3D printing consumables for dead technology

The Sharp CE-150 was a graphing calculator that used a pen-plotter to draw its charts. The pens haven't been manufactured in years, so Thingiverse user TeamTeamUSA is creating a 3D printable adapter that will accept modern pen cartridges:

Re-live the bygone years of RPN, 16 Kb total RAM, cassette tape storage, and plotted printing!
A friend is a vintage computer junkie and one of his recent purchases was a printer/plotter for his Sharp PC-1500A pocket computer.
Although the printer works, the pens, being almost 30 years old, do not nor are they still available.
This is an attempt to help him re-live the geeky years of his youth!

Sharp CE-150 Printer Pen Adapter by TeamTeamUSA

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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therationalpi

Sounds like what we used our 3D printer for a lot, at the lab I worked at. If you needed some little knick knack that was hard to find, or even an adapter that didn’t exist (I think someone made a lens adapter to match a camera and an unrelated lens, but this was an optics lab, so they knew what they were doing).

To use long-forgotten terminology, these printers really serve the longtail market segment perfectly.
gelos

I have an older washer and dryer that I’ve fixed just about everything on it. Luckily parts are still available for what I’ve needed so far.
however, I predict at some point something behind the control panel will break and then I could be out of luck if it’s all plastic.

Also, this could eventually be useful for those restoring old cars. I’m working on a ’75 bus and there are a lot of parts that are NLA and sometimes the reproductions aren’t that great.
Robert

Does 3D modelling an abandoned part awaken hordes of zombie lawyers?
sally599

Hmm, I think next time I have an appliance issue I’ll just throw it in the submitterator before I throw it away. It would be interesting to have boards/talk on this site but I think they’d need another half dozen mods to pull that off.
sally599

Now this is brilliant–I had a portable dishwasher that was a couple of years old, one plastic part had broken and the thing would just flood the floor. We ID’d the part and called the company they said they didn’t make the part anymore(it was seriously like 2 years old). So I had to toss the whole machine for one piece of plastic. Now if I could just send the part which was literally just snapped in half to get printed that would be great.
- Anonymous
  
  You can use acetone to fuse most plastics back together. It’s a powerful solvent that will render the exposed plastic to a pre-liquid state. Just hold it in place for a few minute (until the plastic re-solidifies), and you’re done! I’ve repaired quite a few pars of glasses this way..!
- ian_b
  
  Your story is exactly why 3d printing will become increasingly more relevant. It threatens “planned obsolescence” and traditional manufacturing/distribution models. It threatens the companies that wield huge profits and therefore power and influence over policy and mind-share. There’s a reason this blog insists on posting about 3d printing every day, and it isn’t just because of artsy-crafty techie fun stuff. They’re documenting history.
  - emmdeeaych
    
    Deep. And probably correct.
- Anonymous
  
  3-D printing might not have saved your machine. 3-D parts are significantly weaker than regular parts. Weaker resins, porosity, weld lines are all bad news, but intrinsic to 3-D printing. Not good for replacing parts prone to breakage. The surface is often rough, making seals difficult.
  
  It possible any replacement part will have a life measured in minutes or seconds.
  
  Direct or RTV casting can improve the odds. Lost wax casting has dimensional problems, but can make some really great parts. So it is possible, but those techniques take time and money.
Nadreck

Hurrah! Now I can print off the parts I need to keep my Betamaxes going!
morcheeba

I know the troubles of getting pens for this machine! My visit to the states for the holidays was my one chance to stock up on these pens for the coming year. Every Radio Shack we hit said they’d just sold their last pens to a particular guy a few hours earlier – would’ve been fun to meet this fellow pen hoarder.
Anonymous

And DCMA takedown for violating a long forgotten disused patent in 3…2….1….