One of our members recently used what he learned about CADing and 3D printing to repair a keepsake from his grandfather.

When I got the binoculars, one lens cap had already torn and no longer stayed on the lens. The others were threatening to go at any time.

Like any hackerspace these days, we have a number of 3D printers. I’m not particularly good at CAD yet, but in OpenSCAD a cap is just one flat cylinder differenced with a smaller cylinder.

Simple as it was, it still took three tries to get right. The first was way too large; the second, though it fit, was tight enough that I worried removing it would break the lenses. The last try was almost perfect. Despite needing three iterations, the whole process took less than an hour.

If you want to learn how to use a 3D printer and design software to repair things in your life, or build something entirely new, we hope to see you at Splatspace soon!