Early in December, the idea of getting a 3D printer popped into my head. Yes! I planned on buying one of those affordable machines since I was approved for my masters’ program but I delayed it due to a myriad of ups and downs and shifts in priority.
What’s more, the second lockdown and the frigid German winter made me worry about my mental health. So I used Xmas as a pretty sweet excuse to go on an impulse and just buy it.
Signal vs. Noise
After browsing the internets for awhile (more like days), looking for different models, makers and watching throughly detailed reviews on YouTube, I was convinced I was going to buy the Ender 3 V2. I Google’d a couple times and ended up on a website which claimed to be Creality’s official website but something was definitely off.
After Googling a couple more I found a second website, and then another one… At first, I thought it was just a different branch of the same website because of European/American customers but it turns out they were all from different companies and had pretty suspicious reviews. I didn’t want to but I ended up buying it on Amazon at a slightly higher price for the peace of mind knowing that if anything went wrong I’d be able to return it with not much effort.
I was tempted of getting the Ender 3 V2 because of the promise of a silent motor but while watching many videos on Youtube I guess there are so many features you can add and customize on Ender 3 models, maybe that wouldnt be a problem, plus this model wasnt available when I was searching and I felt I had already waited too much.
Well then the printer finally arrived, I also ordered a boring simple white PLA filament along with it. I had to assemble it all, good to understand all the pieces and not be too hesitant to deal with its mechanical parts.
It was all pretty simple, I still dont know if everything is perfectly levelled, sometimes I get weird prints and it seems the belt is a bit loose but I am still learning.
So the first results didnt come out perfectly, I printed the classic boat and a cute smoke for it to plug on top.
Not splendid, I am not sure if the belt was too loose or if thats just about the poor quality filament sample that comes with the printer
Next up I also ordered a wood PLA filament for prototype for another project and I was totally thrilled by the results, so smooth.
I found many cool channels that have upgrades or even nice design projects entirely for free to test. I really like this guy youtube channel called Make Anything , and printed a fidget twister to play with when I am anxious:
Project here!
So this is it. I am opening pandora’s box once again and I am already finding countless different sources, styles, and applications. I am really excited to have fun with this during corona times and make concrete some crazy ideas :).