I was approached by the head custodian at our church about 3D printing some parts. On the back of every pew there are several wooden holders with room for books, papers, pencils, and holes to receive 4 empty communion cups. You know those little glass or plastic cups? Each of the 4 cup holes has - or had - a plastic insert. I think the main purpose is to soften the noise of the cup being set down, and maybe prevent the glass (in the old days) from being scratched by the wood? Whatever, the plastic had deteriorated over the years and many of the inserts had broken and been discarded.
Simplest design ever! It's just a cylinder about 3/4 inch high, with a flange on top. I printed a few samples, varying the cylinder outside diameter by a millimeter. We tested them for fit and picked the right size. The holes in the wood were quite consistent.
I needed to print about 200 units. Simplify3D has a feature which can print multiple units in order, rather than printing all the units at one time, one layer at a time. This eliminates the stringing that would occur if the head repeatedly moved from part to part. You have to create a "Process" for each unit you want to print, then select them all to be printed, then choose Sequential Printing. You need to space the parts out enough that the components of the printer's hotend will not hit any previously printed units. In this case the parts are not very tall, so it is a pretty easy layout. I was able to print 16 units per print job.
I had some brown PLA on hand which blended perfectly with the wood color. Each job took just under 3 hours. They all printed very cleanly and needed no post-processing. I delivered them over a couple of weeks and the whole set cost about $12.
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