Layered Learning

Since I started 3D printing, reducing waste has been a key focus for me. It's beneficial for the environment and cost-effective, making it a win-win situation. In this post, I'll share some practical tips that I've gathered for reducing filament usage in both the printing and design processes. Additionally, I'll highlight areas where I'm seeking further advice and invite the community to share their insights. Printing Tips  As much as I want 3D printing to be the sustainable solution to reducing waste in manufacturing, the reality is 3D printing can be very wasteful. There are a number of necessary evils. Skirts, supports, purge lines, wipe towers. Not to mention failed prints, poorly designed prints, or unnecessary prints.  Here are a few strategies I've been using for reducing the waste during the printing process and a few areas that I'd love some feedback on. Skirts and Purge Lines:   While skirts and purge lines can seem wasteful, they often prevent fai...

Tech Insight: How We Start Off In this post I wanted to give an extremely high-level overview of how I kicked this off, from a technical perspective. For some background, I am a network engineer by trade. I've had a rewarding career so far. I've gone from working swing shifts in the NOC to leading some high profile projects, and I love solving problems.  When I finally picked up the 3D printing hobby, it really just meshed with everything I'd been doing to date. I love finding tech solutions to problems while advancing professional skills.  My home lab is relatively robust to the point where I had to write a startup/shutdown procedure for my wife, detailing how to gracefully shut down an ESXi server and power off a UPS. I use open-source home automation as much as I can get away with. I love finding new tools to solve problems and make things easier.    Tying It In How this translates into 3D printing is that all of this development became an extension of the fun I h...

Hey there! Welcome to 'Layered Learning'. This blog is about my crazy venture into tech and 3D printing. Two years ago, I knew next to nothing about 3D printing, software development, web development, you name it. Fast forward to today, and here I am, running a full-blown 3D printing and tech operation – who would've thought?  It all started as a simple chat, a ‘what if’ scenario that turned into a ‘let’s just try this’ kind of thing. From getting an Ender 3v2, immediately upgrading it, constantly breaking it, and finally getting it running well, to learning Fusion360, to piecing together my first API and setting up a CI/CD pipeline – it’s been one heck of a learning curve.  This blog isn’t going to be your typical tech story. It’s more of a figure things out as I go kind of tale. There have been loads of trials and plenty of errors, but also tons of fun and some real 'aha!' moments. I’m not an expert, but I’ve come a long way from where I started.  So, if you’r...