3D Printing Things I Shouldn't

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[@EmilyTheEngineer]

Get an exclusive Surfshark deal! Enter promo code EMILYDEAL for an extra 3 months free at surfshark.deals/emilydeal

[@burnsfamily1616]

hello emily

[@HeightenedDelirium]

I just came here to tell you, get a angle grinder. You can sharpen them for years

[@FrogInALog_]

only 2 replies to a pinned comment, well, USE TPU IN THE BIG PRINTER AND HAVE EVERYONE DO A BIG SWORD BATTLE

[@jagerandres5808]

i didnt think that would work..... i know no one cares but in my oppinion gas mowers are better..... one of the batteries for that ryobi rider you have costs more that a whole brand new motor for a gas mower. have you ever seen a battery powered rider mower that is more than 20 years old? i have not, but i have seen a 50 year old wheel horse that still has a running original motor. my grandpa uses it every year to till up his garden and plow his driveway in the winter. but hay every won has their own oppinions on stuff i just think battery powered power equipment (like mowers not drills, battery powered hand tools are great.) needs more research and development to actually make me change my mind. but in the mean time ill stick with my scag mower ( the best mower brand ever) for mowing and my husquvarna for plowing

[@centurybeats9330]

I love the unbridled yet controlled chaos that is this channel... As a freshman mechanical engineering student in college I really love this channel

[@C3DPropShop]

We have officially come full circle. First filament was weedeater wire. Now weedeater wire is filament. Circle of life.

[@smoothbraindetainer]

If Nylon was used instead of PLA it really would be

[@td19xyz]

Fun fact, in achient rep rap history weed eater cord was used as a source of filiment for hobby 3d printers

[@DrEckig]

Iirc that weed wacker cord is made of nylon, that's why PLA failed right away and TPU somewhat survived.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@DrEckig in addition you want the nylon cord to be wet, if it is too brittle then you can soak it in a bucket of water, that’s partly why it comes pretty wet from the shop and needs a lot of drying before printing.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@DrEckig this maybe a use for those awful bio filaments, made of algae or beer hops or whatever, biodegradable strimmer line, although you probably get that already.

[@DuckyFuzzer]

we've come so far we have made it full circle back to where it started

[@creamofbotulismsoup9900]

It's at least part of the reason we have 1.75 and 2.85 filaments as the standard, they correspond pretty closely to the sizes of 2 of the more commonly available string trimmer lines plus a little extra to make up for them being less consistent. String trimmer line is still a semi decent source of inexpensive nylon filament, at roughly 10 dollars a pound. It's good for functional prints that don't need to be pretty, the blades in this video would probably hold up heck of better if they were printed from it.

[@davidedwards9157]

To bring a side-quest full circle: Someone took clearance weed-whacker filament and printed with it. Took a rather long time in the dryer to be usable, and the resulting print wasn't great, but it worked.

[@Ironclad1313]

I heard that there are lots of similarities between 3d printing filament and weed wacker line because the first 3d printers printed with them. That's supposedly the main reason why they have the same 1.75mm diameter.

[@joshuaobelenusable]

I did that years ago on my old Robo3D R1, it "worked" for printing nylon on the cheap.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@Ironclad1313 I think you can get various diameters of strimmer line.

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

​@@Ironclad1313Earlier 3D printers used 3mm filament, the switch to 1.75mm was for higher precision. But yes, weed trimmer line does work, and in the right printer it even works well because it's just nylon plus some additives

[@wendull811]

I believe Colorado state is experimenting with used coffee grounds as a 3 d printing material

[@user-xb8sq3xk7x]

To people watching, if your lawnmower is gas, don’t ever spin the blades by hand 😂

[@rumingjiang9645]

does it start the lawnmower??

[@KingNothing22]

it could engage the spark plug, so just take the connector off and you should be ok.

[@user-xb8sq3xk7x]

@@rumingjiang9645 it’s possible yes

[@just__dave]

Also don’t turn your mower upside down

[@KingNothing22]

how do you replace blades or clean out the deck?

[@RyanMercer]

This is why my wife doesn't support me trying KZbin full time. 🤣🤣🤣

[@stefankarlsson4652]

This is why my wife doesn't trust me being on KZbin. Now I'm off to my cave and looking for spinning things.

