Your 3D printer is a fancy CNC machine with a few heated elements (and maybe a fan or two). While extruding filament may be the main reason you buy it, there are more unconventional things you can use your 3D printer for.
Filament drying
No dryer, no problem
3D printer filament must be dried before use moisture can ruin your prints. This is what makes a filament dryer is an essential tool for any FDM printer ownerbut if your printer has a heated bed, there is another way. You can use the heat from your print bed and a cover like the box your filament comes in to dry the filament.
Consult your printer manufacturer for exact instructions. For example, there is the Bamboo Laboratory entire support article about drying filament, which includes instructions for using the heat bed, as well as a cover pattern that you can download and print. You need to turn the filament halfway.
Unloading glue on smartphones and tablets
60 seconds at 70ºC should do it
Repairing smartphones and tablets requires skill, patience and special tools. One of these tools is a heating pad, which is used to heat the back or front of the device to loosen the glue used to hold everything together.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can use the heated print bed of the 3D printer to loosen the adhesive. This technique is well documented online; iFixit even has a guest textbook that surrounds it. You need to set the bed temperature to about 70ºC and wait about a minute for the glue to release, after which you should be able to go inside.
Just remember that the appliance can get very hot while you’re doing this, so use a towel or gloves to avoid burning yourself (and don’t leave it on the plate for too long).
Bread or pizza dough rising
Gentle heat as you knead
If you’ve ever tried to raise dough in a cold environment, you’ll know how disappointing the end result can be. You can spend hours kneading, waiting, and beating back, but if the ambient temperature isn’t on your side, you’re fighting a losing battle.
So why not use your 3D printer? It works especially well if you have an enclosed model, as you can heat the bed to about 30ºC to heat the whole case before putting the batter inside. I would use the adhesive wrap method (rather than the wet towel method) to seal the tray to prevent excess moisture in your machine, and maybe put a dry cloth to protect the print bed.
Make sure your container is clean before taking it anywhere near your printer. Oil is one of the biggest problems with sticking prints to the bed, so that’s why washing your print bed is very important.
Fermented yogurt
Your printer can do it too
Yogurt is made by a fermentation process using a specific bacterial culture. The bacteria eat the sugars, which produce lactic acid, and then change the proteins. You can make yogurt at home by buying kits from the supermarket, and many go so far as to buy special yogurt-making equipment.
The bacteria responsible for this fermentation process require a temperature between 30ºC and 45ºC, with many recommending 41ºC to 43ºC as the “sweet spot” for rapid fermentation. You can achieve this temperature relatively easily on the print bed, meaning you can get yogurt anywhere between 4 and 12 hours.
one Instructions user documents the process and mentions using a 3D-printed cover to lock in hot air. This may not be necessary if you have an indoor printer, but if your printer is open, you can use a pre-box or custom print.
Drawing and writing with a pencil
Your 3D printer can be quite artistic
Pen plotters are expensive machines that draw and write on paper with absolute precision. They are typically used for applying signatures, authoring “handwritten” documents, creating one-off items such as invitations and thank-you notes, or planning unfinished works of art by hand. These machines can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.
You can also use your printer as a pen plotter by printing a custom pen holder and attaching it to your printer. You can find models for pen holders at 3D printing repositories, but if you’re serious about it, it might be worth looking at a g-code generator. 3D Plotter (€30).
There is a surprising one detailed Instructions article about using this tool from start to finish to prepare documents that go through the entire process.
Vinyl cutting
If you are brave
By adding a drag knife to your 3D printer, you can effectively turn it into a vinyl cutter. There are many caveats to this. You need to 3D print the assembly and attach it to your printer, protect your print bed, and generate the g-code needed to make your cuts.
You can use Inkscape to generate the g-code directly, or you can use a project like GCodePlot (too bad it hasn’t been updated in a while). Alternatively, there is a free Windows program called Polycut promises to simplify the process.
Repairing crushed vinyl records
Correct record setting
Of all the ideas on this list, this is the one I doubt the most. I wouldn’t have mentioned it here if it wasn’t for the Reddit user willingly posted about their successes. However, if you are considering doing this, I urge caution. Only slightly bent notes should still play well (I should know, I have a lot), so you can consider this a last resort.
This particular method involves placing the (sleeve) record under a glass plate of a print bed heated at 50ºC, applying pressure with clips and leaving for 30 minutes. The poster noted that the record survived the tampering enough to be playable now (which wasn’t the case before), but it was left slightly warped.
Remember that heating the record can also bend the grooves, rendering it unusable. Treat this fix with caution and only use it if you really need it.
Looking for more uses for your 3D printer? Check out these cheap and easy household repairs.
