3D Printing – Convenience vs Specialisation

Recently my workplace got a 3D printer, and even did a demo of it, which caused me to buy one for myself. Yes, that’s right, I am blaming my workplace for my spending!

Jokes aside, I was impressed by the presentation about the ease of use and the benefits that I thought it could bring my personal life. Alas, when I got the printer, it takes more effort than I imagined. Of course I knew it is not as easy as ordering a plastic from Temu where it is mass printed, but I thought the resources would be more, varied and useful for my personal use.

Personal or personalisation is the word, as the 3D printer allows very bespoke and specialised use, which attracts people to design some of the weirdest and most unique design. But being a utilitarian, I looked for ready-made designs that can solve my own personal problems, such as a plastic to fill up a gap between my appliances etc. However this needs to be tailored to my own situation and a ready made design would not be suitable. There are some adjustable designs but these are not as much as I imagined.

It is certainly not that hard to edit the designs, or even make one yourself but being a bit lazy, I would have preferred the convenience of printing whatever comes to mind but tailored to my problem. I guess I am spoiled from using AI all the time, where you don’t really need to define your problem well, to be spoon fed a solution, or even a following question.

Going back to the printing, there’s the paradox too about if it is too easy to print or a lot of people would benefit from the design, then it would have warranted a mass production of the design, and a 3D printer would not be needed. Like everything in life, there’s a balance, and that level of balance will rise I think, as I progress on using the printer.

Thank you for reading.