3D Printing On An Ender, Cosplay, Camera Shyness, Uranium Glass - MTM #29 Dorkvader Artwork

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3D Printing On An Ender, Cosplay, Camera Shyness, Uranium Glass - MTM #29 Dorkvader

October 12, 2024 • Misfit Printing • Season 2 • Episode 6

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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 Josh (Dorkvader)
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dorkvader97?lang=en
Printables: https://www.printables.com/@Dorkvader97/models
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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 to Dorkvader
00:12 Josh's Journey into 3D Printing
01:38 Cosplay and 3D Printing Challenges
03:45 Modifications and Upgrades for Ender 3 v2
09:11 Exploring the World of Cosplay
12:34 The Fascination with Uranium Glass
19:12 The Mystery of the Singing Rocks
22:04 Early Days of Content Creation
24:12 Starting Content Creation Journey
26:46 Helping the Community with 3D Print Cares
28:51 Challenges and Support in 3D Printing
34:42 Dealing with Negativity online and Finding Support
37:07 Overcoming Camera Shyness
41:18 Balancing Multiple Projects
43:37 Future Projects and Final Thoughts

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riverside_josh_& kate _ oct 12, 2024 003_misfit_printing's s
[00:00:00] Welcome back to Meet the Makers. Today I have another awesome guest with us, a 3D printer.
Josh, you may know him online, is Dorkbaiter. So excited to have you here today. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me on the show. Of course. . Can you just tell us a little bit how you got into 3D printing and making stuff in general?
Making stuff in general, I started as a kid. I don't even know what age. I always madedifferent things for costumes and such. I used to use much to my dad's frustration when he found out fishing poles and made Harry Potter ones out of them with the painting of them and stuff.
I used to make lightsabers out of wooden dowels and I'd wrap them with duct tape and tinfoil tape they use for like air ducting because it made silvery. So I've always liked making stuff, but 3d printing, it was almost two years ago, actually, because I bought it beginning of December delivered just after Christmas, about two years ago.
What would that be? 20? Yeah. 2022. I think so. But I bought it to make cosplay stuff because some things are just [00:01:00] absurdly expensive. The one that, it is I'm still working on it now, but Captain Jack Sparrow, he has a very particular flintlock that he uses. And the actual flintlock he uses in the movies is a actual one from like the 16th century.
But I couldn't find any online that weren't like 1, 500 replicas, which is insane. And Nico Industries actually had a model for 10 bucks. So I got the printer, I got that, and she made it. And it's actually, it's I don't even know how to see it, but it's up here on my wall, right there. Yeah, and then just from there snowballed into a bit of an obsession and a full time hobby.
You and I actually must have started right around the same time then. I was, I think September 2022 if I'm doing the math right, I started, and Yeah, it's crazy how expensive some of those props out there for, I don't cosplay myself, but I have some friends do, and, sometimes they hear about their entire outfit, like, how much it costs, and I'm like, wow, that's really nuts.

. For you and your content, I mostly see, it looks like you're primarily printing on an Ender 3 [00:02:00] v2. Is that your main printer right now? That's my only printer, actually. I've considered getting other printers and other people be like, Hey, I have this old one.
Like I could send it to you if you want to pay the shipping costs. I'm like, I don't, I have a very small house. My boyfriend and I both have, we both live in the same house, but it's small. It's old. I'm actually sitting in my dining room. And my computer's sitting at the table right now just so I can get a good background shot.
But I just don't have the room for a bigger printer at the moment. Maybe someday I'd get a bigger one and put it upstairs. I'm considering it for especially if I continue to go into cosplaying stuff, because armor tends to be big pieces sometimes. I also started under 3B2 andI have many fond memories of my printer.
I still have them in my other room over there, but, no, it was the same for me when I first got into it. I, the room that I was in it's still the same situation for me where I'm sitting right now. It's my work from home office and I have my 3B printer behind me.
It can definitely be a limiting factor there for all the machines that you might want to have versus all the machines that you can't have there. But it's amazing what you can do on smaller printers [00:03:00] too. I'm sure it's easier on bigger printers but smaller printers can do a lot.
Actually my helmet back there, Batman Mandalorian helmet. I printed in four pieces on my Ender three. And then I plastic welded it all together. Like you can absolutely do these bigger projects. Does it take more work? Absolutely. I'm not going to lie, it takes a lot more work, but it's totally doable.
Yeah, no, for sure. That was my first and only helmet that I've ever made up until this point was a Mandalorian helmet. at that point was printing on my under 3B2s and I had to print them all out separately and plastic mold them together. And I would definitely see those people who had large format printers.
I'd be pretty jealous because they'd just run it in one piece and they were good to go. So it's a different process, but I think that's the cool thing that I enjoyed about so much of the content out there. I learned so much from different

