Hello everyone. Today I am going to introduce a user to all of you. His username is @Triple_M. Let's know more about him.

Self-introduction

Hello there! I’m Triple_M but my real name is Michael. I’m 39 and originally, I’m from Poland. 15 years ago, I decided to move to the United Kingdom and I’m still around. I’m very passionate about Art & Design and I love to discover new possibilities and continuously improve my skills. When Covid-19 kicked in and the UK went into full lockdown I decided to go back to school and started studying Art & Design. Got my diploma passed with merit this year. This is something I thought would never be possible as my school days are long gone, I have a full-time job, family, etc… I guess things are possible if you want it and push yourself in the right direction. I just joined Creality Cloud recently, with 29 consecutive log-ins to be precise.

The impression of 3D Printing

I knew about 3D printing and I was eye-balling the whole thing for ages. I was amazed at what we can achieve with 3D technology. I think the biggest WOW factor for me was that we could send people into outer space without any tools and let them 3D print whatever they need when it’s needed. I do believe that 3D printing is an exponential technology and prone to huge discoveries, also the future is always exciting, and we will have to see what it brings.

First time met Creality Cloud

I discovered Creality Cloud while scrolling through Thingiverse a few weeks ago. One of the users had a link on his profile. I thought it was a great idea and jumped on the hype train instantly.

It’s a great place for like-minded people interested in all things 3D. I’m certain I will invest more time into that and hopefully few others will appreciate my designs and find them useful. One of the coolest things about it is the stories featuring individuals, talking about their experience with 3D printing, etc. I always look forward to reading them as they’re not just interesting but often inspiring.

My 3D journey

My adventure with 3D printing started about 3 years ago when a friend showed me his 3D printed minis for Warhammer. I got hooked and shortly after, I was a happy owner of my first 3D printer, and I was amazed by the quality of the prints. It was great for my needs and I remember I used almost 2L of resin within the first week... it was also a time of many failures and plenty of hours spent learning how to...

My first successful print

My first successful print was a free file downloaded from Thingiverse – the one and only Boba Fett. I remember that I had to scale him up to around 200% and cut the whole thing using a mesh mixer as I wanted it big and the mars printing bed was quite small. I spent many hours slicing & dicing as this was all very new for me but very soon, I had a nice first print coming out of the printing bed. I was so proud of myself - just imagine 36 years old guy running downstairs to show off his freshly printed new toy to his wife and daughter… anyway, it was fun for all of us

My 3D printers

I own two 3D printers. I still have my good old one for high-precision models printed with resin, but most of the time I use my Ender 3 – MAX, which I wouldn’t change for anything else. This machine never fails and prints flawlessly 99 out of 100 times, especially with the BLTouch probe. Also, the printing volume – 300x300x340mm is a beast, you just can’t beat it for this price.

Got 4th place in the design contest

I was participating in many competitions over the past 3 years. Most of them were printed and painted, some just print, but never design your own. Now, joining this community like 4 weeks ago, jumping on this already going competition was feeling like, well, yeah, why not. I never won anything before as there’s so much talent out there I kind of used to just participating. Never, ever get my hopes high as I only just started designing my stuff. Long story short – I went 4th with my pen holder design. I honestly couldn’t believe it as I was checking the results. A massive achievement for me and a great motivator to keep me going as this was the community voting (higher like counts wins) and not just one person deciding. I am very grateful for all that.

I do my own designs

Studying Art & Design was a great experience and exposure to the overall product design which is my ultimate goal. I’d love to design for a living and I am constantly learning and improving. Having a professional background in the automotive industry I can be technical but I also enjoy sculpting stuff (a pen holder is a perfect example of that). I do have a few ongoing projects and plenty of ideas, probably enough to keep me going for another 50 years but I also have a full-time job that allows me to pay my bills but also slows me down here. I am aware of the CC designer partnership program and I would love to join it. I know it will take time but I am a patient man and a consistent one.

Why love 3D printing

3D printing is the future, simple as that, and who wouldn’t like to be a part of the future? It’s new but it has so many possibilities, many yet to be discovered. I love the idea of a fully sustainable household. Imagine that, everyone owns their 3D printer with unlimited access to everything one may need, I’m talking every .stl file one can think of. On top of that, everyone owns a filament recycler of some sort. Now, rather than creating plastic waste, each household would use it over and over again. I know we are not there yet, it may sound like a cheap sci-fi story and it may never happen but you never know… This is why I love 3D printing.

My favorite print

Tough one, but I’ll go with the Mjolnir. This model was for a print & paint competition that took place back in July this year. So, I downloaded the file and started slicing it when I realized that, you know what, it’s a freaking Mjolnir and it’s so very small. So, I scale it up properly and printed a massive 300mm+ hammer using my Ender3-MAX. Believe me, this thing feels unreal in your hand. Then I painted it using all known to me painting technics, all with acrylics as I love their finish. Added the leather strap and that was it.

The most impressive 3D story

As I was getting closer to my last project working towards my foundation diploma, I had a few different ideas that I was considering. Some of them would require prototyping and I knew that a 3D printer would be perfect for that. I also knew that for this purpose, the FDM printer would be far superior to the one I had (SLA). I’m the guy who likes to plan so after a few weeks of additional research I’ve decided that I will need to expand my workshop and get myself a new printer. I picked a brand-new Ender3-MAX along with the BLTouch probe as suggested by one of the YouTubers I follow. When it came in its XXL box I was very excited and it took me maybe an hour to put everything together (including the probe). This was the BEST purchase ever. It was up and running the same day and I was more than ready for my prototypes. This story may not be the most impressive but there is one good lesson there. Think ahead, be ready for what you plan to do, and do your RESEARCH.

Dream

3D printing helped me pass my diploma with merit - for the last project I designed car accessories and was able to print and prototype each piece on my Ender3-MAX without failure (all these files are available on CC). This sort of work would never be possible without me having the 3D printer. Also, having access to .stl files for almost anything, 24/7, and being able to just make it at home, within hours is just mind-blowing. I’d love to see more people involved in 3D printing as I’ve mentioned before, it’s the future.

To Creality

Message to Creality? Keep expanding and supporting as you do. This I believe, will make a massive difference for many people. Regarding Creality Cloud? To be fair it’s pretty awesome already, maybe a few little tweaks like allowing users to add models to the portfolio, fixing a bug where comments just disappear, or editing comments would also be nice, and having 3D scans ready as downloadable .stl files. A big one for me, and I know this is extremely hard on your end is to control if the files uploaded and sold by individuals are theirs originally. But again, this is hard and unfortunately, frauds are everywhere these days… Finishing on a positive I’d like to thank you for the opportunity and for inviting me for this interview, I hope that I didn’t bore you to death and someone somewhere will find it interesting.

Learn more about him: click here

If you want to be interviewed, please feel free to contact me in the comments sections below.

#3DCHAT: He is 58, but he is young in 3D Printing