SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-11T18:11:39Z

"rocket-scientists that TSA" ..... LOL

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-11T15:11:58Z

it might be better to send a package with all your gifts to your hotel or friends/family at your destination.

I do that with any tool cases I need to have at a long-distance job-site.

Not a big fan of explaining myself to the rocket-scientists that TSA hries.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-11T11:59:16Z

gee, which one of the above is a spammer ??

I once tried to go to a visitors lounge in an airport with a phillips and a flat head screwdriver on my keyring, little key shaped ones I forgot they where even on there .. talk about third degree. Apparantely I could have unscrewed the windows in the lounge, escaped onto the runways and started dismantling 747's before they could stop me..

they can be buttheads.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-11T02:15:56Z

I travel with a lot (I mean an entire backpack full) of photographic and underwater housing gear, which also means many batteries, charger cords, fiberoptics and electronic cabling and various metal fittings. Much of it looks kind of mysterious and sneaky to the layman, and even the stuff that doesn't (camera lenses) are still big heavy volumes that could 'hide' a lot if someone was using them as a cover shape. I just got into the habit, when passing my backpack up onto the belt, of telling them "this is photo gear, I'm sure you'll want to inspect it, I'll happily discuss it all with you once I pass thru the scanner". And then I do. Expect to have them look through every lens, paw thru every one of my 24-36 AA batteries to make sure they all feel the same in the hand, turn on the camera, unzip every filter pocket...you name it. Its kind of nervewracking for me considering the investment involved, but at least they wear gloves so they're not getting fingerprints on my optics. ;-)

If you have any reason to think what you are carrying might look suspicious, no matter how innocuous it really is, getting all in a wad over it just makes matters worse and triggers behavioral alarms. Better to acknowledge to them 'hey, I know this might make you go "hmmm", I can explain', and be upfront.

And of course, plan extra time just in case you get the rare unreasonable one in the bunch. Despite all the stories, they're just trying to do their jobs and don't like being buttheads about it, for the most part. 'Course you can always catch them on that bad day, or be unwittingly traveling at the same time as they get some sort of specific alert of decree from above.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-11T00:09:44Z

danny wrote:

or you print something that you'd have to be a complete idiot to want to take to an airport (pretend gun/knife/bomb/grenade/RPG/etc)

Words of wisdom, last time I brought an rpg to the airport things didnt go so well.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T23:19:23Z

also stabbing weapons are stabbing weapons regardless it whether they are a knife, sharpened tooth brush or printed part.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T22:16:06Z

I wouldn't think there'd be a problem, if it's in the shape of an ornament why would they question it since they wouldn't be able to distinguish it from an actual plastic ornament.

Now if you made a hollowed out oregano holder they might be more than a little suspicious.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T21:17:17Z

cmetzel, It's just some small presents printed on my printer for a couple of people. Probably one of the iris boxes that doesn't use metal screws if I can print it successfully and a glued together piece that will have a printed spring in it.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T16:35:28Z

JustSomeGuyTN wrote:

i know they shouldnt hassle us about it. but there are alot of stories out there about tsa going way beyond what theyre suposed to do. thats what i was wondering about. if anyone has gotten on with say one of the coin bottle openers or such and gotten hassled.

Why are you asking, just out of curiousity? What to you need to carry on that you've printed that can't go in your luggage?

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T15:35:10Z

i know they shouldnt hassle us about it. but there are alot of stories out there about tsa going way beyond what theyre suposed to do. thats what i was wondering about. if anyone has gotten on with say one of the coin bottle openers or such and gotten hassled.

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-10T04:51:38Z

why do I get a bad feeling someone is even asking the question..

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-09T00:17:28Z

if you watch the shows where they follow border patrols etc you can see how the xrays show.

I can only see a couple of times where this might be a problem.

if you create a shape with a very low infil and therefore lots of hidden voids show on the xray that you've packed with drugs.
or your infil creats a pattern that may be mistaken for a vegetable matter, or pills.
or you print something that you'd have to be a complete idiot to want to take to an airport (pretend gun/knife/bomb/grenade/RPG/etc)

Re: Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-08T04:47:55Z

It's PLASTIC. And not terribly dense plastic at that.

The solid vs. air space will barely show any contrast at all on an X-ray.

Fuggetaboutit. It's not an issue unless you're packing something much more chemically reactive inside the gaps (not going to be any more suggestive than that).

Has anyone gone through an airport with a printed part?

2012-12-08T02:43:27Z

I'm wondering if anyone has gotten on an airplane with something they printed yet. I was wondering what a 20% infill or so would look like under the airport xray machines and if TSA would hassle you about having something out of the norm with you.