Nerf Scout Trooper Blaster Repaint
- Thread starter 13doctorwho
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Same for me. My 3D printer guy is busy with his own project and keeps putting mine off. I’d happily pay someone to print these in high quality if someone would put a run together.
TazMan2000
Master Member
It was already suggested several times in this thread, that you could create an account on Shapeways or the many other companies that offer 3D printing services.
I don't blame anyone here for not doing a run. First of all, you have to contend with an interest list, then get payment and address info from everyone. Of course there is going to be someone who is going to complain about shipping, or the item being lost in shipping, whereas the package will have to be re-printed and re-shipped at the cost of the maker. This would be a huge hassle for one or two items. Oh, and let's not forget cancellations or people not satisfied with the quality.
The problem with someone here doing a run, is that they would have to have permission from the designer, AnubisGuard to make a run. Anubis has generously donated his work but that may not mean that he would want someone to profit from freely given away files. I can't speak for him though.
If you look in your own local online buy and sell (or Facebook) you would probably also have local people who offer 3d printing services where you wouldn't have the cost of shipping to worry about. With 3D printers almost as common as personal computers nowadays, I'm pretty certain that someone you know or work with, (or their kid) has a 3D printer looking to make a couple of bucks.
TazMan2000
I don't blame anyone here for not doing a run. First of all, you have to contend with an interest list, then get payment and address info from everyone. Of course there is going to be someone who is going to complain about shipping, or the item being lost in shipping, whereas the package will have to be re-printed and re-shipped at the cost of the maker. This would be a huge hassle for one or two items. Oh, and let's not forget cancellations or people not satisfied with the quality.
The problem with someone here doing a run, is that they would have to have permission from the designer, AnubisGuard to make a run. Anubis has generously donated his work but that may not mean that he would want someone to profit from freely given away files. I can't speak for him though.
If you look in your own local online buy and sell (or Facebook) you would probably also have local people who offer 3d printing services where you wouldn't have the cost of shipping to worry about. With 3D printers almost as common as personal computers nowadays, I'm pretty certain that someone you know or work with, (or their kid) has a 3D printer looking to make a couple of bucks.
TazMan2000
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AnubisGuard
Master Member
Yeah I'm not sure how I would feel about that. I suppose if whoever did it cut me in...
I was of course originally planning to offer prints myself but life and a lack of confidence in my ability to manage a run got in the way.
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
I've been doing small amounts of 3d printed droid parts over on Astromech, and figure I could probably make this work, so I've pulled the files into BambuSlicer just to see what it would involve.
Using the same math I use for the droid parts, I could do a batch of these in ABS for about $8 US. I have to say "about" because BamabuSlicer insists there's no geometry in the "scope knob cap v002" file. I haven't made any serious effort to try and fix it, but basically there a tiny chance I've vastly underestimated the time and plastic needed to spit that out.
Shipping would be extra. Tracked Packet shipping to the US is usually in the vicinity of 20$ to 25$ CAD, so around $15-$20 USD. This varies with the cost of fuel but that's a decent ballpark.
AnubisGuard 's licensing fee would be in addition to that, and the value of that would be entirely up to them. Assuming they don't have a Canadian bank account, I'd recommend setting that to "whatever you actually want +10% for Paypal."
Downsides to this offer:
1) I don't actually have one of these blasters, local stores are sold out, and I'm not sufficiently interested in it to jump through a bunch of hoops looking for one on ebay or what-have-you. This means I don't have anything to check fitment against. ABS does shrink slightly as it cools, so I'd be making a guess as to the right adjustment factor.
2) My work hours have been severely cut, so I'm not able to fund the cost of experimentation. This means if I guess totally wrong on the adjustment factor for the shrinkage and you get parts that are just too small to work, I'm not in a position to make you whole. You'd be buying these parts accepting that risk. (I *am* willing to work with someone to get it dialed in. If there's anyone either in the Edmonton area or willing to ship me their blaster, I could do limited test prints to find the right sizing.)
Just to be clear, I don't think this is a *large* risk. 99% of the time, scaling ABS up by 1% results in the final part being the correct size. I'm just being upfront about what I can and cannot promise.
