September 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Alex and Matt discuss their experiences with 3D printing, highlighting their backgrounds and current roles. Alex, who has been 3D printing for seven years, runs AG3D Printing, a service focusing on part success and storytelling. Matt, with six years of experience, recently went full-time with his own company, Niche 3D, to help companies adopt 3D printing.
They share their first printers—Alex's Rigidbot Big and Matt's Prusa MK2S—and the challenges and lessons learned from them. Both emphasize the importance of hands-on experience and the evolving capabilities of 3D printing technology, including its potential to revolutionize manufacturing and reduce waste and emissions.
Links:
Alexander G. Orphanos | AG3D Labs: ag3d-printing.com
Matthew Guy | Niche 3D LLC: Niche3D.io
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Layered Insights Pilot Episode
00:42 Alex of AG3D's Origin Story in 3D Printing
01:39 Matt of Niche 3D's Origin Story in 3D Printing
03:34 Matt's first year with Niche 3D Full Time - How it's Going
04:52 When you Love 3D Printing at Work & at Home...
05:58 Our FIRST 3D Printers & Early Experiences
12:04 Transitioning a Hobby to Professional 3D Printing
13:08 Challenges and Opportunities in the 3D Printing Industry
14:04 The 'MakerBot' Era and the Early Days of 'everyone's first 3D Printer'
18:35 The Age Before Ample Amazon 3D Printing Supplies & Spare Parts...
20:04 Alex Storytime: How I learned about manufacturing & $ from Ed the Toolmaker
21:22 Low vs. High Volume Part Production: 3D Printing vs. Injection Molding & more
22:11 There are STILL so many people who haven't learned about 3D printing or its potential
27:10 Our Shared Mission for Making 3D Printing Accessible to Everyone
29:40 Q: "What is the total number of printers that you have currently?"
30:17 How to Follow, Support, and Work With Matt & Alex
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Today In Space (00:00):
You you. Welcome to the podcast. We've got
(00:27):
myself, Alex and my partnerhere, Matt, and we're here when
we talk about printing. We'restill the pilot episodes. We're
still figuring stuff out, butfigured we could start by just
talking about our experience andkind of what we're both doing.
So I'll start here. So my nameis Alex. I've been 3d printing
for a while now. I think sevenyears I started 3d printing at
(00:51):
home. I bought, I was working asan engineer, and I bought a
printer and started building it.We'll get into that in a second
here, because that's our firsttopic, our first 3d printer. But
I currently run EG, 3d printing,which is a 3d printing service,
right? We have 3d printers. Wecan 3d print stuff for you, but
we also focus on part success.And like making three models,
(01:11):
I've been three modeling for 15years, started in plastic
injection molding, moved to 3dprinting, and I've been working
in the industry for a while now,and then I've got the part
detective, which is our likepart focused service, but more
importantly, it's storytelling.And we're kind of diving into
the stuff that the mysteriesthat we solve in every single 3d
(01:33):
print. So we've got a blog at 80printing.com you can check out.
That's enough about me. Let's goover to
Unknown (01:39):
Matt. Matt, I ended up doing a internship at one of the
big engineering places. So Iactually was able to work when I
was younger in some of thehigher end industrial three
printers, talking about, likethe EOS powder, some of the SLS.
So I kind of got a taste for itthere even high school. I kind
of like want to know be one ofmy first purchases out of
(02:01):
college was a cheap printer. Andluckily, you know, at the time,
they started to get cheaper andmore affordable. Mm, when was
that? What year was that? Matt,I think it was around, well, I
did the internship around 2014Oh, wow. I got my first printer.
It was around, like, graduatedcollege and six, it was probably
(02:21):
2018 or 17. I think we've beendoing three printing around the
same amount of time, seven oreight years, I think, yeah. So,
yeah. So then, you know, I wasthrough buying one myself. I
gained up skills to actually getinto the industry and get a job
in industry. So it wasdefinitely like, you know, self
(02:43):
made and taught thing to be ableto get an industry and have
enough knowledge to be able toexplain, you know, almost like
your part detective. I rememberbecause we started, well, Alex
started a little bit before mein printing world, but we were
at the same company, at onepoint for me to get in that
company, you know, it was a lotof, almost what the part
(03:05):
detective was. So it was a lotof, you know, they interviewed,
they showed me a lot of parts,and asked, you know, what went
wrong here? What would you do tofix this or fix that? So it's
almost the same thing. And, youknow, just for me, printing at
home, I was able to answer,like, all the questions from
just the my own hands onexperience, yeah, yeah. You
know, I, I'd say the my firstthree printer was, wait
Today In Space (03:27):
before you start, before you start, you got
to tell us more about whatyou're doing now. No, it's okay.
Unknown (03:34):
We'll get there. Yeah. So I've been like Alex, I've
been a couple of printingstartups, and just this year,
I've branched out to doing myown company, full time niche 3d
so I've been running it for twoyears since now, but it's been
mostly just consulting withother companies. So the whole
(03:54):
idea of the company was, I, youknow, being at these other
companies, I saw how hard it wasto sell printers, sell the
technology and get people to useit. So I really want to get into
how do I get more companies andpeople to use either the
printers or use three printedobjects? So I found some
(04:16):
companies that needed parts, andI did a lot of product
development and design the partsand and mass manufacture the
parts, all within my condo. Sothat's, you know, over the two
years, I've gotten, you know, ahandful of clients that I can
now run it full time, get moreclients work on selling,
(04:39):
eventually, my own products andsome materials and other things.
So that's kind of the goal in myhead right now, and focus on
applications and making productsand usable parts for people. Get
to talk, get more people use thetechnology.
Today In Space (04:52):
Yeah, yeah. We Yeah. We connected. Yeah, that
the company we were working atat the same time, the middle of.
Pandemic. And, yeah, we feltlike we connected at the same
level. There's like this. You'dthink it would be very common,
but in the 3d printing industry,it's actually very uncommon that
people actually use a 3d printeron a regular basis. And I think
(05:15):
we found ourselves as like aevery, every place that I've
worked at, or, you know, youtalk to enough people, there's,
there is this group of peoplethat 3d print at home. They 3d
print during their work hours,off their work hours, and are
just gluttons for punishment.But they just, we love it, you
know. And it's to the pointwhere, you know, we want to do
(05:36):
in our own way. But it seemslike the buy your printer, learn
3d printing. It's, it's was sucha I look back on it seven, eight
years ago, and I would not bewhere I am with my skill set or
as as providing value in thisindustry, whether it's working
for a company or working formyself without that. It's really
(05:57):
a
Unknown (05:58):
well like I was about to say, I think buying my first
three printer was the biggestinvestment I've made in myself,
you know? Yeah, it's gotten meto learn the skills. And it's
not me to where I am now withinmy career, it's, you know, this
is kind of almost a dream job tobe where I am right now. Yeah,
Today In Space (06:17):
absolutely. So let's, let's go right into it.
Then what was, what was yourfirst 3d printer?
