3D Printing MASTERY! Post Processing Secrets You Need to Know - MTM #28 Juanmakes3d

In this episode of 'Meet the Makers,' we dive into the world of 3D printing masks with Nic from JuanMakes 3D. Nic shares his journey from fixing and painting as a child to becoming a self-taught expert in 3D printing masks and cosplay items. Despite only starting in the 3D printing space a year and a half ago, Nic has grown his skills by necessity, driven by a passion for creating intricate props. He details his evolution from a single Ender printer to managing multiple machines and explains his process from start to finish, emphasizing patience, learning, and experimentation. Nic discusses his online presence on platforms like TikTok, where he offers tutorials and encourages others, sharing the knowledge freely to help more people enjoy 3D printing. Reflecting on personal challenges and motivations, Nic speaks about his desire to leave a legacy for his children and make an impact through his craft. He also contemplates future projects, including creating a full bat suit and life-sized statues. Throughout the conversation, Nic underscores the importance of perseverance, creativity, and a supportive community in the journey of 3D printing.
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Where to find Nic (Juan) 
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@juanmakes3d?lang=en
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/juanmakes/?etsrc=sdt
Juans favorite products: https://www.amazon.com/shop/juanmakes
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Come be a guest on meet the makers: https://forms.gle/wTqzxqGpsu9hZ39F6
Follow misfit printing on Tiktok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@misfit_printing
Support the show / Misfit at The Harpo:  https://theharpo.com/ 
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:15 Nic's Journey into 3D Printing
01:21 First 3D Printing Projects
02:28 Upgrading to Advanced Printers
04:52 Sharing Knowledge and Tutorials
07:28 Challenges and Learning from Mistakes
08:11 Community and Support
10:18 Emotional Attachment to Projects
13:52 The Helmet Creation Process
24:18 Challenges of Cold Weather and Selling Strategies
25:12 Unexpected Popularity and TikTok Growth
28:55 Personal Motivations and Family Legacy
32:59 Detailed Helmet Painting Process
36:15 Overcoming Painting Failures and Lessons Learned
46:55 Dream Projects and Future Aspirations

Transcript

riverside_nic_& kate _ oct 1, 2024 001_misfit_printing's s 
[00:00:00] Welcome back to meet the makers. If you are into the 3d printing space, particularly if you enjoy 3d printing masks, then I am sure you've come across this content. Super excited to have Nick from one makes you today. I appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah, for sure. I'll kick you off with a question that I start everybody with. Can you just talk us 
\through how you got into 3D printing and making stuff in general? I have been a maker ever since I was a kid. I started out when I was like, 12 or 13 years old, disassembling things and trying to figure out how to fix them and repair them.
When I was a kid, we didn't have a ton of money, so that was a thing. You either fixed what you had or you just went without. I slowly graduated into painting and learning to airbrush and Getting my hands dirty with all kinds of other stuff 3d printing came along about a year and a half ago for me, needing repair parts for electronics and things that you really can't get your hands on very easily sometimes.
I bought a cheap ender printer and started doing little brackets and pieces for things. it slowly escalated into me wanting to print masks and [00:01:00] helmets and cosplay stuff. I seen all these people always had these things when I was a kid and I just never had the opportunity to have them.
When I realized that I was capable of doing that stuff, it just ballooned into this wild thing that it's gotten to at this point where there's, Dozens of these things sitting around and taking up all the space on my walls. And yeah, I just kinda kept growing and growing.
 Now, okay, so did I share this timeline correctly? You've only been 3D printing for a year and a half.
Yeah, pretty much. I bought my 3D printer. I got really frustrated because I didn't know design software and I had no idea how CAD worked. Aside from the small basic stuff that I learned when I was in school and never really had access to a lot of that stuff for computers.
So I was pretty new to it for the most part. And really it was out of necessity. I 

needed some pieces and some parts. And so I finally sat down one day and told myself I was going to learn how to do a few things. Pulled my ender back out of the closet that I had put away for probably three or four, maybe five months, give or take, and I needed a bracket for a [00:02:00] gate. 
I have a young daughter and a blind dog, and we have a large set of stairs. One of the brackets for the gate, you can't replace anymore. And I needed that bracket to repair the gate so that it was safe for my daughter and my dog. Once I figured out that part of it it just became an obsession almost that I needed to learn how to do the things.
It's funny looking at all the different helmets and masks behind you. Even just from a timeline standpoint, I'm trying to like piece together how you would even print all of the different components that you have behind you. No, starting under, obviously, a slower printer, but what machines are you running nowadays to accommodate all the stuff that you've printed up till this point?
So I started on the Ender. My very first mask that I printed was a Batman mask. Batman has always been my favorite, as you can probably tell from the majority of the Batman stuff around. I printed my very first Batman mask on my Ender and I think it took somewhere around three days to print the mask out and it was actually really small.
I didn't understand infills and walls and all the things. So it was really a disaster to say the [00:03:00] least. It was a really poorly printed mask and it started this little bit of a fever and I grew from having the Ender and then I seen the bamboo printers come out. And I felt like trying to get into that.
Niche and figure out what it was that I could do with those larger printers made the most sense. And so I initially went to a BambooLab P1S it was a P1P originally and modified it to a P1S just did all the upgrades to make it a P1S and then realized I needed a little bit more. And so I went to a A1 combo and realized I still needed a little bit more.
So I went with a K1 originally. Was really unhappy with the original K1. I purchased that really early and it had a ton of problems. I got very frustrated with it. I ended up getting it working. It was working great. I decided I just wanted to go a little bigger with the K1 Max. So there's my K1 Max now.
And then I just recently purchased the Sovel SVO8 that's behind me now. And have done some upgrades and modifications to it to get it printing [00:04:00] 

