My 3D Printing Journey

[Kyle]

I got a 3D printer for my birthday! It's an entry-level plastic filament printer: the Ender 3 Pro. I'm guessing it was $200-$250, plus a giant box of ten different colored spools of filament. I'd heard that it was a nightmare to get these things assembled, but we followed the directions carefully and got it together in two hours.

Our first two prints were terrible. Something was wrong and the printer wasn't lifting for the Z-axis and just creating flat messes. I watched a youtube video this morning that told me to make some easy tensioner adjustments and... VOILA! It works!

Here's my first successful print, a Calibration Cube:



It's uniform and the lines are all clean and crisp! Awesome!

For my next print, my oldest said he needs a three sided die for his sorceror's cantrip spells that only do 1d3 damage. So I found a model for a 12 sided die that only has 1s, 2s and 3s on it:



What the what?!? This thing turned out great!

More exciting prints to come!

[Kyle]

So the great thing about 3D printing is that it takes very little work. I pick a model, set it to print and walk away for an hour.

Here's a miniature I tried printing. I understand that a plastic filament printer isn't made to do the fine details of miniatures, but I'm impressed with this, even though it was a disaster. The problem was that I had "overhangs"- which are elements of the print that hang down and don't have a support from underneath to build up from. So the "sword" (which is the mess of filaments from the right hand) and the shield (the stuff in the left hand) were wrecked. However, I'm extremely impressed with the rest of the detail. So it's a matter of picking the right models (none that have overhangs without supports) for my printer.

[Kyle]

Another test print. 2023 is the year of the rabbit, so I printed this to see how it would do. It did great! I'm so impressed with the level of detail!



Next up, a Tiki Mug!

[Tahlvin]

I'd be broke if I got a 3D printer from getting plans and printing terrain:

https://www.printablescenery.com/

[Kyle]

Fair enough, but my printer isn't advanced enough for most of that. I think that I'm going to screw around with this for a year or so, and if I'm still into it, then I'll move up to a resin printer- which I understand can do really fine detail.

[Kyle]

My cup runneth over! Holy crow! Check out this Tiki Cup!



Okay, so I'm going to set it up to print before leaving for work and I'm actually putting a couple projects on the bed for it to work on simultaneously. It's saying it'll be about an eight hour print job, so hopefully I'll have results by the time I get back from the office.

[Phoebe]

Wow, the surface texture and detail is so much nicer than expected!

[Kyle]

So many more prints I need to show you! Here's some random stuff I experimented with:

A d20 coaster:



A butterfly "knife" comb (It doesn't actually hinge, it's a static print):



A dice cup and some dice:



A sexy dachshund:



And then I discovered how to add supports to my models, which are scaffold like support structures that are removed after printing is over, but allows you to print hangovers and parts of the design that hang down. My first experiment was this baby dino, which is rough looking, but that's because I kept him small to see if the experiment would work (and the smaller you make models the more detail you lose). But it worked:



So then I moved on to a D&D triceratops mount, and this thing turned out great:

[Kyle]

So now I know I can do miniatures, so I decided to get more daring. Just a note before I go on, you'll notice on a lot of these "fine detail" ones, there's a lot of extra stringy bits. I bought a small file kit that will be here tomorrow to finish these pieces with and sand down all the rough edges. So just ignore that stuff for now, it will get fixed.

First up is a one-handed Ettin that I found on a website and decided to try out. I stupidly didn't level out my bed and take all my initial "pre-flight" steps before printing him, so I ran into a problem. He's supposed to have two hands, and the other hand printed, but in the middle of it, the support tree collapsed and it didn't connect, but the rest of it printed fine. In fact, if I had my files, I could have sanded it smooth and superglued it and it would have looked fine, but by the time it was done, I actually thought the one-handed Ettin looked pretty cool:

[Kyle]

Fresh off my success with the Ettin, I took it to another level. I went to Heroforge and designed a Hobgoblin insurance salesman. for $7.99 they'll give you the 3D model to print on your own printer. I wanted my insurance salesman to look dapper and wealthy, as it's his job to assure players that his firm will pay out if they get killed and need a resurrection. His name is Reginald "Reggie" Terrorblade with the firm of Malicespike, Malicespike & Terrorblade (Yes, he's a full partner). He's holding a cigar in his hand, which will be more obvious when he's sanded and cleaned up.:

[Phoebe]

The Ettin is holding his weapon in his right hand because in battle somehow he lost the other hand. I don't know it's a he but I'm just assuming.
It's amazing what you can do with this tool. I would love to combine something like this with textiles as well - like you make the frame for the coaster and then you attach it to a crocheted cotton underneath that can take in the moisture or heat. Or you make a miniature and then you dress it with a little garment!

