Pre-Order Drama with Creality

I was made aware this morning on the Ender-3 Facebook group that Creality's new kit, the Ender-3 is having some shipping problems, specifically shipping to their most dedicated users who got in on a special pre-order through AliExpress. Those orders were able to get an early bird discount, but they're ending up being some of the last to receive their units, if they're going to be receiving them at all.

Now, you know me. I'm all about the second and third chances, and Creality, I believe, has earned the benefit of the doubt. But in this case I'm having a hard time resolving what Creality is doing with what they obsessively communicated to their users. Because to the people who saw and put in for a discounted pre-order, the message they received was "Thank you for being a fan-boi". The skeptic in me wants to say that what they were really saying was "we want your money early", then realized they weren't charging enough even for the regular units, so the pre-orders got sidelined. However if that's the case then why do it through Alibaba, who doesn't release the funds until after you ship? With that in mind, what the heck were they thinking? I really want to know.

The original post, copied below for those who can't read it on Facebook, takes a considerably alarmist tone. We're still in the middle of this thing. But if any of those AliExpress pre-orders default, that will be very bad of Creality.

Creality, guys, you're making it hard to be a fan.

How a month of Hardware Reviews changed the way I make videos

https://youtu.be/pan1ZsrVwzM

The Community survey has a limited number of slots for options, so I had to pick my top 5, and we'll cycle in the others with the next month. Go vote now to tell me what to do: https://www.youtube.com/user/mrjoesays/community

As this month of hardware reviews wraps up, I've had some thoughts I'd like to share. You wouldn't think that a little thing like this would be a landmark project in the history of my channel, but it may very well have ended up being. The lessons I learned and the way this affected my workflow has been too numerous not to take a second and enumerate.

There were two of factors that motivated March MadMess. First of all, I really did have a lot of 3D printers to review and they were getting in the way, physically and mentally, of what I wanted to do. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get through them. I had a plan to focus on one a week, and try to get them to a state that I could do my usual positive note review, but that just wasn't working. Then my contact at GearBest made a personal request that I help him make more sales. He asked directly for more videos. And that's when it clicked. You want more videos? I can do more videos. Screw making a nicer video, you are getting more videos, good, bad, and uuugly.

And it had the desired effect. I've cleared space in my workspace and increased commissioned sales. However, there were some unintended consequences as well, the long term effect of them may not finish shaking out for a while.

So here's a few things I learned from March MadMess:

Don't Vlog Angry

March MadMess was born out of frustration. Frustration for the mess of 3D printers piling up. Frustration for not having time to give any one of them the effort they deserve and frustration over having printers that just don't work. However, I didn't really admit that to myself until the TEVO Tornado non-review. I got roasted in the comments for that one, and rightly so.

Though I will say that some of the abuse from TEVO users was a bit over the top and unnecessary. What is it about TEVO users? Is it just because you invested so much in to getting your sub-par printer working that you either have to defend it or admit you made a mistake? Hmm. Nevertheless, the advice and direction is appreciated.

Apparently I'm the idiot

The thing is, no one is an expert on everything, even if he is pompous enough to call himself "professor". There's a lot I don't know. And even my attempts to get help to solve these printer problems, outside of these videos, fell flat. But the comments section of these videos have been most instructive. I don't think I ever appreciated my audience as much as I should have. I will not make that mistake again.

I think going forward, I think I'm going to do more videos of work-in-progress projects and ask you guys to help out.

Most of these printers were evaluated since the beginning of the year

I felt like I've been sitting on some of these printers a long time, and some of them I have been, but gathering pictures for the reviews I discovered that most of these printers were evaluated in January and February. Then I remembered that at the start of the year I set a goal to do one hardware review a month. So I'd open one up, putting it together, try them out, have them fail. since I was trying to do a review a month, I'd put them aside and open another one, only to have it repeat.Soon I had nothing to review but a pile of unfinished evaluation units.

Neva was the first to force the issue. They wanted a review quickly. So I reviewed their printer as it was, just like they asked. Well, maybe not just like they asked. But I don't give up editorial control or give my content to a 3rd party for any reason. That's why their review, while technically a part of March MadMess, was before the official announcement. 

After that, though, it just made sense. If I didn't have to keep fighting with machines that weren't working, I could just review a bunch of them. If I didn't have a good experience, why waste my time hoping it'll turn around. If it turns around, I can always do a follow up. And some of these printer will get that experience.

Going forward I'd like to focus on just one printer at a time until I can either decide it's worth pursuing or decide to take it apart, and then move on to another one. No more jugging a dozen projects. Well, not hardware projects anyways.

I am not going into sales any time soon

I'm no sales man. Never have been, and never want to be. I'm not going to promote something I can't believe in. I'm not going to tell you the up sides of a thing with my one hand while hiding the possible downsides behind my back. I'm not above a little click-bait, but I always strive for honest click-bait.

When GearBest asked that I spam my videos with the links to every 3D printer *they* wanted to promote, regardless of whether I mentioned it in that video, or anywhere at all, which included I've only heard of. My response was a very polite but firm reassuring of my stance that I would not be spamming my audience. I still feel my first duty is to the viewer. As a compromise I put some of those links in the write-ups for the videos and referred people to those write-ups as often as I could in the videos.

In the end, I think this worked on several levels. First of all, I had a number of people comment that they didn't know I did these write ups, but that they really enjoyed them. That made me feel good. But also, those who visited the blog post were a little more dedicated and more likely to have the dedication, not just to make an impulse purchase, but to be a thoughtful, long-term customer. Fewer return, fewer negative reports, better PR. At least, that's what I'm telling myself is going to be the result.

