String trimmer (weed whacker) “line” is nearly the same thing as 3d printing “filament” (with some caveats). I’ve seen videos of people running weed whacker line through their 3d printer. It’s not particularly high quality material but it does indeed work. I’ve also seen videos of people printing from cut up 2 liter soda bottles. That’s pretty impressive I think! There’s nothing quite as clever as a dedicated 3d printing nerd. (I wanna’ be like them when I grow up.)
I’m glad they’re figuring all this stuff out. If society collapses and we all go Mad Max, there will be nerds scouring the wasteland for old weed whackers. They’ll gladly rescue the line to print… stuff.
The amusing part (to me) is that I have been soaking some string trimmer line to add water. This makes it more flexible (less brittle) for when I bash weeds. At the exact same time I’ve been running my filament dryer to remove water to make 3d filament about 10-14% relative humidity. That makes the prints more pristine.
Yes, such details are deep in the weeds. But they amuse me nonetheless.
I have a “fleet” of gas cans. I use them more than most people seem to use gas cans. I don’t know why. I’m always schlepping diesel, unleaded, saw mix, furnace fuel, etc… There’s always a good reason. What does everyone else do? Is there a two-stroke saw mix drone delivery service I don’t know about?
My gas cans are precious. Most are “pre-Californicated”; meaning they’re from back when you could pour fuel without messing with a spring loaded aberration that invariably spills fuel either on a hot muffler or my pantleg… presumably Gaia likes absolutely spilling liquid to avoid hypothetical vapor loss.
Trump made some warbling about kicking the EPA in the ass until us peasants could pour gas properly. I don’t know if it happened. I assume not. It’s a politician and the EPA so it’s safe to bet that the ratchet never stops tightening. We got legal weed and lost incandescent bulbs and high flow toilets. Who could have imagined the future would be like that?
All I know is that my cans are fine (Wedco brand mostly) but the caps and gaskets (and especially the fuel filler nozzles) are all beat to hell. I’m on the second generation of replacements for most accessory parts.
To buy all new cans would set me back a C note (or more!) and I don’t want to think about replacing useable cans with enshittified ones. Also it seems wasteful to toss a whole can over a 3 ounce cap. I’d rather refurbish what I’ve got.
Then it dawned on me I’m a big bad 3d printing homesteader nerd! Time to quit bitching and solve my own problems; whether I can blame them on the EPA or not!
I set out to print my own:
- Gas caps.
- Filler nozzles.
- Gaskets.
- Vent caps. (Vents are the thing that got Californicated.)
From my research PETG is adequate (even good) at resistance to solvents. Diesel is the thing I use most and it plays well with PETG. So that’s what I’m using.
Gaskets need to be flexible (squishy). The only solution is TPA. I have some TPA 95A, it’s very squishy. It can’t go through my printers AMS, but it’s ok if I set up an external feed. They say TPU is very good with diesel and gas too. My slicer says I’ll need $0.03 each to make as many gaskets as I want. How cool is that?
I’ll probably have to tinker and make sure the thread pitch of the caps is right. Nothing is right on the first try. But I think I can figure it out.
That’s challenge du jour. It might take a week to get around to it. Does that make it challenge de la semaine? I don’t know; I only speak languages for places with lots of air conditioning. 🙂
Wish me luck.
AC – there are a ton of gas spout replacement kits at TSC, Amazon, etc. if your materials do not work out. Some of the kits are very so-so in quality. Anon
Gas can caps, what an excellent idea!! I could use some of those. Don
That’s awesome. I’ve thought about getting a 3d printer, but I’m not much for just playing with things…I want to do practical things with them. The problem is I’m not creative enough tò see a problem and think “I could 3D print a part for this”.
My biggest hurdle is space. I already have too much crap for the amount of house I have and finding a place for a 3d printer to live would be challenging. I’d have to be sure I’d get enough usefulness out of it to justify the space it would eat up.
Maybe after we finally get moved out to the retirement place and I get a barn or two built I’ll have space for something like that.
Anyway, re gas cans. I have two 5 gallon cans and a 2 gallon can in town. The only reason I’ve got the two 5 gallon cans is for my emergency generator in case of hurricanes, BLM riots or zombie apocalypse. They mostly just sit with stabilized, ethanol free gas in them until the annual routine of dumping them into my truck and refilling them with fresh gas. Every few years we’ll have a power outage significant enough to justify breaking out the genny, but mostly it just sits there, waiting patiently.
