03-11-2025, 08:03 PM
I took a while to convince myself that a 3D printer is worth it. "That's pretty expensive just to print off some "simple, cheap toys," I thought. Then I figured there's enough things out there to fix/replace broken stuff it could be worthwhile. So I bought a cheap Ender 3 v1 (with glass bed back then it was ~$230 shipped). I've probably put about another $150-$200 in parts and upgrades over time, but I've got more than my money's worth out of it.
I started like most others, just finding things on thingiverse or printables or whatnot and printing them. A pencil holder for one of my kiddos? sure. Then I graduated as I needed things. The back of the Roku remote broke, lo and behold someone had already modeled a replacement. I printed it and it worked! that saved me from having a tape job or buying a replacement.
Now? I learned how to edit some of the models in Fusion 360 and then started making mine from scratch and then parameterizing them. now I've made all sorts of unique things to fix or just to be a solution for a problem where that part never existed anywhere before. It's a good feeling.
I started like most others, just finding things on thingiverse or printables or whatnot and printing them. A pencil holder for one of my kiddos? sure. Then I graduated as I needed things. The back of the Roku remote broke, lo and behold someone had already modeled a replacement. I printed it and it worked! that saved me from having a tape job or buying a replacement.
Now? I learned how to edit some of the models in Fusion 360 and then started making mine from scratch and then parameterizing them. now I've made all sorts of unique things to fix or just to be a solution for a problem where that part never existed anywhere before. It's a good feeling.
![[Image: iAyY3ql.png]](https://i.imgur.com/iAyY3ql.png)