Lots of people weren't reading these write-ups

And now they are.

When I started making YouTube videos, my thought was "Hey, maybe I can use this to drive people to my blog". You can even see in my early YouTube videos, there was a huge link to my blog plastered up there. But as the metrics for my YouTube videos went up, and my metrics for the blog more or less remained steady, eventually the blog became in service to the videos. However, I couldn't help, over time, having my blog posts get longer and more deep. Case in point, this one.

Now it's coming back around and I'm making an effort to refer people back to the blog again.

Oh, and this month, I realized I didn't have a link to my most current book in the sidebar. Fixed.

My time is more limited than I want it to be

With as many videos as I produced this month, there was no spoons left for actually doing 3D printing projects. A running 3D printer is a happy 3D printer, and none of my 3D printers are happy right now. I need to give my Davinci Color a good head cleaning before I can use it again. And I haven't really had time to test any of the 3D printers beyond what I did before March.

The shed space is also a problem. That shelf behind me is about 6" higher than I need to to fit all these large format and delta printers that I've got to keep happy. But more on that in a second.

I think I've got enough bandwidth for one experimental printer at a time. So from now on, as I said, that's probably all I'm going to do. Allocate some time for fiddling, and just keep working on one machine until it's where I want it, and then move on. If I hit a point where it's time to do a review and I haven't gotten very far on it, I'll make some kind of video about it. Perhaps a topic video while I fiddle with it, those seems to go well.

I am in badly need of some upgrades

I've never run my 3D printing channel like a proper business, or even like a proper YouTube channel. It just never made sense to me to invest in high end recording equipment, like Joel or Angus or Devin did. It never made sense to me to invest in a setup that can output 4k video like Tom does. Of course all those channels are much more successful than me in a very short time, but I've gotten here without any debt or over extending myself, and it's been mostly self-supporting up to this point.

Still, I'm frustrated that the audio and video quality of my videos aren't what they should be. My interview with Isaac prompted me to invest in some better mic equipment, generously donated by GearBest.

But my shed is also in need of a major structural overhaul. It's a mess. The printer desk is too high, or the shelf above it is too low. It's got holes that let the sun and mice in, and there's hardly any corner of it where it's safe from UV light, which makes the FLSun S Complete a tough one to run. If I can raise some funds, I might be able to get some proper siding and insulation. Heck, while I'm dreaming, maybe I'll be able to tear the whole thing down and rebuild the ultimate YouTube recording set/storage area.

I wonder if IconBuild would like some publicity?

Positive reviews generate sales, Negative reviews generate cred

It's interesting to me that both positive and negative reviews have their place. In the past I avoided making reviews too negative, because I was worried that it would prevent people from sending me additional review units. And maybe that's the case. But those negative reviews also seem to make the positive ones mean more. People appreciate that they can tell when they're getting good advice, because they know you won't hold back on the bad.

Unless you're knocking TEVO for no good reason. Then you just get blasted.

The bills are paid

Interestingly, a month of videos with links to where you can buy them resulted in a lot of commissions. Who knew. But it was, in fact, enough that this month's bills are covered. Not bad for a part-time job.

This point alone is the most difficult one to come to terms with. I don't want my channel to be all hardware reviews all the time. But when your financial burdens are eased by doing a thing, it's hard not to do that thing again and again. Of course, I can't exactly just jump in and do hardware reviews all the time for a number of reason. First of all, I'm out of hardware. Secondly, as I mentioned before, it takes time to properly test a piece of equipment. And it takes time to make a video. And it takes time to do projects. And this is only a part-time gig for me so I have to choose.

Still, this makes me feel like I'm standing at the head of a fork in the road. And while this isn't the path I want to choose, the way ahead has a certain appeal. I think it's unavoidable that hardware reviews are going to be a part of the future of my channel, but I'm going to have to go about them in smart ways.

Let's take one last look at those links:

• FLSun S/Micromake L2 - $562 on AliExpress, $638 at Gearbest, or Amazon
• Creality3D CR-10mini - $350 with coupon cr10mini3d, AliExpress, $460 on Amazon
• Creality3D CR-10 - $430 with coupon Cr10bluejk, AliExpress, $486 on Amazon
• Creality3D CR-10S - $540 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $600 Amazon
• Tronxy X5S Kit - $340 with coupon TronxyX5SPRE, $337 on AliExpress, or $461 Amazon
• Geeetech 301 Delta Kit - 363 on AliExpress or  Amazon
• Anet A8 Kit - $160 at GearBest, AliExpress, $230 on Amazon
• JGAurora A5 - $426 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $560 Amazon
• Monoprice Select Mini V2 $200 on Amazon
• TEVO Tornado - $350 at Gearbest with coupon Tornadous1, $400 on AliExpress, $460 on Amazon
• Geeetech E180 - $295 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $400 on Amazon
• STARTT 3D Printer - $100 iMakr
• DOBOT Mooz 3 in 1 - $800 on Amazon

Gearbest is also having a huge event for it's 4th Anniversary. Check it out:

https://www.gearbest.com/m-promotion-active-403.html?lkid=10972970

https://www.gearbest.com/promotion-electrical-and-tools-special-622.html?lkid=10972970

Defining the ideal 3D printer

Yesterday and today has been interesting. The CR10 project has started opening my eyes to what would be, to me, the ideal 3D printer. It's not just about what the printer is, but what it can become. But adding some of the features I want to the CR10 is... non-trivial. However, I've already started building the next printer to review, the Tevo Tornado, and it's looking much better for eventually being the printer I want it to be.