[@RyanMercer]

@@stefankarlsson4652 😂

[@smashyrashy]

Why? Lawnmowers? 3d printing? Watching other women?

[@RyanMercer]

@@smashyrashy tomfoolery 😂

[@Biblereader919]

Repent and follow Jesus.

[@michaelramsey82]

Seeing that the riding mower says "REEE AY LMAO" on it: haha funny meme Seeing that all of the powered mowing stuff says "REEE AY LMAO" on it: wow that's dedication

[@lancehandmade]

I've been googling looking for the brand for hours now...

[@michaelramsey82]

@@lancehandmade I think it's probably Ryobi, judging by the color if nothing else

[@sgsax]

I knew the lopper and rototiller blades were going to explode, and I'm honestly surprised the mower blades didn't. Glad no shins were injured in the highly scientific experiment. 😁 Thanks for sharing!

[@Indagloa]

Some michal reeves vibes are here and im all for it, This is just unhinged and the best

[@michaelramsey82]

Agreed - the joyful chaotic energy really reminds me of early Michael Reeves and William Osman videos. Now that William has a kid and Michael is busy with OTV, I think Emily might be the next great "building goofy stuff just for the hell of it" KZbinr.

[@davidpodeszwa7010]

​@@michaelramsey82we still have "I did a thing"

[@joshuaobelenusable]

As a fan of REEobi tools, this was frickin' hilarious. I have printed the 3 bladed weed whacker head before, but never thought to try TPU.

[@jamessever8936]

the reason it is stalling is because the blades arent heavy enough. the metal blades act as a flywheel to keep up the momentum essentially

[@zachdemand4508]

That might be part of it. I think the blade was flexing and hitting the deck.

[@Malusifer]

3d printing thing's you shouldn't is an excellent premise. You wouldn't download a car?!

[@EmilyTheEngineer]

hey now don’t tempt me 👀

[@davidmlong63]

What I said from the beginning you show me the site where I can download a car and I'm downloading the car.

[@philipzielinski]

Using filament as trimmer line: it's like discovering that mobile devices can make phone calls. Or, returning to the telegraph by communicating by text.

[@Petch85]

Tell me you want a metal 3D printer without telling me you want a metal 3D printer!

[@TheWoodgineer]

Love how we've gone full circle, my first printer used garden strimmer wire :D (god knows what chemicals were in that stuff)

[@DJBillyQ]

You've got some strong William Osman vibes in your videos and I'm HERE for it! Keep up the great work! 😂

[@bruce-le-smith]

I'm genuinely surprised how well the tiller worked on the first shallow go. Good luck with them bills Dan

[@JudyPatootie]

POWER COUPLE GOALS. Y'all just 3D printed my heart

[@Infrared73]

I wonder how much of a "flywheel" the metal blade would be vs a plastic blade when it comes to stalling out.

[@IrocZIV]

Wondered the same thing, they have to be way lighter than metal ones.

[@only1muppet]

What better way to trick Emily into cutting the grass than giving her a challenge 😂

[@defenestrated23]

0:30 - "having an open and honest conversation" with the *cameraman* lmao

[@AllenKll]

@4:00 we've come full 3d printing circle. I remember the early days when people where trying to run trimmer string through their home made 3d printers to try to print nylon items.... now we got this sweet gal, taking printer filamant and putting it back into the trimmer... What a time to be alive.

[@adgarbault]

I wonder how well printing the blades in something like PA6-CF/GF would work.

[@creamofbotulismsoup9900]

Probably would break even faster, fill makes prints more brittle and in this situation you'd want the blade to be able to flex rather than break. Regular nylon would make more sense, preferably printed from weed wacker line ;-)

[@stardustjustlikeyou]

Lmfao the weedwacker sidequest..."I wonder if i can replace this spool of thin plastic for a different spool of thin plastic...."

[@ScytheNoire]

ASA would work great for the blades, and Nylon filament for the whacker. ASA is an amazing engineering material, highly recommend it.

[@TerkanTyr]

Accelerating microplastic accumulation by 2000% with this one neat trick!

