I've been having way too much fun with my 3D printer. This was something that I've wanted to get for a while, but couldn't quite justify until recently. I purchased a Monoprice Maker Select Mini V2, mainly because of the price and the ease of getting started. I literally pulled it out of the box, and started printing right away. I started out with this dice tower:
This whole print was done in 10 parts, and took about 65 hours to print. That is, 65 hours of printing time that I don't make mistakes in the build. I had to redo more than a few sections!
But that said, I've learned quite a bit about 3D printing, and I'm making lots of cool stuff to go with the Keyforge decks I recently picked up. If you haven't read my review of Keyforge, you can do so here. One of the first things I found that really caught my attention was a deckbox that uses a top loader as a lid! So I printed it out only to realize something very important:
It's a very good idea to have extra layers on the backside! I wound up fixing that, added a thicker layer to the backside. It worked, quite nicely I might add! There were some problems with the first version that I noticed, and so I added a hole to the back of the deckbox to make it easier to remove stuck cards.
It's amazing what you learn when you start out doing funky things for the sake of doing funky things! There's a lot of trial and error that goes into 3D Printing, especially when you're sussing out how things are supposed to work.
I've made more than a few mistakes along the way. This one was recent, too! I failed to orient the print the right way when I sliced the model.
Oops! Flipping the model 180° will thankfully fix the problem. It's just a bit of wasted filament, which isn't that big of a deal. It's one of many learning experiences I'm sure will continue to pop up.
I finished up a couple other Keyforge accessories recently, too!
The aember on the left is something someone else remixed a while back. I can make a boatload of those in a little under 3 hours. It's so nice to have spiffy tokens! And the key on the right is an experiment right now. I'm just printing some normal ones at the moment, and then I'm going to try printing some more using PLA that's free of dyes. The goal? Cast keys out of aluminum! Now that's going to be a fun challenge!
All in all, I've had a lot of fun with my 3D printer. It's not always successful, there's a lot of learning, but it's been fun so far. I look forward to printing tons of other awesome things! Thanks for taking the time to read! If you're not following me, please consider it. Every little bit helps, you know? And what do you think about 3D printing? Have you tried it yet? What have you made?
Disclaimer: All Amazon links (Like the printer above) are affiliate links. If you happen to buy something from Amazon, you do help me out. And it doesn't cost you a dime.