And then #TEVOgate happened.

Now, I don't want to talk about TEVOgate, the implication, insanity, or the brain-dead way that Tevo is handling it, except to say that if Tevo does run a discount tomorrow like they're promising, please resist. Show them that as a community we will not support this sort of insulting dismissal of their customers. But that's all I want to say about this.

What I do want to talk about is what I've decided the ideal 3D printer will look like. In the chapter in the Beginner's Guide to the 3D Printing Galaxy I defined a way to evaluate 3D printers for buying. I defined 3 criteria. We'll call these the high level view:

• Easy to use.
• Reasonable price
• Capable of making anything

However, at some point reality has to be addressed. While we can dream about a machine that you simply say "tea, earl gray, hot" to and a cup filled with a steeped beverage appears, in reality there is only so much reasonably priced stepper motors can do. So the most realistic option right now involves a few things:

• Works out of the box with minimal effort
• Minimally capable
• Upgradable

With that last bullet point, not having all the features on day-one is okay provided there's the option to get those features later. I see 2 ways to make this happen: an open and expandable system or a company dedicated to making the add-ons people want. An open system could have the advantage of having the community demonstrate what they want by making it.

So let's break it down. What are the features I want to see in the realistic ideal 3D printer, and how could they be accomplished?

• Easy setup
• Kits aren't ideal
• I want to be printing day one
• Large build area
• This is a capability question
• Can't easily be added to, so it's a base-line requirement
• Reasonable price
• For the minimal printer, the entry cost needs to be $200-$500
• Great UI
• Marlin is okay to start, but there needs to be a better option
• Octoprint is an easy fix, but it needs the touchscreen
• Wifi
• Octoprint adds this
• On-board slicing
• Octoprint adds this
• Filament run out sensor
• Not required, but especially with big printers, it's a great option for functionality
• Could be attached through octoprint, but it'd be better if it were through the board
• Pause and restart capability
• Power-loss restart capability
• Filament measuring sensor
• Measure incoming filament and adjust flow rate for consistent prints
• No one has this, but it's a simple division on the flow rate based on the measured filament diameter
• Doubles as a more expensive filament out sensor
• Heated build plate
• Auto leveling
• Either measure-and-adjust or mechanically leveling
• Flexible and high abrasive filament capability
• A better nozzle is easy enough
• Flexible friendly system isn't as easy to add, so maybe this should be baseline
• Multi Material Option
• Dual nozzles or diamond hot end, it doesn't matter, there needs to be ports to drive more motors that we need
• It's not just colors, different materials for supports and different materials in a print is a game changer
• It's also colors

What have I missed? Are there any options the realistic idea 3D printer needs to have? And who do you think is the most likely person to make it this a reality?

Da Vinci Full Color 3D printer

Recently, Da Vinci contacted me and invited me to be a part of their beta test group for a new type of 3D printer. Da Vinci is a company that, while I've know about, I haven't had any desire to posses one of their machines. Not that there was anything wrong with their 3D printers per se. They were reportedly solid machines that did the job well. The just had one glaring problem that made me feel that their printers weren't for me.

Two words: Chipped filament.

I mean, I understand the idea from a business perspective. Under charge for the hardware and make it up by over charging for the consumables. The problem is making money through convincing people to burn through consumables ends up making decisions that aren't always in the best interest of the consumers.

So what could Da Vinci offer me that would convince me to put up with their chipped material? On top of that, signing an NDA, which always merits an eye-roll from me? On top of that tell you all about it the moment I'm able to even though I don't actually have one of these 3D printers in my possession? Yet.

Three words: Full Color FFF.

Not full color as in being able to change layer color, or having 4 colors of filament that feed into one nozzle but still somehow still can't blend. No, this is full color, changing at will to whatever hue you want. In the past this was only possible with material binding, resulting in a print that was aesthetically pleasing, but inaccessible for the home market and lacking any usable strength.

So how did they accomplish this? While I don't have a test printer in my hands just yet, my understanding of the process is that they print with a transparent filament, then go over each layer with an ink-jet like printer to color the edges. So technically, if I understand correctly, the color sits between the layers, and it gets transmitted through the optics of the material. What does this mean for smoothing the prints with a brush-on eposy afterwards? We'll have to find out when I get my unit. Yes, I'm getting one. I think I have to.

For the record, I totally had this idea a long time ago. Well, not this idea, but a similar idea of adding pigment to the filament just as it came out of the nozzle, which is nothing like this idea, and probably wouldn't have worked with the heat problems, but I am totally claiming to have had this idea before they did. Even though I didn't.

Personally this means I'm going to have to learn to add color data to my prints, something I've not ever needed to know before. The possibilities this opens up, though, could be totally worth it.

I will have more information coming as soon as I have a unit to test, but until then you can check it out and pre-order at http://www.xyzprinting.com/en-US/product/da-vinci-color

#ColorYour3DCreativity #XYZprinting #daVinciColor #Color #3Dprinter #3Dprinting #3Dmodel #3D

The problem with functional parts

I've mentioned in the past that there is a defensible position when it comes to useless prints. Last week I replaced a friends e-break button for their '99 Saturn. Here's the thing. Unless you have a '99 Saturn that just happens to have a broken e-break button, this isn't going to excite you. On the other hand, if someone models Pickle Rick everyone is going to flip their lids. Because chances are better that you've seen a few episodes of Rick and Morty than that you have a '99 Saturn with a broken e-break button.

