my first bit attack that I'm curious
about right now and it's not something
that I have or can really get started
with is 3d printing
ah you see 3d printers to me have for
the longest time being this kind of
untouchable tech mm-hmm and I've looked
at them and I've kind of kept an eye on
them and wondered about them but it
seems so sci-fi to an old-school tech
guy like me to be able to 3d print tools
and 3d print things it just sounds like
something out of sci-fi from young we
were kids but it's a real tech now
and the price has come way down way down
to the point of unreasonable and I'll
talk about that a little bit but what
really has pushed me over the top is
seeing how some of my friends who are
into 3d printing technology are able to
do just that come up with an idea and
realize it and manufacture it yeah and a
perfect example is right here at the
studio now Jeff you can see those at
home can't see but I've got all the
wires just going into a piece of PVC or
yes a piece of pipe yep and it goes
through a hole in the wall and it's
incredibly makeshift and it's terrible
right so I started talking with with
Bullock now ski from a Marid right
because I knew that beau does 3d
printing and he's into that kind of
thing and he's like my go-to guy and and
he takes the time to chat with me about
it and I appreciate that I said like
what could I do with this situation
where I've got a wall that's like this
thick and it's just drywall and I've
drilled a hole in it but now I've got a
piece of pipe going through and it looks
terrible and it's not it totally looks
makeshift right and I can't get a
contractor in to build something and if
I did it's gonna cost 200 dollars if not
more just to have a proper conduit put
in which is crazy when you think about
that it's it's a lot of money and so
Beau and I got talking about it and and
and working on some ideas and kind of
back and forth and he came up with a
design
for something that he's calling easy
portal and this is basically if you can
picture two pieces of pipe that are each
about this long and they screw into one
another okay but they have a flange on
both sides so with and he designed this
and he's actually printed one and I'm
and I'm hoping to receive one soon I
think it's in the mail but you put one
piece on one side one piece on the other
side and you know I guess I'll get
somebody on the other side to twist on
that side right and you twist it
together and it screws in together and
it sits flush and it's tight and it's a
perfect conduit with a nice little
flange Wow beautiful so he calls it easy
portal you can actually see it on
Ameritrade calm and just do a quick
search for easy portal and and that to
me Jeff made me think okay so if I just
if I could do that instead of paying
$200 to a contractor to build a proper
portal something through the wall that
starts to make a little bit of sense but
it's still beyond me it's still well
beyond me no he would have more of a a
robust 3d printer wouldn't be like a
little tabletop you know right well I
don't know I mean I asked him what kind
of printers he's using and he's got an
end or three okay he's got you know the
the standard kind of you know what we
would call a consumer 3d printer and
he's got he's got some that are a little
higher end as well hmm a little higher
end I was like no it's way higher end
yeah yeah I'm still learning the
industry prints human beings so and if
that's common well we could 3d print
body parts now yeah so here here's where
my thought processes go Jeff is I start
to look at this wall and and so we need
to get the signage done right and so
I've got a signed person who's telling
me 300 dollars to do the sign so you can
think you can 3d print the cat5 logo I
start to think that I start to think
okay could I and then you start to look
at 3d printers and you realize that you
know for five hundred dollars you can
get a high end there like a decent
consumer 3d printer and that's on the
high end you can get them for 300 that's
true I
keep looking at them on ya different
online portals like Amazon and whatnot
and it's on my frivolous spending list
because is that's me too uh to me a like
a 3d printer I don't think I have a
legitimate need for at home actly but at
the same time I've thought about getting
a 3d printer for the sake of printing
LEGO pieces I don't know if that's even
a copyright thing probably but a lot of
times my seen them on Thingiverse but
yeah I mean my but like everyone so on
my kids will break a brick okay and it's
like and they cost a lot of money it's a
you know but if I could just print that
that you know that's a pretty basic use
case but for me I'm thinking like can I
offset expense mmm by printing something
myself can I justify the expense of a 3d
printer and learn and the time that it
takes to learn how to do it in such a
way that I'm actually saving money
that's the signage yeah it's to make it
look that way I bet you probably could
and now what okay for life me I'm
blanking on the name of the unit but
there's a tabletop 3d printer that I was
looking at there are so many Jeff well
these days they're easy but not only is
it a 3d printer it's also a laser
engraver yeah yeah I've seen though and
there was something else that did and I
was getting serious and I was loving
aren't those thousands it was it was 29
yeah so and I was like oh I could come
up with something for that so maybe what
I what I would look at then in that case
is I would say okay would would I start
with something that's 300 and and see
how I do and see if I can offset cost
which is virtually making money and then
and then upgrade if I need to or if I
can justify that or I think you should
just say hey if somebody buys you that
unit you'll go through labor with me
[Laughter]
I know that's all on you Jeff
I looked at a 1u mounting system because
I want to rackmount some single board
computers right and you're looking a
couple hundred bucks yeah they're a
little server case to be able to put my
any single board computers on the server
rack and then I got onto Thingiverse and
I started looking and I could print one
mm-hmm so my approach has been so I
haven't bought a 3d printer I don't have
one but I decided okay I'm gonna see if
because this is this is what I fall into
I'll buy things thinking that oh yeah
I'm gonna use that I'm gonna it's gonna
offset my cost and blah blah blah
but then I find that the learning curve
is too high so what I've been doing is
I've been going onto Tinkercad comm and
I've been doing my first designs uh-huh
and so I actually have four designs
already up including the category-five
logo Oh dice Oh on my I've got a thing a
versa count bald nerd mm-hmm so you can
see the designs including a little case
for a Raspberry Pi to be able to mount
it on my won-won you serve a rec 19-inch
server rack so so I'm doing the designs
first to see how how onerous it is I
figure out can I can I actually do this
and then I can start to look at okay if
the sign is going to be 300 how much
would it cost to print does it have that
kind of estimator online when you come
up yeah yeah okay in in the software you
can you can actually see how long it's
going to take and how much how much
filament it's going to use so there are
all those things so I'm starting to look
at that and I'm really really curious
and I'd love to know what you think and
you know is there a really valack are we
at that point where the prices come down
far enough on 3d printers that it now
makes sense to have one right in you
know in the home in the in the office
because you can do stuff now that is
like when I have ideas you can just 3d
print them right
I have ideas I have ideas comment below
what ideas do you have and what do you
think