parts. If you look at the picture, the sharp edges are a typical feature of this production process (where the two halves of the mould match up). All I really was trying to do was to point out that this is a business model that's going the same way as the dinosaurs: extinction is looming. Very soon 3D printing machines will be a standard feature in any household, and will be able to print from a variety of materials, and when you need a spare part of any kind instead of buying the part you will buy a license to print it (from the company who designed it).

[APH]

Very soon 3D printing machines will be a standard feature in any household,

Along with flying cars and domestic robots ??
3D printing is still a very niche application with bulky and not always reliable kit that needs a fair bit of IT expertise to make work.