Unknown (06:22):
It was a Prusa, MK, I think MK, 2s okay, so just like
you was when I bought thatwasn't a simple so then, you
know, I think it took end ofvideo recording everything, but
it's way too long. It was like,I think 14 to 18 hours of
Today In Space (06:42):
building. Wow, wow. Do
Unknown (06:45):
you remember how long it took you to build yours? So
Today In Space (06:49):
my first was at first, yeah, my first 3d printer
was the rigid, bought big, whichI don't think a lot of people
really, no, yeah, that was myfirst 3d printer. So that was a
different one. It is different.That was a Kickstarter project
that, and it was larger thananything else in in the back
then, that was a huge one. Yeah,yeah, it was, it was big. And I
(07:11):
still think that like bed. Sobasically, a lot of the like the
Prusa is a square. It was a 250by 250 roughly six millimeters.
But, like, basically, that bedwas like a big rectangle, you
know? So you had the bed thatwould move back and forth, and
(07:32):
then you had the XY system that,or the x system that moved,
which you don't, you don't seethat a ton anymore, especially
since it was a cube and 2z axesinstead of the kind of, I guess
it's more like, it's similar toPrusa, yeah, bedslinger style,
yeah, bed slinger, yeah. Thatwas a lot of fun because so I
(07:55):
had worked in injection moldingwhen I got that printer. And for
me, I had was working on, like,a research and development
project where I had to learn 3dprinting in that case, it was
like metal in that case, but Ijust worked with a bunch of tool
makers who knew G code and Mcode. So I, like, saw what was
possible. And I rememberthinking when I first started
(08:17):
that job, like, I want to get tothe point where, like, I can
walk into a shop and like, knowwhat a machine is when I'm
looking at it. So, like, buyingthe 3d printer was like, Hey,
I'm gonna do this. And I think Idon't remember the price, but
the ridge above big was probablyanywhere from 600 to, like 800
Unknown (08:37):
bucks. Pre mine was about Yeah,
Today In Space (08:41):
so, and that was a kit, so I had to put it
together and assemble it. Theproject started off really good.
It was a good project. Theperson running it did their best
with it, but there were supplychain issues, and it was just,
it was my first foray into,like, how a 3d printer company
can fail, you know, and they hadresourced. The big problem with
(09:02):
that printer was that the powersupply that they had sourced was
from China, and the quality thatthey were getting was so bad,
some people had fires, and justthe what they had done to solder
that power pack was just notgood, and that that printer
still sits in my basementwaiting for a new power supply.
But I learned everything that Ineeded to. I learned slicers, I
(09:23):
learned how to do stuff, andthen I ended up getting an XYZ
DaVinci pro three in one, a lotof a lot of words, but that's,
that's what I launched ag 3dwith, because the rigid bot just
wasn't reliable enough. And theonly, I don't think the Mark I
think at that time, I'm not sureif the Prusa mark two, I think
(09:46):
the mark one was still rollingaround at that time, so, or I
just didn't know about the marktwo, but eventually I got the
mark two. But yeah, the firstwas the rigid bop big. Yeah,
Unknown (09:56):
that's crazy. I couldn't believe you started
your business with that. Uh. DaVinci printer.
Today In Space (10:01):
I started that business, and I was even playing
around with like, custom G codemanipulations to do, like multi
color. So I was doing multicolor back, really, 2016 Yeah.
My first project, which stillgets hits on the website, is,
was a Pokemon chess board. Ohyeah, show me that, yeah. So I
made a pause on the G code. Ireplaced the manually swapped
(10:25):
the filament, and then just letit print. So that, to me, was
like, you know, that was mindblowing to think that, like, oh
yeah. Back then, back then,like, before bamboo and all
these other multi color the MMUfrom Prusa,
Unknown (10:40):
even Prusa, I think on the MK Two West, or even the
three they in the slicer thatthat you add pauses to change
colors. Yes, you were manuallygoing
Today In Space (10:52):
to, I was, I was going into the file, yeah, yeah,
which is a great learningexperience. But,
Unknown (10:57):
yeah, I think everyone should at least that's, you
know, doing it morerecreationally. Should learn
some G code and edit some Gcode. Yeah, powerful things you
can do with editing the G code.A lot of things you can also do
wrong. But
Today In Space (11:13):
you can really break something. You can really
break something, but one, onethought of like, the first 3d
printer was like, what are some,like, big lessons that you took
away from that first
Unknown (11:25):
one? I'm not sure I it was, you know, I was, I got
pretty good with it. So I was,you know, printing my own
things. I printed, like, IronMan helmet. Nice that, you know,
that took back then, right? Ifelt like it took forever. And
then, you know, put themtogether, because there's a lot
of pieces, and then, you know,sanding it down to actually get
(11:49):
a really good finish tookforever. So it's like, you know,
when you're post processingstuff later on, that's when
you're like, oh, I should,there's like, so many things I
should change in the slicer toto produce a better part, so I
have less post processing andless work I have to do it on
afterwards. But then I was alsolike, at the time Craigslist was
(12:10):
big, so I'd actually found athree printing gig on
Craigslist. Wow. So I wasprinting just the area around
Central No, around Central Park,around Fenway Park, for a guy,
so he needed, like, 200 of them.And wow, you know, I realized
(12:32):
just simple jobs like that,except then, when I got that
job, either before, after Ipurchased, I think, another
Prusa, MK 2s and just to keep upwith that, I mean, that job paid
just one job of only, like,maybe 150 200 parts paid for
more than both printers. So itwas like, you know, if you find
(12:57):
jobs, the return you get on theprinter is like, super quick,
yeah. So then it's like, oh,yeah, you can, you know, you can
start business and actually makesome money doing this quite
easily. And, you know, I feellike a lot of the industrial
printers, or even industrialmachines that other people use
(13:19):
to either manufacture a part tomake. Prototypes are just so
expensive and you don't hit, ittakes forever to hit the return
on the machine. Well, you know,some of these consumer level
printers, you can get the returnon the machine in just or two
machines, or a couple, you know,several machines in just one
decent sized job. Yeah. So then,you know, then that's when you
(13:42):
start collecting three printers,you know, you get the, get the,
you know, this thing for there,and just collect more. And if
you start, you know, once youknow, the second one I started
buying. Even the second one Ibought was from like Craigslist
(14:02):
or some used ones. So back then,a lot of people didn't know how
to print, so they're havingsimple problems, or they'd say
their printer was broken. Andyou could easily go pick up some
really good printers for cheap,if you knew how to fix the
printer or use it when otherpeople were just having simple
user mistakes. Yeah. So it was,like a really good time to get
actually really, really solidmachines for cheap, if you knew
(14:25):
what you're doing.
Today In Space (14:26):
Yeah, it was, it was a untapped potential for a
lot of people. That's, like,around the era of, like the
maker bot, when that was at itspeak, and everyone bought, you
know, that was like the bigthing people bought for, like,
their their kids, or for theirschools, was the was the maker
bot, and it's so many of themended up just gathering dust.
(14:47):
And, I mean, there's still, Ithink, yeah, still plenty of
them. But I think the bamboo is,like the first one, that is
probably not gathering as muchdust as any other consumer.