But you know what the best part is? The useful or the useless can coexist in 3D printing. There's enough room for everyone. So even if you don't have a '99 Saturn with a broken e-break button there's still something for you to enjoy there. So enjoy it. 3D printing is awesome.

Now, on a side note, this was my first model made completely in Fustion 360. I'm trying to branch out and I think this was a good one to practice with.

Who's got 2 thumbs and was on the 3DPrinterChat Podcast?

https://3dprinterchat.com/podcast/3d-printing-creative-commons-copyright-making-money-etsy-interview-joseph-larson/

It was awesome to chat with Chris Garrett about 3D printing, Creative Commons, and Copyright law. Now, like I said in the podcast, I'm not a lawyer. But it is something that I have significant interest in, being both a design creator and a design seller.

However, legal discussion aside, I still think the best idea is to live by Wheaton's Law. Don't be a jerk. I remember listening to the PAX 07 keynote address by Wil Wheaton (warning, salty language) back in 07 immediately after it was delivered, and I would not be exaggerating to say, that hour changed my life. And while Wheaton was talking about it in the context of online gaming, it has been and can be applied to the world.

Don't be a jerk.

Add to that, this: Ignore the jerks that are giving you reason not to do great things. Yes, if someone is a jerk to you, it hurts. But if you let that fear stop you from doing something and sharing it with others then they win twice. Instead, if someone is going to rip you off then clearly they see  value in what you're doing, so maybe there's something worth pursuing there. You'll never know if you don't put yourself out there.

The makerbot story video

https://youtu.be/x04wJdGp-yg

This is a lecture that I've used in the past when teaching PowerPoint, to show my students how a PowerPoint presentation doesn't necessarily need to be a list of bullet points to be engaging. So I put together this little presentation relating Makerbot's relationship with the maker community to a high school drama and it amused me how well the analogy held up. Makers loved associating their name with Makerbot, like we were writing our name next to theirs in little hearts in the back of our trapper-keepers. And in the end they spurned us and, well, we acted like that love struck little girl would, impotent to do anything, but thrilling with every failure. And that's just not healthy for us or them.

The truth is Makerbot has had their hard times and we've had some times too, and while we didn't have those times together like we planned in home room, it's time to accept that they've moved on and to move on ourself.

While uploading this video I found this interview with Nadav Goshen. The interviewer was brutal, trying to get him to blame someone, anyone, for Makerbot's failure and to admit that they made mistakes, and with every reply it turned it to a positive and sidestepped the interviewers attempts to focus on the negative. Honestly, TechCrunch should be embarrassed with how their interviewer treated him, but Nadav did an excellent job. Of course, you don't get to be CEO if you can't talk your way out of a bad interview, but he won me over with that one.

I attempted, again, in this video to record it all in one take with all the elements in place and recorded live. You can see the slideshow on the screen behind me. But I messed up the outro so I had to load it in the editing software, and I'm glad I did because that's when I noticed that the screen I was uploading wasn't set to full screen, there was the browser window around them, and so I had to overlay the overlay with the pictures from the presentation. It's a delicate dance to get it right in one take, especially with so many elements, but I'm gonna get it right one day.

Robot Action Chess featured in the World Chess Hall of Fame

http://www.worldchesshof.org/exhibitions/project/featured-chess-sets-2017/

A few weeks back I was contacted by Nicole Tessmer of the World Chess hall of fame about including my robot action chess set in their collection. What an absolute honor.

I sometimes worry that my entire life is going to be defined by this one chess set, but I gotta admit it's pretty cool and probably deserves it. In fact I kind of owe this whole '3D Printing Professor' thing to this chess set. See, as a child I had one of those cheap, dollar store chess sets with the plastic injection molded pieces and a little piece of felt on the bottom, only on this set the felt had came off. I discovered that the ball on the top of the pawn would fit into the base of another pawn and I linked them together in this way. I hardly played chess with them, but I played with them like building toys. And thus the seed of this chess set was planted in my mind.

In 2012 I was a father with a software development job. I became a huge fan of 3D printing just as they were entering their newly accessible phase. But even as relatively cheap as they were becoming I still couldn't afford to buy one, not with a family I had to support. However, I had acquired 3D design skills in college related to an animation program I decided not to finish, and so I started designing for 3D printers and shared those designs online. I eventually entered a series of contests whenever the promised prize would be a 3D printer, and time and time again I lost.

Then, Makerbot and Tinkercad teamed up to offer a contest. Design a chess set, win a 3D printer. And suddenly that dollar store chess set I played with as a kid returned to me. I made a sketch on the bus of a voltron-like robot with the pieces of a chess set forming it's body. Then I set to work implementing that design in Tinkercad. It took a week, and many design changes, but finally I had a chess set like no other. I won the contest and my first 3D printer.

I was so excited about that 3D printer that I started a blog. That led to a couple of books. Eventually the blog evolved into a moderately successful YouTube channel. And now I'm building a career, all in 3D printing, all due to a unique chess set design, and a dollar store chess set.

3D Printing at Tuacahn

Tuacahn Amphitheater in Southern Utah. Nestled into beautiful red foothil
ls hills.

Home of great theater, a Saturday farmer's market, and 3D printing. 3D printing? Yup.

Just inside their gift shop is a display case with 3D printed props from their previous shows.

From Peter Pan there's some kisses (acorns), Wendy's thimble, and a feather arm bracelet leverl created by printing a feather flat then wrapping it around a pole with some heat.

There are ornate crosses and woven pendants from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

And lastly there's Smee's dagger and some phone cases and card holders. All of which are available for purchase. The props were actually used in the show.

