I love 3D printing.

Out of all the tech hype cycles and trends over the last decade, this one is genuinely useful.

There’s simply something magical about being able to design or download a model from the internet, send it to a machine, and after a few hours you get an actual physical object in return!

I don’t own a 3D printer myself, but I’ve had access to people who are happy to help out by printing something for me. So far I’ve printed the following useful things:

The dual vertical laptop stand.
The dual vertical laptop stand.
The dual vertical laptop stand, holding laptops.
The dual vertical laptop stand, holding laptops.
The design can also hold various other items, almost by accident.
The design can also hold various other items, almost by accident.
This design helps organize the EU charger inside the Steam Deck hard case, with room for a few microSD cards as well.
This design helps organize the EU charger inside the Steam Deck hard case, with room for a few microSD cards as well.
It's not the cleanest solution, but it's the best that we can do given the dimensions of the case itself.
It's not the cleanest solution, but it's the best that we can do given the dimensions of the case itself.
The Orange Pi Zero case. Should last until 2038!
The Orange Pi Zero case. Should last until 2038!

There’s so much more that I’d want to print, like various battery holders, controller stands, and IKEA SKÅDIS mounts.

There’s also the option of downloading and printing a whole PC case, which is incredibly tempting. Will I finally be able to build the perfect home server according to my very specific requirements? Probably not, given how often my preferences change, but it would be incredibly cool!

And yet I don’t own a 3D printer. The main obstacle for me is the time, I feel like in order to be successful with a 3D printer, I’ll need to at the very least learn the basics of filaments, their properties, what parameters to configure and how, how to maintain a 3D printer, how to fix one when it breaks, how to diagnose misalignment issues etc. I’ll also need space for one, extruding hot melting plastic seems like a thing that I’d want to host in a proper workshop and with actual ventilation. It’s a whole-ass hobby, not a half-ass one.

Durability can be problematic with 3D prints, even in my limited experience. For example, I tried positioning the Makita vacuum cleaner holder differently, but ended up putting too much strain on the design, which eventually lead to it completely failing.

A broken Makita vacuum cleaner holder print. The patterns are interesting, though!
A broken Makita vacuum cleaner holder print. The patterns are interesting, though!

In other cases, filaments like PLA aren’t suitable for designs where they are attached to warm or hot computer parts, they will warp like crazy.

A mini computer that ran at 60-80°C constantly, vs a PLA print.
A mini computer that ran at 60-80°C constantly, vs a PLA print.
Another angle of the damage.
Another angle of the damage.

I appreciate the hell out of anyone that shares their designs with the world, and especially those that allow remixing or customizing their designs. There are fantastic designs and ideas out there on sites like Printables, and the creativity that’s on display warms my heart.