How useful is a 3D printer for repairs? A small example
3D-Printing has been around for a while but still is in its infancy. In my eyes we are currently in a stage which corresponds to the dot matrix printers 40 years ago. Some geeks use them, the software (word processing) is hard to use and no one knows them and the printers are slow.
Nevertheless, 3D printing can already be used successfully for many repairs. The skills need to be learned but this is manageable for almost anyone. Let me illustrate this with a quick repair I did today.
The problem
My father sent me a picture of a broken plastic part of his “Sodastream”. The device is used to create sparkling water. A small piece of plastic broke off. He asked me whether it was repairable or not and I was sure there was something to be done. I told him to bring the device over, to have a look at it, already thinking that there could probably something be done with 3D printing.
The model
If you want to print something on a 3d printer, you need a so called “3D model” of the part you want to print (most often a file with the suffix .stl, but others exist as well). You can either create the model yourself or download a preexisting one. To create a model yourself, you need a software to design the part. I will not go into details about the software right now.
If you are lucky, someone has already created the part and put it on the internet. There are several sites that are used to publish objects:
You could also search for the thing you are needing and add “stl” to your search query.
In the case with the sodastream, I was lucky and quickly found the required part. Fortunately, someone else had the same problem I had and created a model for the lever that was broken. With a software called cura, I “sliced” the model and saved it on an SD card to print it.
The tool
I currently use an Ender 3 V2, an affordable printer which is quite easy to use. Easy to use does not mean plug-and-play though. Many of today’s printers, need to be assembled and adjusted from time to time. Most are not more complicated than some IKEA furniture. Each year the printers get better and easier to use.
If you do not own a 3d printer yet, there are many companies that offer a print service. I do not have any experience with them but there are certainly good options.
The repair
I printed the part which took roughly 4.5 hours. Printers today are still really slow, and a small part easily takes hours. After the print, I had to remove some “support structure” which permits the printer to print overhanging features.
After some “tweaking”, I inserted the lever into the sodastream and it worked again as before!
The time spent were maybe five minutes searching for the part. Slicing and setting up the printer took maybe another ten minutes. I obviously did not spend the time in front of the printer while it printed the part (even though it can be quite mesmerizing looking at how a part comes into existence). I needed some more minutes to tweak and insert the part. So maybe half an hour in total. And if the part breaks again, I can just print it once more, now that I have the model.
Conclusion
3D printing for repair has many dimensions. In the simplest case, you take a preexisting model and have it printed by someone for you. On the other end of the spectrum, you design and print your own parts. Fortunately, many people design parts and put them on the internet for others to print. This greatly helps with many repairs as designing a part can be hard. With the use of a 250$ printer I was able to save a 100$ device. With only a few such repairs, the printer pays for himself, and you can do many other nice things that are not repairs.
3D printing requires some new skills that are currently not very widely known. There are many resources online that teach you how to 3D print. As with every tool, you will probably fail from time to time using it. With some experience, you can successfully use it for many interesting things and repairs.
On a side note: if manufacturers of devices would publish the 3D files, you could easily print the spare parts for your broken things. Unfortunately they don’t have to. The Right-to-repair movement tries to change this. If you can, support this movement in your area. If a manufacturer has to provide a 3D file in one region, it is, by the nature of the internet, available all over the world!