I got the opportunity to talk to the guys using 3D printing at Tuacahn and it's exciting to see. In fact if there were a market for this sort of thing I think it'd be interesting to print new props and trinkets every night, use them in a show, and sell them afterwards. This is exactly the sort of thing 3D printing is good for and I thank Joseph Smith and Scott Anderson for taking the time to chat with me. I look forward to seeing what they do in the future.

3D Printed Dice Dump Day - Giving it away

What a morning. It wasn't easy making these dice, and it wasn't easy uploading them either. Well, it wasn't hard, just tedious. But now it's done, and you can purchase and download any of the varieties on Pinshape:

• https://pinshape.com/items/31204-3d-printed-spacedice-variation-1-prototype
• https://pinshape.com/items/31205-3d-printed-spacedice-variation-2-spacedice
• https://pinshape.com/items/31206-3d-printed-spacedice-variation-3-space-dice-plus
• https://pinshape.com/items/31207-3d-printed-space-dice-variation-4-diamond-joe
• https://pinshape.com/items/31208-3d-printed-space-dice-variation-5-corners
• https://pinshape.com/items/31209-3d-printed-spacedice-variation-6-gears
• https://pinshape.com/items/31197-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-1-prototype
• https://pinshape.com/items/31198-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-2-space-body
• https://pinshape.com/items/31199-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-3-space-plus
• https://pinshape.com/items/31201-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-4-diamond-joe
• https://pinshape.com/items/31202-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-5-corners
• https://pinshape.com/items/31203-3d-printed-earthdice-variation-6-gears

Giving it away

I want to talk for a second about giving it away. I've come out in the past unapologetically insisting that 3D models should cost money. I still feel that way. However, there's also the side of things where I really just want people to have and use these things. There's enough cost associated with running a 3D printer, in terms of time and to a lesser extend material, that when there's also a cost of the model that people tend to count things up, and the final tally usually comes to "not worth it". I understand that. 

It's one thing when you can download a model for free and leave it sit in my downloads directory until I'm ready to use it or not. I think we all do that. but when I have to put forth actual money, to commit to printing that model, and then I see that bursting downloads directory, that causes me to go "well, maybe I'll hold off until I print a few more of these". Yeah, I get it. If it's in their downloads directory, maybe eventually it will be printed. It would be great if you could pay after printing, but that also just never happens.

Amanda F'n Palmer gave a great Ted talk about how she's had success giving away her work, and I'd like to be like that too.  But I don't have the active audience that she does surrounding her, ready to descend and shoot a music video on a whim. Yet.

This led me to do 3 things:

First, if you're on my pateron you can expect to receive these files right now.

Second, I when I have a series like this I'll give away the best of the series. I figure if I give away less than the best people won't even look at the rest, so I'll be giving away my favorites. Maybe this is just good business, but I don't know anything about that.

Third, if you still want a file I'm selling, all you have to do is ask. I'd love if you'd share the file on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever, but even if you don't, and you contact me and make that personal connection, then I'll hook you up, with rare exception.

I still just want people to enjoy the work I do. Well, not "just". I also want my work to be recognized as worth something and I'd like to be successful if possible. But at this point it feels like I'm putting a price on them out of principal. I don't think I'm going to pay the bills with 3D models, at least not any time soon. So for now if you want them l, and you let me know you want them, I'll get them to you. Contact form is in the side bar.

Looking forward to connecting with you.

The surprising necessity of a fan when 3D printing

Left, no fan, right, light fan.

This may come as a shock to you, but there was a time where a downward blowing fan was not standard equipment on most 3D printers. The 3D printing technology at the time, developed by the likes of 3D Systems and Stratasys, never needed one. They were printing ABS in enclosures. And so the reprap based printers, starting from that known system, used ABS and it was known that even a light breeze could destroy an ABS print due to shrinkage. It wasn't until later that the idea of other materials that could benefit from a cooling fan started to be developed.

Even support removal is improved

While printing the models that I modeled in the last video, the print I started in the video had to be canceled because the material I was using needed to be printed at a much higher temperature, I assumed because it had been mislabeled ABS. But after printing it there were still a lot of problems that I started cleaning up. Then it struck me, maybe this wasn't ABS. Maybe it was a high temp PLA (I bought it at a clearance sale, so I can't really be sure all the time). So experimentally I set up my jankey cooling system (because my printer didn't come with one by default).

The different was dramatic. One day I'm gonna get the scratch together to upgrade this old rig, but until then, if you ever wonder why your 3D printer has a cooling fan, this is why:

While every part of the print is greatly improved, even the finish, the effect on the stem is probably the easiest to see in these pictures. It's dramatically amazing.

Lessons from my 3DBlockZoo livestream

https://www.youtube.com/watch/LJVCFGhxYpg

Despite the challenges last time I still really want to do live streaming. My older videos were made using a similar technique of grabbing the screen and overlaying video in one take, and that was on the same computer, so maybe my aging computer isn't the problem. So I decided to apply the scientific method, change one variable at a time and see what happens.

First new attempt I tried using Tinkercad, thinking that maybe my only problem was doing high powered modeling in Blender was the problem, and result was not good. That attempt has been deleted.

Then I decided to remove streaming from the equation and just do a local recording like I used to. That lasted about 6 minutes until it was in full on slideshow mode. The audio is fine so it's more of a podcast with a slideshow on it. I still have that video but I don't know what to do with it. It was fun and full of discovery and excitement. If you just listen it's pretty good, but it quickly becomes hard to watch.

Then I realized I had upgraded by streaming software, OBS, some time back and that was when the problems started showing up, so I decided to roll back to the old software and the result is before you. The audio has a strange echo, it eventually devolves into a slide show, too.

