But! As a result, he's been using it for various little pet projects, to work out the kinks with producing ever more complex items.
So far, he's successfully created:
- A Christmas ornament that is impossible to create any other way but through a 3D printer. It's basically four independently rotating rings, layered atop the other, with a spinning snowflake at the heart. It's awesome.
- Tiny Tardis ornaments, which he packed with a the wiring and such to make (1) the whooshing Tardis sound, and (2) an alarm bell it's sounded probably like twice throughout the show (he's a huge classic Who buff)
- Little robot toys for my nephews, which use mechanical motion to walk down slopes. He made three, which the kids raced against each other.
- A nozzle for the filter of my turtle tank, so that gravel won't keep getting sucked up into it. I had to sand it down a bit, but it works just dandy.
- A cap that goes over mason jar lids, to help open them.
- A PIP-BOY
His arm's going to be in a case for a while after an arthritis surgery. He made this thing almost entirely one-handed, taking the Pip-Boy 3D printing design from Thingaverse and adding his own tweaks for a mounted fan (to get air under the itchy cast), and to increase the size enough to go around his cast.
Pretty sweet.