#2024 Annual Summary I've been 3D printing and modeling parts for many years now. And I've used all sorts of different brands and styles of printers. But printer technology improves over time, and sometimes your old printers release the magic smoke. So this year I retired "old smokey" to the parts bin, and upgraded to a BambuLab P1S (with AMS, of course). I fully expected to spend a lot of time dialing in the print settings, bed level, etc. like every other 3D printer I've used. But the P1S worked almost immediately. Everything I tried just worked, even the crazy hologram print plate! Now, I've posted quite a few customizable designs over on Thingiverse. But MakerWorld seems a bit more polished, a lot more up-to-date, and has quite a few more options than Thingiverse. So I looked around MakerWorld a bit more, and figured I should upload some of my designs and see how it goes. Maybe a few my old designs might be good, but I felt I should also make something original for MakerWorld. I'd been experimenting with silicone molds to resin cast a few of my 3D designs. But making the molds meant building a custom box each time, or using box kits that never quite fit the part I was casting. And I wanted molds for about 25 objects that were very different sizes. What if I made a 3D model that worked with the existing box kit parts, but also allowed custom sizes and options via OpenSCAD customization? And a few hours later I had a model that looked like it would work. A couple test prints and refinements gave me something that felt usable. Now I printed a full set in PLA, and started to make a mold using that... while more parts were printing in PETG. Those worked, but would all PLA and PETG work with silicone resin, or just the Bambu Lab filaments I started with? Hmm, I don't need to print a full set to test material compatibility, just a few parts should do -- as long as they all end up touching the silicone. Alright, I print a partial set in different brands of PLA and PETG. And what about different brands of silicone? Well, I had 2 popular brands of silicone on hand... so once I had sample parts from different filaments, I tried both silicones with frankenstein mold parts to see if they worked. Fortunately, they worked -- because cleaning up uncured resin is a mess you won't forget. Alright, the initial design takes 7.2 hours and 250g of filament to print -- how can I make it print faster and use less material? Leave off some of the troublesome parts that need supports, reduce the thickness to a minimum, change the print options to larger layers, reorient the parts for faster printing, etc. That still took a few rounds of prototyping, but wasn't too bad -- and the end result printed in about half the time versus the original design (3.8 hours, 132g)! I had to retest all the original parts to make sure I hadn't messed them up when modifying the cad file, and make sure all the options worked reasonably - but that didn't take too long. All that was left was photographing the parts, writing a little bit about them, and uploading everything... plus learning about a few glitches in MakerWorld uploading (fixed now), deciding I needed more pictures, etc. Overall, the MakerWorld site learning curve wasn't too bad. So that is how I put together my first MakerWorld design: https://makerworld.com/en/models/733776#profileId-665530 . It didn't get much love immediately, but some people liked it, it got a couple boosts, and the number of prints keeps growing. That's ok. It isn't like I'm posting "Kawaii Flexi Froggy" or "Latest Pop Band Keychain". I focus a lot more on functional/useful parts -- usually something that I need, or that someone I know needs. My designs are getting likes, boosts, points, and some useful feedback -- and that means that the people downloading my designs are finding them useful. Helping other people, even when you can't see them and don't know them, feels good. Knowing that you've helped other people make their own creative projects better, faster, more conveniently, etc. because of your designs... feels even better. And most importantly, I have a printer that helps me produce these designs faster and a lot more reliably than I could before. MakerWorld's "Annual Report" summary tells me that I've printed for 120 hours and 30 models this year. I guess that's just counting downloaded designs - because I've printed too many 12 hour designs and WAY more prototype models for that to be accurate. Ok, yeah, the printer says I've printed 700 hours - that sounds like a bit much, but might be closer to reality. The 5+ Kg in my waste PLA box agrees (there's another Kilogram or so in the PETG waste box). Yeah, I think this has been a good first year with my Bambu Lab P1S. #2024 Annual Summary

My Annual Report

I decided that my original Cut&Tilted Text sign needed more options, finesse, and color. So, after several days of code, tests, prints, jams, one unexplained bed level failure, and more overnight prints: here it is! P.S. Yeah, I printed platefuls of some of the multicolor signs to send to relatives. It's relatively faster to print 6-8 at a time, and wastes less filament overall to flushing.

The bumpers and guides on my shower door have been flaking apart for a while, but two finally fell to pieces. Sure, I could order replacement parts and hope they fit... or design something that I know will fit, and print it in something I know will absorb impact (TPU). And while I'm at it, I might as well make it customizable so other people could benefit as well. Six design iterations later, and I've replaced all 4 pieces in my shower, and they absorb shock better than the originals.