I really enjoyed this video because it started making me think so it must be a good video to get that drastic of a reaction.
Huge 3D Printed Stemfie Blocks - YouTube It does make you wish plastic filament were cheaper and 3d printers quite a lot faster.
What does everyone else think?
Thats quite a lot of plastic, energy and time.
You can simply build something like that from wood or recycle an old cabinet by adding some holders.
The idea that you can take apart something and use the pieces to build something else is very interesting. I think lost PLA casting will become important. I think that PLA could be used to line plywood moulds to make many things with recycled paper or form liners for foamcrete.
Printing a mold would for sure make more sense. Or just print the form to create a silicon mold, which then can be used to create hundreds of pieces from resin.
I am more the up-cycle guy, keeping all removable parts before dumping old furniture or electronics and often repair stuff or build things without the need of buying replacement parts. For example the power connectors and switches used in my RingLights are all recycled parts.
I agree that it’s a LOT of plastic. I am sure you could buy a shelving unit cheaper than printing 1. CHEP thinks they’re fun, which I guess they are, but it’s pretty expensive fun IMHO.
The main issue here is that those YouTubers get filament more or less for free and usually those is on the expensive side, too.
CHEP probably could have used some pre cut 40x40 aluminum extrusions and some corner pieces and screws to achieve the same result with far less time, energy, money and no plastic at all.
The result is even more robust and stable. Even proper work tables are no problem by just adding a desk surface.
There is an old saying “Just because you have a hammer everything is not a nail”. I hope to do more multi-material videos to emphasize this point. One of my first videos on the channel combined a lithoprint with a wood frame.
Thank you gentlemen for replying to my query.