3D Printer, I finally did it.

After many attempts at finding or dealing with 3D printing spots, I decided to pull the trigger and buy one. Specifically, Creality's Ender-6 CoreXY.

Yeah, it's a mouthful.

Should be coming in two days, and I'm kind of super excited.

Ever since I've heard of the first 3D printer (for the general public, we all know they had a 3D printer at Roswell), I believe it was the MakerBot, I wanted one. I saw unlimited potential, aaaand that's not quite how that panned out for 3D printers.

There was excitement, but it seemed the technology or interest had plateaued. I would see the occasional Kickstarter campaign on some feed touting an EVEN BETTER 3d printer, but the tech was the same, the casing was just different. Then people got screwed on a few of those Kickstarters, the few "stronger" companies that were out there trudged along not quite changing their designs.

So, I quit paying attention.

...

Here we are in 2022, I've somehow fallen into 3D art, you know, doing stuff. And in trying to figure out the best way to display it, I thought of 3D printing, naturally.

I had no clue about none of it, I hadn't heard anything revolutionary from that department, but I wanted to try and print something I had created. I checked my local area and wouldn't you know it, there were a couple in the Valley. They weren't so good at answering phones, they'd email back the next day, maybe. One place I eventually drove to since it wasn't forty minutes away was gone.

The technology hadn't exactly changed either... but it had improved.

This had become frustrating, I was sending off files, people couldn't download, we couldn't figure out why, or were too big to send, I faced challenges I hadn't foreseen. Honestly, it helped me really focus on how I save my 3D files. Then waiting for the ONE person IN THE WHOLE 3D PRINTING COMPANY to get back from the lake to check out my .obj file or whatever. Honestly it nearly took me two weeks to get a quote.

Then I got a hot tip from Noah the owner of Art Hacker gallery about a mythical place where they have all the toys you need, you just need to be a student to not pay out of your ass. The Phoenix Forge.

...

I reactivated my student ID! From the one semester of college I did in 2002.

The Forge as I like to call it, do all sorts of cool things, wood working, metal shop, metal etchers, sewing, robot making, workshops, classes on how to use these big machines, and most importantly, they have a 3D print lab!

This place is amazing, and I really just have to pay for what I print out. $10-$60 depending on size whenever I print something out. It was an amazing find. The problem is it's like a city away and I can't get there all the time, but the resources are invaluable, having the people there ready to answer any questions has been so helpful. Videos are helpful but having a person I can grill as to why or why not is better.

Like, which printer should I get... There are A LOT of companies out there and I wasn't looking to spend thousands. It still seems like the technology isn't quite there yet from what I'm seeing. It's like 90% there. 80 actually... You still have a lot of messing around with the machine.

I was torn between the Prusa and Creality, I decided on going with Creality since they were a little more affordable, and had a selection in my price range. Then I decided to go with speed rather than size (that's what she said), I figured I would be testing and printing prototypes of my artwork, and if I had to scale, send it off to the Forge. 3D printing is kinda slow and may take days to print something out. Usually, I think small things you just leave for overnight.

The size difference between the two I was looking at was so small though (that's what she said, again), like five centimeters off of each side of the base platform that holds the 3d printed model. Height-wise, out of the two I was looking at they were the same.

So 3x the speed, yeah, I'll go with the upgraded model.

The annoying thing is, most of these 3d printers don't come ready to go, you have to kinda build it. Then level the base, unlucky for me the one I picked didn't have an automatic leveler... It's definitely going to be a learning experience.

Thinking of doing timelapse videos of it printing out... fun.

And sorry about not staying consistent with the blog, I'll do better.

Alright, I gotta go eat lunch, much love.

-Z