3d printing is a beautiful mess.

So a couple of years ago I was kind of lusting after a 3d printer.

The idea of having a device that would let me just crank out a physical object on demand was something hugely attractive for me. What I didn't understand right out of the gate was the amount of tweaking and configuring that is required to get a good quality print out of the thing.

At various points I've had to deal with issues from worn out nozzles on the extruder, problems with the print bed needing to be replaced, issues with the extruder not feeding properly, and problems with the filament getting too much moisture in it to be able to print properly. And while these are all things that I was able to figure out it is not a really simple plug it in and print type of situation.

And yes, I know about the newer stuff from Bambu labs that claims to be able to make things easier but I don't think they where even a option when I got the printer I'm using now, and even if they were they are a lot more money than what I wound up getting. 

In either case it's been interesting re-learning how to use CAD software and transitioning from using it for 2d stuff into using it to build a 3d model that's actually printable. The last time that I had spent any real time working on a CAD program was using a cheap one called KeyCad that was put out by Softchoice back in like 1996 or so. Needless to say the state of CAD software now is completely different compared to the tools that existed back at that time. 

The most useful thing about the 3d printer however is the ability to just crank out brackets and mounting hardware for things that I have sitting around the house. Cable management clips, brackets, and holders for things that were never intended to be mounted in any way are all things that I have cranked out of this thing. As these things become more and more popular I can see them replacing simple plastic parts that you might have to purchase from other places, but right now it's more a novelty for me. In the future this may change as the learning curve flattens out and the technology becomes more accessible. In the meantime, I suppose printing off flexi-rexi can provide me some entertainment.