Meh Staples easy button

@luvche21 What does your library do with the 3D printer? I want mine to get one but they don't see any useful purpose.

@hallmike we're an academic library, but they wanted to provide students with access to one, and it gets used daily. They teach classes on software to create your own designs. I don't think it gets used much for academic purposes though.

But, a biology (or something) professor was giving a forum talk a few weeks back and held up a 3D printed copy of her brain that she keeps on her desk. That sounds cool.

@hallmike What type of library are you?

@luvche21 I have been begging my library for a 3-D printer!! I think the only way we will get one is of it is donated.

@luvche21 I do IT for my state's public library system. I can see the printer being more useful in an academic setting, rather than turning it loose to the public.

@hallmike I actually haven't heard of many in academic libraries, but more for creator spaces in public libraries, so I thought it was odd that we had one.

@conandlibrarian The printer was already here when I arrived, but I assume we purchased it. My library seems to have a decent amount of funding/interest in those kinds of things.

The printer is EXTREMELY popular, and is in use 99% of the time I walk by. The library charges by weight of plastic used - maybe you could propose setting up a system where it costs the patron a few cents per ounce/gram/something extra than the cost of the plastic so that they turn a slight profit to pay for the printer over time. Would they go for that?

@luvche21 Unfortunately, they would not. Anytime anyone brings up money, the librarians (that seriously need to retire) start screaming about access for all. I have actually thought about buying one and donating it. I know it would be used constantly.

@conandlibrarian I'm seeing that in libraries in general. Here at least there's a large gap between half of us retiring within the next 5-10 years, and the other half are fairly new to the field (like me). It will be very interesting to see how that gap changes over the years.

@luvche21 These are awesome!

@conandlibrarian Wouldn't both of those be fun? I've wanted to get into bonsai tree growing, so that bottom one would be especially fun for me!

@luvche21
OK. Never saw much of an immediate use for a 3-D printer or service. A friend has been showing 3-D fractal art printed in metal that she buys on line. Impressive and beautiful, but not compelling. A customized easy button, intriguing. Strangely, that bonsai pot seems to have triggered the awareness that I will probably have such a printer in the foreseeable future.
And, @luvche21, thanks for the heads up; "aaaaaand I just spent way too much time on thingiverse ..."
Good times....

@4mehem Yeah, it's a pleasant rabbit hole though! If you do visit it, you can get there from @PocketBrain's original link. Make sure to go to the main page and filter by most popular - you won't waste as much time that way.

What I'm interested in is painting that bonsai pot to be a more natural color supposedly the plastic paints up really nice.

@luvche21 you can get wood fibre PLA filament and go green! PLA is made from corn starch, and it is one of the most popular materials for 3D printing.

@PocketBrain I can only use what the library uses, so I don't have a say in that :(

@luvche21 I have some. ;-)

@luvche21 I love that Bulbasaur planter; it would look great with some Lapidaria Margaretae. It is a dwarf succulent with leaves that look like polygons and would go really well with the low-poly look of Bulbasaur.

@PocketBrain Ooh, that's a nice color too! The sample photos people posted on that Amazon link look great!

@PocketBrain Someone on reddit posted about Astrophytum Myriostigma that looks a little closer to Bulbasaur:

@luvche21 I printed one of the bonsai pots in wood PLA. Pictures with a few coins for comparison.
It's not cleaned up yet; I should remove the raft and supports, and sand it some. It's fairly small, but I sliced another one at 150% and exported it to Gcode. I will edit the Gcode to insert changes in extruder temperature so it changes color by layers; that will make it look more like natural wood. It smells like sawdust while printing, and after, even! Especially during print; the heat makes it smell like you're cutting wood with a power saw.

@PocketBrain Awesome! That opening looks pretty small too - is it big enough for an actual tree to get root?

Would you mind weighing it? I'm still debating what to do for my first print - my library charges $.20/gram, so it may turn out to be pretty expensive.