up to par. And basically running all four of those printers pretty much 24 7 at this point. This is the longest they've not been on actually doing something since I've probably owned them. 
 It's interesting, Karen, you talk through like the printers that you've had, and a lot of times when I see people who are printing a lot of masks and printing a lot of helmets, I instantly assume they probably are running all K1 maxes or they're running bigger printers, and it's cool to hear that you're running pretty standard size printers for the person who's getting into 3D printing and wants to get into masks, because I think that so many people, they see, frankly, built printers And his stuff that he's doing, they see your stuff that you're doing.
And I think so many people think that the masks and the helmets are so cool, but it always feels you have to have all this skill and you have to have these crazy machines. But for you, it seems like you not only like skill wise got up to speed pretty fast, but you didn't really have maybe like the craziest printers out there to start.
No, I didn't. I started really slow. And the one thing I stressed to everybody in the purpose behind my TikTok channel is that I want to. help people understand [00:05:00] that doing these things and making these cosplay masks it's not rocket science. It doesn't take all the most expensive tools. You can do it with the cheapest, simplest printers.
You can start with like a hundred dollar Ender, older Ender printer, and still get movie quality props if you really want to take the time and learn the process. And most of it is just dedicating time and being very patient with what you're doing. Everything can be chopped up and put into smaller pieces and then reassembled later.
I do tutorial videos a ton on my TikTok and show everybody the process. The one thing that I stress to everybody more than anything else is that I don't gatekeep any information. The one thing that was super frustrating to me when I got into the 3D printing industry was that it seemed like there was a ton of information that was just always left on the table that people didn't want to explain how it was done and nobody ever told you there was a little trick on making these two parts fit together better or that you could do it on a small printer 
But most of what you see here for the most part was done on a [00:06:00] standard size printer that didn't require a ton of don't have hundreds of 

thousands of dollars. I don't have 10 bamboo printers. I run on four. Printers that I try to keep running all the time, constantly main doing maintenance and cleaning and all the things. 
So I think those are super important steps when you're getting into it. it's something I really liked about your content. I have only, I only have one helmet under my belt and it took me about a year plus to get it done. It was a process but watching your content, not only do you do so many tutorials that I think are really, Needed I think the biggest thing that I have learned from your content is patience being so important because you know There's so many times I want to just rush through a stop and lay down that super thick coat of paint watching your content really makes me feel like, okay, take a step back, breathe, and you don't have to do every step all at once and rush through it.
I put a lot of time into doing that, but my most important step with everything that I've built with this so far and what I intend to do with it is help people learn to do what I do. You can take something simple like this, [00:07:00] for instance.
This was raw plastic just a few weeks ago, it's led lit. You can see the paint is, movie grade quality. These are steps that everybody can do. I did a small tutorial on basically this paint process. Granted, this has a few more extra steps, but for the most part, everything you see here was done with stuff you can buy at a local hardware store.
This doesn't take a ton. It's just a little bit of assembly and a lot of patience. That's really all I can stress to people more than anything is just take your time. Don't overthink it, mistakes will happen, but you can take those mistakes and turn them into something a little bit better.
Truth be told, this helmet got knocked off of the stand that it was on when it was getting printed and it scratched it up so bad. And I actually ended up restarting this helmet twice things happen and mistakes get made. My tagline that I throw out all the time for everybody is there are no failures, just new experiences.
And that's what I want people to take from it is that even if something doesn't go perfect, you can usually fix it or turn it into something even better. now, looking at that mask, how different was that from the first, I think you [00:08:00] said that your first mask was a bad mask as well, how different of a departure was that from your first one? Their world's different. And I tell 

everybody your process grows as you learn more. 
I learn new stuff every day. I have a really cool support group of guys. I Brady meets world Bensky. I've got Mike from priority 3d dork Vader. These guys are we're in a big group chat all the time and we're constantly giving each other ideas and talking about all the wonderful things that we're working on.
Lending an ear when somebody needs to vent about something they're not happy with their printer just those kinds of things. So having those guys around really makes a huge difference. And it gives me the ability to step back from my work sometimes and look at what I'm doing.
So when you go from the first initial helmet, that was an absolute disaster. I think I still have it in a box somewhere. And I solely kept it for the fact that I just want that simple reminder that I started there. And it can always be better and I'll grow more and I'll learn more. And as I teach other people, the things that I learned or the information that I felt like was kept from me when I started it'll [00:09:00] always help other people grow.
And that's really what I want to do. I want to help other people learn to get the feeling that I get from that. Occasionally you sell a helmet to somebody. I just recently sold one to another larger creator on the platform and I was blown away at the reaction that he got. I sent Brady one not that long ago.
He actually sent me a mic because my audio quality on my streams were terrible. And he pointed it out many times and Brady's been a really good friend to me and he's been super helpful with everything that I'm doing. so he sent me the microphone and I felt like I had to send him something back.
So I sent him a helmet. I actually sent him two helmets and he did a live unboxing video of them, just raw emotion and seeing the look on his face when he opened the Iron Man helmet that I sent him was, it made me feel so good to just see the reaction on his face. And that's really what drives me doing what I'm doing.
Yeah, no, Brady and all, Bensby, Brady, all those guys, great guys. And I remember seeing Brady's video of doing the unboxing. I think actually I recently had him on. The pockets as [00:10:00] well. I think he was talking about getting your home and he was so excited and he was like, I'll never be able to get to that skill level, which he definitely can.

