Last night I moved my goldfish aquarium to my new home. During reassembly of the pump a small clip that secures the sealing bracket on my “EHEIM eco pro” aquarium filter broke. I had to quickly fix this since the fishes were waiting in their transport container and urgently needed some fresh and circulated water.
A great opportunity to test my RepRap workflow!
I removed the broken part, took some measurements, drafted a replacement in OpenSCAD and printed it on my RepStrap in ABS. From idea to completion in 45 minutes. I suspect that it would have taken longer to even find a spare part supplier. Order and delivery not included.
I published all files on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16119
Tagged: aquarium, household, Open Hardware, Open Source, repair, replacement, RepRap
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2 Comments
So when can I buy a kit? I’m new to the 3d printing thing and aslomt ordered a makerbot but researched a bit more b/c I dont like the small size of printing. I’m hand making models of anatomic structure, then casting with platinum silicone. It’s a tedious process. If I can design on a computer, print it out and cast my models, life would be so much easier. My real job is cardiac medicine but I’d like to start my side business when I can get this production thing down and educate people on how to prevent heart disease. With the final cut studio video editing, dvd authoring, web design learning curve. It’s been nearly 2 years.What is your timeframe?
Unfortunately i cannot offer you a complete RepRap-kit at the moment. I am selling the plastic parts needed to build a Prusa Mendel RepRap 3D printer from time to time on ebay though.
If you are considering to build a RepRap on your own i recommend intensive reading on reprap.org.
There are also complete kits or preassembled printers available from e.g. lulzbot.com, makergear.com, thereprapkitstore.co.uk and others…
Otherwise if you prefer to buy a 3D printer as a ready-to-go kit (like makerbot) take a look at the ultimaker for example – as far as i can tell from what i have read recently their printer is performing really well. It’s fast and has a bigger build volume than makerbot’s thing-o-matic.