people's content online and I know for you do a lot of different videos on the enders and different modifications you've done to them for you It looks like you've done quite a few, maybe it's mostly visual because your Ender 3v2 looks, it's [00:04:00] way cooler than mine ever looked, but it seems like you've done quite a few modifications to yours.
What would you say is like your favorite thing or some of the most practical things that you've done to that printer? I really like the kind of stripes. That slide into the V slots, those I really like. Probably one of the most practical things I have is off on the side, I have a little two tier drawer.
I have a Raspberry Pi, so I can send the files through the internet to that, but I like to use the microSD card. My bottom drawer has my flash drive with all my files in it, and my top drawer has a little microSD card holder, so I use that literally every day. Every single time I print.
Yeah, it's interesting hearing you say that you prefer the micro SD cards because honestly that was for me One of the things I hated the most about the Ender was the micro SD. I would always lose them They would I'm not very organized. I put it down for one second and then it would just be gone forever So that was one of the things I struggled the most with that printer but Here you have that Raspberry Pi setup on there.
That's a cool thing. And [00:05:00] I think for yours, maybe I saw you run OctoPrint on there as well. Yeah. That's what I use. And the, there's a couple of different versions of OctoPrint. OctoPrint is like the, just the normal base version, but you can also open up and use Octo everywhere it's called.
So I can be at work if I have it running, I can check on my printer and I can stop it if it's messing up. They also implement, I think Bamboo has something similar, they implement like an AI system, where it can try to see if it's messing up, if there's spaghetti, if it looks like a support's failing.
And I've actually gotten loads before where it's like, Oh, we think it, there's an issue and I come over and it's just because of the angle, it makes it look like the support's tipping over, but it's cause it's a tree support. It's just doing its little thing now for you with having Octoprint the Raspberry Pi all the different things that you have on there I know for me, when I first got into 3D printing I'm not very tech savvy, so I was pretty intimidated by things like setting up Raspberry Pis and setting up OctoPrint.

I at one point had, I don't know if you remember seeing it, but the Creality [00:06:00] SonicPad, I don't think it's as popular now, but it was like a plug and play version of that. For you, was it difficult setting that stuff up? And do you maybe have a background in that made you confident?
I had no idea what I was doing, honestly. It was actually a gift that my boyfriend got to me for Christmas. I've been talking about Oh, it'd be cool to get a Raspberry Pi. I just didn't want to get one because it was getting pretty expensive. And he had already gotten me one and then I got it for Christmas.
And that's also the reason why I don't send the files through there a lot. I don't entirely understand how it works. And I know the micro SD card works, so I've been sticking with that. But no, I just did a lot of searching online. There's a lot of great Facebook groups for ender printers, creality printers.
I just post on there hey, I don't know what I'm doing. Can anybody give me some tips? Just different websites I'd find. Just I end up figuring it out. I'm still working on it because I want to learn time lapses But I haven't gotten that to work yet. I think the interesting thing about 3d printing is There's the component of it, obviously, where you're making 3D prints, and you're post [00:07:00] processing them, and you're finishing them.
That's the whole own hobby in and of itself. But then, especially with the Enders, there's the other side of it, which is like the tinkering with the actual machine, and figuring out how to do all those things with the Raspberry Pis, and for me, my machines were constantly, mostly from user error, constantly breaking, and I was doing poor upgrades to them.
So it was this whole other side to the hobby of really just like getting your printer dialed in for you, would you say being in this hobby and using that machine, are you somebody who enjoys that tinkering side of things? I really do enjoy tinkering. I always liked to just find out how things worked from that, almost like an engineering sort of perspective of it. I want to know how it works. Why it works, and then some of this stuff that's more mechanical is just easier and simpler to comprehend for me but some of the stuff, like all the electrical components I don't entirely know how they work, but I haven't looked into too much of that at the moment, but I also think to a point Especially when people start with a bamboo, that can not necessarily be the [00:08:00] most helpful thing because bamboos do tend to be a little more plug and play, which is great.

It's an awesome thing. But when then it breaks down, they're like why did it break down? Whereas some of us that not say grow up on enders, but I guess it is we've learned at least basic just PMs in maintenance on it. And then that really translates into the basics of a lot of different parts of 3D printing. I couldn't agree more. As many times as I would be working on my enders, and I would be cursing my enders, and I was like, Man, if only it was just easier, and if only these things weren't breaking every day. I really do think all the times that I had to, fix that printer, when I got to my bamboo it was really like a luxury, but I, even still to this day when things go wrong it's so much easier to fix it now because I was so used to, clearing out a clogged nozzle or moving the PTF tubing around where, definitely, I've had friends who have got, they weren't into 3D printing and then right away they just got a bamboo.
And for them, I think they struggle a lot more when things go wrong just from the standpoint of not having that background [00:09:00] in it. If you're the type of person out there who's interested in tinkering or you're willing to get your hands dirty with the machines, I still, to this day, I think the Ender 3 B2s or any version of the Enders, really, I think they're a great machine to start on.
Now for you, so it's interesting hearing that it sounds like the cosplay world was something that pushed you into 3D printing initially. Can you maybe tell us more about some of the cosplays that you've done? Because what I know you most from your profile picture is your Mad Hatter cosplay, which I just think is the coolest thing ever.
But is that kind of like your main cosplay or do you have other ones that you've dabbled in? I have a closet upstairs. It's full of costumes and stuff. I tend to call them cosplays just because costumes are, it's like an all encompassing term for it. But cosplays tend to be way more detailed than just a simple costume.
I've actually only been to one convention. I went two years ago. I'm going to plan on going again next year. It's just a small local convention for me. It's called Evocon. And I really enjoyed it for the last two years. It's, Just 'cause I guess I, I don't [00:10:00] know if it's technically cosplaying or not most of the time just 'cause I do it for fun, but I do have a lot of different ones.
But yeah, my Mad Hat is definitely my favorite one, and it's the most finished one. I have quite a few up there that I've. been working on over the years, I mentioned my Jack Sparrow one. I started that when I was probably like 13, 15. Oh, wow. And there's parts of it I look at now, I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to change that.