I think everybody can get there, which is a cool thing about it. But no, it's always really cool to see, the different people that, online get to. Swap prints and just share the different things that they're good at. So that's been really fun to see. And it was always something when I first got into doing stuff like this and I'd work on a project and would take so long, I'd be like, I have no idea how these people who make these crazy masks or these crazy projects could spend all this time and then just sell it or get rid of it. 
I feel like I'm so attached to it, but hearing you talk through it, it makes sense of Probably seeing it in somebody else's hands is honestly probably like even cooler than just having it on your shelf. I sold a Halo helmet to Ben just recently here. in his video, he had pointed out that I really didn't want to sell that helmet.
It was a weird emotional attachment I had to it. It was a game that I played a ton as a kid. I had a ton of memories with friends. And I, had just made it for myself. I didn't really intend to sell it. as soon as he seen that I [00:11:00] could see the look on his face, that it really meant something to him.
So I broke down and I was like, we can do it. I sent it to him. I really didn't expect him to make like a video and the whole thing. And I was shocked when he posted the video and I'm like, Wow. Cause he's got a ton more followers than I'll probably ever honestly have.
And it was just really cool to see the look on his face and genuine excitement. None of that was pre rehearsed. It wasn't anything that we had discussed or talked about doing, but you could genuinely see once it fit his head and he could put it on for the first time. It was like a, you could see all the rush of emotions.
That was something, a game that he had also played when he was younger. Granted, he could print probably the same helmet. He doesn't do a lot of post processing which is something that I pride myself on a lot. 
I hope people are watching this on the video version. Cause it's a wide range of different projects that you have behind you, but is there any master helmet that you do have in your collection right now? That would just be a hundred percent off the table.
You're like, I'm never selling this. It was so much work. Aside from the one that I sold to Benthis one is going to be really hard for me to detach myself from 

because I had so [00:12:00] many struggles with this helmet and it was just one of those helmets where I, when I finally finished it, it was like such a huge sigh of relief. 
It's probably the best fitting helmet that I've ever made for myself. it's really the only one aside from the Halo helmet that I made that was Specifically for me. My intention with this was to actually have a full cosplay outfit. I've never been or done any actual cosplay stuff. It's funny cause everybody always asks like, Oh when you go to cons, what do you dress up as?
And I've never done it. So I'm looking forward to potentially doing that. I am going to be at a mini con here in a couple of weeks in October. And really looking forward to getting that. And I got asked to be like a guest judge based on my bills. So I was really excited about that. But I think that would be one of the few helmets that.
I would really have a hard time parting with if somebody really wanted it, I probably would let it go just simply for the fact that I could see them enjoying it as much as I enjoy it. That would probably be the 1 that I would hesitate on. No, it makes sense. It's pretty [00:13:00] cool. So likewise, I could imagine being attached to it.
, you'll have different versions of like similar masks that you do. Once you do a certain mask in a certain style for you, is that kind of okay, I did it. Then they're done that. I don't want to do it again. Or will you repeat masks and see if you can do maybe a different or a better version of it?
How is that process for you when you're deciding what to print next? Usually what I try to do I have loved comic books since I was a kid. I'm a huge Marvel fan. Gigantic DC fan. Batman has always been my favorite. I like to make new stuff every time. Now, if it was for someone or someone wanted a specific one, I have no problem trying to replicate.
What I always tell everybody though, is my type of artwork is that every helmet is always different in some way, shape, or form the process that I go about something or the way that I produce something or make something will pretty well be one off almost every single time I have some. Basics that I stick to, resin coatings, and sanding, and primers, and clear coats, and such and airbrush work, [00:14:00] obviously I stick to a pretty specific set of skills with that stuff and processes, but for the most part, almost every helmet comes out slightly different, even if I really wanted to make them identical, I don't really think it's 

possible I'm probably going to stop you a million times throughout this process, but can you just on a high level, talk us through what your steps are when you're first going, you first see maybe a file online or that you want to make something, can you just talk me through that process of start to finish? 
And I'm sure it's different for every helmet that you do, but what that process looks like and how you even plan something like that. So usually what I do is when I look at a helmet online and I say to myself, I want to build this. I look at it from a perspective ofhow much time am I going to have to invest into this item?
And what I always tell everybody is when you're building a helmet, make sure it's a helmet that you truly want. You're more likely to finish that project and not stop in the middle or give up on it. If it's something you really want. So when I look at those helmets, I decide.
A how much time am I willing to invest in that? And if it's [00:15:00] something that I really do want to make I will move forward. I'll purchase the files from whoever I need to get them from. Everything that I currently have now, I get licensing from the creators before I even go about worrying about any of the other stuff.
Just so there's no weird IP infringements or anything crazy like that. I think that's really important. And then making sure that people that spend the time making those files, those guys are getting paid and recognized for what they do, because without them doing what they do, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
Yeah. So my next step is orienting on my build plate, figuring out how many pieces I need to make that helmet in. And I have a set of parameters with my settings and my printers, as far as what I build my helmets at. 
Everybody's printers are different. My settings may not work for everybody. I can't stress that enough to people. You have to play with stuff and just dial in what works best for you. And then once I've got that into the slicer and I work out all the kinks and figure out what I want to piece together, how many parts it's going to take I'll start printing that.
And I definitely always make sure to size everything appropriately so that it [00:16:00] fits me. I'm fortunate enough to have a 3d scanner. I have a head scan of my own head, so it makes it a lot easier to size them exactly to what I 

