Looking around for trackers that do stl files and/or other stuff for 3d printing. Specifically I’m hoping for rpg minis and the like but if I can find a tracker that does printable objects, I’m happy to help start a mini community.
I think what you’re asking for (a big repository of pirated STLs) doesn’t exist because it isn’t really necessary or desirable.
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There are a LOT of free models out there. Thingiverse, Printables, Thangs, etc. You really don’t need to buy models if you don’t want to.
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Most of the owners of paid models are just random nerds, not the huge mega corporations that own movies and TV shows. And the printing community is very small and supportive, so the general sentiment is that if a model isn’t free, it’s probably worth paying for.
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there are a number of trackers that specialize in exactly what OP is asking for
Please, share these numerous trackers with the class. What I said was “big central repositories” don’t exist because people aren’t really interested. A telegram group is not a big central repository, my dude.
Yeah “my dude”, I respond exceptionally well to juvenile condescension, especially when coupled with a whingy cry for a handout. I’m not condoning or promoting piracy here (that’s against the rules, innit?), so downvote all you want: my point still stands. Hell, I’ll even give your lazy ass a hint: it rhymes with “materialize”. Now, kindly fuck off, kiddo. 😘
tl;dr: “big, central repositories” do exist, you’re just too shit at life to find them, and speaking on behalf of all humankind in this is a patently stupid stance. You have no clue what “people” want, and using it to prop up your baseless argument is tedious at best. Bye, Felicia.
that’s against the rules, innit?
No, obviously not.
LMAO I made the child mad. And yet he still only (sort of) gave me a single example that I’m sure he came up with after furiously googling “stl torrent tracker 2023”
So much for all those huge, popular STL trackers that I’m sure definitely exist… Maybe they’re on the dark web and we’re all just too stupid to find them.
I’m not condoning or promoting piracy here (that’s against the rules, innit?)
Before flaming you should check which community you’re posting to.
Give link or cry.
Stfu pls and ty
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There’s a lot of free models out there already, and most models are created by individual artists. I encourage you to skip your coffee for a day if there’s a paid model you really want to use, as you are directly supporting members of the 3DP community, rather than some corporation.
I don’t know of any trackers, but there are Telegram groups/channels.
- STLworld
- STL Forest
Just searched on a public telegram indexer I use and found probably 20+ groups full of private STL files. Some of which would probably make GW pretty upset
Interesting! Never heard of a telegram indexer but I’d be curious to know which ones are good
Maybe indexer was the wrong word: https://tgstat.com/ is one I regularly use to find… things
Handy site, bookmarked. I don’t use Telegram because of the phone number requirement, but it’s good to keep track of what it has.
Didn’t like that requirement either, so I used another site to get a virtual phone number to authenticate. There’s a bunch, but I’ve used this site for both Telegram & Discord:
I was looking into those services too, thanks for letting me know this one worked for you!
You can’t find them on printables / thangs / thingiverse?
I’m struggling to think of a time, where a thought popped into my head of something I’d like to print, that I went to printables/thingiverse and something wasn’t there. Literally never. And I’ve thought of some pretty random shit…
I don’t even have a 3d printer yet so I don’t have a horse in this race, but given how countries are clamping down on 3d printers and such, like that thing I saw from lawmakers in new york (usa) where they want people to pass a background check or such to buy a 3d printer,
wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a tracker that does 3d print stuff? Does the thingiverse etc have print files for copyrighted objects and components that breach patents and such? Or dare I say it, weapons and that side of things (which I don’t support but it’s a thing)?
I think a proper, free from national control resource is the best way. I hope such a thing exists. I can see myself one day needing to replace a part in my coffee machine or something, and thingiverse/etc not having the part file because it breaks the patent/intellectual property of the coffee machine company to host it, you know?
3D printers are ubiquitous in the maker community already. They have also already become a staple of small industry too. The various attempts at regulation will go nowhere. There’s no support from anyone who understands the tech.
This is compounded by the fact that a number of elements are unwanted in the community. The guys trying to push gun designs etc are like the guys who turn up to a kids party wearing body armour and carrying an assult rifle. They might have the right to do it, but they can’t then complain that the other parents want nothing to do with them. The community seems to self police remarkably well.
The big issue with 3D print designs isn’t the big companies protecting parts. They don’t seem to bother. The issue is that parts are not standardized. A particular part in, say, a dishwasher, will change slightly, from model to model. It also takes a reasonable skill baseline to reverse engineer a broken part to a 3D printable design. The results are also often also a hacky bodge job. I’ve done it before, and my goal is to fix the issue and move on. This creates a lack of models available, in the first place, paid or free.
On top of this, most paid model makers are small time artists selling their own design. With piracy, it’s the difference between stealing a TV from Walmart, and stealing it from a guy down the street, trying to save money to take his kids on holiday.
