🧵 3D Printing

I was 8 when I first saw a 3D printer in the wild — some kit-built Anet A8 at a science fair, wobbling its way through a low-res Benchy. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Still kind of want one for the nostalgia, but let’s be honest: I value not starting fires. 🔥

Back then, 3D printing felt distant. Niche. Expensive. Something that existed in makerspaces, not on my desk. That changed in 2022.

🧃 It All Started With a Rescue

My intermediate school was getting rid of a Da Vinci 1.0A — locked-down firmware, proprietary cartridges, and the print quality of a hot glue gun held by a mouse. It had literally been thrown in the bin.

Naturally, I pulled it out.

With a bit of grease, cleaning, and sheer stubbornness, I got it printing again. It was still clunky, but it worked. Then I did something slightly unhinged: I rewrote the firmware. Piecing together bits of Marlin and Repetier, I built something usable — unlocking open filament, improving motion, and learning more than I expected.

Cue the lunchtime debugging sessions, 80s music blasting in the background — Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, REO Speedwagon — and her roasting me relentlessly for my taste in music. She got a few songs stuck in my head too. It was a good rhythm: code, print, repeat.

Once the Da Vinci was fully unlocked, it felt like mine. Imperfect, but honest. Anyways that’s a bit of backstory for you.

🧪 Printer Timeline

• 🧼 Da Vinci 1.0A – The junkyard special. Heavy, stubborn, and responsible for my entire printing foundation.
• 🛠️ Tiertime Cetus – My next machine, picked up broken from a makerspace contact. Needed tuning and patience, but I got it dialled.
• 💀 Ender 3 V3-SE – My first “real” purchase. Decent prints when (read: if) it worked, but too many headaches. I sold it after less than a year for $150 — which, fun fact, exactly covered…
• 💨 The Filament Dryer – $160 well spent. Once I got into PETG, silks, and more humidity-sensitive filaments, dry filament made all the difference.
• 🧡 Prusa i3 Mk3S+ – Bought used, bathed in isopropyl, and never looked back. It’s my reliable workhorse, and I’m never letting it go.

🔧 What I Actually Print

This isn’t a Benchy-farm. I mostly print things that tie into the rest of my hobby life — ham radio, tools, and little fixes that make my setup more mine.

Highlights:

• 🔩 I build K6ARK-style mechanical Morse keys, designed by someone else, but printed and assembled by me. They’re compact, clean, and feel great to use.
• 🧲 I also designed my own iambic Morse paddles in Fusion 360 — that one is printed, and it’s been through more revisions than I care to admit.

Add in things like spool holders, jigs, alignment tools, project enclosures… and it’s just become a normal part of how I build anything now.

💭 Why It Matters

3D printing taught me to tinker without fear. To experiment. To troubleshoot instead of toss. It’s the bridge between my ideas and the real world — and most of the time, the failures are just as interesting as the successes.

It started with a bin-dive and a dream. Now it’s just how I work.