Hi all, new guy here. I started off with an M3D Micro, just to see if 3D printing would work for my needs. I'm a guitar builder by trade, and have recently gotten into making guitar pickups. I have a patent pending for a rather simple pickup tech that I came up with, and decided it would be easiest to 3D print the parts I need, so that the rest of my parts could be off the shelf parts.

So recently, my day job told me I could "borrow" the wholly neglected MakerBot Replicator 2, as it had basically been written off as broken. Seeing as I'm also the main tech on the 5 axis CNC we have, I figured I could fix the MakerBot and have it do my bidding. That also included a bunch of large spools of filament, though none black.



First thing I found was that the filament cooling fan's wires were completely disconnected:



No doubt caused by all the movement of the wire bundle on the head over the years.

Then I found that the extruder cooling fan wasn't working at all. That's a big problem, so I investigated and found that there was a burr on the housing of the fan that was locking the fan up. Trimmed back the burr and the fan worked perfectly.

So I started printing and haven't stopped for the last several days





This was my first set of guitar pickup bobbins. I love the way the crosshatching looks on 3D printed bobbins, and think that may actually become a selling point to my pickups.

So I ramped it up last night, here's a flawlessly executed 10hr print:



Now bobbins aren't the only thing I'll be printing, I also intend on 3D printing an insert to standard off the shelf bobbins, so I can have a traditional look to my pickups as well. I'll post that stuff later on. I used to do all of this bobbin making out of acrylic on a ShopBot CNC, with T shaped undercut bits and such.


I've also printed the upgraded filament fan shroud, that directs the air to both sides of the filament, not just one, and an improved filament guide.

I've tried looking for it, but can't find anything yet... Is there a Thing out there for fixing the wire bundle flex at the head? Like a clip on piece or something that would negate much of this?