I bought my first 3D printer expecting to make toys, gadgets, and the occasional product prototype.Instead, one of my most useful prints is simply a plastic clamp whose whole job is to get chewed up by my CNC bit.Plastic clamps save my bits when a cut goes wrong, but buying injection-molded ones over and over got old fast.
Now I print them for pennies a dozen at a time.Add How-To Geek on Google Add as Preferred Source Follow on Google Discover Plastic is the best material for throwaway parts I just used to have to spend money to buy injection-molded parts Close In my spare time, I love to do many different hobbies.One of those hobbies is CNC machining with wood.
While my CNC can handle metal, I’m just not a fan of working with metal, so I stick to wood.This goes well with my woodworking hobby that I also enjoy doing.I’m able to use the same materials and everything.
But, where does plastic (and 3D printing) come into play? With hold downs and clamps.You see, they sell metal clamps for CNCs, and I’ve used them in the past.I’ve also used screws in the past to hold material down.
But, the problem is, when a CNC bit runs into metal, the bit often gets damaged.This is why I switched to using plastic clamps years ago, and it was a game changer.My CNC bit could hit the clamp and it would just fly right through it without being damaged.
However, I was having to buy these clamps often.They might have been cheap, but buying injection-molded clamps got annoying really fast.Then, 3D printing came into my life and everything changed.
3D printing lets me make throwaway parts at home It costs way less and I can make as many as I want Instead of having to buy parts that were designed to be destroyed (like CNC clamps), I could now 3D print them at home.Some major companies post their clamp files freely online, so that’s where I started.Being able to 3D print the clamps at home meant that if one got damaged, I could immediately replace it.
The filament needed for a clamp was pennies, so I could just print a dozen at a time and then have them all in the shop ready to put into service at a moment’s notice.The clamps also take just a few minutes to print—typically about 15-20 minutes each.That means I can start a batch of 12 before going to bed and come back to a full build plate of them the next morning instead of having to wait on Amazon to bring them to me.
I can come up with new designs whenever I need I’m no longer limited by what’s available on Amazon When I was buying clamps for my CNC, I was limited to what was available from retailers or resellers.If there was a clamp design only available in metal and not plastic, I either didn’t use it or I simply bought the metal version.Now, I can either find clamps that are typically made from metal and make them out of plastic, find someone who has already made a CNC clamp file, or simply design my own clamps from scratch.
At the end of the day, it’s a few cents in plastic at most and whenever the CNC bit hits the clamp I just replace it.Likewise, I can try a completely new style of clamp to see if I want to use it for a few pennies instead of having to buy the clamp off Amazon for several dollars.If I don’t like how that clamp style works, it’s fine and I throw out the few pennies worth of plastic I extruded and move on to the next design.
3D printing has opened up a whole new world for me Being able to 3D print things at home is simply something that I take for granted at this point.It’s amazing how many things I used to have to spend dollars on and wait for shipping that I now spend pennies on and wait just a few hours for.Throwaway parts are the best part of 3D printing for me, though, as it used to feel like I was throwing dollars in the trash can whenever I’d ruin one, and now it’s just a few cents.
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