Has anyone used a 3D printer?
 

I see these 3D printers for sale at Joanns and wonder how they can be used in quilting. Since I am learning to free motion quilt, I ordered these special ruler templates for circles, etc. It occurred to me that a 3D printer might be able to make custom ruler templates, and I wonder if anyone has tried. Or how do you use one?

I really have no need for one but I can see where it would be fun to have and maybe useful one day.

3-D printers are fascinating to me. I have not yet used one but to be able to make my own templates and rulers would be great.

My son purchased his own 3D printer and has enjoyed making all sorts of things. That's a good thought that he might make templates with it. His has a 10 inch pad so nothing over 10 inches could be made. It might be hard enough, you could make it as thick as you like, but it's not see thru. It could make the ones that you go on the inside of a hole in the plastic. I may have to give that a try. Thanks for the idea.

I was just talking to the husband about this the other day! I don't have a 3D printer of my own and I don't have access to one, but all the little trimming tools and such that I now make out of cardboard and tape, I would make to my exact specifications with a 3D printer.

Cost-effective or not, if I taught classes (or was a shop) I'd make some little widgets that helped that specific project and include it with the class, along with my advertising info on it.

A friend of a friend is an ex-Boeing engineer and does work with kids and the competition robots, he was the first person I knew who had a 3D printer and they had just came out.

I wonder how accurate the printed tools/templates would be. Does anyone know?

I would imagine it would depend on the parameters you set. But I figure if school kids can make a mechanical arm, we can certainly make a usable template!

https://3dprinting.com/news/high-sch...ic-prosthetic/

Our library recently bought a 3-d printer. They will show you how to use it. I think you just pay for supplies. Worth checking with your nearest library.

I always thought it would be handy..but cost of supplies (the plastic line) might be more than what you're making if found elsewhere made from some other material. I believe this is the case with templates..in the first place, plexiglass is cheap at your local box store..you can get a zillion templates out of one piece. You can cut it with a scroll saw, jig saw, oscillating saw, dremel tool, and probably a lot of other things. If you need it to be thicker, you just glue 2 pieces together for a thick template, cheaper than buying the thicker plexiglass sheets. I clamp a metal straight edge to mine, then use the dremel tool score a line, then I fill that line in with permanent marker.
I would try the library, though..might be fun !!