Our households are filled with everyday things – inexpensive items, which often also tend to be of poor quality reflecting their low price tags. Thus, they are easily broken and contribute further to the disposable culture that is rampant. And even if the environmental and green issues are pushed aside, they’re also causing us unnecessary hassle – hogging our ever limited resources of both time and money. So what would be a sustainable solution? Well, blogger Zheng3 has reported on 3D printing in this regard – and his family would probably agree with him. This is the story of a broken headlamp – and more importantly – a happy child.
The starting point was typical – Zheng’s daughter had bought a seemingly trivial item, an inexpensive headlamp, which was quickly broken, making it unwearable and thus unusable. The chipped part’s current location was unknown, so the traditional method of a quick-fix with glue was out of the question.
Luckily, Zheng had an alternative solution available – a Replicator and some plastic filament. As the missing part was basically flat, the process of transposing the item from the physical world to 1’s and 0’s didn’t require any specific 3D scanning software, just a regular flatbed scanner. After some thorough tinkering with the flatbed, Photoshop and Maya the 3D design was complete.
After that it was time to fire up the Replicator, wait for the layers to build up and then apply the glue and voilá – the headlamp was ready for more adventurous action.
And so after only 24 hours an inexpensive everyday item – categorised as traditionally unfixable due to its nature – was given a new lease on life. What is the moral of this story? Well, that 3D printers are a very useful tool, particularly for any DIY parents yearning for more garage space. And they can go someway to combat our disposable culture?
Do you have any similar stories of your own, where 3DP has replaced the need for buying a new item? If so, please share your experiences in the comments section below.
Source: Zheng3
After buying my 3D printer I knew that one of the first things I wanted to fix was the Camera bag with the broken clasp(s) yes both broke! Since I had no experience with 3D software as well I used tinkercad and designed a new clasp using the measurements from the old ones. On the very first print they fit almost perfectly into the receiver of the original clasp!!!
It was awesome!!! I still use this example when telling friends and customers what 3D printers can do!
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