I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Yeah, it's again I don't cosplay myself, but I follow a lot of people online who do, and I think what's cool about it is seeing people's kind of evolution of, maybe they cosplay certain characters over the years, but seeing how that evolves for them and just slowly building up to be a more advanced version of that, I was laughing, I saw for you on the Mad Hatter, you had this video where You had found this different bust for it.
And it was like, so similar, but it was just, it was slightly more detailed and slightly better, and you were like, so excited about it. And I think that's a really cool thing about cosplay in general, is just the attention to detail that I see people [00:11:00] have with their costumes in general.
One thing I find a lot about cosplay is a lot of people think like you need to make everything. I don't know how to sew so I can't do that. That first vest that I had I cut those squares out and I used 3M spray glue and stuck them on. Didn't sew anything on that vest.
And then, I think always working on improving it is something that people should always try to do. you might like it now, but why not make it just that little bit better? it might not be a lot. For me, I find a lot of my stuff secondhand. I'll go to Goodwill or something.
I'll buy this plain, the blue vest is what I got. then I found some fabric, found some ribbon, and I sewed all the squares on, sewed all that ribbon on, added some extra colors and stuff, swapped out the buttons. realistically, it's basic. use of a sewing machine. It's not complicated at all.
I don't know how to do fancy stuff on the sewing machine. I just did whatever the zigzag stitch is, just because it has more thread in there, holding it down tight so it won't fray. I don't really know [00:12:00] what I'm doing on a lot of the stuff I do, But that's part of the fun, it's the adventure of learning and figuring stuff out as you go along.
Which is also funny for me to say, because I want a plan if I'm starting out. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this and this and this. Don't like, just necessarily just go, okay, we're gonna try. No, I think I always think sewing, people who can sew very effectively, those people are truly wizards because I've, Tried my hand at that a few times and you would think something like maybe 3d printing would translate well But I feel like zero skill that translates over to sewing.
I have a very difficult time with that. You mentioned thrifting some of the

pieces and one of the Things that initially I saw in your content that instantly got me so excited is a different thing that you Thrift and find from different places, which is uranium glass.
Can you, for people who maybe aren't familiar with it, can you tell us a little bit about what uranium glass is? Yeah. So it's actually a glass that they used to add uranium. I think originally it started in like 1830s. You added [00:13:00] uranium salts, I think is what they called it small amounts on it. And I actually grabbed some samples in case this came up, but it made it a greenish color.
And it's almost like a lot of them are like a lime green. But the thing about them is that when sunlight hits them, they almost look like they glow a little bit. Because they do. It's what the UV from the sun is making them fluoresce just a little bit. But if you put a UV light on them, they glow like really nice and it looks way better in person like literally neon green and I don't know how it looks on the camera, but it never turns up as good as it should But they were really popular for my Think it was like 1880s to like 1920s.
And of course the 1940s hit and they actually had laws against, okay, you can't use this in glassmaking. And they found other ways to make that nice green color because it continued to be actually fairly popular. And then I want to say in the sixties, it started up again and actually still some companies still use it.
I'd found this [00:14:00] piece. It's a Vaseline glass, and that's the company, so I was like, oh, how old is it? And they go, oh yeah, we made that in from 2010 to 2015. I was like, what? Didn't know that they still do that, which is just, it's crazy. It's so cool, though
that's really interesting. I didn't know that about uranium glass, that they would still make things like that, because Maybe you won't be able to see it, but I have one small piece back there, andevery time I see it, I always assumed that it was like this super old vintage piece, so now you have me wondering if maybe the piece that I have is Not as old as I think because I always thought that it was this super old relic, For you I'm curious what maybe got you initially interested in uranium glass Did you ever read the book radium girls?
I have not read the book. I know when I started collecting it, my mom's have you not seen the play? Why are you having this stuff? But I always liked glass. I had a shelf of jars in my room as a kid. And then when I found out about uranium glass, I rushed back to my parents and shined my black light up there and I was really disappointed that none of them were uranium.

But I don't know. I've always found the glass just different kinds of glass, just really [00:15:00] interesting. And as far as uranium glass, there's a lot of different kinds. You've got Vaseline, you've got uranium, you can get like custard glass jadeite and then yeah, you have things like radium which is slightly different than uranium.
It is. I believe it comes from the same element, somebody's probably going to tell me I'm wrong but radium, like things like a compasses and clocks, are actually very radioactive and if you collect that, I would recommend getting a Geiger counter, which you can actually get pretty cheap on Amazon, I got mine for 50 bucks or 45 bucks, they're not that expensive.
But I got it because I found out that my boyfriend's got an old compass that was his, I want to say great grandfather's. And I found that it is actually a radium compass. So what the radium was, it was the paint. And they had radium ore in it, and that's what would make it glow. And pretty much most clocks pre 70s, that have glow in the dark paint.
It's actually radium based paints. [00:16:00] And after that, they realized, oh no, this is toxic. This is radioactive. This is not good. So then they went to, I think it was something called Luminol. Which is incredibly toxic, so this is better than being radioactive! And they have better things nowadays, of course, because you can get glow in the dark acrylic paint and you can use it fine.
But it is something that, the radiation from it is minimal. Even the really bad clocks, you put a piece of paper in front of them, and it's not gonna read. While it is something to be cautious about, it's not, having it in your home is not a huge health hazard. But you need to be careful, because if that glass breaks, usually there's particles of that, and ingesting the radium is actually what's super harmful, which is actually what the radium ghouls were.
They'd lick their paintbrushes, and then dip it in the paint, so they'd get the really fine number, and then they'd lick it again, and dip it in more paint, and actually ingesting the radium paint is what caused the, just the horrible cancers and [00:17:00] everything they had. It can be dangerous, but if you done they're really beautiful pieces. A lot of the time. Yeah. It's it was a number of years ago that I had read the book and that kind of. Interested me in the whole world of just radium dial watches and uranium glass and it, I just have always thought that was super cool.
When I saw somebody else who was interested in collecting it, I instantly was