3) My printer is a BambuLabs X1C. This is a very reliable and mechanically accurate machine, but it is an FDM printer. And even with supports, overhangs in ABS tend to look like ass. These parts have a lot of overhangs as is, so to make them print nicely I'd have to split a couple things:
This, of course, will create a seam you'll need to deal with.
And, of course, FDM will have layer lines. You'll need to sand these smooth. ABS sands fairly easily, and I'd print these with thick walls and small layers (less work to sand and lots of material to sand into) but it will still be a fair amount of finishing work.
4) I have no idea what the rules are for offering this kind of thing here on TheRPF, so I might discover there's some detail that I'm not willing to deal with. Also, if anyone can point me towards yon rules, I'd appreciate it.
5) These would have to be slotted into my Astromech parts, so it would probably be something like one order every other week. I'm not running a massive print farm, I'm using my personal printer to help other hobbyists out and recoup a little of my investment while I'm at it.
I don't think there's anything else I'd need to say about this.
The next steps would be:
-@AnubisGuard needs to set their license fee. (I'd definitely prefer a per-job fee rather and a flat rate.) If you want to PM me to discuss that, Anubis, feel free.
-I need to figure out the rules of offering a small run here on TheRPF. Again, I'd appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction on that.
Once those two things are sorted, if anyone is interested in being a guinea pig I'm willing to move forward.
Using the same math I use for the droid parts, I could do a batch of these in ABS for about $8 US. I have to say "about" because BamabuSlicer insists there's no geometry in the "scope knob cap v002" file. I haven't made any serious effort to try and fix it, but basically there a tiny chance I've vastly underestimated the time and plastic needed to spit that out.
Shipping would be extra. Tracked Packet shipping to the US is usually in the vicinity of 20$ to 25$ CAD, so around $15-$20 USD. This varies with the cost of fuel but that's a decent ballpark.
AnubisGuard 's licensing fee would be in addition to that, and the value of that would be entirely up to them. Assuming they don't have a Canadian bank account, I'd recommend setting that to "whatever you actually want +10% for Paypal."
Downsides to this offer:
1) I don't actually have one of these blasters, local stores are sold out, and I'm not sufficiently interested in it to jump through a bunch of hoops looking for one on ebay or what-have-you. This means I don't have anything to check fitment against. ABS does shrink slightly as it cools, so I'd be making a guess as to the right adjustment factor.
2) My work hours have been severely cut, so I'm not able to fund the cost of experimentation. This means if I guess totally wrong on the adjustment factor for the shrinkage and you get parts that are just too small to work, I'm not in a position to make you whole. You'd be buying these parts accepting that risk. (I *am* willing to work with someone to get it dialed in. If there's anyone either in the Edmonton area or willing to ship me their blaster, I could do limited test prints to find the right sizing.)
Just to be clear, I don't think this is a *large* risk. 99% of the time, scaling ABS up by 1% results in the final part being the correct size. I'm just being upfront about what I can and cannot promise.
3) My printer is a BambuLabs X1C. This is a very reliable and mechanically accurate machine, but it is an FDM printer. And even with supports, overhangs in ABS tend to look like ass. These parts have a lot of overhangs as is, so to make them print nicely I'd have to split a couple things:
This, of course, will create a seam you'll need to deal with.
And, of course, FDM will have layer lines. You'll need to sand these smooth. ABS sands fairly easily, and I'd print these with thick walls and small layers (less work to sand and lots of material to sand into) but it will still be a fair amount of finishing work.
4) I have no idea what the rules are for offering this kind of thing here on TheRPF, so I might discover there's some detail that I'm not willing to deal with. Also, if anyone can point me towards yon rules, I'd appreciate it.
5) These would have to be slotted into my Astromech parts, so it would probably be something like one order every other week. I'm not running a massive print farm, I'm using my personal printer to help other hobbyists out and recoup a little of my investment while I'm at it.
I don't think there's anything else I'd need to say about this.
