RE's New Capitalist Venture

[RE]

Congrats on the new venture. I hope you figure out your printer issues. We purchased a printed part for a set of headphones last year that put it back in service and was unavailable through regular retail markets. A greenhouse owner has a special clip printed by the same person to hold her irrigation hose without screwing into the aluminum arches. I see a great future for this kind of service. Aging semi retired tech gods doing some at home puttering to keep things working. It would be a good energy dump load for extra summer solar production as well. It's downright uplifting. As usual I'm sure the negatives get the press such as ghost guns and sextoys. I don't post much these days; nothing personal I just am busy being out there building stuff.

Gr8 2 hear from U NF! 

I will eventually work this out I think.  I ordered a memory stick and I will manually save the .stl file onto the stick, then move it over to the printer to load and print it.  A little cumbersome and a major kludge, but until the networking problems are solved it should keep me printing.

The positive side to this is that since there is more to it than just pushing a Print button, working with it you develop a skill set and knowledge which makes you valuable.  Particularly when you star messing with other materials besides just the PLA plastic, which is finnicky emough by itself.  For any given project or part somebody wants, you need to decide what material would work best for it, then you have to know your machine and its idiosycracies to get the right temperature settings, distnce from the build plate, in-fill amount etc to end up with a good print and functional part.  Plus of course on the design end you have to know how to use a 3D CAD program to create the.stl files the printer uses to guide the machine.

So yea, it's definitely a good hobby/bizness for the old retired tinkering type of guy.  I think anyone who enjoys doing carpentry type projects would enjoy it.  It gives you additional range to be able to make stuff you either can't make or are impractical to do with wood.  Finally, it's small enough and cheap enough that you don't have to be rich with a big shop space to have one.  I'm actually a little surprised you haven't got one for yourself.  Right up your alley, and would make your DIY projects easier to accomplish.

RE

[Nearings Fault]

Congrats on the new venture. I hope you figure out your printer issues. We purchased a printed part for a set of headphones last year that put it back in service and was unavailable through regular retail markets. A greenhouse owner has a special clip printed by the same person to hold her irrigation hose without screwing into the aluminum arches. I see a great future for this kind of service. Aging semi retired tech gods doing some at home puttering to keep things working. It would be a good energy dump load for extra summer solar production as well. It's downright uplifting. As usual I'm sure the negatives get the press such as ghost guns and sextoys. I don't post much these days; nothing personal I just am busy being out there building stuff.

Gr8 2 hear from U NF! 

I will eventually work this out I think.  I ordered a memory stick and I will manually save the .stl file onto the stick, then move it over to the printer to load and print it.  A little cumbersome and a major kludge, but until the networking problems are solved it should keep me printing.

The positive side to this is that since there is more to it than just pushing a Print button, working with it you develop a skill set and knowledge which makes you valuable.  Particularly when you star messing with other materials besides just the PLA plastic, which is finnicky emough by itself.  For any given project or part somebody wants, you need to decide what material would work best for it, then you have to know your machine and its idiosycracies to get the right temperature settings, distnce from the build plate, in-fill amount etc to end up with a good print and functional part.  Plus of course on the design end you have to know how to use a 3D CAD program to create the.stl files the printer uses to guide the machine.

So yea, it's definitely a good hobby/bizness for the old retired tinkering type of guy.  I think anyone who enjoys doing carpentry type projects would enjoy it.  It gives you additional range to be able to make stuff you either can't make or are impractical to do with wood.  Finally, it's small enough and cheap enough that you don't have to be rich with a big shop space to have one.  I'm actually a little surprised you haven't got one for yourself.  Right up your alley, and would make your DIY projects easier to accomplish.

RE

I'll admit I've thought of it. It's one of those problems: yes I COULD do anything I set my mind to... BUT I cannot do everything. construction biz, solar biz, kids, relationship, energy consulting, some downtime... It's a lot. There is room for others to expand into their niches. The little I know of you it sounds like a good fit. Can you scan and duplicate a part? I could see that as a fun side hustle. Post an add offering a service see where it goes. You are in the money would be nice phase of life not the I make money or I'm on the street phase so you can let it grow.
Cheers,  NF

[RE]

Can you scan and duplicate a part? I could see that as a fun side hustle. \

Sure.  There's a very good free app for your phone or tablet called KIRI Engine that does 3D scans.

https://www.kiriengine.app/

After scanning you usually need to clean it up a little before printing, but you can do it right in the app.

Once I get the thing working consistently and get the bugs ironed out, I'll probably put up an ad on Craig's list.  Also I want to get more experience with other materials.

RE