The "Introduce yourself" topic

I got to thinking, and I realized we have a growing community here hosted by the Lulzbotites (Lulzbotanians? Lulzbotanists? Hmm.) and I see people posting, but I know little about most of them, which begs the usual questions like “Who are they? what are they 3D printing? Do they like Wombats?” You know, the usual stuff. Since we don’t have a “general” or “off Topic” section of the forum, I figure this is as good a place as any for that type of thread.

Since this is my silly idea, I’ll go ahead and start. Seems fair anyways.

A bit about yourself:
My name is Tim Pierce (you can probably guess where my shockingly origional username came from…) and I am a Regional Server and Network Administrator with the Department of Transportation in Washington. I live in the southern (soggy) half of the state. I’ve been building and breaking computers and related bits since I was 12, and I specialize in higher end gaming / engineering PC’s and custom case builds when I’m not playing with server racks, amongst too many other hobbies. In addition to being a server admin, I also run a fairly large MMO gaming forum community. I do not work for Lulzbot (I only mention that because there are people who do work for them running around here without red names and somene asked once) Oh, and wombats are awsome!

3D printer experiance:
I have what started out as a stock AO-100. This is my first 3D printer, but not my first CNC device. I do have an aluminum capable CNC mill out in the garage, and I have been tinkering with CNC routers off and on since High school on a hobby basis. I enjoy tinkering with them and learning all the secrets of 3d printerness. My end goal is to maybe offer an upgrade kit or something along those lines someday.

Why I got into 3d printing:
I want to make some of the parts I need to upgrade my CNC mill (small pulley covers, etc.) as well as various radio controll helicopter, computer case modification, and other parts as the mood takes me. I find that the ability to think up a thought, then turn it into a real thing is one of the most satisfying feelings around.

I think that covers most of it. What about the rest of you?

Okay I will introduce myself as a fellow Lulzbotter. Piercet (or do you prefer we refer to you as Tim) I will follow your subject lead.

A Bit About Myself. My name is John Schiesser. I am a Project Manager for Design Supplier here in Southern California. (We engineer a system then sell the parts). I want to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for a degree in Civil Engineer. Recently I received my license as Professional Civil Engineer from the State of California. I don’t have lot electrical and mechanical experience but I have done drafting and design work for a small industrial engineering work. I have self-taught myself Solidworks and use AutoCAD extensively for my job. That being said I am always trying to learn something new and find a better, faster, & more efficient way to do it. I am currently working on several projects strut frame workbench, self watering planter, my own designed 3D printer, to name a few. (Though my AO-101 3D printer is my favorite.) In the future I would like to get a lathe and build a CNC mill or laser cutter. I would like to meet more local 3D printer enthusiasts.

3D Printer Experience: I started researching 3D Printing about nine months ago to solve an issue another project I had to put it on hold though to study for my professional engineers exam. A couple days after hearing about my exam results I saw the AO-101 on sale on ebay. So since about the first of the year I have been printing away (when I haven’t temporarily broken it…)

Why I got into 3d printing: Well as I kind of mentioned it above I wanted to use it for another project and the more I started researching it the more I realized the true potential.

Where I want to go with my 3D Printing: Well I would like to follow Piercet’s (Tim’s) lead and try our some improvement then design my own 3D printer for printing large scale printing. I am also working on drafting up the printer in Solidworks so I can make my improvements there first before real life. I would also like to do some 3D printing for small engineering companies to make some extra cash but so far I am having issue with reliability.

A bit about myself: My name is Robert. I am a piano technician in Arizona. When I was young I use to sit on an upside-down 5 gallon bucket in my dad’s den watching him draft in CAD. He was a woodworker, then contractor, then maintenance director and now retired. Therefore, I grew up in a wood shop working with my hands and tools. He also showed me how to put computers together when they first started coming out, and I’ve been building my own systems since. I studied music at ASU and also worked there as a piano technician for many years. I paired up with a piano manufacturer in Scottsdale when they started their business back in 2005, and now I do the design work of the pianos in CAD and design/build some of the piano components myself.

3D Printer Experience: I can’t remember how I came across 3D printing, but after a lot of research, I decided to go with Lulzbot because of their product, and just as important, their open philosophy. This was just after the TAZ1 came out and it would sell out each day they announced they had some in stock. So I missed my chance to buy one twice, and that was just when they stopped production over the summer to tool up for TAZ2. That was a difficult summer wanting to get into 3D printing, but having to wait 6 months before I could get the model I wanted from the manufacturer I wanted. I placed my order when the TAZ2 became available through Fundable. I’ve only had it for two months now, but can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with a tool. Whatever that happiness is right before you reach giddy, that’s where I am at.

