I’ve been hooked by the 3D printing bug. Over there, you should see the very first thing I’ve 3D printed that I designed on my own.

I got a small 3D printer for Christmas, and have been scouring sites like Thingiverse and My Mini Factory for models to print. I’ve printed off a few benchys and a Fuckofftopus or two. I’ve made a keychain for a co-worker and my kiddo… played around with vase mode with some translucent filament, and as I’m typing this, the dress of a fairy is being printed (upside down). I’ve been having a blast with this thing… and also feeling a bit guilty for it becoming a distraction from editing.

It hasn’t been all fun and games, though. There’s a bit of practice and tweaking to get the different types of plastic to print properly, but in the end, it’s not hard. I made the mistake of trying to pry a model that printed overnight from the print bed the next morning while half asleep… and managed to gouge a giant hole in the print surface. Thanks to the powers of Amazon Prime, two days later I was back up and running… with a tiny bit smaller printing surface (which hasn’t been too big of an issue yet).

There are a few things I’ve learned, especially regarding the plastic used to make these prints.

  1. There are many different types. There’s PLA (polylactic acid – made from corn or sugarcane), ABS (the stuff LEGO is made of), PVA (can be dissolved in water), PET (food safe – but I don’t think studies have been done to see if the food safe qualities are kept when using a heated extruder) and many, many more.
  2. They come in a few sizes. The most common are 1.75mm and 3.00mm. Something to definitely remember when ordering spools of filament online.
  3. They come in TONS of colors and styles. Want rainbow colored? Glittery? Metallic? Translucent? Neon? Glow-in-the-dark? Any combination of the above? It’s out there, somewhere.
  4. It’s generally inexpensive, but can get extremely pricey very quickly. The adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ can ring true with the basic lineup of filaments, but as soon as you get into the ‘fancy’ stuff, the quality and performance per cost can fluctuate wildly. (youtube is great for finding comparisons and reviews on different filament providers)

That doesn’t even begin to describe the differences in the machines. I got a Monoprice Mini V2 (just under $200 and shows up completely assembled and ready to print out of the box after a double-check on the level of the printing bed), it’s probably one of the cheapest machines out there, but I’ve been super happy with the quality of the prints so far. There are machines that begin at about $1000, and some that reach into the million mark. This one has been great as an entry-level learning machine.

There are a ton of models to print, too. Everything from toys to sculptures, game pieces, and even replacement parts for the machine you’re printing everything on. Everything I’ve printed so far has been free (I’m a bit of a cheapskate… and also poor), but the prices I’ve seen for some amazing plans has been extremely reasonable (with a few odd exceptions).

I hope this thing lasts a while without too much upkeep and/or repair (might have to make a future post), because this is just way too fun.

How do you feel about the 3D printing ‘fad’? Think it’s just a bunch of nerds getting to play with fancy toys, or do you think it’s going to be another way of possibly escaping from under the thumb of capitalism and having to purchase easily printable parts and pieces with horrendous markups? (only a couple of possibilities, as far as I’m concerned) Let me know in the comments.