In November of 2022 I bought a 3D printer. I’d been thinking of buying one but couldn’t bring myself to spend the money. It wasn’t that I couldn’t afford it, I just didn’t really know what I would do with one. I didn’t really have any interest in just printing for the sake of printing, but I did have a vague idea how one could be used as a tool to make accessories and parts for my other hobbies.

Then, while working on designing a ventilation system for my observing pad shed, I needed an adapter to attach a 12v fan to a dryer vent. I was fumbling with some aluminum roof flashing and rubber bands and realized that I finally had an actual project that was perfect for a 3D printer. That’s when I decided to buy, but which one? I spent a considerable amount of time reading reviews, watching YouTube videos, and trying out different design and slicing software. Ultimately, I decided on buying a Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro 3D printer and learning Blender and Cura for my design and slicing suite.

Today, 16 months later, I have 26 models posted on Printables.com with nearly 900 downloads as of this writing. Most of my models are practical accessories for my 3D printer, though as I get better with the Blender software not only are my models improving, but I’m also feeling confident enough to start venturing into less practical designs like toys.

I have always loved machines. I grew up in a family of people who loved machines. My father taught me that a well-designed machine is a thing of beauty and science. Most of the machines we worked on were vehicles, cars, motorcycles, go-carts, minibikes. But there were also the machines we used to work on them. About the time my older brother and I were starting to ‘improve’ our cars, Dad told us that we should do everything we can to learn our cars and make them function as well as they possibly could before we started deciding what needed ‘improvement’. That was advice that has held me in good stead my entire life.

So, it’s not at all unusual that I owned the machine for a year before making a single upgrade, which honestly was all it needed to perform at its best. I could start bolting on stuff so it would go faster, but then you need to use different firmware so you can compensate for going faster than the machine was designed to go. I don’t need to go faster. This is a hobby. What I wanted, and now have, is a reliable machine that performs beautifully and produces as near-to-perfect prints as possible.

In addition to tuning and maintenance, I’ve experimented with multiple materials and have had very good results with PLA, PETG, and TPU. I’ve developed printing profiles for each of the materials so printing my models is as trouble free as possible. All the while I’ve kept learning how to better use the two pieces of software. All this activity has kept me pretty busy, and that’s probably the best part.

Several years ago, I was diagnosed with arthritis in my lower back. Eventually the pain became bad enough that I retired early. Before long, and after bilateral hip replacements, it became very apparent that the life I had envisioned after retirement was not to be. So, pain and depression were becoming my life. Then the printer arrived. That simple, beautiful machine. It has kept me distracted from the pain, released a creativeness I didn’t know I had, and has brought incredible delight to my grandson. It has given me time to come to terms with what I am, and am not, capable of doing physically anymore, and to see whole new possibilities come to life. That, to me, is solace.