Unknown (14:59):
Mm. Three, yeah, for people that aren't experts,
right? You know, right, they endup No, not using it a couple
times on either putting in thebasement or trying to sell it. I
think it's, yeah, it's so simplefor people to use that they're
actually utilizing it. Andactually, you know, using it
maybe every month or whatever.So,
Today In Space (15:21):
yeah. And the amount of free models that are
out there now is, like, therewas a lot, 2018, 2019, and now
it's like, especially with allthe multi color stuff, there's
like a Thingiverse was likebrand new back then. Now,
printables seems to be one ofthe one of the top ones.
Unknown (15:39):
Yeah, yeah. Back then it almost felt like you need to
be able to model a little bit.Yeah. It's like, yes, you need
something really, reallyspecific. You know, it might
already be out there, or there'sjust enough of other stuff out
there to make and utilize theprinters.
Today In Space (15:53):
No, that's true. That's true. Yeah, I think for
my lesson for my first printer,was, you know, I had gone the
Kickstarter route, so I didn'thave, like, a customer support
to go through. There was nolike, oh, this broke. Will cover
it. It was your you're basicallyon your own. It was just
(16:16):
scrolling forums trying tofigure out what someone else
might have actually documentedwhat they did. So then I went
with a company like XYZprinting, because it was a
company that was a little bitmore. It was a well established
company very well at the time.Yeah, yeah. And like, the
printer ran well, like, and thisis, this is the 3d hubs era. So
I don't most people who printnow probably have no idea about
(16:39):
3d hubs, but it was a, it wasbasically a marketplace that
people with 3d printers couldprint a part, send it in, send a
picture in, so that you got,like, qualified like, oh, you
could print this part, then youcould get jobs from people. And
this was like, it's kind of likethe Etsy for people who wanted
to 3d print anything. They couldjust be like, Hey, I
Unknown (16:59):
proto labs does this now, I think, Kim, Oh, really.
Labs bought them in there's likea separate there's like three
different pro lab sections rightnow, but one of them is exactly
this. You get pre qualified, andthen you send it out, and they
pick someone, not random, butright you end up paying cheaper.
But you, you run a little bit ofa risk. It's not, they're not
(17:21):
printing it in house. They'rehaving someone else print it
like through defense wise,
Today In Space (17:26):
yeah, yeah. So that was that was a big,
especially when I started takingon jobs, it was a big it's a bit
of learning experience of whatit means to have, like a more
reliable printer. And once theDa Vinci started getting used,
after a little bit, I juststarted to realize that it had
limitations. So I then movedinto the open source world with
(17:47):
like Prusa, mainly because, likeall the videos that I was
watching to learn how tocustomize my own G code and all
this stuff, most of those peoplewere using Prusa. So it was like
all the education
Unknown (17:59):
document big community started was with the process,
Today In Space (18:03):
yeah, yeah. And then, and now, there's just so
many people online who makevideos about what they do. You
know, there's Stefan, there's,there's Tom, there's, I mean,
there's, there's three printingnerd, there's Joel. There's so
many people. Andrew sink isanother one. Like, there's just
so many people out there thatare that are that I've gotten to
meet over the years, which hasbeen kind of kind of cool, yeah,
(18:27):
yeah, nerding out on someYouTuber that, you know, it's
someone from the outside. But,like, Who is that? But, you
Unknown (18:33):
know, it's like, this is the guy type community, very
tight community, yes,
Today In Space (18:37):
yes. And that's the interesting thing. And I
think something we talked aboutwhen we worked together, how
small this industry is, not evenjust like the you bought a
printer at home, but working inthe 3d printing industry, you're
just gonna, if you work in itlong enough, you're gonna meet
enough people that you thenyou'll work at another job with
that's happened with us, andjust making connections, and
(19:01):
then someone you knew workssomewhere else, and it's time to
leave, and you reach out andboom, you know, you've you've
got a job, and, you know, somepeople, so it's definitely
really unique in that way. Butthe open source thing made a
huge difference. Once thatbecame a thing, people started
making more hardware. So thingslike heaters and nozzles and
blocks and and all those thingswere just easier to get and they
(19:23):
were cheaper.
Unknown (19:24):
Or even the even just some, like the open source on
the Prusa, there's tons and tonsof parts online. They could just
download and print out, helpmodify the printer. And yes, let
you install new hardware andstuff and help tune it. And it
was, you know, half felt likehalf the time you're just
printing stuff in your printer.Your printer.
Today In Space (19:44):
That's true, yeah, no, it's very different
times in today's world. Butyeah, that that, that was the
first printer, kind of adisaster for me, but of great
learning experience. Yeah. Nowit was worth it. Then it was
worth it to your point, like thethe money that I put. In to
invest in myself, to learnsomething, to to have something,
(20:04):
was huge. And I think back likeit started with I was, I was
working at an injection moldingcompany, and I worked with a guy
who was very close to retirementcalled ed, and Ed was an
injection molding technician, sohe would run these machines and
keep them going and qualifythem, because those, those are
the big presses. They're makingmillions of parts. I learned so
(20:25):
much from him. But, like, he athome, had a barn where he had a
bunch of these injection moldingmachines that he owned that are
in the barn, and he had jobs,and he would just, like, when
he's at work, yeah, he's like,he'd have a bucket underneath,
and it would just keep runningjobs. And his wife would come in
every few hours and empty thebox and replace it. And he would
(20:48):
tell me, and I this, it's in mybrain, and it's what keeps
driving me. Is like he wouldsay, every time that thing
opens, it's money, yeah, money.And that, like blew me away. Was
the first time I understoodmanufacturing. And that was when
I was like, Well, if I got a 3dprinter like that, I can't buy
(21:09):
an injection molding press rightnow, but I could buy, like, I
think the I was using one for myR D that was like, very low end,
but cost $85,000 you know,
Unknown (21:22):
just the tooling for the models is crazy, exactly,
Today In Space (21:25):
yeah. And so, like, that's the big think, the
big thing between, like,manufacturing volumes in
printing versus manufacturingvolumes in injection molding is
just the upfront cost ofeverything.
Unknown (21:38):
Well, the fact that, like, we can print production
level and use products at homeis just crazy. Like, yeah, you
can back then, you know, you hadto either have a machine shop or
somehow have access to injectionmolder or something. But, like,
now we're just at home,inventing, making stuff, and
(21:59):
it's like, you know, out ofplastic. It's crazy. It's just
It enables us to do now, is socrazy.
Today In Space (22:06):
It is. It really is. And it like it was saying
it's come a long way. Andsometimes when you're in the
thick of it, it can feel likeit's kind of like run out, like
it's drawn itself out, you know,like you can get stuck in this
the, you know, being too closeto the fire, if you will. You
know, where you're like, oh,man, everyone's thought of this.