Why I got into 3D printing: There is a metal fixture that attaches to a dremel tool we piano technicians can use to file the hammers on a piano, but the opening is only about 11mm. Sometimes you come across a set of hammers that are 11.5mm wide or 12mm wide, and it is such a pain because you have to end up doing the whole job by hand because the fixture won’t fit the hammer. Some techs would file out the opening for wider hammers, but then you lose the flat surface that helps you cut at a perpendicular angle to the hammer side. That is what got me into 3D printing. I realized I could print the fixture with different openings. I could have one in each width, and I could design the tool to thread directly onto the dremel tool. This was something the original metal fixture did not do; it had an awkward set screw that got in the way.

Where I want to go with my 3D Printing: Well I didn’t buy a thousand plus dollar printer for just the one fixture mentioned above. Once I started to think of all the other fixtures and custom things I could make, I was sold. The more I design and print the more I realize I can make. I am thinking of becoming the supplier for some of these custom fixtures which are specific to my industry, since it is such a small group of professionals and because I have an edge knowing exactly how my peers need to interact with the fixtures. Even if I don’t want to be a supplier, the printer has helped me fix so many of my own problems in my career and around the house. I am right there with Piercet about turning an idea into a real thing, I think it is very satisfying. I can think up, design, and print something custom that helps me take a task, which can take an hour, and reduce it to a few minutes. Yeah, I am just shy of being giddy about it.

Coolest thing, to me, that I’ve printed so far: Instead of buying nine generic follow focus gears for camera lenses, I learned gear design, and printed nine custom gears to fit each lens exactly. That would have been $45 each, so basically saved myself $405. :smiley:

A bit about myself: My name is Bwana and i’m a mechanical engineer and firefighter. I’ve built a few multirotors namely quadcopters and am into hangliding, snowboarding, and motorcycles. My milemarker is to make a POV follow me quadcopter to film with and to be able to apply it to search and rescue or other practical applications.

3D Printer Experience: None - other than using the Mega 2560 and Arduino with quadcopters.

Why I got into 3D printing: I have been using Solidworks for many years and have a background in FEA so i feel inclined to make things.

Where I want to go with my 3D Printing: I’d like to print parts up to 24" in diameter up to 12" tall in Polypropylene, PVC-C, PVDF, and possibly figure out how to extrude any kind of Teflon into usable parts. I think there is a great need for these parts in niche industries.

Coolest thing, to me, that I’ve printed so far: Lithophanes http://i.imgur.com/eoKldhk.jpg and a few elliptical and nautilus gears.

A bit about myself:
I am an architectural technologist currently employed at a large architectural firm in Alberta Canada. My dad has owned his signage business for over 35 years so i’ve been into lights and LEDs my whole life. I modded my xbox 1st gen with 80+ leds, modchip, and a bunch of other pointless but awesome features when I was in grade 8.

Why I got into 3D printing:
I build architectural models in revit 2014 every day as well as do detailed construction documents. I feel like i have a good chance at 3d printing due to my backround;I just need to learn the ropes first. Im trying to get my company to buy a 3d printing so im doing my best to learn as much as i can.

Where I want to go with my 3D Printing:
I want to invent a 3d printed exterior or interior paneling (cladding) system. Eventually use metal 3d printing.

Coolest thing ive printed so far?:
A lens cap for my camera! Im taking it slow

I was forum-stalking Piercet after noticing that we’re neighbors, and ran across this thread. It seems like one that needs reviving, so I’ll use it for my first foray into the Lulzbot forums. :slight_smile:

A Bit About Myself:

In my first life I graduated from Texas A&M with an electrical engineering degree, mainly because computer science wasn’t a major yet (at the risk of giving away my age, the IBM PC was introduced the summer after I graduated). I spent the next few years raising my kids and dabbling in software development (when I could wrestle my keyboard away from them), mostly writing games for them to play on my souped-up PCjr. I’ve done computer repair (back when you had to stuff in hundreds of DIP chips to do a memory upgrade and motherboards could actually be modified with a steady hand and a soldering iron), lots of user / tech support, and ultimately ended up in interactive Web development and SQL database design before being laid off in the aftermath of 9/11 and the tech industry crash. After that I started over again with a 4-year nursing degree and then in short order went back for a master’s and became a psychiatric nurse practitioner.