interested in your content. You also have Cadmium glass? Yeah. Yeah. Cadmium glass. Yeah, I'm not as familiar with that. it doesn't have any radioactiveness to it or anything like that.
It's just cadmium is actually a heavy metal. I actually just found it at an estate sale and I have a video that I'm probably going to be putting up soon about it. But it's called selenium glass. they're both heavy metals and they put them into the glass.
So you ever seen glass like the ruby red? it's really heavy. Really nice red color. Originally that was made with I want to say it was melted gold dripped into the glass and mixed in and you get this really nice red color, but then they also use [00:18:00] cadmium. they found if you let it cool and then you heat part of the glass again, you'll end up with this transition from yellow to red to orange.
Or from red to orange to yellow, sorry. And it gets this really nice color to it. And that became known as Amberina glass. But the cadmium, it's not harmful to people. I probably wouldn't recommend drinking out of it, especially anything acidic. but that's also, goes the same for things like leaded glass.
And like the selenium glass. Selenium glass you should be more careful with, but you can handle that stuff. It's not like you're going to hold it and just be like, Oh, the metals are leeching into my skin. It's toxic. It's not that kind of toxic, but then under a certain different black lights, they really get a really cool color.
Like the cadmium will often glow like a yellowish orange and selenium will be pink. Like the color of pink. That's actually behind your head right now on those lights. That's the color that the glass will flourish. It's really cool. For you, you have your, Glass collections.
And something that I've [00:19:00] noticed in your content is your house seems to almost be a very magical place. I've seen videos where you're pulling these like skeleton keys out of your house, and then you seemingly have meteorites that are falling out of the sky in your house. . Can you maybe just tell us a little bit more about the backstory, of the meteor, the meteorite that was, because that was another piece of content that I found to be very interesting from your side. So that I don't think it's a meteorite. I did some testing and stuff. While it's possible, I'm pretty sure it's just what's called a sonorous rock. People call them blinging rocks. There's parks in, I know, Pennsylvania, Montana, they have some in Australia, and I think South Wales has some pretty famous ones, but it has to do with the density, the crystalline structure, and amounts of iron in it,

they're pretty sure, but the funny thing is, the more I dug into it, the more info I found that just said, okay, geologists know it's usually these things, scientifically speaking, they don't know exactly why they do it.
They can go it's like this, but there are ones that have the same [00:20:00] kind of makeup that don't. They don't know why. So they can say, okay this is why it rings, but why does that not ring? I, they have no idea. So it's just a thing they know that it is, but it's just a mystery.
But the reason, I know if people go back into my videos and they see that, they notice that it's like weeks between updates on that. That's actually some land that we bought for camping at about. an hour north of us. I got a lot of comments on that video, like, Why is this person walking around hitting rocks? Actually, now that you say it, yeah, how did you, in the first I don't know that my instinct were to be walking around and hitting all the rocks. How did you even find that it was making that sound in the first place?
There were a pile of rocks that we moved when we had some holes dug out for different thingsone got pulled out of a hole that was probably about five, six feet down, and then they just made a pile. there's people who previously had their land had a retaining wall put in, so I figured it was like, okay, this other little area, I'm going to roll these bigger rocks over, push them up, and make a little mini retaining wall.
to the kind of aesthetic, [00:21:00] it'll look nice. And as I'm rolling it, it's rolling over stuff. And I'm like, what the heck is that noise? I keep hearing this little like ting, like you're hitting a little piece of China. I'm okay, this is rocks. I grabbed a rock and tapped it. I'm like, what the heck? It was the craziest thing.
And that I remember very vividly, like what I like, okay, I'll just make a video of this and I'll put it on TikTok something. And as I'm after I took the video, I'm like, this is the kind of dumb shit that's going to go viral. I think every once in a while now because that video is months old, suddenly it'll be like a kick where I'll get another 100, 000 views from, I don't know why
Is it just because it's a weird thing that just everybody comments on? But I think it has 4 million views now. Wow. It's just insane to me. That's crazy. Isn't it funny how, it's something that you can plan out this great idea for the content, and you can, put all this time into it, and then it's the random thing that just happens to come about that you never planned for, never expected, that ends up being, the piece of content that goes viral.

