[neverevergiveup]

Just out of curiosity, what do you do with your 3D printer, and how long did it take you to become proficient using one?

[rlmorel]

Heh, I am one of those people in the course of my life who can be found wandering around the plumbing sections and nut/bolt bins of hardware stores, looking for a gasket, a bolt, a piece of pipe or other plumbing hardware that can be cut in some way to suit some purpose. Almost never successfully, but I keep trying to manufacture some knick knack or doodad to hold something in place, replace some cheap thing that broke, you get the idea.

When I decided that I wanted to try 3D printing, because nearly all the guys I work with got this cheap Chinese printer and were printing...knick knacks, doodads...wire guides, you name it, I bought one too. But I had a raft of problems with mine.

As to how long...well, I purchased it back in August 2019, and I spent way more time trying to use it and make it work than I thought I would. I just couldn't give up.

Did you ever see this now famous scene from the movie "Office Space: Printer Execution"?

Well...that is what I wanted to do with the printer. It was cheap enough, only $175, and I reached the point that said "That's it." I need to buy a real printer, one that wasn't a hobbyist printer that I had to build...one that was more dependable and could print bigger things.

Then, the day after I made my choice that, yes...it would be something I would use and it wouldn't gather cobwebs...damned if that little printer started working right. Well, my mind was made up, so I went ahead and got the new one anyway. I offered to gift my old one to my brother, but he saw that toil and went through and was frightened off by it. I have a guy at work that wants it...:)

I learned a lot about 3D printing from it (It is a Creality Ender-3). I had to buy a new display board. A new motherboard. I had to replace all the hardware on the bed because it couldn't keep a level bed. I had to break off, right out of the box new, a piece of a component because it wouldn't allow me to level it, and the folks on the internet said that was what I had to do, and it worked.

Here is a picture of my starter printer, and anyone familiar with these would recognize all the customized parts and add-ons I made for it (wire guides, filament spool holder on the left, etc.

My whole life, I have had anger issues and patience issues especially doing fine technical tasks. As a kid, I couldn't let the paint dry on models before continuing work on them, and would mess them up. I learned patience, but my wife would contest my claim that I mastered my anger issues! But if I hadn't, how could have gone hour after hour, day after day trying patiently to get it to work?