To most people these seem like totally unrelated careers, but actually I find that pharmacology is a lot like software development – you have a set of tools, each of which accomplishes its task in a certain way with its own set of inputs and outputs, and you have to combine those in the most effective / efficient way to accomplish a specific goal. :sunglasses: As for my electrical engineering training, I’ve pretty much forgotten all the useful stuff, and the software/hardware world has completely left me behind, technologically speaking, so I find myself in the “stupid user” seat far more often than I like, these days. :blush:

3D Printing Experience:

Very little. I’ve secretly wanted a 3D printer ever since I saw an article about the first ones under development some 30 years ago. I finally gave in and indulged myself this year when I saw an ad for the M3D, which looked easy enough for an old engineer with very little free time to play with. I very quickly learned there is no such thing as “out of the box” in 3D printing, and after making a number of physical modifications, scrapping the bundled software, spending hours/days tweaking calibration and filament feed paths, and finally getting a few decent prints out of it, while STILL waiting, after multiple requests, to be admitted to the super-secret, highly-classified users-only M3D forums to which only a select few ever manage to gain access, I brought it along on my vacation trip home to Texas and gave it to one of my brothers. After doing a better job of research this time around (because now I know a little bit more about what I should have looked for!) I’ve ordered myself a LulzBot Taz 5, which will be waiting for me when I get home in a couple of weeks. (I checked first to be sure I could access the user forums, and lo and behold, they just let ANYBODY in here; no forms to submit requiring order number / serial number that nobody ever responds to, or anything! :smiley: )

Why I Got Into 3D Printing:

Long answer: In my distant engineering past I’ve worked in AutoCAD, and I used to moonlight with my afore-mentioned brother, who is a graphic designer (the Bank of America and Hilton logos are some of his work) building 3D models in 3D Studio for computer games. The most famous of those, although you’ve probably never heard of it, was Star General, and the two of us built most of the spaceships for it. The idea of being able to build something and actually hold it in my hands thrills me to indescribable depths. :smiley:

Short answer: Because no matter how grown up I might look on the outside, on the inside I’m still a geeky teenager who simply can’t resist cool gadgets. :nerd:

Hi there nearby neighbor! Welcome to the forum!

Also, hey, neat, a sticky thread!

Happy to be here; can’t wait to get started! :nerd:

Good idea! (Wombats? You weren’t in the Banzai mechwarrior group were you?)

A bit about myself

My name is Dorian Ferrari. I run a small (myself) business (Catz Design Farm) out of my house that does 3D product development work for startups and small businesses to help them make prototype or production ready consumer products. I worked for Mattel for 20+ years in digital development up to middle management and last year struck out on my own. I am an avid PC gamer, and have done a lot of online games over the years as well, but not as much now. I build my own computers, and have been since the 286 days. I use my 3D printers for prototyping mainly.

3D printer experience

A little bit of a loaded question. For repraps, I’ve had my printer (Taz) for a year, and a Makeit pro for 6 months. I’ve been working with SLA machines for about 15 years since Mattel got their first 3D systems machine. While I’m pretty technically adept, I’m not that into building printers from scratch, but look for machines that can support my business without a lot of mechanical tinkering. Though I have rebuilt my printhead a few times now.

Why I got into 3D printing

Since I’ve used rapid prototyping tech to develop products for so long, the home-based printers were a natural addition to allow me to support my product development business without a lot of cost. I’ve also been able to utilize the printers to replace a lot of stuff that breaks around the house!

So, I guess I’ll join in this event.

A bit about yourself:
My name is Greg Leblanc, and I’m the senior manufacturing engineer at a plant that builds medium duty trucks in West Virginia. My undergrad work was in EE and my masters in Semi-conductor manufacturing, which essentially means that I’m well trained in troubleshooting. In my past life I worked in IT, and still dabble a bit in freelance. I’ve got a 1953 South Bend lathe sitting in my garage, and a few hours running manual mills and lathes. Also, wombats are cool, but not quite as cool as platypodes!

3D printer experiance:
$ork just ordered a Lulzbot TAZ 5, along with a few bits and pieces to go with it. I’m not even sure when it will be here, but being the most senior engineer, I’m sure I’ll end up working with this thing a lot, and trying to justify it’s existence. I’ve hankered for one since I read about the reprap close to a decade ago.

Why I got into 3d printing:
We’re in the midst of several big expansions for the plant here, and just got a corporate seat of CATIA for us lowly manufacturing engineers (previously only the R&D department had 3D CAD). I’m hoping to find uses for this thing to make test fixtures and various jigs for the plant, and maybe print enough parts to have one at home for the kids science fair projects and the like.


