Sadly that sums up the 3D printable scene perfectly. So many times I’v seen someone creating X for Y but they don’t have Y to test it but “it should work”.
But is it _too_ much to ask that they print their tweaked version 2 and test it before publishing it?
:sigh:
I feel like as a matter of policy or at least convention, people really shouldn’t be uploading models that they haven’t at least printed. It’s disrespectful.
(Slightly /s)
I see the 3D printing scene a remix culture where you’re supposed to try new things. If you want something to work exactly for your situation, you might have to do a little work yourself.
In this case, here we have an idea of making new typeballs for IBM typewriters. Here is one post where someone is playing with the idea. At the top of the page, there is a link to a GitHub page for you to adapt it as you see fit.
But then there’s also a link to a new page: https://selectricrescue.org/ where someone makes many more varieties, also with code for you to try yourself.
I see 3d printing much like the world of early open source coding. Sometimes you get a completed project that works out of the box. But often, you’ll have to tinker and adapt it to your exact hardware. Once a new 3d model is shown to be viable, it can be mixed and matched to make something new!
Watching this back, it partially works but some of the letters clearly need their positions adjusted, and some of them seem to have trouble imprinting fully on the page. That's besides the fact that the proportional fonts look pretty weird when printed monospaced.
I didn't really go further with this because the resin printed balls didn't hold up very well. A slot near the hole would always break open, and then the ball would spin freely instead of being indexed like it was supposed to. These days I've pretty much abandoned home resin printing entirely since it is extremely messy, and I've never been able to make parts with it that weren't ridiculously brittle, even with the supposedly "strong" or "tough" resins.
I've used commercial resin prints that Shapeways/Xometry/PCBWAY have and they are a lot tougher, so maybe they would work well.
https://www.printables.com/model/441262-cherokee-typeball-fo...
So maybe Comic Sans (and Wingdings) will work as well.
Also includes Papyrus!
SW development process 101. What are users for ? /s
If you look at the ASCII chart [1] you can select a character via binary tree - the Wiffletree being a mechanical equivalent.
[0] For a Teletype
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#/media/File:USASCII_code...
As I understand, the recent IBM Plex Mono face has been requested too.
I can’t imagine using any of these (even when typewriters were king), but I love that they exist.
https://github.com/rbanffy/3270_type_element
Now I need to get myself an IBM Selectric, or make a daisy wheel printer element for my typewriter (which will eventually become a terminal).
I've recently retired an IBM Selectric II, only because it is so damn finicky! When it is operating it is a fantastic machine, but it definitely needs a full-time technician to service (and they've almost entirely died off at this point, save for Berkeley). I got tired of the pulley creep [which eventually leads to gibberish output], only solved with continued maintenance (parts too fine for my electrician hands, and my nearsight is antiquating rapidly).
For my daily drivers, I still love my Smith Corona "Coronet Super 12", which has individual strikes and a powerful motor (for all your latenight raging / brainstorming). Can't [easily] change the font, though (which is why I have multiple S-C models).
¢¢
I wonder how true that actually is. A properly 3d printed ABS part isn't really much if any less durable than an injection molded part. It's mostly just worse with respect to feature resolution.
Inclusive to my injection-molded comment, but could be mitigated (e.g.) with an acetone bath (to "smooth" the layers/resolution).
The stress fractures will most-definitely grow parallel to the layers, though... watch a Selectric's mechanism (rotational; linear; impact), in slow motion:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RTtKaqIpOJc
Interesting to see the timing on the mechanism too. It looks like it's already getting the rotation set up for the next character before the return stroke even happens. I suspect in normal use the ball would bounce off the page, avoiding smears.
EDIT: worst case you could always make a silicone mold and cast the type ball in an engineering resin of one kind or another. That probably fares better over the long term than 3d printed plastic.
>Plastic is pretty soft and gummy when you get down to it.
I don't think most people could break the typewriter ball with their bare hands, either by pulling or compressing ("squishing"). Just tried this with my least-favorite font — 275lb blue-collar electrician can't break it (barely any deflection).
Not sure what the plastic's composition is, but it is absolutely RIGID (as it must be). The thing can fly letters onto the page (I can do sustained 80wpm, with bursts into 100+ — thing could go twice my output rate on a clear-headed day, mechanically).
Selectrics are just absolutely modern marvels (still)!
>engineering resin
The ball's plastic is harder than cured JB-Weld™ (standard 2-part mixture).
It's still pretty soft and gummy when compared to a LOT of materials. It's all relative and whatnot. You'll often find machinists using descriptors like "chewing gum consistency" for stuff like copper. On that scale plastic is pretty soft and squishy.
fitsumbelay•5mo ago
Had just recently looked up IBM Selectric typeballs and the possibility of 3D print custom ones but did not expect so many active projects around it.
Pretty nice time for nostalgic tinkerers to be alive ...