Teenage Engineering has responded to criticism about the high cost to buy and ship its collection of OP-1 accessories by letting customers ‘print’ their own parts:
We work hard to make our OP-1 users happy with free OS updates and added functionality. But sometimes we fail.
As some have noted, the shipping cost of the OP-1 accessories is very high. This is because we can’t find a good delivery service for small items.
Meanwhile, we have decided to put all CAD files of the parts in our library section for you to download. The files are provided in both STEP and STL format. Just download the files and 3D print as many as you want. Next fail is the OP-1 manual update. We are almost there…we promise it will be ready sometime next week. Thank you all for your patience, we promise to work even harder in the future to make you happy.
-Teenage OP-1 “fail” Team
These accessories are already available for 3D printing at Shapeways, who notes:
This is the first company that I have seen so far that offer replacement parts to be 3D Printed by their consumers. This is an incredibly smart move as it takes away the need for them to warehouse and distribute replacement parts. It also means that their fans have an opportunity to modify and customize aspects of their synthesizers.
This is a really interesting idea. I’d love to see manufactures support this for 3D printing of obsolete parts or for ‘hot rodding’ your music gear. It would be great to be able to order inexpensive replacement knobs, for example, for older synths.
If you’ve knowledgeable with CAD apps, you could even tweak the drawings to create custom parts.
What do you think of this idea? Should more companies follow Teenage Engineering’s lead?
I think 3D printing is going to be huge in a few years and change the way we get a lot of our products.
BRAVO !!! Teenage Engineering
Called it! Good work, I applaud them!
On another note, I would like to see someone create the template for printing Moog style knobs.
Radioshack Molded Heptagon Knob Model: 274-416 | Catalog #: 274-416 4 = $3.49
How about slider knobs for DX synths?
How about a whole website for synth parts that can be printed? Classic lost knobs, cases for popular DIY projects, and so on.
go for it man. kickstart that ish.
Do it! I’ll gladly throw up models of parts I’ve got. I’ve got a pair of precision calipers and synths with parts to measure!
That’s pretty clever, even if a bit snappy.
I wish I could print an OP1!
I wish i could print Angelina Jolie… or is that just “Weird Science”
part 2?
Thumbs up!
Shipping small parts isn’t expensive. Just use USPS First Class Mail. For a 3-ounce package with delivery confirmation (tracking), it’s $1.64. Wrap the part in some bubble wrap, stick it in a kraft envelope, and print a self-adhesive label.
TE isn’t a US company, and USPS isn’t sending from Sweden. The pricing on shipping in Scandinavia is quite high compared to the US. You’d probably need to multiply your number by 4 or 5 before you get world-wide shipping for the solution you suggested here.
Previous reply covers the Sweden scenario. But even within the US, from Shapeways, it will cost ~6-7 bucks to ship, not $1.64. I really hate taking an hour off work or life to drop stuff off at UPS or the USPS, so I don’t mind a reasonable handling charge from a business.
Rapid Prototyping/3-d printing is the future! i hope to be working on a synthesizer based accessory for a certain recent synth in the near future with which 3-d printing will allow me to make my cad files a reality!
pretty awesome idea they had here
this is the ‘o’ for unbxing!
Did you get that missing ‘o’ 3D printed? 😉
Nice ! Now make a real pro synth, with a big jack output, midi input and output.
Well there actually is midi input and output on the OP-1…
Thumbs up, TE ! I wish I had a 3D printer…
I don’t own an OP-1, but this is really a fantastic idea! The simple fact that you don’t need any expensive mold templates for 3d printing means that this technology is also attractive for small production quantities – and therefore it is suitable for consumer use.
Mark my words: in 5-10 years every bigger city will have something like a 3d printing store. And maybe in 10-20 years most households will have a small personal 3d printer. Might sound like sci-fi right now, but not so many years ago, computers required a whole room – and now they fit in your pocket.
Of course I can’t say for sure, but I have the feeling that 3d printing will have an important role in the not-so-far future 🙂
And I think these things will happen in less than half the time of your estimates.
Thanks so much for sharing,
We are so excited to see a manufacturer release their cad files for parts like this for 3D Printing.
We see a lot of DIY hacks on Shapeways but it is SO COOL that Teenage Engineering broke through with this first..
BRAVO
Yeah because anyone who can’t afford to buy these accessories probably has a 3D printer laying around…
Well sure you can, but you can also just buy them from Shapeways and they’ll print it for you and mail it. Shipping seems to be about $6.50 or so. So for the entire setup, you’re looking at like $25 or so, with shipping.
And by “entire setup” I mean all the parts
Fuckin shit product
I think this is one of the best ideas. Cause you could in theory re edit them. Add say gears on top of the wheel cap and on the crank cap or add a pully on and a gear and use the pully and gears for weird effects. I have to say even though ive never used one of these and couldnt afford one cause of school I like the idea and the whole philosophy as a company.
Anyone want to print me up a battery cover for my Casio SK8? I could really use one or four (they grow legs!).
“Next fail is the OP-1 manual update.
We are almost there…we promise it will be ready sometime next week.”
HaHa – manual – it´s Shit !
Dont call it manual – it´s a TOILET PAPER MAGAZINE 🙂 NEED A HandBOOOK!
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