Since it first took off, the 3D printing industry has reached a certain level of maturity, and the WTFFF 3D Print Podcast has been there since 2015 to document its development. After airing well over 500 episodes since it started, Tom and Tracy Hazzard finally wrap up Volume 3 of the podcast to make way for more exciting things to come. 3D printing has always been a part of Tom and Tracy’s lives. Now, they are thrilled to embark on an even more exciting journey as they collaborate with Hewlett-Packard to do a special series. Make sure to tune in and don’t forget to subscribe!

After waiting to disclose, Tom shares a 3D printing project that he has completed for Amazon – the 3D Printed Echo Dot Holder Project. As a great real-world 3D product example, Tom takes us into the entire process of how the project came to be which involved rapid design and production. Amazon reached out for a product that will not only hold up their Echo Dot but support a brand as well. Tom shares his experience together with some practical lessons that he learned along the way – from handling a two-color print to the difference in sizes between the CAD file and what the 3D printer prints.

Any of you following the 3D print industry couldn’t help but see that an awful lot has happened in the courts and in the government with 3D printing, in particular regarding 3D-printed firearms. Cody Wilson was the first person to create a 3D printable gun and the plans for a 3D printable gun way back in 2013 or so. A big part of a documentary movie about 3D printing, Print the Legend, tells the early story of Cody and his 3D-printed gun which he put it out there and made it available for the world to download and print their own guns. Eventually, he was shut down by the government. Putting all the regulatory stuff aside, the bigger concern is the copyright issue. Tom delves into the topic of intellectual property and copyright violation in the 3D printing industry.

Recent publications have touted the availability of completely clear FFF 3D Printing material, and some unique projects that have been made using it. Tom & Tracy explore and discuss the potential of this emerging material, and its potential impact on the industry.

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In this WTFFF?! episode we decided to follow up withsomeone we met at SoCal MakerCon. Back then we didn’t have enough time to getin depth about what they do; the company is AstroPrint.

In the SoCal MakerConinterview with him I said that their company is just apps and software, so it didn’tquite excite me. But now that we havelearned more about it, I actually think it really is exciting.

Drew Taylor is one ofthe founders of AstroPrint, and we had a really good interview with him.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or wtfffpodcast.com or shoot us a message at info@wtfffpodcast.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Today Tom and Tracy Hazzard discuss why you should diversify your 3D print freelance work, but maybe not too much! Where and how to get started and how to promote your skills in a professional and concise manner.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Today we are bringing you a follow-up interview that was mentioned in our episode with Brandon Davis where we talked about his mission with the new Blue Dragon and end user 3D printing, of FFF 3D printing. I think this is really interesting that we’re focusing on people who are really choosing FFF printers for end use production. This has happened multiple times now.

I think maybe because it’s more flexible. That’s really just such an interesting thing and that’s what they’re discovering here. Because here partnering with Blue Dragon to make the printer accommodate the materials and do the things that they need. The company we’re talking to is Jumpstart CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility is what the CSR stands for. They’re looking at how you can improve the human condition and health wellness, that kind of thing, through sensor technology, software enabled systems and 3D Printed products.

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Today, we’re going to talk about 3D print plankton by Planktomania. Their website is a great resource for teachers and students out there. This just shows how 3D printing creates endless possibilities specifically in for education. Something micro can now be printed and held and experienced, taking the learning process to a whole new level.

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MorphiApp is a tablet-based CAD software that I think is a great starting point for kids or even adults who are just getting into 3D printing and CAD softwares. It has a free version and a paid version. It is only for Apple or iOS based devices for now though. But is impressive in it’s capabilities, and you can do a lot with it, even in the free version.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

An interesting project out of the Netherlands, a hot bed of 3D printing, is our inspiration for this episode of Design Friday. It comes from designer/architect Brian Peters who made 3D printed bricks that he calls Building Bytes. We are so intrigued by the customization you can get with these, each brick is different and designed to be unique from the others to create these structures. Videos and more over at 3dstartpoint.com.

