Fun (and Serious Business) with 3D Printing
A Christmas Post
Greetings and Merry Christmas,
First, let’s get the obvious out of the way. I’m aware the post title’s a little weird. Honestly, I just have no idea how to title one.
Moving on…
If you follow my Notes or Instagram, you might see me post some 3D printing related pictures. That’s because my brother and I have been doing a lot of these. And it’s starting to get really serious. As in, business and make money kind of serious. But I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. So instead I will show you what I’ve got so far.1
As you might know, it’s Christmas today. So you know what that means? That’s right, gift giving. And with the power of 3D printing, we’ve been able to print our very own gift box - (and in New York Knicks color scheme too!):
But why stop at one box? Let’s have a dozen boxes! And that was what we set out to do this Advent. And after a few weeks (I think) of 3D printing, our work finally bore fruit. Behold…
The above picture shows about a dozen2 boxes in various color schemes. I’ll be honest, the sheer volume of boxes I printed did get to me at times. Not in a stressful kind of way, more that it was funny.
Besides, it wasn’t that we printed nothing but boxes. Remember that 3D Printing allows us to print just about anything. And those boxes? They’re not just there to look pretty…
Firstly, pardon the audio. Secondly, yes there’s golden reindeer inside which looks really cool if I must say so myself.
Once we finished our production, we handed out these boxes (and the reindeers inside) to our friends and families. As it turned out, they really appreciated this. I don’t think they’re really familiar with the concept of 3D printing so I’m sure there’s an aspect of novelty in all this. Even so, the power of 3D printing had been made evident.
And it’s not like we only printed these boxes for Christmas. We also made Christmas ornaments:
In the picture above, the three Christmas trees and the two reindeers were 3D printed. Rest is not, which is the point: 3D printing is not meant to make everything. Rather, it’s meant to supplement what you already have. Thanks to 3D printing, we were able to put up decorations that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get our hands on. Maybe we would have been able to get the reindeer figures and Christmas trees (and the boxes too) but we would have to go out and buy them for a more expensive price. And also we have to go out of our way to look for them (or rather, something like them), so finding them in a store somewhere is by no means guaranteed.
Let’s move beyond Christmas gifts for a bit…
I made this submarine because I wanted to make something cool. In other words, I just felt like it. Maybe I could buy something like this in a store. But why would I do that? Especially since it would cost me money that I would otherwise use for something else.
Here’s the thing… I’m barely even scratching the surface of 3D printing. I know I’m sounding like some tech-bro who can’t stop yapping about how technology is incredible or whatever…
But you know what? Technology can be incredible. It can help you accomplish things that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. And it can open up a whole new world for you to explore.
It can even make art3:
And no, I won’t be getting into AI Art debate in this post.
Merry Christmas to you all, Michael P. Marpaung
I’m saying “I” colloquially here. I don’t wish to take full credit for this; not even the majority of the credit since it’s actually my brother who got the ball rolling and are doing most of the heavy lifting.
There were more boxes not shown in this picture.
Or rather, it can help you make art. But saying “it makes art” does a better job in driving the point home.