3-D Printing

3-D Printing

Jonah Frey

You have probably heard of 3-D printing, but in case you haven’t, here’s the rundown on it. It melts plastic, which can be PLA (Polylactic Acid), ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), and more, and are called filament rolls, and then it pushes the filament out of a nozzle to layer it and build your item. There are free sites you can use to make your own designs, as well as Thingiverse, which has virtually everything you would or could ever want to print (With the exception of stuff like personalized name tags, which can be easily made on software like Tinkercad). You can print so many things with 3-D printers, from rocket engines to rings. They can also print toys, things that would be useful in your life, like a cat house or the frame for a lamp, or fidgets.

You may think that 3-D printers are thousands of dollars, and so you can’t get them, but actually, there are many good printers that cost less than 100 dollars, like https://www.101hero.com/ or https://startt3d.com/, both of which cost $99. While that is still a large sum, it is a more reasonable price and one that is feasible.

The advantages are near endless since you can make virtually anything made out of plastic, or at least non-super complicated things. However, on that note, they can actually print things with hinges, even if you print it all in one piece.  You may be asking what you can do with these things you can print. There are so many options! You can make presents for people, you can make stands for your phone, you can make croc jibits, and you can even sell stuff. If you are into star wars, good for you. There are 359 pages of results on Thingiverse. You can print pokemon, toys, organizational tools, and more.