[@hansiminator69]

Ordered my Neptune 4 Plus today! I’m so hyped! :)

[@zid_just_zid]

The weedwhacker with filament is basically the opposite of old school 3d printing, back in the day some of the first nylon prints were done using weedwhacker string :P

[@tamcrumpkin8839]

I love these videos! Thank you for te incredible content ❤️

[@cearkasun]

this is some of the best 3d printing content I've ever watched😂

[@TomBresson]

We've come full circle, from the RepRap days. From using trimmer string to print objects, now using filament as trimmer string!

[@richardbarrow2977]

I mean weed eater Wire is Pretty much Nylon Filament anyway I'm curious on how the TPU compares or even Nylon Filament to Nylon weed eater wire. Good video!

[@4nto418]

IIRC one of the big reasons we use 1.75 mm (or is it 2.85mm ?) filament is because it was the diameter of nylon wire that early hobby 3D printers were using as filament, because there was simply no "hobby" 3D printer filament market back then.

[@junkice6930]

The one really big difference (other than material) is weed eater wire isn't circular. There are a lot of different shapes that different manufacturers make, but it's often shaped almost like a torx driver which gives it sharp edges that are better at cutting.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@junkice6930 it also has lots of additives and is optimised for its intended use case. It is also meant to be hygroscopic since absorbing moisture makes it flexible and better at its job. Highly hygroscopic nylon with loads of additives isn’t something you really want to print with. The mechanical properties of printed parts will quickly degrade too.

[@Guardian_Arias]

Thats funny, the first 3D printers actually used weed eater trimmer line. I still use 0.065" trimmer line because its actually NYLON. I buy 2.25kgs of round 0.065inch (1.6mm) trimmer line for about 35usd. You do absolutely need to dehydrate the filament first.

[@conorstewart2214]

It isn’t recommended for various reasons, some being that it has a load of additives to make it better for strimming that actually make it worse for printing (it affects your printed parts too) and those same additives can release nasty fumes. You would be much better not cheaping out and getting some nylon that is actually meant for printing. On top of that it is meant to be highly hygroscopic, since you don’t want the line to be brittle, if it is brittle you can soak it in a bucket of water. With any nylon the more water it absorbs the more it’s mechanical properties degrade (strength, stiffness, etc), but it’s impact resistance goes up and it becomes more flexible, so when printing functional parts you often really don’t want highly hygroscopic nylon, like PA6, you want something that won’t absorb as much and hence will maintain more of its strength, like PA12. Look at Bambu labs test data for their PA6-CF and pay attention to its wet vs dry properties, there is a huge difference. So even though you can print with it doesn’t mean you should or that it is a good idea, it is optimised for strimming not printing and definitely not for any of the things you print out of it. You are probably better just using other similarly priced materials or just spending more to get decent nylon.

[@femuehei]

This is amazing!!!

[@jellybeanpowder]

I'm so glad I subscribed. You do not disappoint when it comes to good content

[@gregsettle9725]

Try using thin steel cable on the weed whacker. Works pretty well. Do not hit your feet or legs!

[@theglowcloud2215]

Helpful life tip for people who enjoy questionable tips: you can print the trimmer line that weedeaters use. It's just nylon, and is cheaper than nylon filament, but it's almost certainly not as good as PA-12.

[@conorstewart2214]

All nylons mechanical properties degrade greatly when wet (sometimes the strength and stiffness values when wet are less than half than when the filament was dry), strimmer line is meant to absorb moisture as it makes it more flexible. People avoid PA6 due to how much moisture it absorbs, strimmer line will be even worse. Then on top of that it is full of additives that make it better for its intended use case that aren’t good for printing or for printed parts.

[@Clutch.13]

Dude, I love this channel because most of the stuff she does I COULD do… but I probably wouldn't BUT I can still see it done!

[@petermostyneccleston2884]

Flymo used to sell plastic blades for their electricv mowers. I used to use them in the 1990's, I went back over to the metal blades, as I had to replace the blades every week, but you only need a bench grinder, to sharpen the metal blades.

[@axipixel5811]

Trimmer line was used as filament for super early printers before you could really buy filament easily, it's pretty much pure nylon and you can use slightly modified nylon settings but you have to dry it first! Also ventilate well there's some nasty additives in it.

