There are two types of people: those who print in two dimensions and people who are not lame. Wait! Don’t leave… I know that chances are you belong to the first category, but all hope is not lost for you yet. Let me teach you the ways of 3d printing.
3d printing is amazing, mesmerizing and a pain in the backside. I 3d printed a couple of things for Pi Wars including the base and top of the tree in the Nature’s Bounty challenge (Shoutout to Brian Starkey for providing everyone his files). We ended up using those parts only temporarily for our lower quality cardboard tree that we practiced and prototyped with. The cardboard tree was replaced with a plywood tree that was significantly thicker than Starkey’s intended 3mm so we couldn’t re-use those parts, and while I could have modified the STLs and re-printed, the focus at the time was on programming and getting solid runs recorded so we went with what we had.
On the less practical but honestly more fun side of 3d printing are little trinkets, toys and doo-dahs. We wanted some decorative 3d printed items (because like I alluded to, 3d printing is heckin’ cool). We decided on a cool wolf, and I went to print it but here we encounter a lesson in why… perhaps... just maybe sometimes 3d printing is NOT the best. I set the wolf to print and stared at the first three layers of the print as is the customary ritual in the cult of hobbyist printing. All seemed well… but when I came back 4 hours later wolfy had been dismembered! His hind legs had failed to print properly and only his front legs and torso remained :( . Luckily the STEV3 team is very inclusive and Wolfy was soon accepted into the team regardless of his injuries after I had applied some electrical tape bandages :)
Wolfy being welcomed by the other wolves^^
I have also created a 3d model of Doofus the Pi Wars robot. I have not gotten around to printing some for the team because of exams but I did in a wave of revision procrastination make a funny gif:
Basically, 3d printing is the absolute best until its well, not. And when compared to the quality of the alternatives such as my hands the results are undeniable. So, if like me your only other alternative for easy creation of 3d items (and doo-dahs) is play-doh then 3d printing is DEFINITELY for you.
If this sounds like an infomercial it’s because it IS an infomercial. GO BUY STEV3 3D PRINTER TODAY FOR LIMITED TIME ONLY 50% off! BUY IT HERE TODAY FOR ONLY THREE ETHEREUM!!
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