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An incredible interview with one of the earliest adopters and mover and shaker in 3D printing, Ron Hollis. He’s been fascinated with 3D printing since the early ’90s back when it was only referred to as rapid prototyping. He has a wealth of knowledge and business lessons to learn from such as how current 3D print companies should follow his business model with Quick Parts and how they are missing out on utilizing a key asset of their business. It was fascinating to hear about where everything we are doing today came from and why this economy has worked, along with some surprises that came from potential business failures.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Today, we’re going to talk about what I think is the mantra so far for the year, applied 3D printing, applications of 3D printing, applied technology.

We have a recurring guest, Brandon Davis, he is the founder and CEO of Blue Dragon. Brandon has been so much in sales and customer support in his history. That’s how we met him. He used to work for Leapfrog. He has always been really closely tied with the customers and what they’re doing with the printers and how they’re servicing the printers. He’s really providing a higher level of customer service than a lot of other sales forces that I’ve come across.

I think that has helped him really understand what companies need. Now, he’s built a company that’s making a printer with the applications in mind that is customer’s need and making it flexible enough to be adjusted for that. Now, instead of starting with the printer, we’re starting with the customer first and what they need to print and how they need to print it. That’s fantastic.

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Today, Tom is going to ask Tracy questions about the Women in 3D Printing meetup that she attended virtually. Tracy will talk about the things that she learned and realized in this meetup, like the role of tech in jobs, how everything comes back to art and design and how companies in the industry need to have a little more end user empathy focus.

Dental technology has come a long way since you got braces back in 80s. Now with advanced dental 3D printing as an option, treatment for patients has grown faster and more reliable than ever. The possibilities of high resolution polymer 3d printing are truly endless, with companies fighting to dominate several areas, including digital dentistry. One such company is SprintRay, a 3D Printer manufacturer that has revolutionized conventional fabrication methods in dentistry. Faraz Abidi, Head of Software at SprintRay, discusses how they delivered the Moonray 3D printers to over a thousand dentist offices, putting the power of 3D printing directly into the hands of their customers.

SprintRay’s founders – Amir Mansouri and Hossein Bassir – were two PhDs out of University of Southern California who did original research on Additive Manufacturing, also known as 3D printing. Faraz Abidi started with Sprintray after meeting Amir Mansouri at USC’s on-campus research lab called Contour. After Sprintray had very successful launch on Kickstarter, Faraz joined the team to help them execute orders for the backers. Now SprintRay has become a runaway success, taking the 3D printing industry to a whole another level.

Simplify3D, from my experience and in my opinion, is the best slicing software that I’ve come across so far. It’s not free, but it is well worth it’s price. Simplify3D, not only does it have more capabilities than any other slicing software I’ve used, but it really is a very comprehensive program and it has a well done user interface.

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Some very bad information is out there about the “threat” of 3D printing to businesses. Tom and Tracy Hazzard discuss two recent articles that pushed out some misinformation about the industry. The trademark and licensing industries have gotten 3D printing all wrong, and don’t have their systems set for this new technology.

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While not in the FFF realm, the OLO smart phone printer isdefinitely noteworthy and is the subject of this Tech Tuesday. It came out of avery successful Kickstarter campaign for a resin 3D printer. It’s very simple,very small, very cheap, and uses your smart phone and an app to create thefinished products. Quite an interesting concept and another interesting gatewayinto 3D printing for a new or younger user.

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Today, we’re going to take a deeper dive into scanning, and in particular 3D scanning art, and on an initiative that is really trying to scan the whole world in reality. It’s pretty ambitious. We’ve got Jon Beck on the show. He’s Project Manager at MyMiniFactory for the Scan The World project. It is very cool. It is the idea that they’re going to scan sculptures around the world in hopes of 3D print art preservation and 3D scanned art preservation of course. Also, to really make these 3D scans available to people around the world to be able to print and experience the art when they don’t have the ability to travel to see the original.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Today, we’re going to take a deeper dive into scanning, and in particular 3D scanning art, and on an initiative that is really trying to scan the whole world in reality. It’s pretty ambitious. We’ve got Jon Beck on the show. He’s Project Manager at MyMiniFactory for the Scan The World project. It is very cool. It is the idea that they’re going to scan sculptures around the world in hopes of 3D print art preservation and 3D scanned art preservation of course. Also, to really make these 3D scans available to people around the world to be able to print and experience the art when they don’t have the ability to travel to see the original.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