The 2 gallon can is used to feed the mower. Pretty much everything else I need is battery powered. That’s all I need for a postage stamp yard.
On our recreational/emergency escape/future retirement mountainside, middle of nowhere adjacent property, half my shed is taken up storing gas cans. We’ve only got 19 acres and over half of it is woods but I still end up needing to schlep fuel around here and there and everywhere when I’m there.
So, to answer your question: other people who live in town don’t have a bunch of gas cans because they don’t have 27 pieces of ICE equipment to feed and the gas station is a couple blocks away. People on rural properties, largely do the same thing you do.
BTW: When I grew up on the farm we were constantly having to feed farm trucks and tractors so we had a couple of gravity feed tanks that we’d have filled a few times a year. I don’t recall how many gallons they held but they were pretty big. One was gas (leaded, no ethanol was the default back then) and the other was diesel. The diesel was tax exempt, dyed red and for off-road use only, but the gasoline was just for the convenience of having a ready supply. If I remember correctly, it really wasn’t any cheaper than buying at the pump because the transportation made up for any savings by buying in bulk.
Anyway, It might be worth considering if (a) you’re far enough from the nearest gas station to make it worthwhile to avoid the trip every time you need some gas and (b) you have a fuel company in your area that will deliver (maybe the same place you get your heating oil…which is basically just low grade diesel).
Getting a 3d printer specifically for practical purposes was my goal too… and I think I’m getting there. But it’s not “plug and play”.
You need to go through a series of steps to “level up” from 3d printing “as an idea” to shit is fixed using it as a tool. First I printed a mix of semi-useful and “toy-like” stuff. I needed to learn the skills of printing. Then I designed some stuff to learn how design works. Then I learned the humbling lesson that it’s not enough to design and actually get a print, you need to consider “manufacture”. I scrambled a bit with sawhorse jigs but then got the hang of it. I also made a flagpole part that was absolutely perfect until I left it up in the heat and cold and wind for several months. If a part breaks it’s a perfect time to learn what will make it better! (I reprinted with a different orientation and the replacement seems perfect and super tough.)
Anyway I already “solved” my gas can “problem”. It took less than a day and maybe $3.50 in filament. But it took me a year and a half to have the skills & experience needed to do that seemingly simple task.
It reminds me a lot of having a flock of chickens for eggs & meat. It seemed like the simplest thing in the world but you don’t get an egg for six months and the first time a n00b butchers a chicken it’s like a horror movie. After a few seasons of chickens you’re ten times more efficient and you can hardly remember how clueless you were when you started.
Congratulations on having rural escape land. You’ll have a lot of fun with it over the years.
gas can vents. They work and they last.
YMMV
https://www.amazon.com/MEAJOO-5-Pack-Gas-Can-Vent/dp/B0CBB5T9W7/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3U2YCMTSTCIAH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.INWS-WB5VDzfGTNI8OG53Htva2mtkx-z8bMjdHxoFxJ52HFcP0hlnSBrlSIsijH8XeipDD3MMuxveKfM5zs1pEVB22T1U8BXFLIaGRo52uytEx2LGDIWo96EwwdvNNi3pSY_3IsGvPxrtdVlY2rb_ODLSLYYSDcJm-c2Xs9hJcAV6fMrghPohNRRvJngjiIpqNa707KMFgZoJZ7gVH4uqjQAoG8BKb_sieimpJ0ltmhkCwlKBBr7tXp6B1-BC7OiPskrgGrgn2Y1G4LAL61e0g1OR7YTRrOhgVmbEFVpM8E.9VRAoShysW_LdWf3QG7yN6BJrUF-EQ_uJp9UO3b2T3k&dib_tag=se&keywords=gas%2Bcan%2Bvents%2Bfor%2Bplastic%2Bgas%2Bcans&qid=1783714118&sprefix=gas%2Bcan%2Bvents%2Caps%2C632&sr=8-4&th=1
You might want to download this and refer to it when buggering about with solvents:
https://capolight.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/solvent_compatibility.jpg
I printed it out and keep it in a ring binder along with a load of other arcane and obscure information what will puzzle the bejeezus out of archaeologists 1,000 years after civilisation collapses (if the binder survives, that is).
Yes, I DO need to get out a bit more at night. Why do you ask?
Phil B
Wow. That is a hell of a lot of useful data in a single page. Thanks!
That does not appear to list methyl ethyl ketone (MEK)
Never forget:
The MEK shall inherit the earth!!!
Love it. Throw in a couple of donkey balls.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t8rYUxoeFX4
– Paul