3D printing stuff b...
 

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[Closed] 3D printing stuff bike bobbins, designs and suppliers

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Just got a Varia and need a saddle mount for it, i've seen a good design on Shapeways but it's £20 for a tooty bit of plastic

Where do you get designs and any uk based printers you use?

ta!


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 11:53 am
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Searching for Varia on Thingiverse brings up a few results.

£20 for a 3d printed part isn't too expensive though, so perhaps the Shapeways option isn't a bad one.

I have no experience of the Varia, but do Garmin not do a saddle mount (or 3rd party suppliers)?


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 12:07 pm
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Post the link here - a few of us with 3D printers who could rattle one out for you...


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 1:06 pm
 goby
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Yeah sure one of us can help you out.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 1:27 pm
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it’s £20 for a tooty bit of plastic
spot the guy who's never run a business 😂 you are having a part made to order on a machine costing tens if not hundreds of thousands, they need to make money plus the designer needs a cut.

anyways as said any one of us could print it on our desktop machines, won't look quite as nice but will be functional. You would need the STL file though, have a look on Thingiverse to see if anything suits.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 1:44 pm
 edd
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I'm in the process of designing some 3D printed titanium cranks - getting close to pulling the trigger on printing the first set. Getting very excited!


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 1:49 pm
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awesome! how much is that gonna cost though?!


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 1:54 pm
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Would home printers produce something strong enough?


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 2:09 pm
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zilog6128 Subscriber

spot the guy who’s never run a business 😂 you are having a part made to order on a machine costing tens if not hundreds of thousands, they need to make money plus the designer needs a cut.

anyways as said any one of us could print it on our desktop machines, won’t look quite as nice but will be functional.

While I agree with the sentiment, I wouldn't assume that people on shapeways are using particularly advanced or expensive printers & equally, good quality isn't guaranteed.
There will be plenty of people out there with a shelf full of CR-10s @ <£500 a pop advertising their services on Shapeways etc.

We use an Ultimaker 3 at work, but needed some large parts turning round quickly, so went to a website like shapeways to get them on this one occasion; it might have even been Shapeways we used.

Anyway, the parts were massively inferior to the bits that we had made ourselves; they had printed without support in places where it really was required; features had broken off & been badly glued back on. The total job came to >£600 and it was quite an eye opener to see what people were happy to churn out.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 2:11 pm
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tjagain Member

Would home printers produce something strong enough?

Yep. If it was me, I'd design something that accepted a standard Garmin mounting disc & use that as the actual Garmin interface.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 2:13 pm
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I wouldn’t assume that people on shapeways are using particularly advanced or expensive printers
fair enough, not looked into it massively, most of the things I've looked at on Shapeways are SLS printed from Nylon but there's no doubt all sorts on there!

Would home printers produce something strong enough?
as above, definitely. I only got into 3d printing at the end of last year, I'd assumed home printers were just gimmicks - WRONG! - you can produce incredibly strong parts, as long as you design them appropriately.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 2:38 pm
 edd
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zilog6128 Subscriber

awesome! how much is that gonna cost though?!

Reassuringly expensive...


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 3:10 pm
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zillog - I read saddle mount as a mount for a saddle!

*crawls back under rock*


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 3:16 pm
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Shapeways do the printing, so it's not what machines "people on Shapeways" are using, it's not a marketplace for folk with 3D printers, the whole point is that you upload your designs and they print them for you (on pretty decent printers).

It used to be great, I personally think it's not cost effective anymore, but a lot will depend if people have included a big margin.

FWIW I'm finding I'm getting better results out of my Photon than FUD from Shapeways.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 3:21 pm
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Thanks everyone. my issue with £20 cost is £12 for printing (ok-ish, just) £8 shipping (not-ok). I (mistakenly?) believe that printing is generally homebrew/hobby and could be sourced in the UK which would overall lower the cost

I would love to get a printer but i simply don't have the time to get stuck in, i barely have enough for riding bikes!


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 3:42 pm
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njee20

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Shapeways do the printing, so it’s not what machines “people on Shapeways” are using, it’s not a marketplace for folk with 3D printers, the whole point is that you upload your designs and they print them for you (on pretty decent printers).

Ah yes, right you are. It obviously wasn't them we used! The bloke who had the requirement doesn't work here any more, so I can't even ask him.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 3:47 pm
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The bloke who had the requirement doesn’t work here any more, so I can’t even ask him.

I bet it was 3D hub, we used to do offer services on there but it's a race to the bottom with lots of people with no idea how to print or design for 3D printing undercutting everyone who knows what they are doing.
The Varia is not a cheap device and plenty of branded injection saddle mounts for lights are not up to the job and fail so I wouldn't trust an FDM printed one (which most desktop home printers are). An SLS or MJF print with a good design would be more than up to the job, but again it's all down to the design. There are some shockingly bad designs out there from some well known 3D printers of bike stuff.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 4:06 pm
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cheers_drive

I bet it was 3D hub,

It was. I saw the manager who signed the PO a minute ago, so asked him.

There was a bit of a furore wasn't there with 3D Hubs? Last year they ditched the whole 'community' side of things & started only using commercial print services.
The parts we required were pretty simple overall, but they clearly got them out the door as quick as possible & did a pretty bad bodge job.


 
Posted : 22/08/2019 4:32 pm

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