Transcript:
Is it possible or practical to 3d print a protective case for an iPad? This question answered on this wonderful 3d Thursday. We’ve all done it. At one point, another, we’ve all dropped one of our cool and expensive tech gadgets on a hard service offering is all taking broken glass. For this reason. Most people buy a protective case for their device, a low cost preventative measures that could save them hundreds later on while the cost of a decent case is usually cheap within a screen repair. I still think paying $30 to the store for a piece of plastic is outrageous. You can buy an equally good case online for about half that constant. So why wait when you have a 3d printer? You can download one in seconds and print it in the time it takes to watch a movie. I found a few cool cases on Thingiverse and aside the front one with a cool, triangular pattern thing number two six or seven 92 since the case is so thin, the infill density probably doesn’t matter, but I set it to 50% Just in case printer setup is pretty straightforward. Painter’s tape and a coat of glue applied, make for a warm free print. The tape also makes cleanup easier since the glue can accumulate over time if applied directly to the print bed since the case is thinner than most prints, it is easy to peel up with the aid of an old credit card from my experience, cases or objects, this thin tend to be incredibly delicate, so caution should be used in the removal process to install a case We simply place one half of the iPad in the case and then press down until the iPad doesn’t fit and something breaks to the scrap bin well. Come back to this one a little bit. There weren’t too many cases for this particular. Ipad and I probably have the least popular phone made this year and we bought the Blackberry Rim so finding a case for that is unlikely. Let’s find a cool accessory for the iPad, Perhaps a doc. Its print thing number 6 8 to 5 upon completion of the print. I was delighted to see that the iPad fit like a glove but disappoint that the base does not accommodate the high center of gravity. I’m going to try to fix this with some kind of wood glue and a thin block of wood, lets. Go back to the iPad case for a bit. So after reading a little bit, I discovered that larger principle of her nose or shrinkage, which can affect the performance of measurement specific parts, while some designers accommodate this potential shrinkage in their design. This one did not, I’m going to increase the size of a very small percentage and see how it fits in the second time around upon test fitting. I can conclude that this design is just too hard to printing abs. I’ve had now fits within the case edges, but it’s still too shallow to snap around the device. Unfortunately, this is one variation of the only one-piece design. I could find for the iPad Mini so printing. A functioning case for the device is not going to happen on this episode. One positive note. I was able to make the dock work properly. Let’s go back to that for a second using recycled piece of pallet wood. I was able to make a sturdy base for the iPad to stay upright using a little hot glue. I was able to attach the dock to a piece of wood. It’s a cool and function concept, but I personally think plastic on wood looks weird from an aesthetic standpoint before I conclude this episode, I have a few notes about ABS and PLA plastics, 3d printing, large precision parts of abs and difficult it’s. ABS tends to shrink at a higher rate than other materials, such as PLA printing, small precision parts can be difficult with any material because the printer resolution and the structural limitations of plastic, This case has a little bit of both large overall dimensions with very thin edges while I still own a few rolls of PLA. I’m hesitant my printer. The last few times, a switch from ABS back to PLA the clock, both extruder heads on a printer while the printer is primarily designed to print with ABS. It is capable of printing A PLA without any modifications, So Im. Not sure why it would do this. I have a feeling if I could cleanly. Extrude this case with PLA and have a better shot of getting accurate dimensions for the case. PLA is also very brittle so it would not be ideal for something protective like this from my observations. I’m going to conclude is currently not practical to print cases for larger devices, but it is entirely possible as you saw. It is somewhat difficult to adjust for shrinkage. So Gigi Temp take several hours and consume this material. Some designers accommodate for this, while others don’t either way, and they usually include instructions in the description on how people should set up the printer to put a print. And that’s where I figured out that I needed to expand the dimension of the case. By a small increment. A number of designs also have thin walls to allow designed to flip over the device of bezel. Fortunately, this causes weak points, especially in your cutouts for buttons and ports, despite ABS, having more flexibility than some other plastics, these points will often crack or break off and clearly there are a few flexible materials available printing. However, these materials usually cost about twice as much as ABS and PLA and require additional operating procedures. I would eventually like to try printing with flexible materials, But Adam with ABS and PLA. I will wait till there are more price competitive options. On the market, 3d printing gets better and more affordable every year. I’m sure we will revisit this case sometime. Not too far from now, Be sure to comment like, share and subscribe and as always thanks for watching. See you next week. Be sure to check out last week’s episode if you haven’t already and leave some suggestions for future prints and comments below.