I’ve been reading the forums for a couple of days, and downloaded a few things like the 75mm disks and 20mm cylinders. I’d like to print the digital sundial and the satnogs rotator, once I get up to speed, and before I start 3d printing my own designs.

Hi,
Never used a 3d printer before…was sitting through some really boring as hell release planning meeting at work that was driving me crazy, ended up on lulzbot and bought a Taz 6. Not sure WTF i just got myself into, but I’m here and gonna build the hell out of some plastic stuff.

Thanks!
-Chris

I had to share this worksheet my granddaughter’s kindergarten teacher sent home with her the other day. :smiley:

Who am I?
I never use my real name online unless I am buying something or paying bills, so I go by either Neamerjell or Jeremiah Bullfrog. I am an all around geek. I love sci-fi movies, series and books, science, technology, Lego, PC gaming, anime, just about anything geeky. I live near Cincinnati, Ohio.

What’s with that username?
A long time ago, maybe between 2000 and 2003, a friend of mine was trying to come up with a username that wasn’t already taken and wouldn’t be like “JSmith3695”. So he made an anagram of his first and middle names and came up with “Bojesphob”. I loved the idea so I created my own: “Neamerjell”. I pronounce it “knee-mer-jell”. So far, I have had zero issues creating a unique username.

3D printer experience
Besides walking into MicroCenter and being mesmerized by the whirring, whining, machines which are surely the first step on the way to producing an actual replicator from Star Trek? About 16 hours on my brand new Lulzbot Mini.

What I have printed so far
With the included HIPS sample:
A near perfect “Rocktopus”, the Open Hardware Keychain (broken), a wire frame dodecahedron with lots of stringy bits (broken)

With the Inland (MicroCenter’s house brand) PLA I bought:
A failed benchmark piece, a lot of wasted oozed filament, a couple of decent benchmark pieces, a near perfect 3Dbenchy tugboat, and a dang near useless 11.5mm wrench that was supposed to be adjustable, but the screw part fused to the body and is now part of the body. I’m still trying to figure out just what the Lulzbot Mini is capable of and what I should reasonably expect from it.

Why I got into 3D printing
I blame the YouTube users Barnacules Nerdgasm for the interest and 3D Printing Nerd for my choice of printer. Like I said before, I’m interested in almost anything geeky, and this is about as geeky as it gets! :smiley: I was fascinated by the concept of a 3D printer and I have seen other automated fabrication devices - laser cutters, CNC mills, etc, but a 3D printer was something I actually had a chance at owning. I tend to be a bargain hunter, Mom taught me well in that respect, and the Lulzbot Mini looked like a bargain compared to the Ultimaker 2 which is nearly twice the price. The Mini’s heated and automatically leveling bed, and having it work right out of the box were huge selling points for me. The fact that MicroCenter had it in stock and I could walk out the door with one that day sealed the deal.

A bit about yourself:
My name is Rich Clemente and I currently work in IT, managing an internal support team. I have quite a few hobbies and enjoy a wide variety of things to do. I enjoy computers, PC gaming, and repairing, building and modifying games and cabinets of all types for gaming. I enjoy pinball and virtual pinball. I enjoy cars and racing and participate in quite a few wheel-to-wheel events. I enjoy the outdoors and hiking and splitting wood. Love movies and I usually watch them outside on a large projector in my backyard. Way too many hobbies!

3D printer experiance:
I have no experience in 3D printing whatsoever. After scouring the web, ad nauseum, for reviews and youtube channels and articles, I picked up a TAZ 6 and flexystruder for a great price.

Why I got into 3d printing:
I enjoy building handheld games, modifying non-repairable systems and sticking raspberry Pis in them. Built a few in which I had a friend print the cases for me. Thought it was real neat. Then thought I could use it for many other things. Figured, let me buy one!

We get decent online training through work so I have been spending time taking classes on SolidWorks. Been going through this forum as well and reading articles on filament and such as well. I am really looking forward to seeing what I can make. It is currently assembled in my dining room. Need to get a new table to set up so I can put it next to my computer. Hopefully this weekend will have some prints going! Already I have friends asking me to make stuff. LOL Can’t wait actually. Will hopefully enjoy putting this thing to use and making some nice prints (hopefully!)

The “Introduce yourself” topic.
A bit about yourself:
My name is Roland, I’m in my mid-30s living a few miles outside of St. Louis. I work a day job to pay bills, but I’m an artist all other times. I work digitally now, having previously worked in mixed media like ink wash and charcoal. I’ve always loved geometry; it’s the only math subject I was ever any good at. Turned out to be something of a saving grace to an otherwise unremarkable skillset.