The next steps would be:
-@AnubisGuard needs to set their license fee. (I'd definitely prefer a per-job fee rather and a flat rate.) If you want to PM me to discuss that, Anubis, feel free.
-I need to figure out the rules of offering a small run here on TheRPF. Again, I'd appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction on that.
Once those two things are sorted, if anyone is interested in being a guinea pig I'm willing to move forward.
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
Not sure if you left it off on purpose or accident but there is also the front insert for the scope. It is in this post…
AnubisGuard
Master Member
Not sure if you left it off on purpose or accident but there is also the front insert for the scope. It is in this post…
Did I forget to include that in the collected zip file? I might have.
Main thing I'm aware of is you have to be a premium member here to sell items or do runs. Costs $30 USD a year.
EDIT: Here's link to the Classified's rules. If I'm understanding it right, even this much discussion, outside the Junkyard, about how to do a run may be against the rules.
Classifieds Guidelines
Before buying or selling in our community, please familiarize yourself with these guidelines.
www.therpf.com
IDK what's reasonable. If the actual price for the items is all of $8, maybe bump it to $10 and I'll take 20%? ($2?)
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Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
It would appear so. Which would slightly raise the cost of anything I did and that would in turn impact the final price, but that becomes slightly moot because:
Main thing I'm aware of is you have to be a premium member here to sell items or do runs. Costs $30 USD a year.
EDIT: Here's link to the Classified's rules. If I'm understanding it right, even this much discussion, outside the Junkyard, about how to do a run may be against the rules.
Classifieds Guidelines
Before buying or selling in our community, please familiarize yourself with these guidelines.
Thank you for the link. Having read through that, I agree we're getting borderline inappropriate here. I'm going to wrap this conversation up shortly (ie, in this post); I hope the powers-that-be will be gracious enough to recognise the good intent of my posts.
In terms of the Premium membership requirement: I have two thoughts.
First, this is a perfectly reasonable thing for TheRPF to ask for. It adds a layer of comfort in any transaction, and frankly running this site can't be cheap so having additional incentives for folks to step up to paid memberships is quite fair.
Second: I have no particular interest in the other benefits of the Premium membership, so the only reason I'd get one is to offer these parts. However, the actual pays-for-my-time component of my price (as opposed to pays-for-the-cost-of-inputs) is only about 3$ per; this is a significant percentage of 8$ but a small overall number. Since it feels like there's only 2 or 3 people who are *really* interested in this, and another 2 to 4 who are somewhat interested, best case still looks like I'd not recover my costs.
So that pretty much ends that venture right there. The only way I'd be willing to move forward is if someone bought me the Premium Membership - and to be blunt, if you're willing to spend that much on these parts, you should really look for a company local to you offering print-on-demand services and work with them instead.
Okay, as noted this conversation is probably pushing the rules, so I'm gonna wrap this here. While I'd like to help folks out, the math just does't work, alas.
gumbo2000
New Member
I apologize in advance for the thread resurrection. First a very belated thank you AnubisGuard and Mara Jades Father for all your work with the print files. After having the files saved for over a year, I finally purchased a 3D printer and my first project (beyond the little boat everyone does) is the scout blaster. I'm obviously new to 3D printing so hopefully this is a simple question.
For some reason, I am having difficulty printing the scope knob cap. I've tried several different slicers where it looks as it should from pictures in this thread. However, when printing I get "solid" plastic disks that are around 19mm in diameter and 4.8mm thick. I've tried both the individual file in this thread and the one that is in the zip file and I get the same results. Everything else has printed great. Any ideas?
For some reason, I am having difficulty printing the scope knob cap. I've tried several different slicers where it looks as it should from pictures in this thread. However, when printing I get "solid" plastic disks that are around 19mm in diameter and 4.8mm thick. I've tried both the individual file in this thread and the one that is in the zip file and I get the same results. Everything else has printed great. Any ideas?
I was never able to get the files to load correctly into cura.. wish I could figure it out because I’d love to upgrade mine
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
Okay, I'd started writing a post about how you hadn't shared nearly enough information for us to start troubleshooting, because with a 3d printer the details matter and so many of those details are user adjustable. But I figured I'd look at the part first, and BambuStudio reports that the Scope Knob Cap has errors in it (more than 4 vertices) and isn't loadable.