want. But for somebody that doesn't have it, you can take that helmet, drop it through the build plate, cut out a small chunk. 
Usually what I tell everybody is, somewhere from the front part above your eyebrows to the widest part of the back of your head is where you want to size that ring too. So you're just going to cut that chunk out of the helmet. Every slicer out there now, I think for the most part has the ability to do that and cut it up into pieces.
You're going to take that little guy, make sure it fits your head. If you're happy with how snug it is. And you've got to assess if you want to leave some room for padding or lights, battery packs, anything of that nature. Can I pause you right there? Sure. Now, has there ever been a helmet that you made, maybe either just getting through the printing phase of it, or maybe it's later on when you're adding lights or adding extra stuff like that.
Have you ever had a helmet where you're like 90 percent of the way done, you're like, shit, this doesn't fit? Oh, man. I can't even tell you how many times that's happened. I have two [00:17:00] helmets that just recently actually that I started printing. I was. Positive that I had changed everything, but what I didn't do was actually save before I backed out.
When I reloaded, it was at the original scale. Didn't really think twice about it. It was just trying to hurry, get everything printed so I could start working on some other stuff. And I have multiple ones that are sized to fit my three year old and they were intended for me originally. So yeah, it does happen more often than I'd like to admit.
Yeah, I could see it. And it's one of those things I think when you're having, especially when you're doing it in like multiple pieces, I feel like it's really hard to tell until you have it all together that it's significantly too small or too large. That's where the 3D head scan comes in to play really well.
Most. Helmet files from some of the more reputable creators usually have a fully assembled version to give you an idea of what the scale of that helmet's going to look like before you even break it into pieces. Creators like Yosh Studios or DO3D tend to have those [00:18:00] broken into multiple pieces already that attach with magnets and so on and so forth.
Those guys are some of the highest tier creators that are currently out there and have tons and tons of really cool files for just about every character you 

can think of for the most part 
so we're at the point of you sizing your head out. What kind of happens from you there after that? So after sizing it, I'll print all of the parts. So I'll go through and usually in my slicer, I work through orca and bamboo primarily. In those two slices, I have the ability to change filament colors.
After I print a specific plate so that I don't lose track of where I am. I make sure to name that plate and name it to the printer that I actually printed it from. And then lock that plate and change the color of the filament on the build plate so that I know visually when I look at it, that piece has already been printed.
So after I have everything printed out, I'll take all of those pieces. Most of them require some. Fine tuning, just sanding or deburring of the edges of those [00:19:00] things, removing supports for a lot of pieces and parts. And then after doing most of that work it is plastic welding, all of the big parts together.
So I use a, essentially what is a soldering iron with a larger tip on it. It's intended for plastic welding, but and I will basically physically plastic weld the inside of the helmet together and then start the process of sanding and getting everything to line up perfect and filling all the seams.
I use a resin coating process myself. So I used just your standard UV resin that you would use in a resin printer and a mixture of baby powder. and you can mix more baby powder in with that resin to get more of a paste or just a putty, almost. The more resin you mix in, obviously it's going to thicken up the very thin resin.
The resin is basically the consistency of milk most of the time. And then as you mix the the baby powder into that resin, it's going to start to thicken up. And then you can use that almost like an Elmer's glue into the seams. And you [00:20:00] really want to make sure you smooth that stuff out and quickly cure it with a UV light.
Make sure you're wearing gloves. Respirators all the precautionary stuff that stuff gets on your skin. If you accidentally get it on your skin and cure it, it's going to burn. And it does not feel good. I know that from experience, unfortunately it does happen from time to time.
It still gets on things, but. After the resin coat I've gone away from using any 

type of body fillers or bondos solely because they're a humongous mess. They take hours and hours to dry. Sometimes there's different mixtures and things you can do to speed up those processes, but I've chose to go the resin route because it's sped up my builds probably 10 times. 
Builds that would have taken me a month to finish now take me a week in some cases. Yeah, no, using that resin process. That's something I'm interesting. So my first time, I went. The bondo route and that, like you said, it's a huge mess and I would get through, a round of standing. I think great.
We're perfect. We're good. This is going to be great. And I go over with paint and, nipped a small [00:21:00] piece or there'd be like gouges in it and things like that for you for the resin. Do you find yourself? Maybe it's just because You've done it so many times at this point, but do you find yourself basically doing one coat sanding and being good?
Or how many times do you go through that process typically? It varies from helmet to helmet. And it also varies on how well your parts are fit together. If you plastic weld that seam and you have it really tight and everything lines up really well that sanding and filling process can go quick.
Usually I prefer two to three resin coats which really Builds a nice smooth surface if done correctly. I have a really cool tutorial that I've done actually several times because I get asked about that process a lot. And that process two to three coats usually will more than take care of everything you need.
The thing I can stress enough to people about resin coating stuff is very thin coats. You don't want any pooling. You want to try to avoid getting blobs or big Areas where you've like overdone it. You can really spread it out with a foam brush or just a regular brush [00:22:00] makes a huge difference.
But working in very small areas, little bits at a time, you're not trying to coat the entire helmet in one shot. You can just work piece by piece and build your way up. And then usually I go over that resin surface with about a 180 grit sandpaper. Initially to even everything out and then usually from there, I will go with a filler primer or a high build primer.
If I'm doing a lot of helmets at the same time I usually go to a spray gun and a compressor to do all those things at the same time. It does save some time overall, but you can totally do it with just a simple can of filler primer. Heavy coats with that stuff. 

