Making Practical Uses From 3D Prints

I'm sure most- if not all- of us have seen the bottoms of chairs and stools which are specifically created to give stability to the chair and to protect the ground from being damaged when the chair is moved. Well, two chairs in my house have an incomplete set of those. This causes the chairs to constantly shift their weight across their legs, and it also causes the chairs to dig into soft surfaces such as dirt and grass. Things as specific as these are not necessarily widely available at stores, and tennis balls wouldn't look too pleasant, so the chairs were left the way they were.

As a digital modeling student, however, I came across this idea: why not 3D print it?

My father and I discussed the idea for a few minutes and headed straight to work. He collected the diameter of the chair's foot as well as the height of one of the remaining pieces of plastic. With this information I began to model the idea, and this only took a few minutes to achieve. By using an extruded circle with the solidify modifier in Blender, I achieved a final structure which looks like this:

(the hole in the middle is to allow air to escape)

 I exported this model into a slicing software to prepare for printing, and I then proceeded to the printing process. Here is the final result:

(this was initially printed with supports which I easily removed and disposed)

I printed 8 of these objects, each being 38.0mm x 10.26mm.

 

This is how the original one looks:

This is how my version fits:

The flat surface of this object balances the chair, and it also prevents the chair from digging into dirt when placed in such outdoor settings. Although this plastic is not the strongest, it's formation is extremely sturdy for this use. In addition, it costs minimal supplies and effort.

I have always been intrigued by the practical uses of all sorts of art, and I am glad to have put my interests into action!