3D Printing Summer 2026

I had my whole family visiting over the Memorial-Day weekend and we all had a lot of fun. On Monday my oldest son brought over a bunch of fidget toys he printed with his 3D printer. All of the kids loved playing with them and it got me thinking about how far the technology has come since I purchased my 3D printer. The printers you can get today are much more advanced and can do many different things.

My oldest son had a neighbor who got into 3D printing as a business. Every time the neighbor upgrades his printer, he gives the old one to my son. While my printer can print a single color, my son's can print multiple in the same print. There are a number of ways to do that. My son's printer has a single print head (where the hot plastic comes out of) and so it creates purge blocks where it dumps the previous color while waiting for the new one to be ready. Sometimes those purge blocks can be larger than the object you are printing and so you want to be careful with how often you change colors. My son's neighbor has a more expensive printer with multiple print heads, lessening the need to use purge blocks on color changes.

The fidget toys my son brought to our Memorial-Day celebration had multiple different colors and looked very nice compared to what I can print. My younger son who also has a 3D printer also expressed praise for the print quality. This had me asking if I should upgrade to a higher quality printer.

Truth be told, I don't have a lot of use for a 3D printer. Mine sits idle most of the year. About the only time I use it is during the Christmas Holidays when we create ornaments or small and inexpensive gifts for neighbors. It does not make sense for me to upgrade something I rarely use. Would being able to print multiple colors change that? Not really. For me, there is not a compelling reason to upgrade. That being said, there are a number of people using their 3D printers all the time and newer technology will improve what they are making. 

Whiners vs. Problem Solvers

Recently I read a post on LinkedIn that seems to be going viral about the high cost of dice for board games due to the tariffs imposed on goods from China. The post talks about how the company has looked to source dice from other parts of the world but can't find any companies outside of China. As a result, they will have to pass on the added costs to their customers so that a $40 board game will now cost $60. I apologize for not having more details but the post bothered me because it sounded more like whining than someone looking for a solution. I don't like listening to whiners.

I immediately started engineering solutions for the problem and thought about what I would do in the same situation. As someone with a 3D printer, my immediate thought involved a minor investment in high-quality printers capable of churning out all the necessary dice required to meet with game demands. While my current printer might not be up to the challenge, there are a number of models that are and it struck me as very unimaginative to whine about not being able to manufacture dice. 3D printing is what a lot of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) players do when they want to create their own multi-sided dice. Couldn't that work for a board game company?

Then I thought about other possible solutions. Ultimately there is nothing like physically rolling high-quality dice while playing a game. Perhaps until a dice manufacturer can be found the company could provide a smartphone application that simulates the roll of the dice. There are a number of existing apps already and so it wouldn't be that difficult to replace physical dice. While most of us think of standard 6-sided dice, D&D players require many different sided dice and resort to these types of apps when physical dice aren't available.

I'm sure there are even more possible solutions that this board-game manufacturer could employ. Yes these tariffs are going to be painful. But I see the pain as short-term as we shift some of our manufacturing back to the United States after spending the past several decades shipping it out. Fortunately my experience has taught me that growth only comes through trials and in the end it is worth it.

Some Things Require Practice

This week my youngest son and I have been running the 3D printer almost non-stop. We have some PLA filament that needs to be used and so we are printing a bunch of fun little toys. As I type this, I am printing a spinner for my grandson. It may sound like a waste of PLA but there is a reason for doing the print other than just using up material that has a finite shelf life: practice.

Several weeks ago I volunteered to use my 3D printer to make some personal protection equipment for a hospital in California. I originally signed up to help and was asked a number of questions about my experience with my 3D printer. The organizers of the service project didn't want me getting in over my head and not be able to deliver on my commitment. Once they felt comfortable with my help, they sent me the assignment. Ultimately, did I have enough practice?

This past week I got a new computer for my home office. I will be using it for a number of different things and one of them is to help create 3D prints. I loaded up Ultimaker Cura which is used to prepare 3D models for print. In the past, I have sent models to my son and had him prepare them. Now I need to learn how to do it and so that is why I am practicing. It is not as simple as dropping an STL file into Cura and having it prepare the model. There are seemingly hundreds of parameters to tune. I think I have them pretty well dialed in based on some help from my son and so now it is time to give it a shot. Naturally I am starting with something small that only takes about an hour or so to print. If it doesn't turn out then I haven't really lost anything because I learned from the experience and can make adjustments.

I know I have lots to learn about 3D printing and so I will continue to print things. Practice is one of the best ways to learn something new. Remember that as you try to pick up a new skill: it may require practice. Don't let that scare you as it is just a part of learning.

A Late Christmas List

Normally I am much more together and have my Christmas Gift Idea list put together long before now. This year I have been procrastinating it. Part of the reason is that I have pretty much all of the material possessions I could want. Getting more just means I have to find a place for it all. My house is overflowing with stuff to the point that it is time to start getting rid of some of it. Perhaps it might help you to know what things I would keep as I mentally catalog my computer equipment.

