My son recently bought me a 3D printer while I was telling him how I sourced the components and modified one of them to be used as the handle for my parking 
brake. He joked that I could print out whatever I want from now on.
After a week’s waiting, I finally received the 3D printer yesterday. Frankly, I am pretty excited because I’ve been longing to get one for a long time.
Although I am a total stranger to this area, I couldn’t help printing some demos immediately and started searching some 3D models on the Internet for the flightsim parts I planned to get, such as the flaps lever.
Followings are the 2nd test print of the flaps lever handle — couldn’t say it is perfect but really it is not bad at all.
I think the beginner-level printer should be good enough for me to work out many stuffs for my cockpit in the coming years.
I will possibly share the file if I do create something in the future. Also I may sell some of the printed items thru my store for those who don’t have a 3D printer or don’t bother to print the stuff out themselves.
My new adventure has just begun.
FS Times 
Good Morning Tom, great to see you finally have a 3D printer.
Is it a resin or FDM printer? It looks like a resin model which tend to be enclosed, but the prints look more like an FDM print.
I now have both types becasue resin printers generally have a much smaller build platform, So I use the resin printer for things like knobs and buttons and the FDM for larger parts like covers, levers and enclosures. I have an Elegoo Mars and a Creality Ender 3, although I could do with a CR10 now with it;s larger build plate. One thing that makes the Resin stand out is the facility to make many parts at the same time, without taking any longer to print. Whereas the the time taken with FDM prints will increase proportionally depending on the number of parts.
Nevertheless I’ve made many many things for my new 737 cockpit. The latest being a tiller handle and the top covers and handles for my new throttle quadrant. This uses both machines together with quite a few parts using both my laser and CNC router,
I would post images but I don’t see the facility to do that here.
Best regards
Joe.
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Morning Joe,
The printer is an FDM, FlashForge Adventurer 3.
I didn’t know about which was which when selecting among different models. I just chose the one that was cheaper in price and easier to operate from user comments and reviews on Youtube.
Seems to be a good choice any way. I am starting to know a little bit about 3D printing now after gathering quite some information from the Internet.
No, there’s no option for friends to post images themselves to my blog. However, feel free to send them to me and I’ll see what I can do.
Should you have 3D files to share, I can create a new column for it.
Best,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
FDM are certainly easier to use, Resin is quite smelly and quite toxic as well. So a lot of cleaning and use of chemicals is involved. Having said that I see that Elegoo are now selling a water soluble resin, so I might have a look at that shortly.
I only mentioned the images to show some of the parts I’ve made, but not for inclusion in your blog merely for your information. Most of the files I print are from Thingiverse, although I usually find they are not always useable. For example the tiller handle took me two hours of editing before it became printable. Many people publish STL files without actually printing them, or they don’t worry about the poor finish they end up with.
My new TQ is a point in fact I have yet to fly with it. Only installed last week but I’ll get round to it…. eventually… Its great to be retired! I still have quite a bit of wiring to finish and I have to install the 2 x FDS CDUs in the holes you can see in the bottom of the MIP behind the throttle.
BR Joe.
PS some pics of my new TQ, tiller, and the current state of Shell. ________________________________
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One of the reasons I bought the printer because it has a case, to which many people said it is good for beginners.
Yes, Thingiverse has many files to downlaod. My first flaps control lever was from it.
Good point that many works weren’t printed. Will be more careful when selecting them.
BTW, could you recommend a 3D software for me to start with ?
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Good on you Tom, glad to see that you are enjoying yourself. You deserve it given the ongoing assistance that you continually provide to your readers.
Cheers Stu
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Thank you Stu
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