3D printer experience:
Very, very deep end of the pool sort of situation. I hadn’t touched 3D software of any variety since at least 2005, back when Bryce just introduced version 7 and Poser 4 was still the new hotness. I’d gotten a job recently working quality assurance at an automotive parts company. One day I was told about a position open to work with a 3D printer making test fixtures for 3rd party products we were rebranding, and got given the application. I took a short practical test in TinkerCAD (which required a little practice beforehand) and got the best time out of the other two candidates. That was about a year ago and I’ve gone from an early bird Makerbot Replicator to a pair of Lulzbot Taz 5s and a Prusa i3 Rework. I have a Micro M3D as my personal printer, which is both a fun little gadget and a way to root for the underdog.

Why I got into 3d printing:
When someone needs a very specific part that either 1) isn’t made anymore, if ever at all or 2) would take way too long to make by some other means, I like the idea that I can take a few measurements, sculpt a few virtual blocks and wedges, and then set in motion a machine that makes those polygons and x-y-z coordinates into a physical object and hand it right off to them.

A bit about myself
My name is Tony Boutwell. I am a creative director for a new escape room company called Paradox Games and Escape Rooms. I have 25 years experience in advertising/marketing. I have worked for super large companies (Peavey Electronics - 2,000 employees) and super small companies (my own advertising agency with three employees). My degree/emphasis in college (way back in the 90’s) was in computer animation.

3D printer experience
Zilch. My Taz 6 comes tomorrow. So I am a total noob. :slight_smile:

Why I got into 3D printing
Because I have been in computer animation in one form or fashion for almost 25 years - I have amassed a lot of original 3D models that I have created. I thought this would be a fun way to bring some of those into the real world. :slight_smile: I also am hoping we can use this to help with some of the unique prop creations that we are needing to build for our escape room company.

Hello fellow Lulzbotter’s new member to the forum here.

A Bit About Myself: My name is Rich or (elefant man as im known). I am a design engineer by trade using SolidWorks day to day to design mechanical assembly’s. I live in sunny Cheshire UK and have been a mechanical engineer for more years than I care to count. I have a well kitted workshop including Lathe, CNC milling machine, 3040 CNC router and my 3D printer wich is a Lulzbot Mini, just changed from a wanhao D5S mini. I am really into computers, building, overclocking, modding and playing games when I have time. My other main interests are radio controlled models, electronics and stationary steam and I.C engines. I fly model planes, helicopter and quads but seem to fly less and less due to my lack of social abilities I much prefer my own company lol.

3D Printer Experience: I love technology and 3D printers have always fascinated me. I bought my wanhao D5S mini a couple of year ago and for all its flaws loved it, it taught me about firmware, Wanhao locked it down so much I flashed my own and then bought Simplify3D. I spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of S3D and how to set up profiles well and calibrate and tune the printer for different filaments. I have now made my own S3D profiles for the Lulzbot mini and I am loving the new found accuracy a quality printer can produce coupled with all I have learned in the past.

Why I got into 3D printing: It saves me standing in the cold workshop to make things in the winter on my mill and lathe. I can also produce things that are far to cost prohibitive of complicated for me to make.

Where I want to go with my 3D Printing: I don’t really know I just print for fun and to relax. There is no pressure to produce to a deadline or schedule like at work.

Coolest thing, to me, that I’ve printed so far: My SuperNova lamp, drawn by me in Solidworks and printed all on the mini. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2039147

You can alway keep an eye on what I am up to I tend to update twitter with what I am printing also upload time lapse vids to youtube.
twitter: @Elefant_Man https://twitter.com/Elefant_Man?lang=en-gb
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/user/ElefantXPS

Welcome and Wow…that lamp rocks! I am fairly new…had my Taz 6 for about 3 weeks. It is my first 3D printer so trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can. :slight_smile:

[quote=“tonyboutwell”]Welcome and Wow…that lamp rocks! I am fairly new…had my Taz 6 for about 3 weeks. It is my first 3D printer so trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can. :slight_smile:

Wish I had room for a 6 :laughing: It all takes time to learn but its a fun experience and places like this are invaluable. If in doubt ask the only silly question is the one not asked.

I just picked up a used AO 101. I want to get into 3d printing but the good ones are expensive so I bought an older Bot hoping it is still good.
My thoughts are what is still possible with this machine and Lulzbot doesn’t support it anymore. I see no action for over a year on that forum section. Guess on on my own?