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Hobby

3D Printing

Family era - ongoing

The printer earns its keep on knick-knacks and functional household items, but it's also just an ongoing hobby in its own right - calibration and bed leveling included, since keeping a printer dialed in is as much a part of this as any individual print.

The build I'm proudest of started when my son got into dinosaurs: a full T-rex skeleton, printed piece by piece - skull, spine, ribs, legs - and assembled on a display base. It's the same model used in some actual museum displays.

Not everything is an original design. Plenty of prints are STLs I downloaded and just ran - articulated, flexible dragons and creatures that print fully hinged in one go, no assembly required, and a Jurassic Park raptor claw. I also printed a miniature replica of a wooden playhouse from the kids' childhood - the real one was bought, not built, but the mini version is one I made as a keepsake after it was gone.

Some prints cross over into other hobbies entirely: I built a 3D printed LED light box - CAD design, LED wiring, an ESP32 running WLED - to house a laser-cut cube portrait of my dad and my son. And when I upgraded the speakers on a Batocera retro-gaming build, I printed a custom enclosure to house the new speaker rather than buying one off the shelf.

A 3D printer mid-print on two T-rex spine sections
The printer mid-print on two T-rex spine sections.
The T-rex skeleton partway through assembly, skull and spine attached, feet and tail laid out nearby
The T-rex skeleton partway through assembly.
The finished T-rex skeleton mounted on a display base on the workbench
The almost finished T-rex skeleton, mounted on its display base.
A flat-lay of finished articulated dragon and creature prints in iridescent filament, plus dragon-egg containers
Finished articulated dragons and creatures, printed fully hinged in iridescent filament, alongside a couple of dragon-egg containers.
A 3D printer mid-print on a flexible articulated piece in cream-colored filament
Another flexible, articulated print partway through.
A 3D printed Jurassic Park raptor claw, raw and unpainted
A 3D printed Jurassic Park raptor claw, raw and unpainted.
A wooden train-shaped playhouse from the kids' childhood
The original playhouse from the kids' childhood - bought, not built.
A miniature 3D printed replica of the train-shaped playhouse
The miniature 3D printed replica I made as a keepsake, the day after.
A gray 3D printed speaker enclosure housing a Skar-branded speaker
A custom 3D printed enclosure for an upgraded speaker on the Batocera build.
Video: the 3D printed LED light box (CAD design, LED wiring, ESP32/WLED) built to house a laser-cut cube portrait of my dad and my son.
Video: removing a downloaded dragon STL from the print bed - not every project starts as an original design.