One of my favorite gadgets is my color laser printer. You can find them for around $200 and I highly recommend one. A lot of people don't print because they think it is bad for the environment. I agree but sometimes you need to print something and if you are going to use a sheet of paper, you might as well print it in color. In this day and age, I think a black-and-white printer is a waste of money. There is probably a joke in there about how it will practically print money. Just don't try that at home or the secret service will come after you.

Sticking with the theme of printers, my next favorite gadget is my 3D printer. If you have someone on your Christmas list that loves building prototypes or playing with computer aided drawing (CAD) programs, a 3D printer should be on your list. They can get rather expensive and so I only recommend one if you can get away with a less-expensive model. I still enjoy my Creality Ender 3 and think it is a great beginner printer. I must confess though that my son uses it more than I do but that is why I got it.

My next recommendation would be for dual monitors if you have someone on your list that doesn't already have them. While in Japan this past week I did not have the luxury of dual monitors on my laptop and I really missed it. With a bit of searching you can find a second monitor that will work with most computers for only around $120. I suggest a minimum resolution of 1920x1080p. All of my computers have dual monitors at work and at home.

Another peripheral that is often overlooked is a USB CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc drive. My last several laptops have not had internal drives and that is fine most of the time. However every once and a while you really need one and when you do, you need it badly. I have one that I keep on my desk at home and another one that I have in my office at work. They both come in handy every so often.

Finally I have one more recommendation for those of you that might have a really tight Christmas-gift budget. I do not have enough phone charger cables. I use USB-C for one of my phones and a Lightning connector for the other. I carry all sorts of spares and am amazed at how many times other people need to borrow them. On occasion I need them too. A couple of each would make great stocking stuffers.

I don't think there is any big surprise in this list. Perhaps you might not think about how important a color laser printer is or how useful a spare phone charging cable can be. My experience has taught me that they are and you really miss them when you don't have them.

Who Says Men Can't Multitask

This afternoon I am currently working on 5 different projects all at the same time. This got me thinking about how men are not known for being able to multitask, yet I seem to be doing it quite well. I don't think I am that special either. It just takes a bit of technology and anyone can do multiple things all at the same time.

The way that computers multitask is by working on a project for a bit, saving the state of the work, moving to the next project, and so on until tasks are completed. Newer computers have multiple central processing units (CPU's) that work independently from each other. However the process is relatively similar. One CPU will start a task, then the next CPU, and so on until they are all busy. If there are more tasks to do, one CPU will save the state of the work, and start the new task. The reason computers do this well is that they are built to save the state of the current process very efficiently and then start the next one. Humans are a bit less efficient when it comes to switching tasks. I find it very difficult to put one project down and start another when the first one is not yet completed.

Fortunately this afternoon, I am using modern technology to do some of my work for me. The first thing I started is laundry. I don't have to sit and watch the washing machine do its thing and so I moved onto my next task. Last weekend I started printing something on my 3D printer only to have it stop because of a jammed nozzle. After starting laundry, I spent 5 minutes, cleaned the nozzle and restarted the print. So now I have 2 things going at the same time.

Thursday evening I picked up my copy of Red Dead Redemption 2 and loaded it up on my PS4 on the boat. That took about 2 hours before I could start playing. I will be home for the Thanksgiving week and want to play the game as well. After getting the 3D printer started, I started loading the game on my PS4 at home. So now I have 3 things going: laundry, 3D printing, and video game loading.

Next I noticed that the dishwasher had a bunch of dirty dishes and so I finished loading all of the dirty dishes out of the sink. Then I started the dishwasher. That brings me up to 4 things going simultaneously: laundry, 3D printing, video game loading, and washing dishes.

Recognizing that I am doing so much all at the same time, I had to write about it and so that is the 5th thing. I'm feeling pretty productive. The only downside is when everything is finished. Then I will have to fold the laundry, put away the dishes, and clean my 3D print. On the plus side, I can forget all of that and just go play my game.  With my blog entry done, I am now down to 4 tasks.

Another Useful 3D Print

Several years ago, one of the local ski resorts replaced an old 2-person chair with a modern high-speed-detachable quad. They made some of the chairs from the old lift available to the general public. I remember not having much money at the time but I scraped up $250 and bought one. My wife and son brought it home.

The chair sat in my backyard for several months until I scraped together a bit more money and built a frame for it out using wood from Home Depot. Unfortunately I couldn't find a support bar that fit the chair well and so it has been a little off balance. That has not keep people from sitting on the chair and swinging in it and so I haven't spent much effort fixing it.