Oh, I know. And that could be really frustrating too for [00:22:00] content just making content, which, that's something I'm really new to also. I don't know if, have you, did you do content before TikTok? Or is this kind of your, thing? Was that kind of like your approach to it, or? Yeah, so I, man, I feel like I've been doing content forever.
Back way back in the day when I was super young, I had started doing YouTube. Maybe like 13 at the time or so. And I remember doing YouTube at that point in time. It was so long ago on YouTube, it like the screens were squares, and there was a star rating, there weren't thumbs up and thumbs down it was way different.
And I remember I'd be like, making YouTube videos, and my mom would hear me, or I'd tell my friends about it, and people were like, You're filming a video of yourself and you're putting it on the internet and they're like, that's really weird. Whereas nowadays, if you're like, I'm making a YouTube video, like everyone gets it.
Everybody like knows what it is. But back then there was like, there was no monetization. The idea of being a YouTuber wasn't a thing. It was like really weird. I would make these goofy little videos back then just for fun. And [00:23:00] then, some time went by, I got away from doing it.
Fast forward, I had started a small house, houseplant business. For a long time, I was actually making houseplant content on YouTube and around that time, that's when TikTok started getting popular, I don't know, I follow GaryVee, but he would always be talking about TikTok, and it's a huge opportunity that you're missing, when TikTok was new, it was just people doing silly little dances on TikTok, and I was like, I'm a terrible dancer, so I don't know if this is for me, but for whatever reason, I decided to Try it for houseplants.
So I started there on TikTok and then slowly right around that time I just happened to get a 3d printer by chance. for the houseplant business I was like maybe I can 3d print pots. it stemmed in this whole thing Where I was like maybe I'll make separate social media for 3d printing and it just by a happy accident I Posted my first 3d printing video and so many of the people that we, now know nowadays and are friends with commented and we're so encouraging and nice It just made me keep doing it and it really was an accident that I even got into doing 3d printing in the first place so [00:24:00] that's the whole journey of how I got here, but Now fast forward and we're here in a podcast and I make 3D printing content every day.

So it's been crazy for sure. So it's something that you were familiar with though. Yeah, for sure. But flipping that over to your side, for you, what kind of initially made you get into content or decide that you wanted to do content?
I don't know exactly what made me want to do that. I think, I actually think that flintlock on my wall was the first video I posted. I actually scrolled back before the podcast and I'm like, I wonder what the first video I posted was. And it was an audio that was like the post something that you made that you have no reason to post it, but just to show it off.
Yeah. And that was the first thing and some people are like, Oh, that's really cool. I'm like, Huh. Really? Okay. No white people would want to watch the videos I make, but okay. And then I just added some more and wasn't, I'd never done content before. So doing that video was the first time I'd ever done something that I filmed and posted on there besides oh, posting just a video on Facebook or [00:25:00] something.
But then I think it was probably like, Three, four months before I even put my face on there, because I'm like, I, it just wasn't something I was, not that I wasn't comfortable showing myself, it just wasn't something I was comfortable as filming, and just, it was just a new thing for me, and I'm trying to learn, okay what am I doing here?
And then it evolved into just other stuff, and I do say that I've been following you for a long time, I know Brady Beats World mentioned me on their podcast, and I was watching that. I was like, she knows who I am? Like, I feel like a celebrity. But I don't know. I feel like we tend to have similar content, because it's okay, a lot of 3D printing, but also this, here's this random stuff that ADHD pulled in, and now it's gone, and now here's the new thing.
It's just whatever little bits of things make me happy. I like to post things about just all different stuff. It is primarily 3D print stuff. But, as I'm becoming more comfortable with content creating, and I'm actually really enjoying it probably in the about a, how long have I been doing this?
[00:26:00] Probably about a year and a half I've been actually making content. But about a year ago I realized, okayI can post some stuff and help people and answer questions, which is so weird to somebody who's still, two years, but I feel like I'm still brand new to 3D printing because there's a lot I don't know especially watching other printers.

But. Just that I could help people and people would ask me a question on why this is happening or how to fix this or different kinds of models.
I always wanted to help. I want to help people. I want to make people happy. Just inspire people. But it just felt weird that I was the one being asked when there's other people that are doing this better than me, but I think you're always going to get that. There's always going to be something who can do stuff better than you, who can do more than you.
And actually I got a good one for this. That I'm sure you've noticed it, because you follow Brady and I'm sure Brady Bensky, Asylum Life, they're working with, I think it, I want to say who handled this, Pharrell 3D, I'm sorry if I got that [00:27:00] wrong. But, They are organizing 3D print cares again, and we're going to send a bunch of prints to the areas affected by Hurricane Helene.
And as of, I won, I think it was yesterday, the day before, we've had over 4, 000 prints pledged to be made. they're doing a lot more logistics than we did when we did 3D print cares last. if people do want to watch this podcast and they want to check it out, it's asylumlife.
com slash 3D print cares. you can sign up as a maker. There's quantities at 10. if you want to make 40, whatever prints, however many you want, put them in bags of 10 and wait for them to contact you because you put your phone number in there. They'll call you and say, Hey, our next year we're going to send to is this area.
Then they'll give you the shipping info. Then you send it. And I think the first batch of 500 went out, There's a Discord on this, and I'm watching these people, they're like, Oh, I just pledged 300 prints, I pledged 100 prints, It makes me feel like, okay I'm not doing a lot. actually, just before the podcast I had a plate [00:28:00] finish two minutes before, and I've got 16 now.
I could fit four to six prints on my build plate, but I am still going to keep printing. I want to do at least 20. I'm going to try to do more, because even though some other people are able to do a lot more potentially, if I send 20, that's 20 more kids that might have a toy that might not have if I didn't do anything.
And it's, granted, the people who can do a lot are contributing a lot, but if everybody who could do 100 only contributed, you'd have a lot less. Because, you have 10 people that sign up on 20, you've got 200 prints right there. It's

