Hello! New Here...
Hello hello! Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been wanting to get a 3D printer for a little while now but money is always tight. A close friend has the Prusa i3 MK3 (S+ maybe?) and I printed my first little thing at his house (a simple holder for an external hard drive) but after that I was hooked. Then I had him print a scale model of a piece of furniture that I build fairly often for customers, and when the print was done, I was hooked again! I made some changes to the model (to reduce supports) and made the scale model bigger and when I sent him the file he said, "how about this idea...." That's when he offered to loan me his printer for a while because he didn't have any plans to use it in the immediate future, PLUS he has his eye on the Mini anyway.
So now I've got the i3MK3-S+ at my place and have printed a couple things and can't wait to do more. I'm excited to do more modeling and printing and just plain learn. I'm a woodworker, but I'm also really interested in learning about new tech stuff and considering ways I can either incorporate it into a build, OR use it to assist me in my build.
I don't think I'll be doing anything groundbreaking but it'll seem groundbreaking to me, lol! Looking forward to sharing and learning here!
-Seth @stuffsethmakes (instagram | youtube | facebook)
RE: Hello! New Here...
woops. not sure why it posted my photo 4 times🤦🏻♂️
As a practical maker your biggest learning curve will be in material selection. Almost all your early prototypes will be in PLA but the final product is almost certain to require particular strength, resilience, toughness, wear resistance or ultraviolet resistance characteristics that will require careful selection of filament type and then, perhaps, adjusting of the number of perimeters and the type and density of fill to meet your use case. You will find that some parts will work if printed in one orientation and not another.
I occasionally design parts for boatbuilders and engineers and sometimes for furniture repairers - understanding how the part will be used and what stresses are anticipated are fundamental.
However, unlike some of the prima-donnas complaining here about microscopic imperfections on their superhero action figures and fantasy dragons you will be prepared to print fractionally oversize and machine to fit, you will also be painting and finishing many of your prints so you are very likely to be satisfied with the results of your work.
Welcome aboard.
Cheerio,