To create custom parts or prototypes for projects.
As a hobby to explore and learn new technology.
To make unique and personalized gifts.
For creative purposes such as game playing pieces, tabletop miniatures, models, cosplay material, and lithophanes, etc.
For educational purposes and STEM learning.
To start a small business or side hustle.
To replace broken or lost items.
0voters
Of course as with any poll on a forum, your opinion is welcome and discussion is encouraged. The category of “other” was deliberately omitted because it tends to skew the poll numbers. These categories were an amalgamation from Printables and Thingiverse categories processed with the help of ChatGPT to limit redundancy. If you would have actually voted other, include that in your discussion reply.
This was a year ago.
To print accessories and help display my hobbies. Unfortunately I’m very behind as this now has 12 more legos from the past year and about 50 more figures, Rex’s helmet, 3D printed clone helmet.
Was the first movie I ever saw (episode 4, or just Star Wars) in a theater a long time ago…
My father died shortly after seeing it, and we had gone together. I grew up with few toys, so when I hit adulthood and could, I did. Those pics aren’t really the half of it. I have a wonderful wife who let’s me be a kid.
I started 3D printing to make cases for the electronics hobby I had started.
Unfortunately, my health took a nose-dive and I could not hold many of the electronics anymore and worse.
I gave up for a couple of years and my health declined further.
Just before Christmas, BL launched the A1 mini and I thought I would see if I could use it. It was pitched as even easier than the printer I had before (Creality CR6-SE) and loved.
When I received it, I had buyer’s remorse, the build-plate was far smaller than I was used to. The first thing I printed was a Benchy from the SD card and I immediately forgot about the build-plate size. I had an AMS lite as well, this thing was perfect.
This thing looked like a sugar-filled child running around the room. It was fast, unlike the child, it was well-behaved and perfect.
I then bought an A1, also with an AMS lite, and later, partly due to the recall, a P1S with two AMS units.
My health has continued to get worse, it will not get better.
Spending this time using a 3D printer and giving back what I can in the form of help here (plus a few rants) and the models I have shared is my way of trying to make the most of the remaining time I have left plus, say thanks to BL for giving me something to do other than lay in bed all day that my illness forces me to do.
A few years before i retired (2017) I took up electronics. All the way back to the tube driven equipment. I bought broken test equipment and fixed them as i was learning the basics. Then started restoring radios and such. All the way up to todays tv at the component level.
Then after retirement i picked up 3D printing because to me it was the “IN” thing. I started with a CR10S, next was MK3S+, now with a XICC. Just at a year on a QIDI_X-MAX3.
I use Fusion for CAD. Which I didn`t know anything about at the time.
I generally make parts for me, family and friends. I never charge for anything i make.
You have to keep new things in your mind to keep it ticking at full strength.
I’m glad that 3D printing is giving you a lot of satisfaction, I’ve always seen you as an active user here on the forum and as a 3D designer, I have a lot of respect for people like you.
I’m sorry to read that you’re not well, I wish you all the best!
I don’t even know what I voted for. Sorry. On a tablet and a stray touch voted for me. My actual answer is all of the choices but starting a business/side hustle. But everything else has been what I actually do.
This has been the first hobby in a very long time that has taken on a room and a good portion of my spare time. I’ve got a wife who spends copious amounts on an array of hobbies and I’ve always tinkered with odd stuff and never fully committed to diving down the rabbit hole. It’s creality that got me hooked (explains the tik), I remember looking with interest at the display machine in the electronics store and the strange little models they’d be printing, but never put the money down on one until it was on “special” flashed in an amazon flyer. The rest is history.
I must confess to competing with my wifes hobby budget these days, even with a good filament supplier handy.
I am retired and needed something creative to occupy myself - I bought an Elegoo Neptune 4 which does good prints but is quite difficult to set up and keep working. I decided to get an A1 Mini after hearing good reviews about it - it turned out to be so easy to use and produces quality models quickly - I like larger models and found I could make them 240mm and taller on the A1 Mini despite having a max Z height of 180mm. Simply cutting and scaling in Bambu Studio to get the required height.
I have been concentrating on Game and TV characters and have made quite a few. Just need to learn how to paint them now. The pic shows The Mandalorian, Master Chief and Arbiter - tallest of which is Arbiter at 302mm - great enjoyment and a way to learn and develop new skills. Thanks to Galactic Armory for the Halo themed miniatures which scale up very nicely
i initially did it to showcase my 3D models, because the people I live with don’t acknowledge anything I do unless I have a physical item to show them. Then I started using it to make additions to my cosplay and LARP crafts, and when a relative asked me to make them an articulated dragon toy I started getting into prototyping action figures.
So I do anything that’s fun or interesting, really. My family wants me to run a 3D printing business, but I don’t know…
If you are handy with troubleshooting prints it may be less rocky but as a business you’ll get all sorts of things to print that may be poorly designed or have difficult to print features that can eat your time and your printer time. Many make it work though.
If you look through here at the myriad issues people have to work through, just image doing it with a customer upset because they have a deadline or a print isn’t their idea of perfect. But people do make livings doing it. Just saying since you don’t seem too enthusiastic…
To replace broken or lost items. 50% I’ve extended the life of many items by making otherwise unavailable parts, this year alone keeping probably $500 worth of stuff out of the landfill.
To create custom parts or prototypes for projects. 40% Mostly items for the woodshop, house, or my wife’s quilting shop.
As a hobby to explore and learn new technology. 5% Designing with Fusion provides mental exercise.
For educational purposes and STEM learning. 5% projects with home-schooled grandkids.
To make unique and personalized gifts. 0%
For creative purposes such as game playing pieces, tabletop miniatures, models, cosplay material, and lithophanes, etc. 0% Rule #1: No non-functional dust collectors.
To start a small business or side hustle. 0% Fastest way to take the pleasure out of an interest.
I can vouch for that because for years before I had my own printer, I was one of those customers who believed that if I can view it on my screen, you should be able to print it, right?
A couple of months ago I went back and pulled some of my older STL files from as little as three years ago and surprised myself as to just how naïve I was in my online print orders. No wonder I needed to have them printed multiple times.
Let’s be candid. Dealing with the public is PIA, especially when you have to deal with nontechnical people. The worst have to be business owners who are wealthy and they believe that nothing is impossible, just write a bigger check. Then you have to explain to them that the laws of physics are very egalitarian, they treat us all equally regardless of bank account. Rich people don’t like to hear that. Just ask Elon Musk.
Seriously doubt Musk was, is, or ever will be capable to understand anything or anyone who’s solid and irrefutable argumentation contradicts him in any manner, shape or form.
