Of all the tech fads/hype/coolness over the past decade, I have previously avoided getting into two of them: crypto (including NFTs) and 3D printing.
I don't ever see myself getting into crypto, so 3D printing was the only remaining one. I'd held off for a while because of three main reasons:
- Needing something actually practical to print.
- Affordability.
- Ease of use for a time-poor middle-aged professional with kids.
The last thing was definitely a big one. Gone are the days when I could spend a lot of spare time on a hobby (see the recent frequency of posts on this as an example 😅).
So, it was only last year that the Bambu Lab A1 mini caught my eye. It's small, super easy to use, and so darn cheap at under $300 at the time.
It's been fun printing stuff. I've done lots of fidget stuff (like the cool rocket in the video above), but some of the more practical things include:
- 100% self-designed spacers for a toilet cistern lid that kept inching back to the wall.
- Cool coasters for my desk that don't stick to the glass when it's wet.
- Stackable mini crate containers to store batteries
- An amazing 'Connect 4'-style game that self sorts the pieces
- A more stable horizontal stand for the PS5
The other big group of stuff that people tend to print ... is stuff for 3D printing 😆.
There's been a bit of controversy around Bambu Lab sorta 'locking down' their printers to only print through their cloud service, but because I don't do a lot of printing, it doesn't really concern me that much (and they thankfully now offer an alternative 'developer mode' to get around that).
Tangentially, one thing that does annoy me is that a 1KG spool of printer filament only costs ~AUD$30, whereas paper ink refills are still priced like unicorn blood. I can literally print physical objects for much cheaper than it costs just to put some ink on paper? 🤷♂️