Last week my son decided that with the help of the 3D printer, we could print a bushing that will hold the bar straight on the support bar. He pulled out my digital calipers and measured the inner diameter of the chair attachment tube and the outer diameter of the support bar. Then he printed a sleeve to go over the support bar. It took over a day to print. Now we will install it this weekend and should have a straight chairlift swing.

After printing the new part, I talked to one of my colleagues who does a lot of 3D printing. As I have mentioned before, he is constantly keeping his 3D printer busy. I asked him his secret and he said, "I look for problems and pain points in my everyday life. Then I try to see if I can print my way out of them."

My First 3D Printer

My youngest son is in the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Utah and has been asking me to get a 3D printer. I finally broke down, gave him a budget, and let him pick one out. It arrived last week and we have been printing things with it ever since.

I have a buddy at work who is really into 3D printing and has his in the office working non-stop. Naturally I went to him and asked his opinion before I set my budget number. He told me to get an inexpensive one and spend some time playing with it. If I really got into 3D printing then I would know what features to look for in the next printer. Furthermore if I didn't really do much with the printer, I wouldn't be out a large sum of money. That is great advice and so I thought I would pass it on.

I decided that there are a number of printers in the $300 range and so that is what I gave my son as a budget. He scoured the internet for reviews and we decided on the Creality Ender 3. We purchased it from Amazon even though we could have gotten a better deal from other sites. We also picked up a few upgrades and 2 rolls of Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament. We decided on black and red printing material.

The printer arrived on a Wednesday and I didn't let my son build it as I wanted that experience. I flew home on Thursday evening and then spent a couple of hours on Friday assembling the printer. It went together very easily, especially after watching several YouTube build videos. I didn't try to set any speed records as I put the printer together because I wanted it to be well built. I also wanted to understand how it was put together should I want to modify it later.

My son came over Friday evening and helped with the final tuning. You have to take some time and level the printing bed or your prints won't turn out. Then we printed a little plastic dog that came on a memory card with the printer. You have the option of printing "gcode" files from a computer connected via a USB cable or from a micro SD card. I like being able to copy a design to the card and have the printer print from it.

The next thing we decided to print is a tiny Darth Vader. My dad is a huge Star Wars fan and has a huge Darth Vader collection. We had the STL file which is just a drawing of the piece. We then ran the STL file into Cura, which is free software that creates the "gcode" file to be printed. There are all sorts of parameters as it ultimately controls what gets output. The printer can't print into thin air and so it adds support material when necessary. Once you are done printing, you can easily pull off the support material. Considering it is our first print where we had to specify a number of custom parameters, I think we did a good job.

Next we changed the print material (PLA) from black to red and printed a "benchy". Imagine Steamboat Willy in Mickey Mouse's first movie and that is what a benchy looks like. It is called a benchy as it serves as a benchmark for the printer and shows you how good your printer is. Our benchy came out well.

Finally I wanted to print something useful. I really don't have a need for a bunch of little plastic toys and so I found something my youngest daughter might like. My wife and I recently gave her an airbrush for decorating cakes. She likes to do that in her spare time and she recently ordered a bunch of stencils. I thought I could print some for her and save her some cash. As stencils are large but not very thick, it is a good test for printing on the entire print bed. I went to Thingiverse and did a search for stencils and found a lot of very interesting ones. The first stencil is of a snowflake and it looks amazing. I have a few other stencils to print for her and she is excited.

So should you run out and get a 3D printer? That is a good question. The Creality Ender 3 is advertised as not being a kit like a number of the other printers on the market. However it took a fair amount of technical knowledge and mechanical skills to put the thing together. If you have trouble putting together your kids' toys on Christmas eve, you may want to get help or not bother getting one. At first I didn't think I would find enough projects to keep my printer busy. Now that I have it, I have a seemingly endless list of projects to print. I don't think I am unique. If you have a spare $300 lying around, I can recommend getting one.

3D Printers

There has been a lot of news about 3D printers and how they are going to revolutionize the manufacturing world. Prices are coming down to the point where you can pick one up for under $700. Of course you will have to assemble it, but that is a lot less than they were even a few months ago.

My youngest son would love it if I purchased a 3D printer as he is taking a robotics class in school and they use a 3D printer to make one-off parts. He uses Autodesk Inventor to design parts. When he is done, he prints them out and has them after a few hours of watching plastic dots get layered on top of each other. 

I don't think the manufacturing world has much to worry about right now as most objects are made from more than plastic. It would be tough to print a new laptop or even a new iPod. About the best you can do with current technology is create a new case for your iPod. Even then, it will probably be very brittle.

I wonder if this will revitalize the hobby kit industry? Perhaps you will be able to buy a kit for a remote-control car that comes with a bunch of downloadable body designs. Perhaps a manufacturer will sell the parts for high-end headphones and then you will be able to print the plastic parts so they fit your head perfectly. When that happens, then manufacturers need to start worrying.