Our 3D Printing nightmare….wait, Adventure!

My girlfriend wanted a 3D printed long before I did. That’s rare. But cool.

Like most nerdy geeks, we talked about building a 3D printer versus buying a ready-made unit, which we should have done in hindsight. But we didn’t.

When the time came and prices dropped with all the new printers available in the U.S from China, we started seriously shopping. A week later I glanced over my girlfriend’s spreadsheet of data (she’s such a nerd) and we picked a kit that you had to build yourself AKA “DIY”. We figured this would be a cool way to learn the ins and outs, the panic and the pissed-off bouts of insanity we later encountered. Nothing said we could not do it, given we are programmers and all-around “we fix our own computers, cars and TV’s”, people, but once we had delved into the deep end of the pool, there was no looking back.

We ordered a TiVo tarantula 3d printing kit, and, as usual, my girlfriend tore open the box and did her usual deep smell of the new tech, and dove in as I made her coffee. A week later, we did our first test print, after buying the missing screws and fighting cats and angry ignored pugs.

Most people start with the files included in the SDcard included with most new printers. Ours was a 4gb card that they warned us might have a virus. There are a great many Facebook groups and online information out there. Pick wisely.

I remember the hour, my girlfriend came and got me and said nervously, it’s ready. She pushed the power button and nothing blew up. She selected the file on the card and away we go as I watched the z-axis move down toward the bed and then crash into it cracking and breaking the acrylic pieces that hold the frame together. Another search online said we could superglue the broken parts, so we super glued the pieces back together and learned all about the Z-axis and leveling the bed. Four days later we tried again, with nervous anticipation we selected the Benchy, which is a small boat that everybody prints and this time it worked! Sort of.

Fast forward to now. After three years of fiddling, rebuilding, swearing, two boxes of bandaids, many 3rd-degree flesh burns, we have seven 3D printers. Most we bought because there are ready-made workhorses, the others are projects to tinker with. Why do we need seven printers? I’ll tell you why.

One day on Facebook, I saw a group called 3D Printing and profit, a great group about starting to sell your 3d prints and to make custom things for people. A few weeks later we opened our first Etsy Store, and this morning I had the honor of printing a batch of custom beer-shotgunning key-chain tools for a college fraternity, and I printed them on our trusty old Tevo Tarantula. The printer is now awesome, rebuilt and sporting a 3 mm nozzle for great detail. The poor Tevo sat in the corner of our 3D printing lab (yeah, I said lab), and gathered dust and was robbed of parts for two years.

As I fired the Tevo up this morning, I had this cool feeling; I learned to take the worst machine in our lab and make it run better than the professional machines we have. Why? Because it says something about effort, and goals, about ending up somewhere I never thought I would be, doing this strange hobby turned business where people leave us feedback on the items we have made for them, and how much what we do means to them. Don’t leave the old ones behind for parts. Make them work, and well. Because it matters. We learned so much from the old Tevo; it taught us patience; it taught us 3D printing on every level. It taught us our shortcomings and that if you work hard enough, in the right direction, great things happen.

• JK
• Check us out:) http://www.artfulthingsshop.etsy.com/

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