Don Meyer

Well, now I have a better idea of just how detailed an item my 3D printer can print.

Old (30+ years) Mac floppy drives have a tiny eject mechanism gear that becomes brittle. You can find a design for this gear that allows printing them.

My resulting gear was way too low-resolution for a gear this size, sigh.

Time to buy one.

#MacintoshSE #RetroComputing #3DPrinting

Feb 21 at 5:56pmIvory for Mac
Show threadLeon CowleFeb 21
@donm This may or may not be a useful tip, Don: try your local library. Ours has 3D printers that cost several thousands of dollars each. That can print down to 0.06mm granularity -- far exceeding most home 3D printers.
Show threadDon MeyerFeb 21

@leoncowle
Hmm, interesting! I love libraries, but since I also love collecting the books I read, I don't use them much these days.

I tend to think of them as just sources of books. Fascinating if some of them also have 3D printers!

I wound up ordering gears on eBay. Reasonably price, printed on a much better printer.

Will definitely keep the library idea in mind for the future!

Show threadRay KelmFeb 21
@donm what size nozzle are you using? You should be able to print finer detail with a smaller nozzle, but there is still a limit to how small you can go. 0.2 mm is a common smaller size, and is half the size of the more typical 0.4 mm. There might be 0.1 mm nozzles you can find too, but those are not as easy to find.
Show threadDon MeyerFeb 21

@rayk
Yeah, just a 0.4 mm nozzle.

I’m a pretty casual 3D printer enthusiast. Usually larger stuff either more cosmetic (toys for kids), cases for electronics projects, or stuff for board games.

First time I have needed fine precision in a print. 😊

One of these days I may dig deeper— I will keep your thoughts about smaller nozzles in mind!

#3DPrinting