Welcome!

Hi there! Welcome to our journey into the world of 3D printing!

For a while now, my wife Lois and I (hi, I’m Kevin!) have been talking about starting our own business. We’ve had lots of ideas (we’re both very creative people), but none of them really materialized. Until now.

Lois was browsing the internet one day and excitedly called me over to look at something. She had stumbled across some really amazing 3D prints. When I saw them I was blown away!

Then I started thinking – that feeling I had when I saw them, that’s the feeling I want people to have when they interact with our business. Amazement, wonder, and “I want that!” Could we do that with 3D printing?

Besides being creative, we also both have technical backgrounds. It seemed like a good fit. But creating a business takes a lot more than desire and aptitude.

Research and Decisions

There’s so much to learn! Both about 3D printing, and about running a business. We dove into the research, taking notes, making lists, creating spreadsheets. (We both love our spreadsheets!)

We finally decided on the Anet ET5X 3D printer . It seemed like a good balance between cost, features, and ease of use. With a click of a button, it was ordered, and we were on our way!

While waiting for it to arrive, we looked into all the requirements for starting and running a business. We’ll be selling on Etsy, and operating as “3D Orcs Printing Company, LLC”. Yes, we’re aware that it makes the URL for our blog site look like “3 dorcs”. That pun was kind of the point.

We also needed to decide where to focus our business. There are so many things you can 3D print! But after considering a lot (and I mean A LOT) of options, we kept coming back to games. We’re both avid gamers (one day I’ll tell you about our wedding – trust me, it’s connected), and so we’ll start with board game accessories.

Arrival!

Our printer arrived yesterday!

Our first glimpse was very exciting!

But we soon discovered why the manufacturer uses the term “DIY”. It came partially assembled and we needed to finish putting it together.

The instruction sheet that came with it would probably have been fine for someone who has worked with other 3D printers, but it left many questions for us noobs. YouTube to the rescue! Videos for the ET5 (by YouTuber “Find Discount Price”) and the ET5 Pro (by “Mr. NVC Restoration”) were both close enough to our ET5X that they were immensely helpful. Thanks!

Our 3D printer is ready to go!

Now we need to play with it and learn what it can really do. Come back next Monday for a look at our first experiences with our new tech toy!