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Liquid gold or gold 3D printing can forever change the industry of jewelry design. But are all jewelry designers going to need to go learn CAD? Or will that limit their artistic skills and creative process? Also, you’ve got to have the right printer for these types of designs or you’re not going to get the feedback you need.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

We get a little bit critical today of a book called 3D Printing Business: How to Get Rich from Home with 3D Printing. We found this book on Amazon and even though it was only $4, we think it is totally not worth it! But it’s not just the book, it’s the whole concept of ‘3D Print Get Rich Quick’ that we think really hurt the 3D printing industry. 3D printing is not a get rich from home overnight type of thing. It’s just not that.

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Disrupt the normal sales process with human-like marketing automation. Discover how to create an email sequence to get people to take action on their request, and why it’s critical to consider the timing of your follow up emails. You learn why this sequence accelerates prospects to do business with you when compared with typical approaches to email contact.

What do you get when you combine an engineering nerd with passion for marketing automation with a pinch of heavy metal? You get, Paul Sokol!

Paul has a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida but don’t let the scare you. He really understands the psychology of selling disruption. Paul worked for Infusionsoft directly as a Success Coach. He helped hundreds of businesses get up and running and then became Product Manager of Campaign Content and built out all the free marketplace campaigns.

Anyone of our listeners, teachers, educators, or head of the PTA even, anyone who is considering getting 3D printing into schools, this is the one for you. We had a great conversation with Drew Lentz the manager of the MakerBot Learning Team. He shared many helpful and free resources for educators for all kinds of the learning spectrum, whether one is a right brained or a left brained type of learner there’s a program for you to learn 3D modeling. Makerbot has some great events this summer for teachers, hosting Make-A-Thons in major cities across the country.

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Discerning which 3D Print ideas to discard can be difficult, whether it be 3D designs or 3D business ideas. How to avoid “shiny object syndrome” and keep your business balanced between all the different ideas and how to know which idea to follow through on and which to discard and move away from.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

For hardware companies, it has become very challenging to compete in that market. Recovering rocket scientist Joan Horvath and hacker Rich Cameron team up to form Nonscriptum when they realized nobody’s doing any training and authored quite a few books on 3D printing. Joan shares that something that’s been really valuable for them is writing books and teaching 3D printing to try to change how people teach math and science by using 3D prints. Their fascinating partnership works well because it presents two great sides to 3D printing, the educational and the professional side, which are so important because there’s a balance in what you have to teach and what you have to learn between the two sides. What’s important to education and what’s important in terms of the technical side or the design side of things. Learn more about Joan and Rich’s great perspectives to the industry and the education platform.

We had the opportunity to hear Lucy speak in San Diego at the Inside 3D Printing conference last December. We were really impressed with her. We went up to her after her talk and asked her to be a guest on the show, and was more than happy to do it. Lucy was requested by Eduardo Martini via Facebook, he saw the online promo video for their shoes and suggested her as a guest. We’ve been looking for female CEOs in the 3D printing world, and she certainly is one. What we really loved about her, which is why we were so eager to get her on the show and walked right up to her after the talk, was that she’s meticulous and has analyzed and researched every single aspect of their business, how they’re touching it, and how 3D printing works and everything about it.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook ! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

In current news for the 3D printing industry, MakerBot now has a new CEO. That’s 4 CEOs in 4 years. Tom and Tracy Hazzard discuss their thoughts on what caused this and what it means for the company moving forward. They share their opinion on what went wrong and what needs to change for MakerBot.

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Cura is a free slicing software that is created by Ultimaker. Cura has a lot of features, and these are definitely for the advanced user. If you’re serious about doing your own slicing and want to do advanced things that go beyond predefined basic slicing settings, then the Cura slicing software is definitely a good slicer to try out. Tom provides you a thorough guided tour of Cura’s features, and what sets it apart from other slicers.