(22:28):
But every, every time I feelthat, there's always someone new
that I meet that's never evenheard of 3d printing or or seen
a 3d printer, yeah. So there's,there's just so much ample stuff
out there. And as people thatare trying to, like, build their
own businesses here, it's athat's a reminder to keep every
day of like, Nope, there'salways new opportunity out
(22:50):
there. Yeah, find it. People
Unknown (22:52):
also don't understand, like, the parts and technology
that can be used right now. So,like, sometimes I'll do, like, a
craft fair, just for fun. Yeah,you know, I'll sell some stuff,
but then I'll have anothertable, just like crazy examples
of parts that I've printed. So,you know, I'll have some metal
parts, or some super soft parts,or some full color parts. And
(23:15):
people are always like, this wasprinted. Like, people don't
understand, you know, they rightnow we're the age of, you know,
people might know the simple FDMprinters and seeing some of the
parts that come off of there,but then some of the more
industrial printers, or some ofthe newer materials and stuff,
people are just like, theirminds are still being blown so
they know something like thatexists.
Today In Space (23:35):
Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned this at the
beginning, but like, the theapplication of 3d printing. Like
it seems like at least the erathat we're entering now, it's
less about the flashiness or thenewest tool, even though there's
plenty of people selling newprinters. Yeah, it is about the
part at the end of the day, youknow, what are you gonna make?
(23:57):
Yeah? Yeah. And like in when Iworked in the industry has an
Application Engineer. It wasabout the benchmark, is what we
called it. But it was,basically, it was this person
wants to spend, you know, whatis it, six to seven figures on
an industrial printer. Well,let's prove out the ROI case.
(24:18):
Let's make a benchmark partthat's similar to something that
you would make, or maybe is likefits something that's a problem
that if you had this part, youcould save, you know, 1000s,
millions of dollars. And so thatwas the job of the application
engineer, was go in there,figure out what part they need,
and if they have a part, analyzeit to figure out how is it going
(24:40):
to work for this process, andtoday, that seems to be where
the value is for most people. Ithink it's always been the case.
I just think it's more evidentsince we're looking, yeah, well,
I
Unknown (24:50):
think still a lot of people don't understand. Like,
you know, people think thatprint, you can just print
anything, right? Yeah. So theydon't see that there's a
process. And skills to, youknow, get what you actually need
out of the part. Yeah. So, likeyou said, there's a process that
we go through to figure out, youknow, the best way to print it,
(25:11):
the best materials, orientation,whatever. So the customer
actually gets the part that theyneed and it functions like it
should. So it's, it's not some,you know, magic box that just
spits out a part. There's stilla lot of process and thought
behind how we're manufacturing,how we're printing it, how we're
design, even designing it,designing, it's a big thing
(25:32):
right now, designed for out ofmanufacturing.
Today In Space (25:34):
Yeah, totally. And I think tying it kind of all
together here, if you reallywant to, like, accelerate your
your understanding of 3dprinting. If you're like, brand
new to 3d printing, and you justfound this, and you're like,
Wow, this seems kind of cool. Oryou're trying to get into the 3d
printing industry, or start a 3dprinting company, like, running
a 3d printer, using a 3d printeris the best way to understand,
(25:57):
like, where the value is for a3d printer. And
Unknown (26:00):
then, you know, figure out your application. We have a
cool hobby that you can makesome stuff for that's, you know,
very specific to that hobby.It's, it's cool once again. But
then you just gotta find theapplications that you can make
some awesome
Today In Space (26:12):
stuff for. Yeah, I know I'm on a string of Home
Improvement stuff, so just stuffaround the house I'm working on.
I built a spice rack the otherday for my area, you know,
that's not, it's not somethingthat was like a big box store
buy, like there was nothing forthat. And like, when you think
about 3d printing for yourself,whether you're a company or just
at home, when it's for you andyou're not charging somebody
(26:35):
else to make it, the costsavings are, oh yeah, wild. Why?
Unknown (26:40):
When I, when I moved into this condo I had bought in
the three printer before, youknow, maybe half a year before I
moved in. So then, when I didn'thave anything, you know, like,
why would I leave the house? Ican just like, yeah, print the
stuff I need for around thehouse, like, I know, like I need
a holder for something, orbrackets, like, just tossed on
the printer, and that's it. Youknow, it cost me what a couple
(27:03):
bucks or pennies for forsomething, no, it's amazing tool
Today In Space (27:08):
for around the house stuff. It really is. And
like, one of the missions when Istarted 80 3d was to help bring
us closer, in whatever waypossible, to a reality where 3d
printers are as common in thehome, as they are with, like,
your paper printer.
Unknown (27:24):
That was one the thoughts I had to earlier, yeah,
Today In Space (27:28):
yeah. And I think we're lurching towards
that future, but there's,there's a lot of things that you
know need to happen, but if weget there, it could look
something like, you know,everyone has a printer in their
home, like you do a paperprinter, but you're not buying
stuff from Amazon anymore.You're buying the supplies and
(27:48):
the designs from people, yeah,and so basically, like, you're
taking out the middleman of theproduct, and you're sourcing the
material, or, you know, you justbuy it, and it's, it's, it's
there. And then obviously therewould be an advantage, like if
you could design, or if youcould make your own material,
then, then whatever increasingcost for all those things that
(28:10):
happens, you know, you could,you could offset it, and you'd,
you know, that that could be acrazy future that we live in,
kind of like the replicator inStar Trek, you know,
Unknown (28:19):
yeah, I mean, you it, it affects so much stuff.
Because, you know, moving goods,that's warehouse space. It's
greener, so it's if you could,you know, even move like 10% or
maybe 5% of the products arejust being made in people's
homes. It would have greatlyaffect tons of things.
Today In Space (28:40):
Yeah, yeah. No, trans, no, transportation, of
all of those things, just tomake a part,
Unknown (28:45):
especially if it's so no, it's something stupid simple
and replacement parts,exorbitant amounts of money for
replacement parts. But, I mean,you could a lot of those stuff.
You can maybe just print at
Today In Space (28:58):
home. Yeah? No, absolutely. Well, I think we've,
we've covered it pretty, prettythoroughly for the first, for
the first episode here. So anyother thoughts you have on your,
on your first three
Unknown (29:09):
printer? No, I still have mine. It's, that's awesome.
I'm not using it. It's, it'snot, it's not worth repairing
that at this point. Yeah, theusing it for so much, the the
wires on the bed will, like,loosen in different points, and
(29:29):
then you get short circuits. SoI think at the point I I'd have
to replace the motherboard onit. This isn't worth replacing
at this point,
Today In Space (29:39):
totally. So okay, so last thing, what is the
total number of printers thatyou have currently?
Unknown (29:48):
Without counting, I think it's about 16.
Today In Space (29:51):
Okay, yeah, let's see. I'm close, but I
think you've got me there. I'vegot 1234, Five and then four
resin printers. So nine, yeah,I've got nine printers. No 10.
Sorry, I got another one the
Unknown (30:08):
other day. You got me? I don't have any. I sold all my
resin printers.
Today In Space (30:12):
Yeah, and that's a, that's a whole other thing we
could definitely get into in thefuture. But, um, but yeah, tell,
tell everybody where they canreach out to you if they they
want to learn what you're doing,or if they're looking to jump in
and do some business with Yeah.