So it looks like there's a problem with that particular file.
Pheeeewww glad I’m not alone, I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on with my slicer
AnubisGuard
Master Member
I must have forgotten to triangulate the geo when I exported it. I can take a look...at some point. When I have free time.
I'll put all my cards out on the table and be totally honest. I really want to get the wonderful 3D printed parts AnubisGuard has designed and so graciously made available but I just do not have the means to do so on my own.
I do not have the time, energy, or honestly the desire to figure out how to upload AnubisGuard's files to Shapeways or another 3D printing site to have them printed.
What I really want is for someone with 3D printing experience who is familiar with this thread to print the parts and I will happily pay them for their time, materials, and shipping, and I will happily pay AnubisGuard separately for licensing his files to the person who prints them for me.
It would be AWESOME if AnubisGuard had a Shapeways store and I could purchase from him directly, or if he was able to print his parts himself on his own printer. If AnubisGuard was okay with it and MJF was willing I'd love to pay MJF to print me these parts and pay AnubisGuard for his files.
I did download AnubisGuards zipped file and gave it to my brother-in-law who has a lot of 3D printing experience and several printers and he has never had time to print them due to his other printing projects and also the sizing was off- he gave me the dimensions of just the nozzle and it was bigger then the entire blaster. We talked about me giving him my gun disassembled so he could make test prints and get the sizing dialed in but as I said, he's been too busy with his own printing projects to help me.
I'm being honest, I want the easy way. I want someone to offer to print the parts and I want the correct people to get compensated for their work. Based on the number of people participating in this thread I don't think it would be a lot of sets of parts, maybe a dozen or less.
I do not have the time, energy, or honestly the desire to figure out how to upload AnubisGuard's files to Shapeways or another 3D printing site to have them printed.
What I really want is for someone with 3D printing experience who is familiar with this thread to print the parts and I will happily pay them for their time, materials, and shipping, and I will happily pay AnubisGuard separately for licensing his files to the person who prints them for me.
It would be AWESOME if AnubisGuard had a Shapeways store and I could purchase from him directly, or if he was able to print his parts himself on his own printer. If AnubisGuard was okay with it and MJF was willing I'd love to pay MJF to print me these parts and pay AnubisGuard for his files.
I did download AnubisGuards zipped file and gave it to my brother-in-law who has a lot of 3D printing experience and several printers and he has never had time to print them due to his other printing projects and also the sizing was off- he gave me the dimensions of just the nozzle and it was bigger then the entire blaster. We talked about me giving him my gun disassembled so he could make test prints and get the sizing dialed in but as I said, he's been too busy with his own printing projects to help me.
I'm being honest, I want the easy way. I want someone to offer to print the parts and I want the correct people to get compensated for their work. Based on the number of people participating in this thread I don't think it would be a lot of sets of parts, maybe a dozen or less.
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
Mine been printed up for over a year now and I still have not had the motivation to do this. 
FYI: I am going to have to go with whatever I have printed because my 3D printer has had issues for the last 6 months and I don't know what is wrong. Prints keep failing on the upper levels no matter how small the project is.
FYI: I am going to have to go with whatever I have printed because my 3D printer has had issues for the last 6 months and I don't know what is wrong. Prints keep failing on the upper levels no matter how small the project is.
PMs sent...
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AnubisGuard
Master Member
And replied!
I do have a shapeways account, and I've made lightsaber parts available there in the past. So I absolutely could do that, if other avenues don't work out for people. I expect it would cost quite a bit, though. Shapeways was not cheap the last time I used them, and I believe prices have gone up since then.
AnubisGuard
Master Member
I did indeed forget to triangulate the scope knob version 2. Here's a fixed file. I also updated the ZIP so anyone who downloads it in the future will get the fixed file.
In addition, there was one part -- the scope insert -- that I forgot in the ZIP the first time. That has also been corrected.
In addition, there was one part -- the scope insert -- that I forgot in the ZIP the first time. That has also been corrected.
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