October 2023 Update

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Scott French

I had my toes in the DIY/maker scene as 3D printers were starting to get popular a few years back and often thought about how they could be used for guitar building. Over and over again I came to the conclusion that there wasn't a place on a guitar that I would want to use a 3D printed part, and for the most part I still feel the same way. Over time I have definitely been moving away from using most kinds of plastic on my instruments if possible. I know 3D printed metal is becoming popular, but that's beyond the scope of a home user like myself for now.

At some point last year I had the idea I might want to use 3D printed molds for casting small parts, so I bought a basic resin printer setup to give it a try. I printed two things and found the process of using the resin printer to be very unpleasant so I got rid of it quickly. I thought that would be the end of 3D printing for me so I moved on.

Recently my older son has been getting into modeling in Blender and Fusion and has wanted to work on his own robot designs. For his birthday we got him a FDM printer so he could print his own models. It's been a slow start, but he's already worked on some cool stuff with my help. I've had to learn a good amount but the 3D printing crash course has been worth it, not only for helping him, but also making some stuff for myself. What finally clicked for me was even though I don't think I will be using the printer for stuff directly used on the guitar itself, it is a great tool for quickly making things like jigs, small tools, and organizers.

I started with a few part holders from the Carbide 3D Print Library. While they were printing I cleaned the garage and for the third time I lost some small pickup parts for the new SF3 in the shuffle. That inspired me to quickly throw together my own pickup part organizer tray. It has a place for rings/plates, flatwork, magnets, and small parts like ferrules, eyelets and screws. On the next one I will make the pockets a bit deeper and the magnet holders tighter and flexible since the stronger ones want to jump around. Overall his new printer has been a lot of fun so I am excited to continue learning while I help my son make progress on his projects.

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