Re:Unboxing Our New Desktop Pick and Place Machine
by StavrosK on Thursday February 01, 2018 @12:36PM
(#16283812)
Extremely agreed. I wanted to make a SCARA arm and it would basically be impossible without a printer. Basically, you can't make something efficiently if you don't know how the fabrication technique works and what its strengths and weaknesses are.
This would also have not been possible without the printer next to me. I constantly had to print segments to see how parts fit. With a week-long turnaround time instead of ten minutes, I wouldn't even have bothered.
Sure, if I already know how to design and print, maybe I could have designed something without owning a printer, but even that is not very likely (I generally have to make alterations a lot). For $300 (and a bunch of time spent), it's a no-brainer if you want to get into the hobby.
For another example, I made this case:
https://www.makerfol.io/project/8ycrZ9t-case-for-the-dp30v5a...
This would also have not been possible without the printer next to me. I constantly had to print segments to see how parts fit. With a week-long turnaround time instead of ten minutes, I wouldn't even have bothered.
Sure, if I already know how to design and print, maybe I could have designed something without owning a printer, but even that is not very likely (I generally have to make alterations a lot). For $300 (and a bunch of time spent), it's a no-brainer if you want to get into the hobby.