#+TITLE: DONE Back to 3D printing, wow! :blog_sl:3dprint:
CLOSED: [2024-12-19 Thu 00:00]
:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED: [2024-12-19 Thu 00:00]
:ID: 3dprint-001
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
- State "DONE"       from              [2024-12-19 Thu 00:00]
:END:

After almost 10 years break, I am back to 3D printing, and what a joy!
When I tried this last time, it was a painful experience, because so
many things could (and did) go wrong, making each print a
challenge. But over the last years, 3D printing has gotten so much
more accessible and robust that I thought I should have another go..

* How comes?
At a conference I ran into a colleague who works as a senior engineer
and has specialized on 3D printing, also running a small company and
doing many diverse projects. From our discussion I got inspired to
acquire a 3D printer and run some experiments again. I asked for
advice on what would be a good option for a beginner like me to have a
robust but versatile machine, and my colleague recommended the
printers made by [[Bambulab'w][Bambu Labs]], so I went for one of those.
* First impressions
There were nice end-of-year deals this year and I went for a Bambu
Labs P1S model which can automatically manage up to 4 print
spools. What a blessing! No manual fiddling to get the filament loaded
properly. The whole setup process up to the very first print took
maybe 1-2 hours, and that's because I went very slowly over things. It
was a very smooth experience, and then also the software environment
that goes with it - mobile app, desktop app - are very professional
and make life easy.
* First 3D prints
After the initial setup I was immediately ready for printing. A few
models come on the SD card with the printer and are nice for
testing. With the apps it is very simple as well to make a
printout. This was so engaging that I immediately installed their
=BamBu studio= app to print my own designs. Of course I had to try a
molecule, and I was able to design something in a few minutes that
actually printed! With detachable support and everything.

The whole experience was so satisfying that I need to control myself
to not spend all my time on experimenting, now that the experience has
become so smooth. I will report back when I made some progress and
have some nice printing experiments to talk about.
* A persistent blog page
I will collect 3d printing wisdom along my experiments on this