It's sands off so easy. And then once you break that surface down, you can go to a 400 grit sandpaper. And if you're very happy with that surface, you can move on to wet sanding, which is probably my favorite part, really. Wet sanding that surface just brings out the smoothness and it shows you anywhere there's any type of imperfection and it gives you your last chance to really [00:23:00] fix that. 
Once you lay your base coat of paint on there you're pretty much locked into what you have unless you want to start all over. So going from those and then you can move into multiple coats of base coat, but the filler primer stage and the prep stage is the most important part of all of this process.
Everybody can shoot a coat of paint on top of something, but if your prep work doesn't look good, your final project's not going to look good. Yeah, absolutely have learned that the hard way. Now, in hearing you talk through that, you talked about at some point of, your process of maybe you've got one helmet going on, or maybe you've got multiple projects going on.
how often do you just work on one single project at a time? And how often do you have multiple things going on at once? I have in my mind a very smooth workflow for most everybody else would think that I have lost my mind.
I, on most occasions, I'm working on six to eight helmets at a time. My girlfriend recently told me if I make any more helmets and don't sell them, [00:24:00] she's going to kick me out. I have walls of helmets. I think currently right at this moment I have somewhere along the lines of around 30 helmets or masks sitting around in inventory.
I'm stocking up at the moment for the holiday time. My shop doesn't have heat. Here in Nebraska, it gets really cold in the wintertime. Last year, I think we had a couple of days where we're like in the negative 30 and 40 degree ballpark. It gets really cold and paint doesn't work good in the cold.
So I'm hoping to have some stuff pretty much ready for the holiday season and anything that needs to get shipped out. I kind of stick to a strictly sell person to person thing. I have a. Small Etsy setup, but I really don't use it very much. Most of what I sell is. To friends or family members or people that have seen me on the occasional Tik Tok here or there.
Hearing you say six to eight helmets at a time. It's I can't even wrap my mind around that many projects going on at once. So you must definitely have your 

process dialed in. But. For you I said, I know you said [00:25:00] you're working off, orders from family and friends and things like that. 
Is it typically for you that you make something and put it out there and say it's available? Do you have people coming to you at this point for custom orders or what does that side of it look like for you? So here's the crazy thing for me. When I started this, it was really just to build helmets for myself.
I had no real intent of and I guess I still don't really, I don't ever think I'm going to be selling so many that I make some crazy absorbent amount of money. My content was really just, I wanted to show people the process and that it doesn't. You don't need thousands and thousands of dollars to do this stuff.
And it just spiraled into this weird thing where I'm like building all these helmets and I don't actually have a plan for what I'm going to do with them. So I'm like sitting on all these helmets and yeah, I'd love to sell them and that, that sounds great. What I usually tell -people is if you're interested in something, just contact me directly.
I'm happy to make something if there's something you're interested in. But yeah, I don't. I'd love to sell more of them. Sure. But I just want to see them go to a good home to people that enjoy them [00:26:00] and appreciate them. And yeah, I just I guess I really haven't thought that through a ton.
It just wasn't really in the cards for me in the original part of this whole thing. And it would be ideal to maybe sell a lot of them. you can have such a slow Burn on things and all of a sudden one day it's just like one video takes off and it goes crazy I feel like you're gonna have that day where you have a hundred orders Oh, it's coming in one day.
I feel like I did like my tiktok career. I guess you could call it started out me just uploading videos at random And I think at one point I had 350 followers and I really felt like I was doing great things. And I remember telling my kids cause they were joking around like, why are you posting those videos?
Nobody's watching them. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. I just, I, maybe somebody will get a little bit of help from them or whatever. And it was really weird. I posted a few videos and nothing really took off. And I had Actually talked with Brady a little bit and he suggested I just did a giveaway and I did and I went from having just shy of 500 [00:27:00] followers to almost 2, 000 within a three day span.

And I really genuinely didn't think anybody was interested in most of the stuff I make for the most part. I was getting like three to five likes a video maybe And then I slowly worked into this process of posting more consent, like consistently staying on top of commenting and responding to people, which has been a weird thing for me and I'm a recluse, so I don't go out, I don't party. 
It's just not really my thing. I keep to myself. I hang out in my basement and I'm in my shop working on things 99 percent of the time. I just get a lot of anxiety and big crowds. And when there's a lot of people and moving forward into this stuff, I've had this like weird burst of people showing up and friends that I've made, which has been probably the best part of this whole thing.
The group of other 3d printers that I talk to on a pretty regular basis. Is by far the best part of this whole thing. I didn't really have a lot of friends that I hang out with. I don't go out. Text those guys on a daily basis now, and I didn't really have that before.
So that's been really [00:28:00] nice
initially when I started. Posting things. It seemed pretty toxic and I was really worried that's what the community was. And it seemed every time somebody asked a question or wasn't sure about something, it seemed like everybody just wanted to belittle them and make them feel horrible about having a question or wanting to know more thirsting for that information.
And I am a big believer in learning something new every day. I sit down every day, at least 30 minutes to an hour, roughly, and I try to watch some sort of video or read some sort of content that teaches me something I didn't know, whether it be how to fix a toaster or how to build a rocket. There's so many things that I've learned how to do that I probably couldn't really do in real life yet, it's cool to hear you talk through that
 did you. Did you like plan on getting into doing content and I guess having it go in the direction that it is now or how what kind of gave you that push to get into doing content in the first place? When I initially started I wanted to just make sure that I left something behind for my [00:29:00] kids.
I'm a type one diabetic. I actually, I was born with one kidney and so that's been a thing throughout my lifetime. And I didn't find that out until I was in my thirties. As a kid I partied a lot and I had a great time and I did stuff. And you wear your body out quick.