Unknown (30:25):
You can find me on niche.io, we're also on
LinkedIn. You can find me onLinkedIn, Matthew guy,
Today In Space (30:31):
awesome. Yeah. And you can check me out at, AG,
3d printing.com and, AG, 3dprinting on Instagram. AG, 3d
printing lab on Tiktok, and thenwe've got a YouTube channel, ag
printing, and then you can checkme out on LinkedIn, Alex G or
fanos. And, yeah, that's itcool. Well, thanks for joining
(30:52):
us, everybody. This is the pilotepisode. I don't even think we
have a name yet, but we'llfigure it out. But thanks for
joining us. We will keepbringing you more three printing
content. And if you guys haveanything that you want us to
talk about or dive into. I mean,we already have a huge list of
things that we're going to talkabout, but we definitely want to
hear from you and what you'dlike to have us talk about or
(31:14):
have people on so let us know
Unknown (31:17):
printing problems. You know, we can do a little part
detective on here, or just someanalysis of different things.
Today In Space (31:23):
Absolutely, yeah, we, we will have no
problem going into the nittygritty if you want us to, so
just let us know. Cool, untilthen. Have a good one. Stay
curious, and we'll we'll see youon the next one. Keep printing.
Keep printing. Do it.
You you. Welcome to the podcast. We've got
(00:27):
myself, Alex and my partnerhere, Matt, and we're here when
we talk about printing. We'restill the pilot episodes. We're
still figuring stuff out, butfigured we could start by just
talking about our experience andkind of what we're both doing.
So I'll start here. So my nameis Alex. I've been 3d printing
for a while now. I think sevenyears I started 3d printing at
(00:51):
home. I bought, I was working asan engineer, and I bought a
printer and started building it.We'll get into that in a second
here, because that's our firsttopic, our first 3d printer. But
I currently run EG, 3d printing,which is a 3d printing service,
right? We have 3d printers. Wecan 3d print stuff for you, but
we also focus on part success.And like making three models,
(01:11):
I've been three modeling for 15years, started in plastic
injection molding, moved to 3dprinting, and I've been working
in the industry for a while now,and then I've got the part
detective, which is our likepart focused service, but more
importantly, it's storytelling.And we're kind of diving into
the stuff that the mysteriesthat we solve in every single 3d
(01:33):
print. So we've got a blog at 80printing.com you can check out.
That's enough about me. Let's goover to
Unknown (01:39):
Matt. Matt, I ended up doing a internship at one of the
big engineering places. So Iactually was able to work when I
was younger in some of thehigher end industrial three
printers, talking about, likethe EOS powder, some of the SLS.
So I kind of got a taste for itthere even high school. I kind
of like want to know be one ofmy first purchases out of
(02:01):
college was a cheap printer. Andluckily, you know, at the time,
they started to get cheaper andmore affordable. Mm, when was
that? What year was that? Matt,I think it was around, well, I
did the internship around 2014Oh, wow. I got my first printer.
It was around, like, graduatedcollege and six, it was probably
(02:21):
2018 or 17. I think we've beendoing three printing around the
same amount of time, seven oreight years, I think, yeah. So,
yeah. So then, you know, I wasthrough buying one myself. I
gained up skills to actually getinto the industry and get a job
in industry. So it wasdefinitely like, you know, self
(02:43):
made and taught thing to be ableto get an industry and have
enough knowledge to be able toexplain, you know, almost like
your part detective. I rememberbecause we started, well, Alex
started a little bit before mein printing world, but we were
at the same company, at onepoint for me to get in that
company, you know, it was a lotof, almost what the part
(03:05):
detective was. So it was a lotof, you know, they interviewed,
they showed me a lot of parts,and asked, you know, what went
wrong here? What would you do tofix this or fix that? So it's
almost the same thing. And, youknow, just for me, printing at
home, I was able to answer,like, all the questions from
just the my own hands onexperience, yeah, yeah. You
know, I, I'd say the my firstthree printer was, wait
Today In Space (03:27):
before you start, before you start, you got
to tell us more about whatyou're doing now. No, it's okay.
Unknown (03:34):
We'll get there. Yeah. So I've been like Alex, I've
been a couple of printingstartups, and just this year,
I've branched out to doing myown company, full time niche 3d
so I've been running it for twoyears since now, but it's been
mostly just consulting withother companies. So the whole
(03:54):
idea of the company was, I, youknow, being at these other
companies, I saw how hard it wasto sell printers, sell the
technology and get people to useit. So I really want to get into
how do I get more companies andpeople to use either the
printers or use three printedobjects? So I found some
(04:16):
companies that needed parts, andI did a lot of product
development and design the partsand and mass manufacture the
parts, all within my condo. Sothat's, you know, over the two
years, I've gotten, you know, ahandful of clients that I can
now run it full time, get moreclients work on selling,
(04:39):
eventually, my own products andsome materials and other things.
So that's kind of the goal in myhead right now, and focus on
applications and making productsand usable parts for people. Get
to talk, get more people use thetechnology.
Today In Space (04:52):
Yeah, yeah. We Yeah. We connected. Yeah, that
the company we were working atat the same time, the middle of.
Pandemic. And, yeah, we feltlike we connected at the same
level. There's like this. You'dthink it would be very common,
but in the 3d printing industry,it's actually very uncommon that
people actually use a 3d printeron a regular basis. And I think
(05:15):
we found ourselves as like aevery, every place that I've
worked at, or, you know, youtalk to enough people, there's,
there is this group of peoplethat 3d print at home. They 3d
print during their work hours,off their work hours, and are
just gluttons for punishment.But they just, we love it, you
know. And it's to the pointwhere, you know, we want to do
(05:36):
in our own way. But it seemslike the buy your printer, learn
3d printing. It's, it's was sucha I look back on it seven, eight
years ago, and I would not bewhere I am with my skill set or
as as providing value in thisindustry, whether it's working
for a company or working formyself without that. It's really
(05:57):
a
Unknown (05:58):
well like I was about to say, I think buying my first
three printer was the biggestinvestment I've made in myself,
you know? Yeah, it's gotten meto learn the skills. And it's
not me to where I am now withinmy career, it's, you know, this
is kind of almost a dream job tobe where I am right now. Yeah,
Today In Space (06:17):
absolutely. So let's, let's go right into it.
Then what was, what was yourfirst 3d printer?
Unknown (06:22):
It was a Prusa, MK, I think MK, 2s okay, so just like
you was when I bought thatwasn't a simple so then, you
know, I think it took end ofvideo recording everything, but
it's way too long. It was like,I think 14 to 18 hours of
Today In Space (06:42):
building. Wow, wow. Do
Unknown (06:45):
you remember how long it took you to build yours? So
Today In Space (06:49):
my first was at first, yeah, my first 3d printer
was the rigid, bought big, whichI don't think a lot of people
really, no, yeah, that was myfirst 3d printer. So that was a
different one. It is different.That was a Kickstarter project
that, and it was larger thananything else in in the back
then, that was a huge one. Yeah,yeah, it was, it was big. And I
(07:11):
still think that like bed. Sobasically, a lot of the like the
Prusa is a square. It was a 250by 250 roughly six millimeters.
