Project: 3D Printing

I don’t think of myself as a 3D Print Designer - I’m just a guy who owns a good 3D printer and likes to use it to solve problems. Every month I find a problem or two for which 3DP is the right tool in my kit, so I’m not going to create a new project here on CH for each and every one. That would be insane. Instead, I’m creating this catch-all project and I’ll report them all here.

Printer

I originally started printing on a MakerBot Replicator 2 back in 2017, which was the printer available in the maker lab I used, but I’ve owned a Prusa MK3S+ of my own since January of 2021, and that’s now the only printer I use.

Software

As a longtime user of Blender for animations, live action special effects, book cover design, etc., it was my obvious choice when I started 3D printing too. And while I still use it for visualization, and sometimes for modifying STL files that I get from somebody else, I have since moved on.

My design tool of choice is now OpenSCAD - an open source, constructive solid modeling tool that is both free and available on all OS platforms. Instead of having to learn a bunch of fiddly interactive tools, I much prefer OpenSCAD’s simple, logical programming-style interface.

For slicing, I stick with PrusaSlicer. It’s excellent, I’m familiar with it, and it works well with my Prusa printer.

And lastly, my sharing platform. I was on Thingiverse until it took a crap-dive, but I quickly pivoted to Printables (also by Prusa :-) and I haven’t looked back since.