Also good for composting and making room in your recycling bin
Awesome! Is that a real device that’s available for sale? Those would be good school or scout projects to donate to animal shelters.
I’ve been thinking about getting a 3D printer. Well, yesterday I decided I need a 3D printer. I know nothing at all. What should I get?
I have an AnkerMake M5 and it’s gloriously painless. There are intrinsic unavoidable challenges to 3D printing, but this thing has been incredible for casual creation.
I have a 3D printer buyer’s guide on my website that lists a few. I mostly use and would recommend any Bambu printer, there’s a few that can suit any price range. Elegoo also make good printers too which won’t break the bank
Don’t get an ender unless you want your hobby to be working on the printer. That’s fine, but it’s not the same as having something ready to go when you unbox it.
Prusa printers are quality and open source; very much worth supporting if you have the money. Your hobby will be printing things for other things if you get one.
Bambu printers are cheap, but not open source. However, you will spend most of your time actually making stuff instead of fixing the printer.
Cheap, reliable, open source/modifiable. Pick two.
I own an Ender 3, 5, and a Prusa Mini. The mini is by far my most reliable printer, but both enders have had a lot of work done to them to get them where they are… and not quite click to print yet.
At one of my jobs I maintained some 35 Prusa Mk3s, about a dozen Elegoo’s, and witnessed their graveyard of Anycubics and some other brands. The Prusa’s generally only needed to be unclogged or have their nozzle changed less than once a month, with only a couple failures per week max, the room also was not temperature controlled and they had some… questionable engineering practices.
The elego’s were like pulling teeth, needing glue to keep it adhered, frequent clogs and skips, thermistors needing replacement after under 100 print hours, blobbing would get into the part coolig fans. Small leveling knobs. Prusa’s IMO were designed to be serviceable, but seem to need it way less.
Especially at a business, the premium on Prusa printers over say bambu labs is well worth their customer support. Ive never used a Bambu so I cant necessarily recommended or not, and I do wish I had an MMU on the cheap as you’d get with their mini, but Im most pleased with my Prusa mini
You’ve designed a niche solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Use a box knife. Or, for a more versatile tool, get a Morakniv Companion.
If I don’t design and print something I could buy I might be tempted to do more mods for my printer.
Things like this give us… balance. Luckily I have a new project… building a Voron so it’s both something new AND printing printer parts.
Things like this give us… balance.
Otherwise known as, “Justification for ownership of printer.”
Look, I totally didn’t just buy this thing as a hobby to make more parts for itself! See, I actually do occasionally make useful things with it!!!
That’s what I tell myself, anyway…
I mean that’s kinda the whole deal with 3d printing, it’s useful for really niche applications where you can just add a small amount of convenience to your life.
Someone else commented about this being good for school kids so they can safely make cat scratchers to donate to animal shelters, and as a cat owner with a constant pile of recycling I can see this being actually useful if I wanna avoid spending $20-$40 on one of those fancier cardboard cat scratchers from Target or whatever.
I mean that’s kinda the whole deal with 3d printing, it’s useful for really niche applications where you can just add a small amount of convenience to your life.
Is it? All I ever request to be printed is the proprietary part that prematurely broke as it was designed to do.
Someone else commented about this being good for school kids
Instead of teaching them to use scissors? We’re raising a generation that can’t think or do for themselves. They’re reliant upon consumption.
as a cat owner with a constant pile of recycling I can see this being actually useful
As an adult you think it’s more useful than a box knife? It’s not even going to be faster than a box knife with straight edge. And, why do you need a product to pet your cat?
Cutting carboard with scissors? It can be done, but it’s a chore amd the results are poor. I wouldn’t wish it on school children.
I work with kids with significant disabilities who we keep in public school until they’re age 22. They do unskilled jobs and volunteer ‘work’ and safety is a big concern. If there are five students and one teacher at a table, a plastic device that automatically measures and has a hidden blade is going to be much better for them than scissors or box knives. Yes, we do need to teach children to safely use everyday items and for most kids that’s fine, but there are some for whom ‘just do it my way’ doesn’t work. Your life experience may not be the same as that of other people. Teach generally, but make space for the individual.
Good luck getting consistent cuts while you’re freehanding. The idea is to make the nice flat cat scratching pad, and also being able to make the tool with the tool printer you have at home
I mean, you could make a jig to use a box cutter to make consistent width strips very easily with three pieces of scrap wood. But this commenter coming in here for the express purpose of trying to shit on 3D printer hobbyists was a stupid move on his part.
I hope you only drink room temperature tap water. Any flavor makes you a hypocrite.
Hard disagree.
- Waste packaging is a common problem.
- Lots of folks have cats
- You can already buy a commercially made strip and strap cutter. This is just fixed size version that uses a more common blade.
Honestly, my bigger gripe with the video is the little dots of hot glue. That feels like wouldn’t hold up (I’ve had cats disassemble store bought scratchers). I’d brush on flour paste or thinned down school glue for non-toxic full coverage. You could even mix in cat nip to encourage use.
It’s essentially just a jig to use regular utility blades to quickly cut strips of equal width.
This looks a lot like trolling. The community here certainly doesn’t seem to care for it.
I found this one online from last year
https://www.printables.com/model/356486-cat-scratcher-cardboard-cutter-v2
This would work with regular shaped blades, right? Like this? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GIZ9164/
FYI those are stupid expensive. Your can get 50-75 for that price at your local hardware store.
My cat will still go to the couch 🫠
Depending on what that couch has been through, it might be about marking/refreshing territory.
But also understand that there are different kinds of scratching materials and structure. My cat only likes the cardboard kind in a small A3-ish box and that is more because she likes to move it around. For actual scratching she very much prefers the ropier material in something sturdy at a 90 or 45 degree angle that she can really push against without it moving.
And I’ve NEVER seen a cat actually like one of those free standing scratching posts after the first time they push it over during a more energetic session.
