Overview and Personal Anecdotes

Overview

Since time immemorial us wrinkly-brained humans have come up with novel ideas to put our thoughts and ideas into the physical world. This exercise is a necessary process for inventing new things, _{that invent new things, that invent new things...} Noticing the complexity of the machines of today, it's remarkable that we sit on top of the shoulders of... cave painting... troglodytes.

Well, existential thoughts aside, the hot new thing nowadays for inventors and creative types alike is 3D printing. Never before could 'makers' bring their three-dimensional ideas to life in such an expedient pace.

Interesting Ideas

Issues and Possible Solutions

While FDM and SLA printing have recently become basically mainstream processes, I believe there are some issues with the user experience and environmental challenges.

In my own experience, it used to be the case that 3D printers were very finicky things, requiring an inordinate amount of attention to troubleshoot and use. I would say to people in my high school engineering class that it took just as long to finish a print as it did to fix and maintain a printer! Everything from how level and adherent your bed was to the wires that ran the stepper motors inside a printer proved to be a point of failure whenever it came to using a machine. Early 3D printers were at best unfinished products and at worst broken prototypes. I will say, they were very charming...