1y ago

Alternative Printer Uses

"You need to buy this special heater pad to break the screen adhesive!"

No, I think you will find that in fact I don't.

58 comments

Can I use it to warm up a sex toy? Asking for me.
- Just 3d print one and grab it while it's fresh and warm.
  
  I realize this is a joke…
  But don’t do this. Really. The fdm layers are unhygienic, and there’s a not-insignificant risk of things snapping off and leading to awkward emergency room visits.
  A better solution is printing a 2 part mold and casting silicone.
- Sadly not.
  I was told. Without asking. By a long lost friend of a cousin you wouldn't know.
  
  My sex toy goes to a different school
- Yes, and you can also warm up lube as well.
  I won't take any questions at this time

Has anyone else found a use for their 3D printer that wasn't exactly listed on the label?
- Not from the 3D printing world, but sometimes I'd use our heating plate to reheat pizza LOL! Gotta make sure to clean the surface really well afterwards though.
  
  Sounds like a job for tin foil or parchment paper
- I used to use the heated bed to brew tea while I was modeling. Poly makes a good cup.
- In an enclosed chamber, I warm it up to ~37°C to allow yeast dough to rise. Works like a charm.
- I know a guy whose cat will take naps on it.
  Used to have problems with the cat sneaking up while preheating, and being very intent on not getting off. (Even with the cold hot end poking him. It was… hilarious. Took an old i3 and sacrificed the build plate to solve the issue though.)
  
  They need an enclosure
- Bed is good at keeping fresh krispy kreme warm.
- The wife and I once used it to keep our fondue warm.

Ngl that's fucking genius
- Seeing as you can do the exact same thing with a hairdryer, it's inventing a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
  
  The heated bed is coupled to a thermistor. I'd argue controlling the temperature in order to not accidentally overheat parts of the phone is a step above a hair dryer.
  
  A hairdryer or heatgun kinda work, but it's super easy to accidentally heat damage the display underneath (and it's sensitivity only gotten worse with these super fancy displays these days).
  It also doesn't spread the heat very well.
  This is a great solution because the bed is temp controlled and evenly spread

Holy shit. I do a fair bit of small electronics repair on the side, the cost of a decent heat pad is about half that of a 3d printer... This may be what finally inspires me to get a 3d printer.

This is an amazing tip tbh. Never thought of using it for that.

Is that a motorola moto z2 play? I owned that phone and I used to disassemble it just like this!
Edit: saw in another comment that it's a z4. The camera did look strange for a z2 at a second glance
- Also thought was a z2 lol. Loved that phone

I've used mine for a lot of stuff really
Weaken adhesive for opening a cell phone (like your picture)
Revive a Nexus 5X long enough to patch it and transfer the data off of it (a really frustrating process BTW)
Heat treat resin prints (place print in box, set box on bed, set bed to 80C, come back in an hour, turn bed off, wait for it to hit ambient, remove box) this process is great for hollowed prints as not only will it cause and trapped alcohol to evaporate out but it will further cure the part and increase the durability of the part as well (CNC Kitchen has a great vid on it)
Keep my coffee warm while I was building and setting up a NAS for a friend
- Keep my coffee warm
  Bruh...
  
  It was a very long day that started with a nice easy plan that quickly turned into "Which POS part is preventing this thing from working"
  Fun fact it was the motherboard. Though it wasn't a consistent issue sometimes it was RAM failing, sometimes it was pcie not working, sometimes it was networking not working, etc. After swapping the motherboard everything worked beautifully.
  Yes we tried reseating the CPU, yes we checked for bent pins, yes we made sure the cables were secure. Something was fucky with the motherboard.

I’ve used it for releasing an iPad screen adhesive as well as for warming cinnamon rolls so they’ll rise when our oven was in use.
Totally had the food wrapped with Saran Wrap all around and had something between the plate and the glass pan. To make sure nothing that wasn’t safe for food prep didn’t touch it and to stop from “cooking” the bottom by accident.

Opening phones and heating burritos :)
And melting gallium when I 3D print moulds to make some silly metal objects (probably not so smart next to so much aluminium extrusion)
- Wax is cheaper than gallium I think
  
  Oh I know, I just have a few hundred grams of it since I like collecting elements, so I recast it into something funny when I’m bored

Can confirm this works, removed my tablet screen with my 3D printer.

Not sure if this is really what you're asking about, but there are some laser cutting/engraving add-ons you can get. Basically replaces the hot end with a laser. After I upgraded to a Prusa MK4, I'm thinking about getting one of those for my old E3v2 and turning it into a laser cutter.
- Looks like they are using it to warm the screen adhesive so they can remove the screen and repair the phone.

I hate heat guns. This is a brilliant alternative, thanks for the idea!

Are those test pads on your phone?
- No. It's a Moto Z4, which is compatible with Motorola's "Mods" ecosystem which are a variety of accessories you can stick to the back. For data transfer they connect to those pads via pogo pins.
  There are battery extender backs (which I have), a full-on gamepad case (which I also have) and also a 360 degree camera, a backplate that adds wireless charging, a mini projector, a beefed up speaker back, and an entire replacement Hasselblad camera you can stick on it as well. There was going to be a slide out physical keyboard module, too, which unfortunately turned out to be vaporware.
  
  That's a pretty cool feature.

Doesn't that require a much higher temperature than most beds would be able to safely achieve.
I had to take the screen off of a Pixel not terribly long ago to replace the battery. I used a heat gun and I remember it requiring a temperature of like... 240C° or some such? And when I'm printing PLA, my printer bed only gets to 60C°. (Not saying it couldn't go higher, but 240C° seems way higher than 60C°.)
- No, that temperature would damage your screen. The professional hot plates for phone repair are typically set to 85-90°C. With a heat gun you may need to set a higher temperature since you are only heating up part of the phone and it cools down again during the process. My printer (Prusa MK3) with PCB heater can go up to 120°C, so it looks perfect for the job.
  
  A heat gun is enough to melt through plastic, there is no need for higher temperatures. You can do it with a hairdryer.
- 90 degrees was the spec for this job. 240 is way too high.
- Nah 85/90 degrees is perfect for the job. Much better and more uniform than a heatgun, let alone a hairdryer
- You are thinking about a soldering plate? Those go up to 300°C or some times 400°C.
  A phone screen is fixed with hot glue, that starts to melt around 60°C.
  
  What I've used for this purpose is one of these. And I can attest that 60C° is nowhere near high enough to set that kind of thing for purposes of getting a Google Pixel 3a off safely.
  But I bet ThetaDev is right that a flat plate heater can work just as well when set to lower temperatures because they heat the whole screen at one time.

58 comments