[Kyle]

Yeah, after I printed the coaster, I realized it's pretty bad at being a coaster. If I put steaming hot coffee on it, it can warp. But if I put an ice cold tea on it, the condensation will still get to the table. But it looks cool!

In other news, my wife requested a measuring cube, so I made one! This one measures from a quarter teaspoon up to 1.5 tablespoons:





I'm also going to print one that measures cups, but that's a much longer print and has to wait until after some other projects are finished.

[Kyle]

My 3D printer was down for a few weeks for the dumbest reason. I forgot I had a fan pointed at it in the low position, but the fan made no sound, so when I printed anything the filament immediately hardened when coming out of the nozzle and was a giant mess. I couldn't figure it out until my son said, "Hey, this fan is on for a reason, right?" Duh.

Anyways... GAME ON! Here's a bong I printed for one of my kids:



And here's a Penisaurus Rex that I posted up about in another thread... SO MANY VEINS!



Some low-res shot glasses in multiple colors:



A small planter for succulents in the shape of a home from Ancient Rome:



And a bird feeder:

[Phoebe]

I really like the Roman house! Have you ever tried to make a jewelry stand? I've seen some that are like a tree where occasionally you have a branch on which I guess a necklace hangs, and then sometimes the branch has little holes in it and the earrings go there. But I would bet there's a cooler way to do this.

[Kyle]

I really like the Roman house! Have you ever tried to make a jewelry stand? I've seen some that are like a tree where occasionally you have a branch on which I guess a necklace hangs, and then sometimes the branch has little holes in it and the earrings go there. But I would bet there's a cooler way to do this.

I would, but no one in my family wears jewelry. There's a lot of cool tree designs, though.

[Kyle]

A recorder that makes whistling sounds, but doesn't really play like a recorder. But it looks great!



And Darth Buddha:

[Kyle]

I've been lax! More printings! Here's an example of dungeon walls I've printed- I've done lots of these. They fit perfectly to the squares on a map for Pathfinder.

[Kyle]

More planters that look like Roman houses for my wife:

[Kyle]

A Yoda fig on a cog base:

[Kyle]

A Key Hook next to my front door:

[Kyle]

This was so cool. An actual model taken from an actual mask done of Abe Lincoln (when he was alive- it's not a death mask) that I got from the Smithsonian website. I had to shrink it to half size to fit on my printer.

[Kyle]

Shroktupus! (The tentacles are articulated and move freely.)

[Kyle]

Skeletons for my Pathfinder campaign:

[Kyle]

Tiny penis babies that we gave out as prizes on the last day of teen homeschool sex ed class:

[Kyle]

A Shrek bong for one of my adult kids:

[Kyle]

A bust of Lionel Messi for a friend to put on the dashboard of his truck (he drives 18-wheelers):

[Kyle]

A low poly hand. This one is a disappointment because it's supposed to stand up on its base and hold your phone for you on your desk. But it's not weighted correctly and doesn't stand up. So it's just a cool low poly hand now:

[Kyle]

An Our Lady Cthulhu icon:

[Kyle]

An Avengers HQ dice tower I printed for a friend:

[Kyle]

And here's a set of descending stairs to use on my Pathfinder maps:

[Kyle]

Wowza- my best stuff yet. First of all-- a ring for your middle finger:

[Kyle]

A full-sized Dr. Doom mask- it fits my 14 and 16 year olds perfectly:

[Kyle]

And finally... I mean... I don't know what to say... this even tops Lincoln's real life face... A giant skull dice tower! The dice go in the eye holes and land in the bottom jaw!