Using a 3d printer to make your own controller

[TrevHead (TVR)]

With me descusing saturns pads in the other thread i thought that it might be cool to make your own/ mod or repair using a home 3d printer like the RepRap open source machine that can make most of its own parts and upgrade itself (costs about 500 euro). Although its a gadget thats too pricey for me i'm still curious as to wether anyone in here has used one to make their own gamepad or parts of

For those wanting to know more about the Reprap watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMhG4fWQ ... re=related

[ASK]

You can skip paying for an expensive machine and use a company like this: http://www.shapeways.com/

[Necronopticous]

When I was in college I did some programming for a bio-chem research project. The project involved a high-powered laser apparatus which we created many plastic components for on a 3D printer we had on campus. Don't be fooled. Modern 3D printing is not all it's cracked up to be.

[Ed Oscuro]

I bet you would probably spend forever sanding your 3D Printer creations to feel right, and then it still wouldn't have as nice a texture as injection molding or something.

I don't know if the new ones use vector movements or whatever or something more akin to a 3D version of the good ol' dot matrix printer (I'm pretty sure the old ones threw out lots of blocky designs).

[TrevHead (TVR)]

When I was in college I did some programming for a bio-chem research project. The project involved a high-powered laser apparatus which we created many plastic components for on a 3D printer we had on campus. Don't be fooled. Modern 3D printing is not all it's cracked up to be.

How good is the quality of the plastics they use, is it durable?

[Necronopticous]

The quality of the plastic seemed fine. The problem was the disparity in strength and accuracy between the horizontal and vertical dimensions. Since these machines print vertically layer by layer, the quality "against the grain" is never going to be even close to the quality "with the grain" in any respect.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

The quality of the plastic seemed fine. The problem was the disparity in strength and accuracy between the horizontal and vertical dimensions. Since these machines print vertically layer by layer, the quality "against the grain" is never going to be even close to the quality "with the grain" in any respect.

Ah i get u, well hopefully the if the technology gets better in years to come we might start to see modders using them. After recently watching a vid where a bloke had modded a pogostick into a controller and also made a game to go with it, I would love to see what wacky controllers they'll make.

[t0yrobo]

Rapid prototyping machines can be pretty pricey, I don't see them getting used for mods by anyone that doesn't have access to one at work really. I think they'd work just fine though, they can make pretty high quality parts. But spending upwards of $100 for a single part just isn't that practical.

[kernow]

I enquired about printing something out for my father once at the Rapid Prototyping labs we had at my last workplace, my hopes were soon dashed when they told me the item I wanted printing would be around £700, and the plastic they used was about £100 for a few grams.

its .. expensive.