Playing Around

Ok so this is going to feel weird for a little bit. I’m working back into getting to at least one post a week. It may take some hit or misses to achieve that as I get the habit going again. So bear with me.

Anyway, I’m still on the 3D printer kick. So far I have been experimenting with gaming stuff. Mind you, this is exactly what I would want a 3D printer for anyway. But I have been watching all sorts of YouTube videos lately and finding there are so many applications for these things.

Of the things I have learned over the past couple weeks, the fact that I know absolutely nothing keeps getting shoved in my face by this thing. It’s crazy. New issues and problems come along out of the blue and solutions need to happen yesterday. As I was telling a friend recently, 3D printers are amazing for finding solutions to problems you never knew you had. And many of them come from having the 3D printer.

I have been making mental lists of all the different parts I need to upgrade. Some of the upgrades I want to make soon are parts I can make on the printer. And then there are a few that I need to buy a new part to replace or become a solution. This thing is a tinkers dream. There is always something you can do or improve on it.

And this isn’t a bad thing.

I enjoy digging into it and learning all the stuff I can about it. And the videos I have been watching lead to all manner of new directions I can go with it. And a crazy thing I have been thinking lately, I wonder how much I could do with several printers. Or maybe if I pick up a resin printer. Yeah, visions of out of control mayhem…

But all of that is further down the line. As I play around with it right now, I am learning the different things I can do with the slicing software I currently have (the software that takes the print file and turns it into machine code the printer can understand). And you know, you learn more from doing. So I am making modification parts for Gaslands. Most of them equate to weapons I can add to the cars to make them look intimidating. I also managed to print out some more templates that I can use during games. A lot of this stuff has been quick prints. Some taking as little as five minutes from start to finish. Amazing how much you can get printed in small increments like that.

And then of course, I realized I can add more of the smaller files to a single print and the software will arrange them on the print table. It ends up being a longer print but at the same time, you get more stuff out of that print. You can even set it up with several of the same items to get a bigger batch of parts. Makes your life that much easier.

Then we get to the longer prints. I have been building token holders for Shadows of Brimstone. That game and all the expansions has more tokens than you can even begin to imagine. It’s a lot. Not to mention the cards that drive the game. There are just so many, it’s a bit of a nightmare to find all the storage you need for this stuff.

Enter 3D printing. I have set up the printer and let it run all night to get several of the token holders I am using now. We are talking seven to ten hour prints. You just let it go and hope it works out. The payout is worth it though. At least in my opinion.

I now have a number of tokens we use all the time stored in an easy to grab space. All we do now is pull the holders from the shelf I store them on and place them table. I no longer have to have all sorts of little dishes that take up space on the table and require extra steps to get them ready for a game. I can actually just focus on getting other aspects of the game ready to go. The time saver aspect is amazing.

Anyway, long story short… so far I am enjoying the different aspects that this printer brings into my hobbies. And oddly, my hobbies now have a hobby. Somehow this makes the world a little bit weirder than it was before.

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If you enjoy these stories, consider leaving some coffee money in the jar or you could buy a book or two. Either way helps keep the stories flowing.