I'd love to see more pictures once you sand it down and plant something in it!!

...is that an old yen coin in the top left?

@luvche21 Yeah, a Yen coin! A friend of mine gave me that; the Australian Dollar and Emirates Dhiram I picked up in my travels. Makerware estimates 110g for the larger size (150% scale) and 46g for the small one you see here (49mm high). It also estimates about 177g for max-scale on my Replicator 2 (91mm high). So, do they charge you $.20 per gram even if you supply the filament?

@PocketBrain Whoa, that would be a little pricey then huh?

I don't know if they'll let me supply my own filament. I asked about doing different colors, and they said they don't like to - to avoid clogging or something? I'm not very familiar with the process yet, so I don't know how much of an issue that actually is.

I'll have to do some more digging, but I would love to print one of these!!

@luvche21 Did you ever look into printing with wood fiber filament? I did get a decent print at the 150% size. If you can't get the library to allow you to, I could box a print up and post it to you.

@PocketBrain Not yet - it sounds like they won't let me bring my own filament

What would you charge to have you make/ship it?

@luvche21 Material cost (incl. raft and supports) plus shipping. You're practically family! Scratch calculation says $4.40 for materials and $7.70 for priority mail box. I have a decent, if imperfect print at the ~150% size; there is a flat area obscured in the photos above that there are small gaps. You would have to be happy with not-quite-perfect, unless I get lucky with the model, or if you would be happy with the low-resolution version (their High-res model is solid). Where do you live, anyway? I'm not sending this to Nigeria or Taiwan, etc. Just bein' practical.

@PocketBrain Maybe like some kind of southeastern shade of red?

@PocketBrain Looks like a frosted cake! mmmmm. . . cake

@hallmike I spray-painted this one candy-apple red and I'm going to paint the letters with appliance touch-up paint when it's dry.

@hallmike that's exactly what i thought too!

@PocketBrain First print painted! Next one will use the red filament, vapor smoothing and the same appliance white paint for the letter tops. I think I'll post a blank, unlettered version to Thingiverse.

@PocketBrain vapor smoothing will make a huge difference. looks good so far. Are there any step by step guides out there for putting new words into the button?

@webender printing it with 0.1mm layers vs 0.3mm layers will also make a big difference. I will put up a blank version with original files and some instructions. I used 123D Design. OpenSCAD would be great for the button, but I wasn't sure how to use my preferred font, and 123D is like doodling. :-)

@PocketBrain New version and front page picture!

@heartny do you know what font that is?

@PocketBrain No, sorry I do not. I lifted the logo off the site (or Google image search), dropped the background and used it from there.

@PocketBrain Try this site out: http://www.whatfontis.com/

@MsELizardBeth wait, you classified that as a "don't need"?

@MsELizardBeth Now I need a commercial cotton candy machine too.

@2palms I had an easy button and got a recordable audio unit from Radio Shack, intending to make this mod, but put it off for a bit. Then I saw an article on hackaday.com that pointed to an instructible that did the same mod, with the same components. I was incensed! Then I went ahead and made the thing. It's a lot like this video:

@Mehrocco_Mole I have one of these on the way (theoretically). Don't forget the $65 shipping fee on top of that. Still, if it works, it's an insanely good bargain.
As far as Kickstarters go, I have one that is still "active" but has not yet delivered the original reward. But then, there is the Oculus Rift. I got the Dev. Kit 1, which was a working prototype (and fun!) and they recently announced that everybody who pledged at that level and above would receive a special edition of the commercial version of the Rift; higher resolution, better tracking, etc. It will retail for a lot more than I pledged originally.

@PocketBrain Get over to Kickstarter! The shipping email went out last month. BTW: it's $55

@Mehrocco_Mole Yeah, $55! Their initial estimate was $65 as I recall.

@PocketBrain What more can I say? It's PURPLE!!