not a lot, but it adds up. Just because somebody can do more, somebody can do better doesn't mean you shouldn't, as long as they don't make yourself do it if you don't want to. Unless something's, you gotta brush your teeth, you gotta take a shower sometimes, even if you don't want to, but it's just a good thing to do.
Just get yourself out there, keep doing things that make yourself happy and helping others, I think I relate to you a lot in the sense thatI am not the best 3D [00:29:00] printer. I don't know the most, in fact, I probably know a lot less than most of the people out there, but I think what's cool is that, a lot of times obviously the people who know all this knowledge, they're great and they put out great information, but I think sometimes When you're so new to learning things, learning from somebody who maybe knows not as much, they have a simpler approach to it, and they can explain things in a way that is a little more digestible, and maybe it's just like a way that you relate to a little more.
I think everybody takes in information differently, and they like people's different spin on hearing the same piece of information. even though maybe you or I might not be, the most knowledgeable person in the world. it's cool that we both get to put out content and even if that helps one person out there who didn't know how to do it, it's one more person who gets brought into this world of 3d printing, which is really cool.
3d print cares is something that, it's newer and I think Brady and Bensky and all those guys, like they're going to do such a great job with it. It's cool to hear that it already sounds like it's progressed a lot more from the first time that we did it, and I know so many prints went out for [00:30:00] that, and I know it got to a point where it was almost chaotic for them to manage all the stuff that was coming in it sounds like their new distribution system for that's gonna be really cool, but I completely agree, even if it's only 10 prints or 20 prints that somebody puts out, It really does add up and, for those 20 kids who maybe have, unfortunately, had so much taken away from them to be able to get something, it makes a huge difference for them.
No it's really cool hearing you do that and no, I hope it encourages other people who listen to this out there to participate in it because it's a really cool thing that as 3D printers, I think we have the ability to do. I think, I know there's other bigger content creators that will go out of the way to help, but I think some of them also are like, okay, I've got, these are the kind of videos that do well, and okay, post this weird problem and help somebody talk somebody through it. It's not always the most popular video.

Whereas, I'd have no problem Posting three or four videos in a row onto responding to somebody going. Okay. This is my problem. I can go. Okay. Here's the fix. I'm having, if you do this and this and this and then I'm not having another issue and okay [00:31:00] here's another video, this and this.
I think that to that point, we might be Okay. Sometimes we can be the better help especially because the, I don't know, like the problem printers tend to not be, the 2, 000 printers. They tend to be the little 180 printers that we have. As all these big content creators, a lot of them started on smaller printers, but as you progress, you end up with more and more printers and then the ones that are newer.
And not just because that saying that they don't use these anymore, but the newer ones just, they tend to do tend to be better. They tend to be faster. They tend to be more precise better heating capabilities. People put upgrades on. And it's maybe something that they might not be able to assist as much with because they don't have The parts on their printer that the person having trouble with is That's one of the things also that I love about Being able to post things on tiktok plus just how tiktok is ran is that you can scroll through videos the way it is But if i'm [00:32:00] having a problem, I can post the video on there to say, okay.
This is my problem anybody have a fix or has anybody had this problem before and I'll get comments or video replies from people trying to help even if they don't know why the problem is occurring or how to fix it, they'll ask questions and see if they can help get you through it. Yeah. And just having a support group like that, even if it's just a Facebook group or somebody to post on if you're 3d printing, you knew, and you don't know what you're doing.
I know we have a group chat Brady meets world. We got Bensky priority 3d and one makes it myself and just, it's not even just problems, just post okay, I made this cool thing. And just the positivity and just the, okay.
Oh God, that's really cool. Like, how did you do that? how does that work? How would you do something like that? Just. Being there is just, it's a really cool thing, I gotta say, so just have, I guess having that like pure group is just, [00:33:00] it's very important though, I would think.
just 3D printers in general, I think, That community piece of it really is important, especially when you're new to 3d printing I know for me like the smallest problem like my nozzle being clogged It would take me out of

commission with my printer for days I could not figure it out and as simple as a problem as it would be I it would be so difficult But then you know there I'd post a video on it and 50 people in the comments would be like do this Try this and it would work and it was like Having a team of people come in and help you, which it was great, and definitely I know for me I really needed that when I was new to 3D printing, and, even just, I think there'd be so many times I'd have a problem, I think, nobody could have ever experienced this before, this is a 100 percent one off problem, and sure enough 50 people would be like, oh, no, I, that happened to me today, that happened to me last week, and no matter how crazy of a problem it seems like you're having, there's always somebody out there, I think, in 3D printing who has experienced that or much worse before and can help guide you through how to get through it.
One thing [00:34:00] I found surfacing a lot of videos for the last couple months is people who have an AMS system and the PTFE tubing from the AMS system to the 3D printer. The printer, after time, the filament will wear a cut in that and it can actually push itself out of the tube.
I wouldn't have thought that would be an issue, but I've seen videos of people who'd like they see that video and they're like, what? And then they go check their printer and they have this much left. There's like the fraction of a tiny bit of PTFE tubing left. It's they were almost at a failure.
Just the fact that person was like, Oh, this was an issue I had And they just might've saved somebody. A four or five day print, that could have failed in the last minute or something, just something like that. It's. I don't know, the 3D print community we have out there, yes, there is there is some negativity, there's going to be anywhere there are issues that pop up but it's also really cool seeing I don't know, like the clapbacks from other creators I know I mentioned it to you when we started the podcast, but I have, it's called eroticism.
I just want to talk to whoever [00:35:00] named it that, because it makes you not be able to pronounce R as well, you pronounce it as W. So why would you name the word and start it with an R? But It's only in certain phrases, because I can say R just fine, but if I say rotacism, it sounds like I'm using a W instead of an R sometimes.
Didn't know I had it until one of my first videos got like 400, 000 views. there was a video of a dice launcher that was in like a little pistol like mechanism, and you blow three dice in it, and it'll shoot it out for D& D. I made it for somebody

