Printing An Object for the First Time

In August 2018, I joined a maker space called Inno Space run by Hong Kong Productivity Council. My first ever 3D model was printed inside a Stratasys F370 printer in the maker space. This machine was a commercial 3D printer which printed objects with FDM technology (Fused Deposition Modeling), which was the same common technique applied to popular plastic 3D printers today, such as Prusa or Ender3. FDM technique has its long history of development and commercial use, until this past decade where projects like RepRap sped up its open developments, adoptions and cost reduction for the maker community. FDM printing involves the extrusion of melted thermoplastic (or other materials) from a heated nozzle while moving over a build platform layer by layer to fabricate an object. There are many types of 3D printing technology available today, each with its distinct functions and strength, printing with various resolutions, sizes, materials; the list goes on.

My first hands on tinkering was a CoLiDo 2.0 Plus 3D Printer inside the maker space. Unlike Stratasys F370, which kept all operations and electronics enclosed and out of sight, CoLiDo 2.0 Plus was a desktop printer which was built with transparent acrylic, hence I was able to get a good look of the inside mechanics, electronics and operations while tinkering. I came to the maker space with my coffee capsule dispenser design file, and spent days experimenting with the machine whenever it was available.

3D design files, particularly those shared on 'thingiverse', usually come in a '.stl' format. STL is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) format which consists of a large number of triangles describing the surface geometry of the 3D object. A 3D printer does not recognise a STL file, these triangle information means nothing to the 3D Printer motherboard. A 3D printer needs at least the following information to run: distance to move in 3 axis (X, Y, Z), length of materials to push to the nozzle, temperature of nozzle and temperature of the build platform (aka 'heat bed'). Therefore, to translate STL triangle information into printer instructions, we need to rely on a software called a ‘slicer’.

A slicer software takes the STL file, slices the 3D design into multiple layers, and automates the generation of printer instructions based on a user's input. Inputs include the temperature of nozzle & heat bed, layer height, object infill pattern & density (inside of a 3D printed object can be hollow, solid or special patterns to improve object strength) etc. Slicer software generates an instruction file for 3D printers in '.gcode' format. 3D printer takes the gcode and start working. Afterwards, the concept of ‘STL’ and ‘gcode’ stuck to my head ever since and till now in 2021, these terms form the foundation of my exchanges with online communities.

Many of my technical knowledge were acquired with experiments in the maker space while watching youtube channels and website. Notable Youtubers who helped me tremendously are Thomas Sanladerer who gave comprehensive walkthroughs of 3D printing problems, CNC Kitchen had many interesting experiments with 3D printed structures & materials, Maker's Muse had a lot of cool printed toys and ideas. Of course, they offer a lot more experience than what I could cover here, and there are many more youtubers/blogs/websites contributing to 3D printing knowledge. I always keep my appreciation to them who benefitted my learnings very much.

In the maker space, I kept on printing out different STL files from thingiverse, and trying out different filaments in the facility, until I exhausted their filaments, in which I felt very bad. Nonetheless I met great instructors and technicians working in Inno Space who supported my learnings a lot, exchanging ideas and interesting things we have seen. The Inno Space adventure lasted until the end of August.

The Journey of Discovering 3D Printing

In summer 2018, I came to a dead end of my 8 year career in a well respected multi-national corporation. After the abrupt change of my career, I was suddenly out of anchor as it was the only company that I worked for since graduating college. It was one of the darkest periods of my life as I had a wonderful career, which gave me experiences that most young graduates would dream for. Nonetheless, that path was over, so I gave myself a year to engage myself in a new path.

For weeks, I surfed the web without a clear purpose, in the good old 'web surfing' kind of way. During the surf, I discovered cool DIY projects people around the world are doing, employing technical competence which looked like wizardry in my eyes. It never occurred to my mind that I could ever learn the skills needed to start any technical projects, mainly because I was not educated in any IT, Engineering or Science disciplines. Through the web surfs, I had good ideas of what DIY technology projects were possible, but what was lacking was the in-depth knowhow for projects to take shape.

I was always a regular coffee drinker since adulthood began, I still am. At home, I have a Nepresso machine which requires a regular refill of disposable coffee capsules in order to produce coffee. These capsules came inside a card box with capsules lined up linearly. Each time when I needed to make coffee, I had to stick my hand into the box to pick out one capsule. I really disliked the inconvenience, whenever I tried to collect one capsule, either my hand damaged the cardbox, or more capsules came out of the box than intended. For certain, I needed a coffee capsule dispenser, and the search for the perfect product began.

On Amazon or Taobao or any online sellers, the dispenser designs I came across was not what I needed. All the dispenser designs required the consumer to take out all the capsules for the box and insert into the dispenser one by one. I said to myself, 'why would I repeat the capsule removal process for the box twice' (once to place capsule into dispenser, once to consume coffee). Disgruntled, I continued my search on Google, until I came across a design on a website called 'thingiverse'. This design was exactly what I wanted, nothing more, nothing less.

This design required a user to open the capsule box and slide the whole box into a dispenser, after which all the capsules would fall into place one by one to be collected for consumption. The design file was simply shared online to be downloaded for free, there was no link to buy it. It turned out 'thingiverse' is not a shopping website, it is simply a free platform for 3D printing enthusiasts in the world to share their 3D designs for fun. Having this capsule dispenser 3D design, the only problem I faced then was where I could turn this simple design into a real object. I googled '3D printing' service in my city, found several service providers and emailed for a quotation with the 3D design attached. The quote came back to be around HK$150-200 (USD20-25). I was absolutely shocked, why would I pay USD25 for a little piece of plastic which the service provider didn't even design?

I knew I had to find out more about what 3D printing is. That was August 2018.