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Real world 3D print design sales numbers are hard to come by, and we are glad that Austin Robey of Make Mode has generously offered to share his Shapeways shop stats for his line of 3D printed emoticons or emojis. Through our discussion there are many take-aways to gain about what to design, how to market your products, types of consumers are in the different 3D print “store fronts”, and even what platform is already set up for sales success and how others are lacking.

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Trimble SketchUp is a free CAD design program that should not be passed up for new 3D print creators and those collaborating with a team to create 3D models. Looking at who should consider making the jump from the free version to the Pro version and what sorts of designers might want to take a second look at the many different features it has to offer.

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Our guest, Mark Trageser, has been embracing and taking advantage of what 3D printing affords designers in the realm of 3D printing toys. His strong opinions on the 3D print industry and different companies with in it are a breath of fresh air. With his impressive background in design, working with Fisher-Price and Mattel, he has extensive experience in manufacturing toys and shares key consideration points on the complexities of bringing these products to the shelf.

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We got quite a few Robo3D updates after touching base with Braydon Moreno at this years CES. Robo 3D unveiled many new features to their 3D printer platform to include quite a handful of helpfuls apps that integrate with their 3D printer system in a way that many other companies just do not have.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook ! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

We got quite a few Robo3D updates after touching base with Braydon Moreno at this years CES. Robo 3D unveiled many new features to their 3D printer platform to include quite a handful of helpfuls apps that integrate with their 3D printer system in a way that many other companies just do not have.

To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook ! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

In comparison to last year’s this CES 2017 event review features far fewer 3D printing companies, but attending the show this year revealed how the desktop 3D print industry has matured. We are covering it all today from 3D scanners, software, new 3D printers, service bureaus, and even some new design possibilities. For those of you that did not have the opportunity to attend the show, we have you covered.

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Answering a listener question about how to improve 3D prints and outlining a plan of attack to diagnose why the print didn’t come off the build plate beautifully in the first place. With so many variables to consider like print speed, infill, filament, surface smoothness, the CAD design itself, and many other options in the slicing software, it is difficult to narrow down how to improve 3D prints if you don’t know where it went wrong. Tom and Tracy Hazzard offer up a few of their best suggestions that will make big improvements on your 3D printed pieces.

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Coming from the engineering sector, Blake Teipel, President and co-Founder of Essentium, has always been looking at how to advance supply chains and how to advance manufacturing solutions in a wide variety of industries. Partnering with BASF, Blake is disrupting traditional manufacturing processes by bringing strength and speed together without compromising the material set. He shares that they’re committed to creating industrial 3D printing solutions for the world’s top manufacturers to bridging the gap between 3D printing and machining. Blake talks about the industrial or heavy duty use of 3D printing materials and shares what new tools are available on the market today.

3D printers have long advocated how 3D printing is a zero to low waste manufacturing process, and with the development of Buzzed Beer 3D print filament, it has opened the doors to all sorts of recycled filament opportunities. By repurposing the by -products made from the production of beer, this boozy filament makes it fun to “go green” with 3D printing and the perfect example of collaborative capitalism.

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New 3D print technology plays on familiar classic STEAM projects in the classrooms at Rippl3D. Capturing excitement in STEM and STEAM at an early age is critical to educational development and 3D printing is another tool educators can use to drive student engagement. Rippl3D has a database full of 3D print STEAM projects, as well as a long list of 3D print STEAM challenges that come along with taking on this type of endeavor to reach out to students during the short window of opportunity and interest.

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With the emergence of a 3D printed gun, it comes as no suprise that testing has been done on the creation and use of 3D printed bullets. Tom and Tracy Hazzard question what this means and could mean for warfare, safety issues, and users that choose to print these items at home?

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Taking a look at recent 3D print patents for 2017 that have emerged, what the technology means for the 3DP market, and how they may or may not be successful in achieving their goals.

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Funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, the M3D printer was ready for order fulfilment as of last year’s CES show. While the package and product design was well done, many of the 3D printing capabilites of this particular printer model were lacking. Despite a number of failed test prints, the M3D team did have one thing going for them that so many other 3D printer companies and manufactuers simply do not address; customer service.