I know my time's limited in the world and what I wanted to do was leave something for my kids. In 2020, I was blessed to have a set of twins. Unfortunately in that timeframe, it was like the worst possible time to have kids. We were, my twins were born super premature. They had a ton of kidney problems that stemmed from just genetics on my side, unfortunately. 
My twins were born at 26 weeks and we're in the NICU for most of the beginning part of their life. One of the twin girls passed away 19 days after she was born. So I took that opportunity to just recognize that there were better things in the world than what I was doing and it was a big reality check for me and it, [00:30:00] Probably in a weird way it really changed the trajectory of my life.
It took me from really not having a lot of care about the things that were going on around me. I was just focused on what I was doing and I've now realized more than anything that all those things that had happened previously in my life all the weird traumas that I went through as a kid and life experiences that happened to people.
Everybody goes through different stuff, and it was a really eye opening experience to go through that. We were isolated in the hospital. We weren't allowed to have family members or friends because of all the COVID stuff and all that nonsense. And So it was a really big reality check for me.
what I wanted to do when I stepped out of that place and my other daughter got to come home was that I just wanted to make sure that she. Learned everything that I could teach her before my time's up. So for me, this is just my way of leaving a trail for my kids to follow along to.
And I want my daughter to be [00:31:00] able to do anything she wants to do and never have to ask for help. If I can leave her with all of my knowledge and all of my advice this would be it, there's, if you want to do it and you want to learn it, there's nobody that can stop you.
There's nothing that can prevent you from being better. So that's where it went for me. And it was not the way I wanted it to be. I would have never wished it upon my worst enemy, but I'm here. And it gives me an opportunity to be a better person. So many people talk about how difficult, living in a world of social media and living in a world where people are online all the time can be. But I think, hearing you talk through that having just, you never know in your life when life is going to unfortunately come to an end.

And I think having something for your loved ones to look back on and, whether it's teaching them about making helmets or whether it's to have that memory of you, I think that is honestly one of the coolest things about the technology that we have nowadays. And, like the likes and the follows and stuff like that's fun, but having that ongoing [00:32:00] legacy of all of those things that you've done. 
I think that's a really cool thing that people overlook when they get on social media these days. Yeah, likes and follows are cool, but I think, unfortunately, in the Social media world that we all live in now everybody's so worried about likes and follows and what other people think or have to say.
And for lack of better words, I really don't care. I do my own thing. If people like it, great. If you don't like it, that's okay too. You don't have to like everything everybody else likes. It's okay to be your own person. my main goal is to just leave some stuff for my kids.
I don't think I'll ever leave them like some crazy amount of money. That would be super cool. But I just, want to leave them a wealth of knowledge of all the weird things that I know and don't know. And let them see that you can be who you are. It's okay. Really doesn't matter what you're into or, what other people do or don't like, you can just be yourself.
And some people really will just truly enjoy that. I think it's something that, whether it's your daughters or your children are just some person on the internet who they'll never comment on your videos and you'll never meet them, but you end up making a huge impact on their life.
And I think that's a [00:33:00] really cool thing that, you get to do.Coming back on to finish, your process for helmets can you talk us from here through what the rest of that process looks like? Yeah. Once I get to the filler part and we wet sand and I'm happy with that surface and I feel like I've achieved what I want, which is on most, in most cases, a nice glassy smooth surface, I want that to look in the final project as smooth as it does when it's all sanded.
I will clean that helmet absolutely the best I can. I always try to wash everything really well. I always recommend to everybody to use just a couple drops of Dawn dish soap in a bucket of water. If you can, take it in the house and wash it in the sink or in the bathtub or even wash it with a garden hose.
Makes a huge difference. And give it a good wash. Plenty of time to completely 

dry. Once everything's dry and you're completely satisfied with that surface, you can lay down whatever coat of base coat that you're going to start with. Depending on the complexity of the paint job you can start with just basic black or [00:34:00] white, whatever works best for you or whatever color it is that you're after. 
Light coats, build them up. Even if you're just using spray paints I can't stress enough to people that each coat Your very first two coats really aren't gonna look like there's anything even there. You're really just dusting on something to stick to the surface, and then you'll keep building and building from there.
And then you can add a little bit thicker layers at a time. Realistically, if you gave it all of the dry time between every coat you probably four or five coats in, you'll probably be at about the color that you're wanting to achieve. Give it plenty enough time to dry. 
Make sure you read the cans of what you're working on. Make sure your paints are compatible. If you start with, for instance, Rust Oleum paints, stick with Rust Oleum paints. When you start mixing stuff, you're going to get weird reactions. Things aren't always going to work together well. You'll see paint jobs where you'll paint something, and you'll go to put clear coat on it, and it wrinkles almost immediately.
It is the most disheartening moment when you put paint On something and it looks [00:35:00] beautiful and then you apply clear coat and it wrinkles. That usually is caused from either not allowing that paint to cure fully. Putting way too much paint on at one time or the paint being cold or having some sort of contamination on the surface.
What I always tell everybody is if you apply anything and you notice something is wrong, just stop, give it plenty enough time to dry. And you usually can sand things back and start back at the step beforehand without having to start completely over. That's a really disheartening moment when you've spent hours and hours on something and It feels like it's ruined but that again is where my little motto comes in that no failure is just new experiences.
That's a moment, a learning moment where you can step back and say, all right, something's not right. What happened here? You can assess what happened and then correct that before it becomes a bigger problem yeah. So much talk through that is bringing back like flashbacks of . the most counterintuitive thing in the world to me is having a metallic paint.

