3D Printing Aquarium Parts
 

Those of you who've been to my place have probably seen the CNC mill and mysterious electric green box that make up part of my living room decor. That mysterious green box is a 3D printer that is use for prototyping parts :razz:

After a morning at work that was somewhere in the area of total to complete ****, I opted to come home early and have a chill day. I was sitting next to my tank watching TV but I couldn't hear the damn TV over my skimmer! My skimmer has always been loud but I've never really done anything about it, until today...

15 minutes in Solidworks and an hour of printing later I had myself a fancy custom skimmer silencer. Skimmer is now whisper silent!

I'll definitely be printing more parts for my tank from now on:mrgreen:

And yes, it is printed in bling bling gold:razz:

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...0B7848014F.jpg

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...0B7D34DCA4.jpg

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...0B81AAEBCC.jpg

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...0B85954E92.jpg

Very cool.

That's awesome!!

I want one of those printers so bad!.

lol funny thing, Ive been 3D printing for the last 2 years.

What method?
I'm assumimg a fdm machine?

I've played around with sla parts from quick parts many years ago and they didnt hold up well fresh water after much time.



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most of the desktop and home based 3d printers are now based on fdm (there is an SLA one coming out but limited like you had mentioned). mostly using ABS and PLA with the trend going towards PLA for the dimensional stability factor in the material. It doesnt curl and warp as much as ABS and doesnt give off a strong plastic smell. The only downside for us is, well PLA is biopellets. If you print anything with PLA that goes into sw it'll get consumed eventually.

I designed and build 3D printers for Tinkerine Studio which is a company I established in April. Im not sure if this is allowed but Im quite excited to see people on here having an interest in 3D printing. I go to Oceanic on Sundays around 1pm to chat with Paul and a friend. I can bring a 3D printer with me for anyone who is interested in 3D printing, possibly print off some small parts. But for now anyone who is interested can visit me at www.tinkerines.com we do some pretty fun stuff

My printer at home is FDM based as well but I'm looking to get an SLA in the near future. I do enough SLA that it is almost worth it financially to just by one.

For going my showcase models I get parts done with SLA at Camosun College on the island. Good pricing and great service (they always have the parts in my hands right when I need them, and I certainly don't make things easy for them).

Problem with almost all 3D print materials is that they swell with moisture. The products I design and build are waterr treatment devices, so always wet and with bacteria. To prevent water and microbe issues I dip or spray my parts with a clear lacquer (clear Krylon works great). I didn't bother spraying this piece here because it won't be in water but I would dip others for sure.

Between my CNC mill and the printer there is very little I can't build. It's awesome :razz:

By the way, very nice system. Glad to see you went with an x/y gantry. What firmware are you running? Marlin or something else?

Very cool! Hubby and I watched a show on those things, and our jaws dropped.