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Putting 3D printers in schools is taking steps forward to bring the arts back to schools in a new found way by combining technology with creativity and generating new ways for students to learn basic curriculum components such as math, history, and geography. Tom and Tracy advocate why the “A” should be added to traditional STEM programs and curriculum to develop critial thinking as it relates to 3D print design.

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Looking at if it’s feasible for a company to get a solid 3D print business evaluation from in-house sources with Dr. Mike Vasquez of 3Degrees. Businesses large and small should all consider getting a 3D print business evaluation to see if additive manufacturing is a viable option for their products and processes, but the trick is knowing how to find a knowledgeable source from the technology and product side. It’s past time to start exploring the capabilities of 3D printing for your business, and a professionally done 3D print business evaluation can jump the learning curve for any size company.

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Looking at the issue of designing well thought-out 3D printed games and toys and why the market is full of repeats and reinventions. While some use the file depository sites to post the first and second drafts of their 3D printed games and toys to gain valuable design feedback, others misuse them and put up for sale or submission to contests. Identifying the differences between sculpture and design and how it applies to toys and games as functional or artistic pieces as well as the need for a design feedback loop.

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As we enter 2017 Tom & Tracy take a deeper dive into the questions of if the desktop 3D print market is already, or becoming saturated? What does market saturation really mean anyway? What has it looked like in other industries?

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3D printing makes it easy to go green in a number of ways, primarily in product creation. Tom and Tracy Hazzard look at how their past designed products could have been made with far less plastic in a more Earth friendly manner and showing how much plastic is wasted in traditional manufacturing methods. Even the United States Postal Service has a plan for 3D printing reducing their carbon footprint. Combined with more localized manufacturing, it’s easy to go green with 3D printing.

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PLA filament has been the most common 3D printing filament, especially in desktop 3D printing in home and educational environments. The reasons are that it’s pretty easy to print, the temperature required to print is pretty low, and most importantly there are no toxic fumes that are emitted. A material that’s been in development for a number of years and has now become a formidable contender is the PETG filament. It has all these wonderful colors and it’s got some great qualities in terms of translucency. The print characteristics and settings that you would use for it are very similar to PLA in pretty much all respects in terms of speeds and settings in your average 3D printer. Delve deeper into PETG to know if it’s worth switching over and making that shift.

A recent article came out lately that said 3D printing marketplaces like the Shapeways won’t last. That not only does a disservice to Shapeways but the whole 3D printing industry as well. The truth is Shapeways 3D Printing Market offers tremendous value. It is a destination for consumers to shop for 3D printed goods or products. It’s a place where creators can put their 3D print models up and offer them for sale. The reality is it doesn’t matter if we have a place to put up our designs and sell them, unless there is a large audience of site visitors, viewers, shoppers who are going to continue to be driven there. However, if the products are useful and meeting some need or desire those consumers have, then it would become a destination for people to shop.

There have been a lot of changes in the 3D print market in the last year. Some new printers have come out that are really capable at a very affordable price, and there are some that have been discontinued. It’s important for an update and a rundown of some of the best 3D printers under $500. There are a lot of good options for a 3D printer under $500 if that’s your market. Whether it’s for you personally or a gift or even for school, you don’t have to spend a fortune to get into it. The 3D printers that are mentioned are ready to go out of the box and don’t have to be assembled. Listen on to check out 3D printers under $500 or even less than $300.

There are a lot of different 3D printers available under $500 retail due to a lot of change in the market in the last year. A bunch of new players and a couple of Steady Eddies are doing really well. One of our favorite entry-level 3D printers has been discontinued. This brought on the realization that everything’s temporary, and if you’re not growing and moving forward, you’re shrinking and going backward. Is the 3D print education market saturated then? Does this mean it’s reaching a point where a company, even though they have a better product, doesn’t have as deep a pocket and not as big a marketing budget? The education market is one of the biggest markets in desktop 3D printing. You’ve got a lot of people battling it out for that space and it’s going to be survival of the fittest.