[00:36:00] And in my mind I always just thought, clear coat over metallic paint is gonna make it more metallic. And that is not the case. Unfortunately, I found the hard way. . For you, I heard you talk about mixing brands. Was there any one particular maybe like just. Horror story situation that you ran into with helmets. 
I actually used a old can of Krylon paint. I hear people tell me all the time, Krylon works great for them. I have never had a good experience with Krylon paint. I use a lot of spray paints and mixtures with different stuff. What most people don't know when it comes to paint on surfaces.
This for instance, is covered in an automotive grade 2k clear coat. Underneath this is all rattle can paints. It's all rustoleum brand rattle can paints. I could sit here and tell you the exact opposite. That is all high grade automotive, super expensive stuff, but it's not the clear coat. I always recommend people get Do get a good quality clear coat because it really does matter in the end.
It'll save you some post processing time in the meantime. But [00:37:00] as far as horror stories, I've had helmets that were even nicer looking than this particular one. Sprayed a layer of paint on. Everything looked beautiful, walked away, came back and the paint had completely wrinkled on the entire project.
So I stepped away from it. I said to myself I'm going to give it some time. I'm going to let it just relax. Everything will be okay. Came back, still looked horrible. I was heartbroken, sanded everything down started that whole process basically all over and. Another time, same exact thing, sprayed paint on it.
Everything looked great. As soon as I put that next layer of paint on, it wrinkled. Ended up redoing a helmet three to four times potentially on some of those elements. And it's so frustrating. I've actually had to set helmets aside for a little while because I was crushed that something didn't turn out the way I wanted.
I've accidentally mixed the wrong color in an airbrush and had it sitting, I grabbed the wrong one and started to do some detail work without testing my spray pattern first, and had the wrong [00:38:00] color on top of something and basically ruined it and had to start over.
I did a life size Stanley Cup once a replica Stanley Cup, like the NHL Stanley Cup for a friend. I spent over a month printing all the pieces for it, getting 

everything assembled, plastic welded, body fillered, and we had a really bad cold snap here, my shop's not heated. I left the Stanley cup outside in the shop as it was curing and it had gotten so cold that the body filler that I used on it had shrunk and it cracked on every single seam. 
So I had over a month's worth of work that was absolutely trash. I had to basically start all over, refill all the seams, chisel out. All of the body filler and start basically all over. I was heartbroken. I actually took like almost a month break from that thing before I even touched it again. Even considered looking at it again.
I just, I was so fed up. I stuck it off to the side. And I actually about called my friend and just told him I wasn't going to be able to make it because I was so heartbroken. I feel [00:39:00] like sometimes when you have fails like that on projects, it sounds like it's similar for you. It's, you go through a process like that, like you said, it's almost like you don't even want to look at it for you.
I'm sure it's a wide range, but on average, what does a normal helmet take you from start to finish to get to at this point? It really varies based on the complexity of the helmet. So something like this, which is like a lot of different layers of candy paints over the top of things versus something like this Wolverine helmet here.
This really is Probably one of the more simple builds that I usually do. These pieces here are sprayed with a bed liner actually at a pretty reasonable distance, which gives a almost as close as you can get to the feel and texture of leather. And then the helmet itself this file actually has a built in texture.
And then all I do is go around with a acrylic paint pen, fill in these areas, and then airbrush in some of the detail to just dirty it up and then apply the eye lenses that I [00:40:00] use, which is just a PC mesh. It's the same mesh that you would use on the fans on your computer. I just cut that up, fit it in, and usually glue everything in.
So something like this would take about a week all together, and that's just making sure everything's sanded that needs to be sanded, paint has plenty of time to dry whereas something like this would take close to a month. Two weeks to a month, my process has sped up a ton since I started going to the resin coating.
This would have taken well over a month before and that would be working on 

it, like obviously after my daytime job, and I actually have a second job in the evening that I run, I do a repair stuff for like appliances and things in my free time. So this is my, like third gig, I guess you could call it. 
But yeah, it just really varies a large helmet. On a big scale like this, for instance this is an extremely large helmet. Something like this would take a little over a month, roughly. If I'm only working on one or two helmets at a time, usually a couple of weeks, I can usually squeak one out.
Yeah, it's even hearing you talk through it and you're like, oh, a [00:41:00] month and you're, I feel like you're saying it as though it's a long time. It's crazy that you could, do it that fast. It's cool to see that process. I've spit out a few of them and within like a 5 to 6 day period. I don't like to rush through them. I really like to take my time. I'm nitpicky on details and stuff. Even for instance, like the spawn build, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't come through in the pictures, which is what I always have to tell everybody is that these in person.
Look tremendously different than just in a picture. So like this, like you can obviously tell the eyes light up and all those kinds of things, you can see how bright they are just on my face there. But this actually has a really deep texture. There's actually a lot of airbrush work to shade in all the wrinkles and creases in the face.
There's just a lot of detail that goes into some of these that you really can't take a picture and show off to somebody, you have to see it in person to really get a feel for it. Some of the high metallic paints it looks great just from a picture, but there's a lot of like cherry red in this.
It's super, super sparkly in the sunlight. You just can't really see it in the pictures, unfortunately, and [00:42:00] it doesn't really show up great on camera even as great as cameras are these days, my projects are nowhere near as crazy as yours. So even for me, sometimes I'll do videos for content and I'm like, man, it really isn't showing up.
So I can only imagine for your stuff, It's gotta look crazy in real life. Now, we're getting close to time here, but I gotta know if there's any project that you've had, either current or in the past, that was just the one that still nightmares about, or just was your hardest project to get through.
That Lifesize Family Cup I still I actually think back to it now and I actually thought about stepping back into that project again and recreating it with all of 

