Don’t You Dare Delete That!

DC Fan holder by tatsuya

DC Fan holder by tatsuya

I was disappointed a few months back when a design I really liked had disappeared from Thingiverse.  Works in progress, unfinished designs, finished components of an unfinished design, and, yes, even bad designs all make Thingiverse a richer and more vibrant world.  In fact, finished designs are a lie.  A design can always be improved in some way. 1 2

Even if your design doesn’t work, others can learn from it, learn from your mistakes, improve upon your designs, or become inspired to pick up where you left off.  Heck, the design that failed for you might even be perfect for a completely different application.

This is one of the reasons why I like tatsuya’s design for a DC fan holder.  After posting his design he realized that by calibrating his stepper boards, his Thing-O-Matic Z axis stepper motor wouldn’t overheat anymore. 3 If anything, he probably got even more likes and comments after he fixed his calibration issue.

So, even if you’re not happy with your design or you think it’s become obsolete, please upload it to Thingiverse and, whatever you do, please don’t delete it!

Thing-O-Matic Z-axes stepper motor is very hot. I made a holder to make cool-down in DC fans. 40mm FAN Countersunk screw M3x14 and M3 nut
This thing brought to you by Thingiverse.com
  1. If this were the ’80′s, anything could be improved by adding a clock-radio to it. []
  2. But, since this is now 2011 – it can be improved by someone making it connect to various social networks. []
  3. For other Thing-O-Matic owners – calibrating your stepper boards is kind of a pain – but a seriously critical step in getting the best results from your printer. []
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2 Comments so far

  • Larry James
    April 20, 2011 at 4:59 pm
     

    yea, need to upload more of my stuff even if I think they are not finished and/or useful…

     
  • Fast Time - MakerBot Industries
    April 21, 2011 at 12:31 pm
     

    [...] week.  He’s produced SEVEN iterations of this design so far.  I’m a huge advocate for posting unfinished or even obsolete designs – the is a perfect example of the benefits.  At any point someone could have jumped in to [...]

     
 

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