[@thetrashgoblin]

When they tell you to touch grass but you've got a 3d printer

[@oniontaylor]

Fun idea for next time - you can 3D print with nylon weed wacker line. You can even find it in 1.75mm

[@stockspieler-yv1fs]

Did you know that in the old days of 3d printing people used Nylon weedtrimmer string for filament? You can still do that in case you run out of

[@TheParamotorGuy]

If you change the shape of those lawnmower blades, you can slice through the grass instead of chopping through it.

[@pingbot261]

This channel is so amazing! I learn much from it! I will try this in the future!

[@3DPT]

Some of the 1st filament was nylon line trimmer, so now you're just rediscovering 3d printing history by using TPU!

[@brapcast]

You two are incredible to watch

[@ALiveGeek]

That went way better than I expected..

[@pingbot261]

This channel is amazing i learn so much from it! I will try doing this to my lawmower!

[@Leo99929]

My mower used plastic blades which kept breaking in seconds so I made a set out of titanium. They haven't failed since.

[@TheWinjin]

Did you 3d print or smith the titanium? There are titanium printers now?

[@Lizlodude]

I'm sure that's exciting when you hit a rock 😅

[@nikkiofthevalley]

I'd be tempted to make it out of tool steel, then the rock will break rather than the blade.

[@Leo99929]

@@TheWinjin It's not a complex shape, I just cut it out of a bit of plate I had in the scrap bin. Didn't realise white sparks fly off even when you drill it 😅

[@charcoal386]

More videos emily. You make me smile

[@dolphin64575]

The ending was amazing

[@gamingwithmr.fregles8802]

Love your dance! Spam 0 on your keyboard while playing video. When you click one, it sounds kinda like the metal pipe sound affect

[@ZSchrink]

This was rutty amazing (pun definitely intended) Great video 😁

[@1234fishnet]

When Emily is standing behind the mower with a safety helmet because there's a 0% chance that something hits her and her husband is in direct view of the blades with a high chance to get hit 😂

[@adamnash2009]

"I'm a little scared for my shins". Yes, I am too.

[@BirnieMac1]

You can also do it the opposite way around with using whipper snipper filament for 3D printing You need to dry it first, but they’re usually Nylon and at times cheaper per mass than actual spools of Nylon filament I also only know this because of an ADHD intrusive thought moment

[@Phelps3D]

A friend suggested this a few years ago mostly to try to prevent fires. I think it might work best if it was combines with a sharpenable aluminum edge/framework, 3D printed filler and then a carbon fiber/epoxy surround costing.

[@conorstewart2214]

Getting L channel aluminium or steel is easy, so that could be used, although you probably want a sharper angle, so just a piece of sharpened flat steel that attaches in would probably work.

[@Phelps3D]

@@conorstewart2214 problem is steel will spark, so no better than the original blades when it comes to fire prevention.

[@justaustinnielsen]

Sometimes you think if you can, not if you should

[@JoshuaOdionson]

Idk if that was her hubby that busted in for the ad, but I could just imagine the "The taxes I didn't file" "You didn't do our taxes?"

[@davetreadwell]

Going full circle! The first 3D printers used nylon strimmer wire as filament!

[@DaddyVet3D]

This is the 3d printing content I have wanted but didn’t know it

[@kg4wwn]

I know I'm probably too late to the party for this to be seen, but other blades that would be fun to 3d print: Food Processor Garbage Disposal Bladed Coffee Grinder Circular Saw Drimmel Saw. Electric Shaver if you are really brave.

[@o0Keesu0o]

Oh lawd, I deal with mowers on a daily basis and I was squinting and grimacing the whole time 😂

[@soyrandom1]

Fun fact: Where I live, before 3D printing was popular, buying filament was impossible so we used weed wacker string as filament. Would not recommend it tho 🤣

[@mreddy6920]

Omg. I'm going to talk to my lawyer because my stomach hurts from laughing so much. You guys are awesome. 🤣🤣

[@jonathandill3557]

Congratulations, my wife says that you're now on par with the waterjet channel.

[@forzafiori9363]

I found your channel on the KZbin makers Secret Santa - your content is amazing (especially love the yellow jacket shooter, as someone who is allergic to them), but it's seeing you wearing an IPTAY shirt here that's made me commit to subscribing :p Go Tigers!

