In the past few years, it has felt like there’s been a lot of big changes in the hobbyist 3d printing industry. It has exploded in growth, and the ease with witch new machines can be approached has caused a ballooning consumer segment. It feels like an awesome time to be alive!
How was it when you got started??
It was 2015 for me. Everyone I talked to about it tried to talk me out of it, talking like it was a waste of time and just a gimmick. Things were rough, but starting to take their first steps past hobbled together machines into more refined products. I almost purchased a Makerbot Replicator 5th gen, but fortunately for me I somehow dodged that bullet and found myself with a Robo3D R1+. The darn thing even came incorrectly assembled, and without knowing what I was doing, I somehow managed to get the thing shoved back together right and running. The first 3d print I did was a little shark clip thing.
I don’t know what was going on with Creality at the time. I don’t think the Ender 3 came out until later, and I don’t recall seeing their name much then. Most of the names I saw are long gone by now. Most of the pre-assembled printers were expensive and kits were ripe on aliexpress. I had purchased several kits from aliexpress and assembled them. Back in the days when modding was a required part of the hobby. The kits weren’t so much kits, but a trash can of parts that if you were clever enough, could actually assemble into a working 3d printer.
The one kit I remember the most is my Sunhokey i3 Clone. When I first got my printers, part cooling fans weren’t much of a thing yet, but it had become more so within the year. I added auto level and a part cooling fan to that sunhokey, and got it running where it ran as reliably as my X1! Haha, maybe not to the same quality, but still. I eventually took it a part and used the electronics to build a CoreXY style printer based off the Hypercube. (I recall seeing somewhere once ask if the Hypercube was a open source clone of the X1…)
I miss the delta printers I had. I had eventually sold them, and it’s something I regret. There was a lot of fun and interesting things during those days that slowly made way to the more boring standard experience we have now. When I had my delta printers, I just wasn’t experienced enough, I think, to really understand how to get them working well. There isn’t the flood of kits on aliexpress like their use to be too, so I can’t so easily find myself a kit to build anymore, haha.
I remember days trying to get all of my printers running at the same time. At most I had 4, but I couldn’t get them all to work correctly at the same time. There was always a problem, and as soon as I fixed the problem on one machine, something broke on another.
The 3d printing community on YouTube was bare-bones then too, I remember. Guys like 3d printing nerd and Tom’s were still tiny. Tom in particular, because he had just made the jump from forums to making videos. It was one of his videos on doing some electronics where I first discovered him.
The first rolls of filament I got were Matterhacker’s filament. I remember the blue in particular. It was like a navy blue and had such a nice look to it. I associated plastic with a cheap look, so was just surprised at how nice it looked.
I miss those days, but I’m glad to be past them too, haha. It is really fun to be in the thick of it, in such a huge community driven venture, and nothing felt so out of reach. Put a little elbow grease in and you could be up and running too! Now days though I love to just throw myself into design work and to be able to turn and and throw those models at the printer without so much worry. I still kind of want to put together a kit again; not because I have to, but because I want to.
Tell me your story too!