But, hey, the 3DBlockZoo gets a sheep and cow (with Japanese islands for spots) out of the deal.

I hope that switching back to the old OBS software will fix the recording problems at least so I can go back to recording video on my computer because I have a video coming next week that kinda needs that. But I'm convinced I need a hardware upgrade before I can stream regularly. It's weird because it works on Skype or Zoom, but OBS can't handle it. I won't give up on this.

My editor is a little behind on the 3D Printing 101 posts, but a new one will be coming out next week and the write up will be coming after that.

3D Printing 101 - Forward

I've decided it's time to put aside all other things and focus my energies on a big new project: 3D Printing 101. The ultimate goal of this project is a series of very small books, sold cheap, that will be the defacto standard for 3D printing education. Here's how it goes: Starting with an outline I'll record a video. Then I'll take that video and write, here on my blog, a fleshed out chapter with some real editing and proofing. Then when all the chapters for the first book are done I'll compile, format, and publish. I hope the community will support me on this and that it's not already coming too late.

I know it's bad form to publicize details about my personal life in a forum like this. Suffice it to say my life recently got... we'll say "weird". I'm honestly hoping that this project will be an answer to some of those problems. I want to be the 3D Printing Professor full time and income like this is, to me, one facet of that. I'm taking a chance that the community will support me. Am I worthy of that? I'm gonna try my best to be. I'm falling here, and I hope you all will catch me.

But I'm also hoping this will solve other people's problems and answer the questions about 3D printing in an organized fashion that can be adopted by others. Because what I really want is for others to love solving problems with 3D printing the way I do. This will really solve the problems of the future and even though the present isn't perfect (and the future won't be either) it's all we got, so let's make it the best we got.

What about variable width?

I had been printing lithophane maker coins... note to self, make a post about my new maker coins. Anyways, I was making lithophanes, the best settings for which are 1 shell, 100% infill, 0 top layers (since the infill covers that). Then when I switched to another print, a quarter top of a cylinder, and I changed the infill back to 20%... but forgot the shells and top layers settings, and this is the result.

The weird thing is the sides are just fine. Perfect in fact.

I recently saw a video about audodesk's varislice. When I saw the video I was like, I never print something so perfectly angled in heights. And then I print this thing. Ah well. The thing is, I don't mind variable height, in fact I love the idea of saving time by doing thicker layers where you can. But what about variable width? A lot of time number of shells is treated as a constant, as well it should be. Fewer shells is a theoretically weaker part, more shells is a theoretically stronger part. Theoretically. Someone should test this. Anyways, what if the goal was speed and minimizing material usage then layer height isn't the only consideration. Top layers generally handles this, but increasing the number of shells in the area could do it, possibly better.

I think this really illustrates that we aren't done advancing slicers at all and there's still a lot to be excited by.

My response to the Ultimaker 3

2 videos in one week, am I crazy? Well, maybe, but the tests were inconclusive. Mostly I'm behind, I want to make sure I'm getting these reviews out in a timely manner, and so if I want to comment on topical matters I'm gonna have to do 2 videos. It's a lot of work for me, but I hope it'll be worth it for you.

When the Ultimaker 3 launched I took to twitter to announce:

...and I still stick by my original statement. For all their hype this is functionally nothing I haven't already had for coming up on 4 years now. But what's exciting about this new printer is that it's solid. It's not by accident that I decided to talk about this while repairing my Rep1, and to be clear my Rep1 will never die, but that's mostly because it will forever be cheaper to fix the one or two things that break on it than buy a better machine and replace it. Will there ever come a time where the human cost, my time to fix it, will culminate in my saying "screw it, I need something better"? Only time will tell. And when that happens I may decide it's time to get one of those new-fangled 3D printers that need less attention. I'm just grateful that there's finally one on the market that looks good enough to fit that bill.

Of course this is all based on reputation.

The Makerbot Gen5 looked good, but something about it smelled funny. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time, but eventually it became apparent that the 5th Gen machines weren't all they were being sold as. The Ultimaker 3 has none of that smell. Even their Print Cores, suspiciously similar to the doomed Gen5 Smart Extruder, don't seem like that bad an idea. Sure, they tie together 3 technologies in 1 package, but they're open and they look like something that you could replace the components on. How will that work with the sensor on them that tell Cura to adjust the nozzle diameter? Don't know. It wouldn't surprise me to find out Ultimaker made them hackable.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic and cutting Ultimaker more slack than they deserve. But this is a $2500 machine, which at this point in 3D printing's maturity you'd expect to buy a machine that just works. And Ultimaker has built a good reputation. So I'm willing to be a bit optimistic here and give them the benefit of the doubt. I won't be buying one right now, but if you were to I wouldn't think less of you.

Workbench 2.0 is in progress

I'm finally moved into our new house, and I'm setting up the workbench. Well, more of a nerd cave. Well, less of a cave and more of an office. But the plan is to make this a recording mecca so I can crank out the videos. I'm also experimenting with some new software to one-take some high quality videos. That's the hope. And that way I can produce a weekly video more reliably, and maybe even more than one a week.

The printer is functional and it's already cranking out the models. The first thing I printed? A peg for the shelves in the new kitchen. Yup, pragmatic. It's always difficult to find shelf pegs the right size, so 3D printing is a good solution, but these ones I beefed up to make up for the fact that they're not metal. And they worked.

Awesome. Hopefully I'll be getting back to videos this weekend. Or at least a clean enough desk to make a vlog.