[@Roboticlay]

Emily the Engineer is my support animal 🤣

[@Donuts_random_stuff]

0:53 another great thing to not do at home is using an impact or any kind of electric spinning tools to undo or tighten the blade on a lawnmower because they can spin and make your finger into little slices

[@fouzaialaa7962]

I like the idea at the end of the irs subscribing to your videos

[@ratdetecting4780]

I had a good laugh at the tiller blades.....EPIC FAIL! FYI.....great vid

[@TheTurpin1234]

Do a circular saw blade. You could make a smooth blade, diamond coat the edge, and try to cut tile.

[@straybricks]

Remember kids, if your push mower runs on gasoline, NEVER spin the blade by hand. ALWAYS disconnect the spark plug before working on the mower.

[@AlyssaNguyen]

3:36 I think CNC Kitchen has a video where he went in the opposite direction. 😂

[@wesleyfilips7052]

Filament is extruded so the polymer chains are random, low tensile strength, weedwacker line is stretched so the chains are oriented lengthwise

[@ansiaaa]

I buy filament from this italian brand which makes great colors with awesome printing results. I've just recently noticed that the name of the company from which the package comes is different from the name of the company I bought it from. I check on the web and... they sell gardening stuff, including filaments for weed wackers! I'm now pretty sure someone in the company thought that, since they already owned machines that produce that kind of filament, they would just need to make it with different materials to make filament for 3D printed.

[@ZeroScapes]

So much Ryobi, so little destruction of it.

[@BuildDanielBuild]

Guys pls i really need to pay my irs debt off

[@3DJapan]

I've heard of people doing the opposite, using weed whacker line to print with because it's a lot cheaper. However, it's not a consistent width so it can cause clogs.

[@adolphbot]

I think the lawn mower is stalling because the blades weigh nothing. The metal blades probably act as a flywheel, and by replacing it with a lighter version, you increase the risk of stalling.

[@ant3486]

REEE ay LMAO had me dying.

[@chippyjohn1]

This channel is not about engineering, just mericans being mericans.

[@anderssorenson9998]

Have you ever seen the swinging blades on a hay/silage mower? They are much shorter and thicker and are flung out at speed, but will be knocked back when impacted.

[@Not-easy-enough]

That picture makes me want to print a tpu tire since you cut it so it looks like the moder has a flat front tire 😅

[@conorstewart2214]

Airless tyre designs work well with TPU. If you want it to work well you don’t want it to look or work like a normal tyre, since you can’t really use air in it instead the flexibility and cushioning needs to come from the material itself.

[@curm1778]

the joyful misuse of an expensive college education: this right here

[@dericklong6191]

I 3d print with weed Wacker line sometimes. It's 1.73mm nylon and cheap

[@bryanross1100]

Jesus christ.. I'm so used to gasoline lawnmowers that my first thought was, "Those blades aren't heavy enough to act like a flywheel"🤦‍♂️

[@ianbrown4242]

Is it cool? Hell, yeah. Is it fantastically dangerous? Hell, yeah.

[@heavymetalweld805]

As a dad and mower of lawns, you hurt my heart. 😂

[@aragonep]

Great video, very entertaining

[@JohnL_S17]

"why is this working" spinni thing go brr. thats why

[@PERFECTDARK10]

😅 I love engineers

[@ChuckWood]

Why do you have every ryobi tool?

[@settlece]

crazy lady got my sub

[@conorstewart2214]

Well strimmers (weed whackers for Americans) just use hexagonal nylon filament, that can be printed with. It would be interesting to see it with some other filaments, like polycarbonate, polypropylene or nylon with carbon fibre. Whatever you use you should saturate it with water first. If your actual strimmer line is too brittle then you stick it in a bucket of water for a while. A PA6 filament might work pretty well after being saturated and the TPU might work better when saturated too.

[@Firewolf1123]

“Several ADHD moments later” bro I would pay so much for a shirt that’s says that

[@cyphre]

You can actually print with string trimmer line! Can't remember who did it already, but it's often PETG or something.

[@zachdemand4508]

Its nylon.

[@jamesbraithwaite478]

I think you may well be onto something there, Emily. Would the lawnmower blades be disposable or could you sharpen them?

[@robertszynal4745]

Torque vs power. This material has no problem in low torque high power use cases but fails in the high torque low power cases.