WTFFF?! 3D Printing Podcast: 3D Print Tips | 3D Print Tools | 3D Start Point

For Tech Tuesday this weekwe are going to follow up on our announcement back in January about the newMakerBot Smart Extruder+. It was billed as being a major improvement over theprevious Smart Extruder, but is it really? Well we received our order for twoof them about a month ago, and have been working with it ever since. Now we areready to share our findings and experience with you. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Whether you are hobbyist or a business, it can be trying to balance your work with your life. We meet a lot of couples where their business and home life are completely intertwined, and we are one of them. Can you ever find the right balance? How we've made it work for us, and some pointers on how to make it work for you on today's back to business Monday episode. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Thingiverse has a curated collection of these marble machines, which if you are a teacher looking for a great STEAM project for your classroom, we think this is it. We've gone through and highlighted our top picks, be sure to check the blog post to see how they look and operate. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

After meeting up with Tom Simon of Source 3 at CES this year, we knew we needed to have him on the podcast to discuss the nuances of managing brand content for 3D printing. They are developing a system to take care of all the little details and keeping digital file rights managed correctly whether you are a large company who wants to license your images out or if you are a general user. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

We got a question from a listener about where can you find a community for teachers who use 3D printing in school. There are companies out there with the vision, but it's not quite yet there today. We did a little digging and found some teachers who have created a community of their own, but also to not forget about your local makerspaces and in-person places who are there to help. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Bringing another technical subject here for Tech Tuesday, and today we are talking about the advancements in support and their different capabilities in different slicing software. Is support material worth the time in post-processing? To us, it defeats the purpose of 3D printing, but there are items that are geometrically unable to be printed without supports, so what's the best system to print supports? To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

It's Business Monday, and today we are going to discuss the Digital Footprint conference. It is all about how to create a revenue generating website, and how to get your website to rank on the first page of google for thousands of key words. The information shared at the Digital Footprint Conference is critical for any business, including any related to the 3D Print industry. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

It’s Friday, so it’s our design/innovation issues highlight. We’re going to focus this podcast on a couple of email responses we got to our episode two weeks ago on the digital sundial project. We each mentioned that we both are shocked that some people actually create CAD files through using code instead of a 3D CAD program where you are using tools to build things visually. We are clarifying a few things about what design and art means why we disagree with coding being considered as art. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

If you are an educator, or even a student, or you’re involved with education and considering 3D printing, or even if you’re just a parent and you want 3D printing education integrated in your kid’s school system, this interview with Cindi Schultze should be particularly interesting to you because it’s a great story of how a school district got into it and how this teacher who wanted nothing to do with 3D printing at first now thinks it’s one of the best things ever. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Even though it's Wednesday, we are continuing our Hyper Tech Tuesday from our Ask Us Anything Event with MatterHackers. Part two contains questions geared more towards the advanced 3D print user as well as some live question and answer session from the audience. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Today is hyper tech Tuesday as we cover the topics and questions that were asked at the live Ask Us Anything event with Lars Brubaker and Taylor Landry of MatterHackers. We split it into two part to make it more logical, today's group is more for the new users, while part two will be for more advanced users. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

By the year 2020, it's expected that over 50% of the business world will be freelancers. If you think, "Oh I'll just go out and freelance," think again because it takes some planning to be successful. Sharing our top three freelance tips, especially if you are going to consider 3D print design freelancing. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

A huge "Thank you," to all our loyal listeners who made this major milestone possible. Giving a little update for those new to the podcast to explain what the WTFFF?! is all about! To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Checking back in with MatterHackers since our last episode with them, we wanted to talk more generally this time and get a feel for the other things they are working on and where their growth is. They are simplifying the user experience and really developing a plug-n-play system with updates to their MatterControl platform. With over 300% growth from last year to this year, they are definitely headed in the right direction. To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!

Are the file sites on the side of the little guy? Based off what's happened to Loubie on Thingiverse, where another company took her (and many other designers) files, printed them, and sold the product for profit on Ebay, it does not seem so.  To send us a message, go to 3dstartpoint.com or shoot us a message at info@3dstartpoint.com or on our facebook or twitter! Its absolutely free, so ask away and and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more on our regularly scheduled Thursday podcast episodes!