But, like, basically, that bedwas like a big rectangle, you
know? So you had the bed thatwould move back and forth, and
(07:32):
then you had the XY system that,or the x system that moved,
which you don't, you don't seethat a ton anymore, especially
since it was a cube and 2z axesinstead of the kind of, I guess
it's more like, it's similar toPrusa, yeah, bedslinger style,
yeah, bed slinger, yeah. Thatwas a lot of fun because so I
(07:55):
had worked in injection moldingwhen I got that printer. And for
me, I had was working on, like,a research and development
project where I had to learn 3dprinting in that case, it was
like metal in that case, but Ijust worked with a bunch of tool
makers who knew G code and Mcode. So I, like, saw what was
possible. And I rememberthinking when I first started
(08:17):
that job, like, I want to get tothe point where, like, I can
walk into a shop and like, knowwhat a machine is when I'm
looking at it. So, like, buyingthe 3d printer was like, Hey,
I'm gonna do this. And I think Idon't remember the price, but
the ridge above big was probablyanywhere from 600 to, like 800
Unknown (08:37):
bucks. Pre mine was about Yeah,
Today In Space (08:41):
so, and that was a kit, so I had to put it
together and assemble it. Theproject started off really good.
It was a good project. Theperson running it did their best
with it, but there were supplychain issues, and it was just,
it was my first foray into,like, how a 3d printer company
can fail, you know, and they hadresourced. The big problem with
(09:02):
that printer was that the powersupply that they had sourced was
from China, and the quality thatthey were getting was so bad,
some people had fires, and justthe what they had done to solder
that power pack was just notgood, and that that printer
still sits in my basementwaiting for a new power supply.
But I learned everything that Ineeded to. I learned slicers, I
(09:23):
learned how to do stuff, andthen I ended up getting an XYZ
DaVinci pro three in one, a lotof a lot of words, but that's,
that's what I launched ag 3dwith, because the rigid bot just
wasn't reliable enough. And theonly, I don't think the Mark I
think at that time, I'm not sureif the Prusa mark two, I think
(09:46):
the mark one was still rollingaround at that time, so, or I
just didn't know about the marktwo, but eventually I got the
mark two. But yeah, the firstwas the rigid bop big. Yeah,
Unknown (09:56):
that's crazy. I couldn't believe you started
your business with that. Uh. DaVinci printer.
Today In Space (10:01):
I started that business, and I was even playing
around with like, custom G codemanipulations to do, like multi
color. So I was doing multicolor back, really, 2016 Yeah.
My first project, which stillgets hits on the website, is,
was a Pokemon chess board. Ohyeah, show me that, yeah. So I
made a pause on the G code. Ireplaced the manually swapped
(10:25):
the filament, and then just letit print. So that, to me, was
like, you know, that was mindblowing to think that, like, oh
yeah. Back then, back then,like, before bamboo and all
these other multi color the MMUfrom Prusa,
Unknown (10:40):
even Prusa, I think on the MK Two West, or even the
three they in the slicer thatthat you add pauses to change
colors. Yes, you were manuallygoing
Today In Space (10:52):
to, I was, I was going into the file, yeah, yeah,
which is a great learningexperience. But,
Unknown (10:57):
yeah, I think everyone should at least that's, you
know, doing it morerecreationally. Should learn
some G code and edit some Gcode. Yeah, powerful things you
can do with editing the G code.A lot of things you can also do
wrong. But
Today In Space (11:13):
you can really break something. You can really
break something, but one, onethought of like, the first 3d
printer was like, what are some,like, big lessons that you took
away from that first
Unknown (11:25):
one? I'm not sure I it was, you know, I was, I got
pretty good with it. So I was,you know, printing my own
things. I printed, like, IronMan helmet. Nice that, you know,
that took back then, right? Ifelt like it took forever. And
then, you know, put themtogether, because there's a lot
of pieces, and then, you know,sanding it down to actually get
(11:49):
a really good finish tookforever. So it's like, you know,
when you're post processingstuff later on, that's when
you're like, oh, I should,there's like, so many things I
should change in the slicer toto produce a better part, so I
have less post processing andless work I have to do it on
afterwards. But then I was alsolike, at the time Craigslist was
(12:10):
big, so I'd actually found athree printing gig on
Craigslist. Wow. So I wasprinting just the area around
Central No, around Central Park,around Fenway Park, for a guy,
so he needed, like, 200 of them.And wow, you know, I realized
(12:32):
just simple jobs like that,except then, when I got that
job, either before, after Ipurchased, I think, another
Prusa, MK 2s and just to keep upwith that, I mean, that job paid
just one job of only, like,maybe 150 200 parts paid for
more than both printers. So itwas like, you know, if you find
(12:57):
jobs, the return you get on theprinter is like, super quick,
yeah. So then it's like, oh,yeah, you can, you know, you can
start business and actually makesome money doing this quite
easily. And, you know, I feellike a lot of the industrial
printers, or even industrialmachines that other people use
(13:19):
to either manufacture a part tomake. Prototypes are just so
expensive and you don't hit, ittakes forever to hit the return
on the machine. Well, you know,some of these consumer level
printers, you can get the returnon the machine in just or two
machines, or a couple, you know,several machines in just one
decent sized job. Yeah. So then,you know, then that's when you
(13:42):
start collecting three printers,you know, you get the, get the,
you know, this thing for there,and just collect more. And if
you start, you know, once youknow, the second one I started
buying. Even the second one Ibought was from like Craigslist
(14:02):
or some used ones. So back then,a lot of people didn't know how
to print, so they're havingsimple problems, or they'd say
their printer was broken. Andyou could easily go pick up some
really good printers for cheap,if you knew how to fix the
printer or use it when otherpeople were just having simple
user mistakes. Yeah. So it was,like a really good time to get
actually really, really solidmachines for cheap, if you knew
(14:25):
what you're doing.
Today In Space (14:26):
Yeah, it was, it was a untapped potential for a
lot of people. That's, like,around the era of, like the
maker bot, when that was at itspeak, and everyone bought, you
know, that was like the bigthing people bought for, like,
their their kids, or for theirschools, was the was the maker
bot, and it's so many of themended up just gathering dust.
(14:47):
And, I mean, there's still, Ithink, yeah, still plenty of
them. But I think the bamboo is,like the first one, that is
probably not gathering as muchdust as any other consumer.
Unknown (14:59):
Mm. Three, yeah, for people that aren't experts,
right? You know, right, they endup No, not using it a couple
times on either putting in thebasement or trying to sell it. I
think it's, yeah, it's so simplefor people to use that they're
actually utilizing it. Andactually, you know, using it
maybe every month or whatever.So,
Today In Space (15:21):
yeah. And the amount of free models that are
out there now is, like, therewas a lot, 2018, 2019, and now
it's like, especially with allthe multi color stuff, there's
like a Thingiverse was likebrand new back then. Now,
printables seems to be one ofthe one of the top ones.
Unknown (15:39):
Yeah, yeah. Back then it almost felt like you need to
be able to model a little bit.Yeah. It's like, yes, you need
something really, reallyspecific. You know, it might
already be out there, or there'sjust enough of other stuff out
there to make and utilize theprinters.
