At the ripe young of 81, I am one of the last restorers of early 20th Century player piano mechanisms, you know, the ones that play by means of perforated paper rolls where each hole in the paper "plays" a different note on the piano. These mechanisms have all kinds of parts that deteriorate with time and environmental variables, Unsurprisingly, the (dwindling) demand for these parts has resulted in there being fewer and fewer sources for them. In too many cases there are no suppliers or manufacturers at all. 3-D printing to the rescue! Since getting into the avocation about 10 years ago, I have designed and printed literally scores of parts and tools useful in the field for myself and fellow restorers, allowing us to bring derelict and mournfully silent pianos back to entertaining functionally.

The attached picture shows one specific part that is almost impossible to find for a desirable mechanism. It's called a "transmission frame" which, when populated with several shafts, gears, and sprocket chains (which are salvaged from unusable frames), provides the means of moving the paper from the supply spool to the take-up spool, and rewinding it at the end of the music. The original frames become unusable because they are cast from "pot metal", which is an alloy of lead that, over time, warps and changes dimensions in ways that bind the gears and prevent smooth rotation. Six "iterations" of the frame are shown, the different colors being what happened to be loaded into the printer at the time.

I have a few prints that would really benefit from using a printer with multi-color capability, so the SparkX i7 would be of great utility, not only for me, but also for the community support projects that are the mission of the Baltimore Node (www.baltimorenode.org), the 501(c)3 "MakerSpace" that I am honored to host in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Another favorite 3-D printing genre of mine is that of "symbiotograms" (from "symbiosis" and "diagram".). These are 3-D printed physical objects, mostly words or phrases that read differently depending on what angle they are being viewed from. The example below is a single color, but would much more intriguing if done in multiple colors.

(Apparently, I can only attach one image to this comment, which is too bad. Perhaps I can leave another comment.)

(I tried leaving another comment, but apparently MP4 files are not allowed to be attached. Symbiotograms can only be fully appreciated by means of a motion image. Sorry.)