It's pretty easy for me finding things to print.
I needed a cap for the car's window washer bottle.
Printed it.
The car's tailgate door handle broke, $35 part.
Printed it.
Printed Dalek cookie cutters. Have to make a Tardis one. These are for the wife.
The boat needs hinges, window curtain rod holders, spacers, hooks etc.
Basement door needs shimming with angles. Hard to do normally.
If you have anything you need to maintain you have plenty of uses for them.
House, lawnmower, car, boat, tools and the printer itself is a tool that needs maintenance.
I guess most people think of them as art type things. If you look at it from the repairs angle it becomes very handy and saves money in the long run.
Those hinges for the boat are about $12 per pair (in plastic) and I can't find the right hole pattern so have to fiberglass the old ones before putting in the new ones.
Stainless steel is too cost prohibitive to use at about $30-50 a pair.
If I print them I get to make the same hole pattern so save that step plus the cost is down to about 60 cents each.
I need 8 pairs so there's a nice saving.
The table latch on the boat is a $70 part. It becomes a $1 part printed.
The boat motor needs a new steering coupling system.
Instead of cable I'll be doing it in poly-carbonate rod and ball joints. To manufacture this the old way would cost almost as much as the printer. This way I print it and get spares for less than a few dollars.
Motor needs an offset plate. They are about $40, this will cost about $10 to print.
Then there are tools I need for electronics. Plastic screw drivers for tuning etc.
I have more things to print than I have rolls of filament right now and I have 2kg of that.
For me its a fantastic tool. I went about designing one about 12 years ago but the cost and effort was too much to be practical.
Now with open source software and cheap hardware it's viable and I didn't have to do all the work!