the things I've learned since I did that. That was the first large scale item that I ever took on. I built one helmet prior to that and it was just a basic Batman helmet. 
And then I jumped right into a huge project like that, that Stanley cup ended up being a little over three foot tall and right around 21 pounds when it was all done, it was actually taller than my three year [00:43:00] old. Up to my, over my waist, it was a large project. when I initially had started that project, I didn't realize how big it was actually going to be. And after you get about 30 hours worth of print time into it and realize that you're nowhere close to being doneit starts to set in a little bit, but now that I think back to it, I almost want to revisit that project and do it again.
With all of the different tools and knowledge that I have now that I didn't have before I really think that I could blow that 1 out of the water. Unfortunately, it was a pretty pricey project to start with. I'd probably have to have someone lined up for that one to be able to do it, but it would be really cool to be able to revisit that and remake that project and compare it to what I had going on before, because I really think I could make that like one of those lifetime projects, that you step back and realize how much you've learned since you started doing what you're doing.
Yeah, I think that's 1 of the coolest things. I love having old prints and projects that I had from when I first started getting the 3D printing and it's [00:44:00] cool. Just seeing the journey and being able to compare of what where you started and where you're right now. It's especially, for you for only doing this for a year and a half, I'm sure like the journey has been pretty fast and how things have come along.
It is. And we've talked about Brady and myself and Bensky and Mike from priority 3d. We've talked about getting a group of us together to do a project night. Where we all go out in our shops and work on something together and talk about how we can make it better, or maybe give each other some tips and tricks on how to, achieve maybe the paint surface you're after, or put something together that maybe you weren't 100 percent confident in yourself.
To doing so I think we had talked about live streaming that and I think that'd be a really cool night and you're welcome to join us. If you wanted to, we can all work on a helmet. I'm happy to walk anybody through whatever I know, or, yeah, and I can make it up as I go if I need to.

It's always fun to just help everybody through those projects. And that's what I love about this so much. Is I [00:45:00] now have people asking me for advice that I would have never had people asking me about before. And it's really become a cool process where I throw out a few tips here and there, and I get to watch people actually implement those in their project. 
And it makes me feel so good to just see that stuff. I really hope my daughters are able to see that kind of stuff later on in life and have a moment to see, that I'm not crazy. No, I'm sure your daughters, even if they don't know how to express it just yet, I'm sure they think what you do is.
probably the coolest thing in the world and I have to imagine that they've probably learned more from what you do than you could probably imagine. But if you had to go back to day one, your first day of 3d printing and just give yourself one piece of advice, is there anything that stands out?
Maybe it's not to embark on that Stanley cup project in the middle of winter. Maybe it's clear coat over metallic paints. Anything that stands out for you in particular? I would just tell myself to slow down a little bit. I have the tendency just like everyone [00:46:00] does. When you get excited about something like this and you're painting or you're working on stuff, it's really easy to get a couple of steps ahead of yourself or put just a little extra paint on there and I think a lot of the time it's just take a breather, step back.
It's not super serious mistakes are going to happen. It's part of the learning process. The best thing you can do in your life is make mistakes because it's the best way to learn anything. It can be very disheartening. It can be really frustrating, but patience, man, patience pays off in ways I can't even explain to people.
I was an extremely impatient human being. Prior to all of the wild stuff in my life. And if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that patience takes you so much farther than anything else ever will. No, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I love the message that you have on your content and I love the work that you do.
Keep out what you're doing. And it's super exciting to see final question. I'll leave you off with is maybe again, I know we've talked about potentially a V2 of the Stanley [00:47:00] cup. Is there any one project that right now in your mind is just the dream project that you really want to take on?

And maybe it's sometime soon, or maybe it's very soon. Farther out, but anything that is just like really want to work on. I have two. My very first one, I want to finish the entire bat suit that I have in my mind for this. And I really. I want to wear it. I actually want to go back up to the hospital and wear it and go in and meet the kids that are stuck in there and don't get the opportunity to leave all the time or to get to go home to their families. 
It's something that means a lot to me, so that would be huge. The other thing that I have always wanted to do is I want a life size Batman statue. To have right back here somewhere I'll find room for it somehow or another, but I just want a life size Batman painted and looking exactly as if I was to walk up on Batman in real life.
It's always been something that's stuck [00:48:00] and I wouldn't be mad about an Iron Man suit. After watching a lot of frankly built stuff. I don't know that I love the idea of putting all that together and suiting up and all that stuff. But I just, I really want to go be able to go to the hospital or do some charity stuff with that.
I think that would be super cool. I'd love to work with some companies to be able to help me like achieve that goal at some point or another. But really ultimately I just, I want to be able to support my family. Doing this I really love doing this stuff and the content creation and all the things I get in a mode sometimes where, and I just love making the videos and I love showing some of the stuff I'm working on and helping people through their problems and working on that stuff.
Ideally, I would love to do a few of those little side projects, but yeah, getting the full bat suit done if I can put that into motion sometime or another, I would really like to do I'm sure that some projects will come to fruition. I'm excited to see it. Your love for your content, your love for the projects that you make, it's so evident in the stuff that you make.
And I hope for all of our sakes that we can see cool projects for me [00:49:00] nonstop. I hope that becomes a full time thing for you at some point. But for the people here today who watched and don't follow you already for whatever crazy reason, can you let them know where online they can follow you and where they can check out your projects and potentially get in contact if they're interested in just what you do?
Yeah. The best place to touch base with me is actually on TikTok. It is one 

makes 3d. That's really the best way to get ahold of me, or you can just email me directly. That link is actually just in the bio of my Tik TOK. If you're interested in purchasing something, that would be the two best ways to get ahold of me. 
I do occasionally post on Instagram, but not very often. And I have started a YouTube channel as well. I think I will be starting some longer form content on there here very soon. That's been recommended several times with tutorials and those type of things. That type of content doesn't really fit on TikTok, unfortunately.
That's probably where I'll start leaning to, but it's pretty much one makes on all the platforms for the most part. I'm saying it was such a pleasure getting just more insight [00:50:00] into your whole process, learning more about you today. And I really appreciate you taking the time out of your projects and out of your day to sit down and talk with us some more.
So thank you again. And that said, that is the makers.