gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

So I've been working on making some 3D printable parts for gamecube. I thought a thread might be a good idea to create a thread for them. I'm definitely not the best at design so any help would be appreciated. So far I have been working on a back plate to use with Component outs, I created it in 123d so it should be easily editable to modify for HDMI or whatever.

in a much higher resolution that'd be cool.

yeah i have a cheap 3d printer so for me it doesn't get much better on resolution. lol

marcus9199 wrote:yeah i have a cheap 3d printer so for me it doesn't get much better on resolution. lol

thats still one of the biggest problems with home 3d printers...

most are only mechanical toys trying to cash in on the latest wave of tech offering nothing but very poor print quality, buggy software, and time/money wasted. Most all only print in PLA which sucks balls because of the layered weave shine it leaves mixed with low resolutions is horrific...A few are capable of printing in ABS...but within those few, even fewer can actually do it well...
most of the prints posted on thingverse are hard to look...people should be embarrassed to post a pic of a yoda face in PLA @ 400µ resolution...


even worse to factor in is the amount of materials to print with..a lot offered are low quality plastics which also leads to time/money wasted trying to tweak the software settings just to compensate for a decent looking print ( if possible )...

even the hardware itself is a joke in most cases.
For example: Makerbot, one of the largest companies in the USA, should have recalled all their printers using their smart extruder. Their solution is to replace with a new one which is still plagued with the same problems..Im surprised a class action lawsuit has not begun...
Even Makerbot's now parent company, Stratasys, has begun its goal to eliminate all competition in legal battle stating other 3D printers are using their technology...its pretty sad scene for 3d printers if they win the battle...


there are some very high quality resin printers but they waste a lot of "expensive" materials...not to mention resin is more fragile than PLA and ABS, so a resin print has a good chance to shatter if dropped...
Not all 3D printers are bad, they can do some good things....just dont expect to much out of most of the printers on the market...and be smart when designing parts to consider the physical limits of the printer itself...

Yeah main use for my cheap 3d printer is prototyping. "helping" me with the design. Beyond that I planned to send to a service like http://www.shapeways.com/. for final print. And that way people on the site could use the designs the way we use stuff like oshpark. I really like the Idea of parts for the cube that look like they were made to fit. In the future I would like to work on integrating SD slot into front panel for Wasp Fusion. Hard drive bay in place of DVD Drive for use with IDE EXI. But maybe I'm the only one that this interests. LOL

shapeways uses stratasys...the same company i mentioned above....
ive seen very little difference from their fancy machine with a part printed at 60µ with 2 polishing cycles compared to a high quality home based machine at 90µ and no post processing...
their technology and precision is loosing ground to a small handful of home based printers making almost the same quality parts...

a while back i was searching for other 3D print companies and discovered several well known companies are using nothing more than the higher end home based machines to produce prints....actually their cheaper services offered were using home based printers but their websites would show anything to indicate this...this information was found by other means...
when i considered the costs of these services I realized most of these companies were taking advantage of customers with prints priced at about 2000% more than if performed on your own with the same home based machine...
only their more expensive services used the powder laser, or resin laser industrial machines....


but places like shapeways and sculpteo and other 3D print services will remain in existence as long as people remain without access to good home based machines...even local services which can be found on places like print hub are starting to impact big industry...
even some of companies are breaking their exclusive agreements with Stratasys just to be able to start using the highend home based machines at a fraction of the material costs to maximize their profits...
hence, more reason for the lawsuit from Stratasys...support companies with those big industrial machines and you help to prevent the advancement of home based machines...

Do you know of any small 3d printing services it would be worth supporting and still has a good print quality? If the oil field wasn't going to crap a mid range 3d printer would be my next purchase. But my day job is going downhill fast, saving every penny I can. LOL

i never bothered testing out any of the smaller guys since they are using home based printers and typically with home based you have individual user modifications and tweaks that have been done which will lead to different outcomes even from same model types...

its hit and miss

Well still have some measuring to work out but it's getting better. Printing using ABS now and upright seems to look better. The version after this one is printing now and I designed in auto CAD so should be exact.

made a spot on thingiverse for the STL. Please know this is a beta it does fit for me but I am still making changes. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1225868

Okay autoCAD version fits better but I need to adjust the power plug

May I make a suggestion? I think maybe you should put one more hole for Composite Video and Label it 'V' or 'C.' This just makes more sense to me as your design requires the removal of the AV Multi Out Port as well.

Thank you very much for your work on this and for sharing it with us. It was always on my to do list to design a new back plate myself, but it looks like there's no need for me to do so now.

You know I didn't even think of that. I will work on getting it put together for the composite. I am also trying to work on an HDMI version for Shuriken. That may take a little longer since it wasn't made not to stick out the back, but I think if some one is using a mega and Wasp, no DVD it should be easy.

even with DVD mine fits internally and still no modifications to the shell

Just updated with v0.8 adding spot for composite out.

Mega would you mind posting a pic if you get a chance?

soon

Oh! I thought you were talking about mounting a shuriken inside the cube Mega. I have to say I am very excited to see what you have planned for GC-Video!!!