There are a few exceptions. Games Workshop are a big one. They are very hot on defending their copyright on model designs. Their business model relies on selling a few, high profit items, rather than a lot of cheap ones. 3D printers can undercut that significantly.
On the whole, however, the 3D printing community is extremely functional. This makes piracy quite a niche thing. There’s a lot of free designs already, and those that are charging, aren’t being unreasonable. It might change with time, but for now it’s working well.
In your coffee machine example I can see 2 options
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The coffee machine company released it and let’s you print it at home.
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They didn’t release it, so a home jobber sketched it themselves and then they print it. No law against reverse engineering a part.
But interesting idea… I just wonder if torrents is the answer to the problem. Github, gitlab, gittea.
Spitballing.
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I just learned about this bill for 3D printer background checks. What a joke. Making your own plastic parts in the shape of a gun is not at all the same thing as actually building one from scratch. Yet another case of legislators knowing zero about the actual issues at hand, or purposefully avoiding them
I would recommend watching a few videos/documentaries on “Ghost Guns”. Vice had a really good one, if memory serves.
It isn’t JUST “hit print, rack the slide, bust a cap”. But with a properly calibrated printer and filament other than cheap PLA, it is real close. Download the STLs, start the build, and then head to the local hardware store for a few small springs and the (REDACTED) that becomes a firing pin. Then spend an hour or two screwing stuff together and filing down a few defects.
But also? Additive manufacturing is a vital part of so many industries at this point that I would not expect a crackdown on the STL files. Probably something similar to how DMCA is used with media files (which artists and engineers would generally tolerate, if not prefer, due to threads like this…). But all the drill bit holders and gunpla mods and the like aren’t going to go away.
Whether we start needing background checks/licenses for the printers themselves is still up in the air. But expect massive lobbying against that since “maker spaces” and even just a printer at the library are a big part of the industry and this is something where The West already do not have any meaningful advantage.
To put it in context. With a decent CNC mill, you can make a straight up “real” gun in a few days for probably less than 500 bucks worth of stock (although, I would not be surprised if aluminum block prices have skyrocketed). But those cost thousands of dollars. A decent 3d printer costs less than 500 for the tool and you need less than 100 dollars of filament for the gun. We don’t ban mills and lathes from private ownership. But I can definitely see something similar to medium sized drones where you need to fill out a form to legally own 3d printers of a certain size/quality
My point was that all of the important parts are metal
Not really, actually.
At an intentionally vague high level: The main components of a firearm are:
- The frame
- Levers/internal bits
- The barrel
- Metal springs and wires to connect the internal bits and make semi/full automatic fire possible
- The firing pin
1 and 2 are 100% able to be made with plastic. And that is increasingly becoming a selling point for a lot of firearms because of “weight”
4 is trivial to pick up at any hardware store and isn’t even conspicuous.
Which leaves 3 and 5. Plastic/polymer barrels are not an issue for small caliber ammunition (e.g. pistol rounds). You just don’t want to use dirt cheap PLA for that. And probably futz with the infill settings a bit.
The firing pin: Most engineering analyses I have seen say that is the one part that needs to be “real” (and, thus, is a traceable purchase). But I’ve seen a few resources tiptoe around how this could be easily improvised from stuff you buy at the local hardware store. And if I cared enough to check The Dark Web, I am certain I could find step by step instructions on how to do exactly that.
And there are youtubers like Emily the Engineer who have made it a point to show how ridiculously strong 3d printed stuff is. She doesn’t do firearms (mostly because it would get her demonetized…) but 3d printed machetes, lawnmower blades, jacks for pick up trucks, etc are pretty trivial. And I would be pretty shocked if someone who was had a particularly well configured printer and some of the good plastic couldn’t make a (mostly, if not entirely) polymer firing pin (I actually have no idea how modern ammunition works. I THINK it is just compression of the charge which means no metal needed. But if you still need a spark of some form, that is a metal tip instead of a metal pin).
Cults3d has a ton of free minis to print. You can get blender and kit bash as well.
Years ago Pirate Bay made a big deal about starting a 3D model repository, but it really didn’t catch on. Too many places to get free models already. Granted there are some places you can buy really high detail models from movies and games (is gambody still around? Will I get a strike for mentioning gambody like I did on reddit?).
If you really want to torrent 3D models, I’ll tell you what I tell everybody. qBittorrent has a very nice search function that, once set up properly, will hit a lot of public trackers straight from the interface. If you have a specific model in mind, give that a shot. Or just search for “3d model” or “STL” or whatever, and you’ll get hits.
AFAIK materialize.is is still active, but you need an invite, and I am not “in”, as it were, though I would like to be.
Cg peers?
Can someone tag me as well, if you know of any such site?