at work, and I got a lot of comments Elmer Fudd kind of themed you gotta hunt that wascally rabbit.
And I was like, oh, okay, and then I got some pretty nasty comments on there. I actually had to delete some of them. But on that rock video I had I got some other ones, and then I woke up, what, I think I was at work, and I was on break, and I was like, oh wow, that was a bad comment, and I see this thing, it was like, Brady Meets World posted a video reply, and it's, bullying isn't good, but it [00:36:00] made me happy, because he just he laid into the guy, and while it's, Brady was like, I feel bad, because I'm like, I'm almost bullying the bully, but I think sometimes that's justifiable because you have to stand up for yourself.
And it's personally, I hinted a little differently. I didn't realize the guy was being rude at first, and then reading the more comments. I'm like, Oh, wow, that guy actually meant it in a mean way. But just having these people that will go and fight for you. It doesn't seem like a big thing, but it Just made me emotional.
It's these guys are really cool. I have friends now. They like the weird stuff I do. But, I don't know, I guess that kind of goes back to having a positive network of people and how the community will circle up and do these nice things and they're just really pleasant most of the time.
Yeah, it's hearing you talk through this, it's like melting my heart right now. you get the sour apples out there in the community every now and then. But for the most part, it's always cool to hear that other people have similar experiences of just having really great conversations. People out there in the 3d [00:37:00] printing community, and I'm glad that seems to be continuing on the longer that I've been part of this. No that's really cool to hear.
For you, at any point was it like hard getting, like putting yourself out there? Because I know a lot of people message me and they say like they want to get into content, but they're not sure about putting their self in front of a camera. They're not sure about just like doing it.
Was it hard for you first getting into doing content? And like, how did you maybe overcome like getting on camera yourself? For the first couple of months, I didn't actually show myself. I was filming in front of me. And I will say I am very comfortable filming myself. But, some of my favorite ways are just holding the camera, cause then, you can go in, and then you can come out, and then you can go, okay show this little thing, now this little thing, now this.

And then come back out. I really doing that kind of video to a point rather than setting your phone up on a tripod was just stationary. And then you're sitting there and just talking which I mean, looks great for something like a podcast. I was not entirely comfortable doing it. And I still feel weird filming in front of people.
Because I mentioned my filming. Oh, [00:38:00] like in person? Yeah. My filming area is in my dining room. So our living room's right there. And my boyfriend's sitting there watch tv. I'm like, okay, can you pause the TV for a minute? And then I'm like, I feel flustered. Like I can't okay, I can't collect okay, how was I even gonna start this video?
I'm like, is he watching me? And he's not . And he'll glance up and I'm like, oh my God, he was watching me. I can't do this. . It's weird. I don't know why I get like that, I'm unhappy to just go into the bedroom quick for a few minutes if I want to do a video, if I just can't collect myself.
But it's not always about okay, you're gonna go overcome this, you do your video, and oh, you're gonna be great. It does take getting used to. It's something that you have to do what you're comfortable with. I wasn't comfortable at first. I think it was like three, four months before I even showed my face on camera.
I started to think, I'm like, if I'm going to be one of those people that's I hit 5, 000 followers, now here's my face. Wow. But I didn't do that. I don't remember what video it was, but I posted it. And I'm like, didn't die of embarrassment. Wow, that was [00:39:00] cool. But yeah, I don't know. Content's a, kind of an odd thing, it's not for everybody. I do it a lot because I enjoy doing it. Just for the fun aspect of it. I think especially, I know a lot of 3D printers have ADHD. Don't know if that's coincidental or if that seems to be a specific pattern. But I like to be able to do my stuff, and then I just let it go.
I just let it do its thing. I can't sit there and do things for hours and hours, like these people who can do helmets. I don't know how you can sand for three hours. I have a lot of trouble doing that. Just being comfortable with something that other people are immediately comfortable with, I might not be.
And it's something that you have to play to your comfort level. And doing content doesn't mean you have to do a face to face thing. You might film all of your content, never showing yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. Some people do that with masks. They'll have a mask on their content. Or what was