This is NOT a 3D printed gun

EVERYONE PANIC! Someone tried sneaking a 3D printed gun on an airplane. But thank goodness, the TSA caught them first. Everyone with a 3D printer, you'd better watch out.

Actually, the TSA was pretty chill about the whole thing. They pick up a lot of guns, loaded and with ammo, but being 3D printed makes this note worthy enough to merit a press release.

Only problem, that's not a 3D printed gun. It looks like a gun, but it's got a number of points that kinda made me raise my eyebrow. Even the TSA press release call it a "realistic replica". They know it's fake, but there were a number of problems that are easy to spot.

For one thing, this is small and flimsy. Current successful projects to make 3D printed guns are big and clunky and often times rely on metal inserts. For instance check out the WashBear. Plastic is weaker than metal and bullets are explosions. A bullet fired from this thing might as well be set off by pounding on it with a hammer.

Secondly, how does the firing mechanism work? There doesn't look like there's room inside for a spring and I don't see a rubberband around there. There seems to be a screw holding something in place so maybe there is something there, but what? And how can that generate enough push to set off a firing pin? And how do you trigger it? Because this gun doesn't have a trigger, so do you just flick it back with your thumb and then release to shoot? That seems... less than effective.

So it's not a real gun, so that probably rules out nefarious purposes, probably. But that only raises more questions. For instance, with the live ammo, what was the goal and who was the person doing this? And who were they? All we know from the TSA is it was a male on a 5:30 flight who was wiling to leave the gun behind. This doesn't all make sense to me. I see a couple of possible scenarios:

• Some designer is trying to build a compact 3D printed gun, printed a test, and took it on a flight to show it off to someone, and when they were caught with it left it behind because it was easy to print another one on the other end.
• Someone wanted to actually pull some shenanagans and in the end would have at worst injured themselves, but most likely would have made a fool of themselves with an impotent toy.
• Someone wanted to see just how undetectable a plastic gun would be going through airport security. For this purpose I would have contacted the TSA and told them ahead of time. I might have even made a video about it.
• This is a publicity stunt by the TSA. If so it's as poorly constructed as the gun, but it already has people calling this fake "deadly" and "bad news".

I still want to know who was making this gun and why. Did they test fire it yet? How's the firing mechanism work? How is the barrel rotated? What printer was it printed on and what settings? I don't see this thing working, and yet here we are talking about it.

3D printing and board games

A New York MakerSpace is holding a game jam. It's co-presente presented by Ultimaker and MakerOS so you know there will eventually be requirements that the games have 3D printed elements in it, though other tools like laser cutters will also be available. For $30 I would hope they're able to supply everyone's needs.

I love the idea, but I see a lot of problems with this. Maybe this is just sour grapes talking because I can't attend, but I gotta ask, do you even 3D, bro? There are downsides.

The first problem I see is unless they have a bank of printers they're gonna have the devil's time producing several teams worth of games, especially if they're part intensive like Seej or Wood Wars or Shapes the game. 3D printing is slower than inexperienced people expect. Even relatively small games like Pocket Tactics require a solid day to print and several color changes to do it right.

But if the games limit the 3D printed components, like a few fancy chits or minis, or a case to hold the bits. Pocket Tactics could have a paper version done with a few standees. And that would be a good plan. But Art don't design itself, unless the thought is to reuse assets from other people's games they're going to blow their whole time in design, 2D or 3D. And if they do steal assets they're going to have to be careful and attribute. (Now I wish I had finished my 3D printed board game resource pack before now.)

But anyone who's designed a game knows that you save the art assets until you've sorted out the gameplay. Having participated in game design groups, I know a game can be developed in a day, and the art assets can be developed in a day, but it's generally not the same day. Play testing takes time.

With a focus on the finished assets it's likely these games aren't going to be good games. They may be pretty, and for success that's about all you need, I guess. But without time to develop the game play these project will eventually languish like all things that lack substance. It'll make for some pretty blog posts, which is a win for the makerspace, but a bit disingenuous for the rest of us. Maybe some of the teams will have games they've designed and tested and the jam will only be to put their hand through the polish phase. That, in my mind, would be a winner all round.

Having thought about this quite a bit I figure this is as good a place to expand on my thoughts about designing games with 3D printing. I've previously said some of this in a past video.

Most people new to game design don't realize that game design is often constrained. In fact the biggest factor to a games success is price so if you can make a fun game out of 16 cheap paper cards then you've got a hit. On the other hand big boxes with expensive components do occasionally succeed but more often than not the risk isn't worth it for most game publisher. 

This is where 3D printing can shine. Offload the production of the fancy chits and minis to the buyer and a whole world of possibilities open up. But this doesn't remove constraints, because you still have to think of the consumer. If you buy a box with the promise of a craft project before you can play it, I think there are some people who would get excited by this, but many people would say "no thanks". Conventional wisdom says the game should be playable out of the box. But conventional wisdom's been wrong before. Add to that, however, if your design relies on screws, rods, or other elements that won't be coming in the box. That's a lot of potential negative experiences people are going to have with your game because they didn't realize the incidental costs your game works incur on them. So keep the out-of-the-box components to a minimum.

In my option, the best game for 3D printing is where the 3D components matter. Pocket Tactics could be done with paper and it would play the same, in fact full color chipboard tiles with good art might actually be an improvement. But could Seej work any other way than 3D printed? No. The weight and dimensions of the components are absolutely vital The problem with this sort of game, though, is your design had skip the cheap prototype phase before you could test it. Ask me how I know.