Today In Space (15:53):
No, that's true. That's true. Yeah, I think for
my lesson for my first printer,was, you know, I had gone the
Kickstarter route, so I didn'thave, like, a customer support
to go through. There was nolike, oh, this broke. Will cover
it. It was your you're basicallyon your own. It was just
(16:16):
scrolling forums trying tofigure out what someone else
might have actually documentedwhat they did. So then I went
with a company like XYZprinting, because it was a
company that was a little bitmore. It was a well established
company very well at the time.Yeah, yeah. And like, the
printer ran well, like, and thisis, this is the 3d hubs era. So
I don't most people who printnow probably have no idea about
(16:39):
3d hubs, but it was a, it wasbasically a marketplace that
people with 3d printers couldprint a part, send it in, send a
picture in, so that you got,like, qualified like, oh, you
could print this part, then youcould get jobs from people. And
this was like, it's kind of likethe Etsy for people who wanted
to 3d print anything. They couldjust be like, Hey, I
Unknown (16:59):
proto labs does this now, I think, Kim, Oh, really.
Labs bought them in there's likea separate there's like three
different pro lab sections rightnow, but one of them is exactly
this. You get pre qualified, andthen you send it out, and they
pick someone, not random, butright you end up paying cheaper.
But you, you run a little bit ofa risk. It's not, they're not
(17:21):
printing it in house. They'rehaving someone else print it
like through defense wise,
Today In Space (17:26):
yeah, yeah. So that was that was a big,
especially when I started takingon jobs, it was a big it's a bit
of learning experience of whatit means to have, like a more
reliable printer. And once theDa Vinci started getting used,
after a little bit, I juststarted to realize that it had
limitations. So I then movedinto the open source world with
(17:47):
like Prusa, mainly because, likeall the videos that I was
watching to learn how tocustomize my own G code and all
this stuff, most of those peoplewere using Prusa. So it was like
all the education
Unknown (17:59):
document big community started was with the process,
Today In Space (18:03):
yeah, yeah. And then, and now, there's just so
many people online who makevideos about what they do. You
know, there's Stefan, there's,there's Tom, there's, I mean,
there's, there's three printingnerd, there's Joel. There's so
many people. Andrew sink isanother one. Like, there's just
so many people out there thatare that are that I've gotten to
meet over the years, which hasbeen kind of kind of cool, yeah,
(18:27):
yeah, nerding out on someYouTuber that, you know, it's
someone from the outside. But,like, Who is that? But, you
Unknown (18:33):
know, it's like, this is the guy type community, very
tight community, yes,
Today In Space (18:37):
yes. And that's the interesting thing. And I
think something we talked aboutwhen we worked together, how
small this industry is, not evenjust like the you bought a
printer at home, but working inthe 3d printing industry, you're
just gonna, if you work in itlong enough, you're gonna meet
enough people that you thenyou'll work at another job with
that's happened with us, andjust making connections, and
(19:01):
then someone you knew workssomewhere else, and it's time to
leave, and you reach out andboom, you know, you've you've
got a job, and, you know, somepeople, so it's definitely
really unique in that way. Butthe open source thing made a
huge difference. Once thatbecame a thing, people started
making more hardware. So thingslike heaters and nozzles and
blocks and and all those thingswere just easier to get and they
(19:23):
were cheaper.
Unknown (19:24):
Or even the even just some, like the open source on
the Prusa, there's tons and tonsof parts online. They could just
download and print out, helpmodify the printer. And yes, let
you install new hardware andstuff and help tune it. And it
was, you know, half felt likehalf the time you're just
printing stuff in your printer.Your printer.
Today In Space (19:44):
That's true, yeah, no, it's very different
times in today's world. Butyeah, that that, that was the
first printer, kind of adisaster for me, but of great
learning experience. Yeah. Nowit was worth it. Then it was
worth it to your point, like thethe money that I put. In to
invest in myself, to learnsomething, to to have something,
(20:04):
was huge. And I think back likeit started with I was, I was
working at an injection moldingcompany, and I worked with a guy
who was very close to retirementcalled ed, and Ed was an
injection molding technician, sohe would run these machines and
keep them going and qualifythem, because those, those are
the big presses. They're makingmillions of parts. I learned so
(20:25):
much from him. But, like, he athome, had a barn where he had a
bunch of these injection moldingmachines that he owned that are
in the barn, and he had jobs,and he would just, like, when
he's at work, yeah, he's like,he'd have a bucket underneath,
and it would just keep runningjobs. And his wife would come in
every few hours and empty thebox and replace it. And he would
(20:48):
tell me, and I this, it's in mybrain, and it's what keeps
driving me. Is like he wouldsay, every time that thing
opens, it's money, yeah, money.And that, like blew me away. Was
the first time I understoodmanufacturing. And that was when
I was like, Well, if I got a 3dprinter like that, I can't buy
(21:09):
an injection molding press rightnow, but I could buy, like, I
think the I was using one for myR D that was like, very low end,
but cost $85,000 you know,
Unknown (21:22):
just the tooling for the models is crazy, exactly,
Today In Space (21:25):
yeah. And so, like, that's the big think, the
big thing between, like,manufacturing volumes in
printing versus manufacturingvolumes in injection molding is
just the upfront cost ofeverything.
Unknown (21:38):
Well, the fact that, like, we can print production
level and use products at homeis just crazy. Like, yeah, you
can back then, you know, you hadto either have a machine shop or
somehow have access to injectionmolder or something. But, like,
now we're just at home,inventing, making stuff, and
(21:59):
it's like, you know, out ofplastic. It's crazy. It's just
It enables us to do now, is socrazy.
Today In Space (22:06):
It is. It really is. And it like it was saying
it's come a long way. Andsometimes when you're in the
thick of it, it can feel likeit's kind of like run out, like
it's drawn itself out, you know,like you can get stuck in this
the, you know, being too closeto the fire, if you will. You
know, where you're like, oh,man, everyone's thought of this.
(22:28):
But every, every time I feelthat, there's always someone new
that I meet that's never evenheard of 3d printing or or seen
a 3d printer, yeah. So there's,there's just so much ample stuff
out there. And as people thatare trying to, like, build their
own businesses here, it's athat's a reminder to keep every
day of like, Nope, there'salways new opportunity out
(22:50):
there. Yeah, find it. People
Unknown (22:52):
also don't understand, like, the parts and technology
that can be used right now. So,like, sometimes I'll do, like, a
craft fair, just for fun. Yeah,you know, I'll sell some stuff,
but then I'll have anothertable, just like crazy examples
of parts that I've printed. So,you know, I'll have some metal
parts, or some super soft parts,or some full color parts. And
(23:15):
people are always like, this wasprinted. Like, people don't
understand, you know, they rightnow we're the age of, you know,
people might know the simple FDMprinters and seeing some of the
parts that come off of there,but then some of the more
industrial printers, or some ofthe newer materials and stuff,
people are just like, theirminds are still being blown so
they know something like thatexists.
Today In Space (23:35):
Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned this at the
beginning, but like, the theapplication of 3d printing. Like
it seems like at least the erathat we're entering now, it's
less about the flashiness or thenewest tool, even though there's
plenty of people selling newprinters. Yeah, it is about the
part at the end of the day, youknow, what are you gonna make?
