My attempt at 3D printing racks (2 Viewers)

[One Eyed Dollar]

My latest 3D printer project is to make some racks. One of my goals is to print some custom-sized racks that will hold my 8V china clays that are too tall for normal racks. But to start with, I decided to model a copy of the Paulson rack as closely as I could. It was a good project to learn some new 3D modeling software, and it took me longer than I expected, but I'm happy with the result. I still need to do a few tweaks to the model, but I made a rough prototype print and the results are good. Here are some pictures. Keep in mind that this print is at very low quality to make it faster. Next I'm going to do a nicer print with a smaller layer height, so all the curves will be much smoother.

The chips fit nice and snug!

 

[JustinInMN]

These are going to be sweet !

 

[liftapint]

WOW. This 3D printing thing is not something I understand. But that rack!! So cool!!

 

[detroitdad]

WOW. This 3D printing thing is not something I understand. But that rack!! So cool!!

Same here lol

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

One thing that I didn't include in my model is this little lip along the bottom of the sides of the Paulson racks. I tried to take a picture of it, but my phone's camera is lousy at macro photos. Does this little lip serve any purpose, like holding the racks in place in a birdcage or anything? I could add it to my model if there is some reason for it.

 

[EnjoyLife]

Nice racks! How much does one cost to print?

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Nice racks! How much does one cost to print?

Thanks! This one used about $2 worth of plastic. I'm going to change the settings on the next one to make the walls thicker which will use a little more filament, but it's in that ballpark.

 

[EnjoyLife]

Awesome. Thanks for the info

 

[dkersey]

Interesting. How much does it weigh, compared to a typical rack?

 

[JustinInMN]

Thanks! This one used about $2 worth of plastic. I'm going to change the settings on the next one to make the walls thicker which will use a little more filament, but it's in that ballpark.

This actually seems like a viable price point. I am guessing you could sell a bunch at $4 each if you get it right for the 8v size.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Interesting. How much does it weigh, compared to a typical rack?

Good question. It's quite a bit lighter since the inside is an open honeycomb fill.
Paulson rack: 130g
Prototype print: 84g (final version with thicker walls will be a bit heavier)

It's surprisingly sturdy too, better than I expected for this rough print quality.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

This actually seems like a viable price point. I am guessing you could sell a bunch at $4 each if you get it right for the 8v size.

Yeah, I'd be happy to print and sell some 8v racks once I get them dialed in. It just takes so long to print each rack. Maybe I'll buy another printer if there's a bunch of interest. I've got a few other chip-related projects in mind too.

 

[SeanGecko]

Yeah, I'd be happy to print and sell some 8v racks once I get them dialed in. It just takes so long to print each rack. Maybe I'll buy another printer if there's a bunch of interest. I've got a few other chip-related projects in mind too.

Don't tease me like that!

 

[Alex Lundstrum]

I had considered getting a 3D printer and doing exactly this, except augmenting sidewall thickness to perfectly fit 20 "worn" chips. That way I could color coordinate racks per level of wear Following with interest.

 

[Marius L]

This is pretty cool. Great work!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

I had considered getting a 3D printer and doing exactly this, except augmenting sidewall thickness to perfectly fit 20 "worn" chips. That way I could color coordinate racks per level of wear Following with interest.

I thought about offering different colors if I print racks for people, but color coordinating them by level of wear is a level of OCD that I had not considered. One of the tweaks that I'm planning to make though is to imprint the rack width on the underside so you can tell them apart if you have different widths.

 

[EnjoyLife]

How long does it take to print. It would be cool to see a time-lapsed video of it being made. I may seek out YouTube videos.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

This one took 13 hours. I might have the timelapse saved at home, I'll have to check. I have my printer hooked up to a Raspberry Pi running OctoPi, which lets me view it remotely with a webcam and cancel jobs if it goes haywire, and it normally saves timelapses too, but I haven't looked at one in a while.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Here's the live view of my printer for example. It's currently sitting idle after finishing some Settlers of Catan border pieces for @Poker Zombie. (they're almost done!)

 

[JustinInMN]

This one took 13 hours. I might have the timelapse saved at home, I'll have to check. I have my printer hooked up to a Raspberry Pi running OctoPi, which lets me view it remotely with a webcam and cancel jobs if it goes haywire, and it normally saves timelapses too, but I haven't looked at one in a while.

Whoa boy, so I jumped the gun on how "mass producable" these are.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Whoa boy, so I jumped the gun on how "mass producable" these are.

Yeah, 3D printing is not a great technology for mass production yet. It's fun for making one-offs and hobbyist stuff, and it's great for prototyping, but it's not going to replace injection molding or other processes yet.

 

[FDLmold]

Don't print racks. Print chips!

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Don't print racks. Print chips!

I have a feeling that the market for lightweight, monochrome, plastic chips is not that great.

 

[WedgeRock]

Don't print racks. Print chips!

I have a feeling that the market for lightweight, monochrome, plastic chips is not that great.

Print gaming licenses?

 

[Coyotesetter]

Hey would you be willing to share the STL file for that rack? My friend had a 3d printing business and I know I could get him to make me some if I ply him with vodka.

Thanks,
Jody

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

Hey would you be willing to share the STL file for that rack? My friend had a 3d printing business and I know I could get him to make me some if I ply him with vodka.

Thanks,
Jody

Sure, once I finish tweaking the design I'm happy to share the STL.

 

[EmptyPocs]

50mm next ?
( i have no where to put these )

 

[AWenger]

First, that rack is awesome!

This one took 13 hours.

I'm curious to know the electric use (and cost) of running the machine. Can you look up the nameplate rating(s) of the machine in watts?

I'm guessing the motor load shouldn't use that many watts, but if there's a heating element for the plastic that would probably use the most watts.

For example, let's say the average power draw for the 13 hours is around 250 Watts for the entire time, then the cost of electricity used will be around $0.50 [assuming $0.15 per kilowatt-hour (KWh), which may be a little high for some areas.] 0.25 kw x 13 hours x $0.15 = $0.49.

 

[One Eyed Dollar]

50mm next ?
( i have no where to put these )

Oversize chip racks is a good idea! I'll add that to the list to design.

 

[mummel]

Holy sht. $2 in plastic for a custom size 3D printed rack???

These would be sick if you could print a rack for the dimensions of your specific chips (heck even by denom, think China clays).

I’m very impressed and a great thread. Please keep us updated.

PS. Makes me wonder how much were over paying for $5 43mm racks...