Before modeling parts in 3D you should ask the hard questions. Could this be done another way? Weight the reasons. Be willing to accept that maybe 3D printing isn't the right answer. Maybe you can get it done faster, better, cheaper and more accessible some other way. If 3D printers become ubiquitous then, yeah, having a 3D print heavy game is good. But we're not there now, so 2D printed components can have a wider audience.

On the other hand, 3D components are really cool, so there's that. Novelty has its value. Imagine a monarchy themed game where you 3D print a small scepter to indicate who's first player in a given turn. Important to gameplay? Na. But the moment you get the scepter you know you're having fun.

In my experience a fully 3D printed game isn't feasible. Even my take on Squirrel Squabble needed a book of rules that I didn't take into account when designing the case for it. (A redesign is in my project pool.) Rules, stats cards, things with small text on them, all are better 2D printed.

In short 3D printing can be a valuable tool when designing a game but it's value needs to be weighed against other tools.

I can't wait to see what comes out of this game jam. All of this aside, if I were in a position to I'd probably attend this thing.

How not to advertise your 3D Printing school

I don't want to give this any more legitimacy than it deserves, but I feel that we need to shine a spotlight on this sort of thing and address it openly before it becomes the norm.

Watch this video, but turn off the sound, and tell me what you think they're advertising:

Obviously it's something to do with 3D printing or it wouldn't be here, but you couldn't tell that just from the visuals. Heck, redub this video and they could be advertising Olympic sized sandboxes for all we know. Visuals alone, this video would be better suited to advertise makeup or tank tops, because there's certainly plenty of that.

Everything from automobiles to snack foods have been advertised by draping sex on it. It's a cheap trick that gets the 14-32 year old male demographic without fail and without effort. But this isn't even doing that right. At least the car companies know to put a car in their ad. Did this company, obsessively interested in 3D printing, not have a single 3D print they could put in these ladies' hands? For that alone I wouldn't give this company the time of day. They also could have put them in lab coats and/or glasses. Any male fantasy at least tangentially related to the subject would have been doing it better than this.

Some would argue that targeting the male demographic in this way is actually damaging to the demographic STEM in general and 3D printing specifically needs to see more of: girls. I don't know if that's true. After all, like I said, this has been a tried and true method of advertising for decades and it hasn't damaged female presence in anything else any more than the general patriarchy has. This is probably more symptomatic than causal.

However, I can see the argument that this is going to hurt girls getting into 3D printing. After all, the message to a girl watching this is clear. 3D printing is for the boys. And if they do sign up, and they meet a boys who signed up on the basis of these painted ladies with no names what's going to be that boy's first reaction to that girl? We already know he got there because of objectification, so do you honestly think he's going to maintain a respectful demeanor? Probably not. He's probably going to do what nerds have done with girls in STEM fields since the start of time. Objectify them until they leave because they're too uncomfortable to stick around. And it's not the boys fault (well, I mean it is, they should know better), it's because they were lured in with long hair, low neck lines, and pretty smiles. Or it's because they were the type to be lured in this way, but either way the girls in this program, which we desperately need more of, are going to have a hard time because of these two sirens.

Sorry, I didn't mean to call those ladies sirens. It was just a little creative imagery. I'm sure these women are wonderful people in real life. But in the context of this video they have no names, no identity, and no personality, all of which are good if you're selling sex. However, do they have any interest in 3D printing? Maybe they're both uber-makers with a self built rep-rap, a $300 soldering iron, and a modestly powerful computer to do CAD work on with a subscription to Solidworks. They wouldn't be the first attractive girl into making. But you wouldn't know that from this video. Chances are these ladies are just hired talent with the right figures, a willingness to flaunt it, and skill in reading and emoting in an appealing way. None of which are bad things, generally. But forgive me for thinking it might not the healthiest thing for 3D printing in general.

Either way, whether this is damaging to girls or just really doing the marketing wrong, this is a prime example of what not do do. Let's hold 3D printing to a higher standard.

Busy week, big news, no video

It's not that I didn't want to make a video this week. I tried, I really did. This video was ambitious, both in topic, editing, and what's it may end up meaning. Lost a whole day editing it. Even reshot some stuff, which I never do. But the final result was... icky poo to the ears. I'm going to have to either reshoot the whole thing or figure out how I can re-record all the audio, trying to match my lips. As if this video wasn't ambitious enough already.

But, alright, the video is a bust. I'll see if I can fix it for next week.


Meanwhile, big news!

• 3D Printing Designs: Octopus Pencil Holder
• 3D Printing Designs: SD Card Holder Ring
• and 3D Printing Designs: The Sun Puzzle 

are available now on Amazon. The first two are only available on Kindle right now, only print copies of the Sun Puzzle are available, which is okay because that is, by far, the most impressive project of the 3. I love them all, but honestly the sun puzzle is the one that I'd pick if I could only pick one.

Each of these books include basic information about 3D printing and setting up and using Blender, followed by a unique project, each featuring a different aspect of Blender's 3D editing capabilities. So check them out and buy one, or all 3, today.

My Patreon has received it's first reward. It's a 3D printed Decoder Ring, similar to the kind I've made before, but with a scrambled alphabet so that only people with this ring will be able to decode messages made by it, and only if they have one themselves. And since this is an exclusive to my Patreon supporters, I guess we've got the makings of a secret society now.

Because of my current situation I haven't printed this one, so I'm kinda breaking my own rule about uploading tested prints, but I'm 100% confident it will print. And I really wanted to start putting secret messages in my videos, so I decided to go with it.

So that's it. No video, but 3 new books, and a reward to my Patreon supporters.