(23:57):
Yeah? Yeah. And like in when Iworked in the industry has an
Application Engineer. It wasabout the benchmark, is what we
called it. But it was,basically, it was this person
wants to spend, you know, whatis it, six to seven figures on
an industrial printer. Well,let's prove out the ROI case.
(24:18):
Let's make a benchmark partthat's similar to something that
you would make, or maybe is likefits something that's a problem
that if you had this part, youcould save, you know, 1000s,
millions of dollars. And so thatwas the job of the application
engineer, was go in there,figure out what part they need,
and if they have a part, analyzeit to figure out how is it going
(24:40):
to work for this process, andtoday, that seems to be where
the value is for most people. Ithink it's always been the case.
I just think it's more evidentsince we're looking, yeah, well,
I
Unknown (24:50):
think still a lot of people don't understand. Like,
you know, people think thatprint, you can just print
anything, right? Yeah. So theydon't see that there's a
process. And skills to, youknow, get what you actually need
out of the part. Yeah. So, likeyou said, there's a process that
we go through to figure out, youknow, the best way to print it,
(25:11):
the best materials, orientation,whatever. So the customer
actually gets the part that theyneed and it functions like it
should. So it's, it's not some,you know, magic box that just
spits out a part. There's stilla lot of process and thought
behind how we're manufacturing,how we're printing it, how we're
design, even designing it,designing, it's a big thing
(25:32):
right now, designed for out ofmanufacturing.
Today In Space (25:34):
Yeah, totally. And I think tying it kind of all
together here, if you reallywant to, like, accelerate your
your understanding of 3dprinting. If you're like, brand
new to 3d printing, and you justfound this, and you're like,
Wow, this seems kind of cool. Oryou're trying to get into the 3d
printing industry, or start a 3dprinting company, like, running
a 3d printer, using a 3d printeris the best way to understand,
(25:57):
like, where the value is for a3d printer. And
Unknown (26:00):
then, you know, figure out your application. We have a
cool hobby that you can makesome stuff for that's, you know,
very specific to that hobby.It's, it's cool once again. But
then you just gotta find theapplications that you can make
some awesome
Today In Space (26:12):
stuff for. Yeah, I know I'm on a string of Home
Improvement stuff, so just stuffaround the house I'm working on.
I built a spice rack the otherday for my area, you know,
that's not, it's not somethingthat was like a big box store
buy, like there was nothing forthat. And like, when you think
about 3d printing for yourself,whether you're a company or just
at home, when it's for you andyou're not charging somebody
(26:35):
else to make it, the costsavings are, oh yeah, wild. Why?
Unknown (26:40):
When I, when I moved into this condo I had bought in
the three printer before, youknow, maybe half a year before I
moved in. So then, when I didn'thave anything, you know, like,
why would I leave the house? Ican just like, yeah, print the
stuff I need for around thehouse, like, I know, like I need
a holder for something, orbrackets, like, just tossed on
the printer, and that's it. Youknow, it cost me what a couple
(27:03):
bucks or pennies for forsomething, no, it's amazing tool
Today In Space (27:08):
for around the house stuff. It really is. And
like, one of the missions when Istarted 80 3d was to help bring
us closer, in whatever waypossible, to a reality where 3d
printers are as common in thehome, as they are with, like,
your paper printer.
Unknown (27:24):
That was one the thoughts I had to earlier, yeah,
Today In Space (27:28):
yeah. And I think we're lurching towards
that future, but there's,there's a lot of things that you
know need to happen, but if weget there, it could look
something like, you know,everyone has a printer in their
home, like you do a paperprinter, but you're not buying
stuff from Amazon anymore.You're buying the supplies and
(27:48):
the designs from people, yeah,and so basically, like, you're
taking out the middleman of theproduct, and you're sourcing the
material, or, you know, you justbuy it, and it's, it's, it's
there. And then obviously therewould be an advantage, like if
you could design, or if youcould make your own material,
then, then whatever increasingcost for all those things that
(28:10):
happens, you know, you could,you could offset it, and you'd,
you know, that that could be acrazy future that we live in,
kind of like the replicator inStar Trek, you know,
Unknown (28:19):
yeah, I mean, you it, it affects so much stuff.
Because, you know, moving goods,that's warehouse space. It's
greener, so it's if you could,you know, even move like 10% or
maybe 5% of the products arejust being made in people's
homes. It would have greatlyaffect tons of things.
Today In Space (28:40):
Yeah, yeah. No, trans, no, transportation, of
all of those things, just tomake a part,
Unknown (28:45):
especially if it's so no, it's something stupid simple
and replacement parts,exorbitant amounts of money for
replacement parts. But, I mean,you could a lot of those stuff.
You can maybe just print at
Today In Space (28:58):
home. Yeah? No, absolutely. Well, I think we've,
we've covered it pretty, prettythoroughly for the first, for
the first episode here. So anyother thoughts you have on your,
on your first three
Unknown (29:09):
printer? No, I still have mine. It's, that's awesome.
I'm not using it. It's, it'snot, it's not worth repairing
that at this point. Yeah, theusing it for so much, the the
wires on the bed will, like,loosen in different points, and
(29:29):
then you get short circuits. SoI think at the point I I'd have
to replace the motherboard onit. This isn't worth replacing
at this point,
Today In Space (29:39):
totally. So okay, so last thing, what is the
total number of printers thatyou have currently?
Unknown (29:48):
Without counting, I think it's about 16.
Today In Space (29:51):
Okay, yeah, let's see. I'm close, but I
think you've got me there. I'vegot 1234, Five and then four
resin printers. So nine, yeah,I've got nine printers. No 10.
Sorry, I got another one the
Unknown (30:08):
other day. You got me? I don't have any. I sold all my
resin printers.
Today In Space (30:12):
Yeah, and that's a, that's a whole other thing we
could definitely get into in thefuture. But, um, but yeah, tell,
tell everybody where they canreach out to you if they they
want to learn what you're doing,or if they're looking to jump in
and do some business with Yeah.
Unknown (30:25):
You can find me on niche.io, we're also on
LinkedIn. You can find me onLinkedIn, Matthew guy,
Today In Space (30:31):
awesome. Yeah. And you can check me out at, AG,
3d printing.com and, AG, 3dprinting on Instagram. AG, 3d
printing lab on Tiktok, and thenwe've got a YouTube channel, ag
printing, and then you can checkme out on LinkedIn, Alex G or
fanos. And, yeah, that's itcool. Well, thanks for joining
(30:52):
us, everybody. This is the pilotepisode. I don't even think we
have a name yet, but we'llfigure it out. But thanks for
joining us. We will keepbringing you more three printing
content. And if you guys haveanything that you want us to
talk about or dive into. I mean,we already have a huge list of
things that we're going to talkabout, but we definitely want to
hear from you and what you'dlike to have us talk about or
(31:14):
have people on so let us know
Unknown (31:17):
printing problems. You know, we can do a little part
detective on here, or just someanalysis of different things.
Today In Space (31:23):
Absolutely, yeah, we, we will have no
problem going into the nittygritty if you want us to, so
just let us know. Cool, untilthen. Have a good one. Stay
curious, and we'll we'll see youon the next one. Keep printing.
Keep printing. Do it.
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