that DJ?
Marshmello? He's got a [00:40:00] hat like that. Marshmello head. I don't know if people know what he looks like. I don't know if he does that because it's cool or just because he Feels awkward. But that can also raise once you people can't see if you are, you tend to feel a little bit more confident. So you might act a lot weirder than you are in person.
Yeah. But I just I enjoy doing it. How what of me here what you see me online. That's me. I'm not putting I'm not going Okay, this is Dirk Vader 3d printing. He's a different Transcribed Kind of person. He's acting different. That's just how I am. I'm weird and odd and I find I collect strange stuff Yeah I think that's what is so lovable about your content You know you talked about how Some of your content's 3d printing and some of it's not and that's another thing I hear people talk about They're like, I don't know.
I'm my name on here is such and such 3d. I don't know if I can be Post anything besides 3D printing and I always love to see people's lives outside of the main thing that they're known for I think that's so cool and No I completely agree. I think all the things that you said are [00:41:00] definitely very relatable and It's funny hearing you talk about how, filming in front of your boyfriend.
I'm the same way. I'm like, Go in the other room. I can't film this video if you're sitting here. No it's very relatable hearing you talk about that. One of the things you mentioned in there was having a short attention span and, not necessarily wanting to stand for three hours.
I'm curious if you're somebody like me, do you have a lot of projects going on in the background right now that are maybe half finished or partly finished? I try not to have multiple projects at a time. But, when something like like what we're doing with 3D print cares, that does put everything I have on hold.
Yeah. There are some projects I want to start on. I made a model for hanging Christmas lights. Clips into aluminum fascia, so then I don't have to put holes in anything out there because we just finished recladding the house, which was a pain, but it's so worth it because it looks so much better.
But, I made the model, and I'm like, okay, now I can print this. I bought PETG, and I've never used it, so I have to figure out how to use it. Then 3D print care stuff popped up, and I'm like I can't do this yet. Another thing I have is I [00:42:00] have a cosplay I'm working on, a Star Wars one, which for the level

of Star Wars nerd that I would consider myself, it's weird that I don't have a Star Wars cosplay.
Yeah! But I picked a almost fully armored character, and I am slightly regretting it now. But I will say that even just doing stuff like that, doing that helmet over there behind me, Without people that have hyped me up that helmet I did for Bensky's D. C. Helmet Challenge, I would not have considered doing that.
He did the challenge, I think he just tagged me people who wanted to do that, and I was like, oh I guess I could try that. I decided, I picked a file, I started printing it, and then after I printed it, I found a way to hold it together. Just people that have hyped me up even just doing this podcast, made me say you can't do it.
You're good at this stuff. And me thinking Okay, I'm posting this odd content. I don't know why people are following me. I still don't fully understand it sometimes that many people out there enjoy the same things that [00:43:00] I do, the things that I post just having people that just pushed me like, okay, get out of your comfort zone.
Try this. It's gotten me to a lot of different content that I never would have tried or just posting stuff or, being on this podcast, honestly, especially if I'd follow you for so long. It's you feel like a celebrity kind of to me. Likewise, having you on here today, I've I've really enjoyed your content recently, and having you on I feel like I know so much about you and different crazy things that have you go on.
So it's really fun getting to talk to you today. Final question I'll leave you with here is, we talked a lot about current projects you've had, past projects you had. Is there any, maybe one project in the back of your mind that you really wanted to do and just haven't started yet?I would say one that I've been wanting to do for a while is I've been wanting to do armor. one that I really wanted to do, but I don't have the files for it, and some I haven't been able to find some of the files is Thranduil from Lord of the Rings his battle armor.
I really wanted to make [00:44:00] that. But, there's a lot of aspects that I don't know with, where I am in 3D printing, I should say, that I am ready to try that. But, I'm also embarking on this full armor costume where it's gonna have masks, it's gonna be bracers, it's gonna be like pauldrons, a full bunch of different parts.

It's got a printed chest piece, it's got like leg pieces, foot cover pieces. I think just something like that would be something that I've been wanting to print for a while, but I've been scared to because I didn't necessarily think that I can't because I don't know how for sure.
And then I don't feel comfortable trying. Yeah. But Mike from priority 3D and Nick from 1 mace have been absolutely amazing in helping me out with any questions I have. Firstly I had, I made the braces, and I realized that they're, I don't know how to attach these, so I sent pictures to them I don't know what to do, he's oh yeah, just do Velcro and elastic, if you can get magnets, just pull in tight, [00:45:00] da this is how you scale your chest piece, just go here to here, half inch less, easy, and I'm just like, I feel like I can do this now I, I didn't feel like I could before, but now I do, and it's just, it's cool, just feeling like that, thanks. Bye. Knowing that if I come across something that I don't know how to do, especially for me as a person where I want to have a plan, and so often when you're trying something new, you can't have a plan because you don't know what's going to happen or what might come up. Having these people who either are really clever at just coming up with something on the fly or have done so much of this that they just know, Just being able to reach out for them and they'll respond back pretty quick. Sometimes a couple of minutes. These guys are they'll. Just they're there and it's just really nice being able to have that support group to lean against sometimes. No, I it's awesome having that support group and with that said, I hope that you do get to that armor piece and I'm super excited to see when
you do. For whatever reason, if people aren't following you already, they need to. Where [00:46:00] can people find you online and where can they just follow along with your projects?
Actually the only place I'm online at the moment is TikTok. I think my at handle is like dorkvader97. But that's where I started at. Right now I'm dorkvader3dprince. You guys can find me on there though. I'm my logo or my I want to get a logo someday. That just reminded me of that. Sorry, ADHD moment.
My profile picture is like you mentioned that Mad Hatter cosplay of mine that I really love. So that should be easy to spot. Josh, again, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to sit down and let us get to know you more. It was a pleasure looking forward to your future projects.
And with that said, that is Meet the Makers.