CrossTechnic the “Maker”
CrossTechnic is the brand name under which I ( and by now also my wife) work as a “Maker”. I do this beside my daytime job.
My life as a real maker started in 2017 with the purchase of a Ender3D printer. Although it is a simple and cheap printer it gave me the experience and enjoyment of 3d printing. I mainly made toy figurines for my kids, but also spare parts for house hold repairs and model making in general. It is still in use today although it is heavily modified with items like auto-bed leveling, board replacements, extruder upgrades, etc. Its a reliable workhorse with more than 2.500 hrs on the clock. Its mainly used for large single color prints at the moment.
My second printer i bought in 2019 was a Prusa MK3S, a more advance printer with a direct drive extruder. In comparison with the Ender3D this gave me more options with color printing and other types of filaments. Its currently in use as main printer and runs almost around the clock. Its housed in a special sound dampening (and fire proof) encasing so it does not disturb the household during the night.
It was also the moment I really started experimenting with multi color printing whereby I invested in a rainbow of colored filaments.
To further expend the possibilities a 3025CNC desktop milling machine was added in march 2021. Although its a simple and cheap model, the router and laserhead gave additional options that could not be done by printing. The rig is heavily modified by now with a new router head, extra linear bearings, etc. to fit my needs.
The workshops itself kept expending, much to my wife’s frustration due to the fact she had to give up part of her space. Although she also start enjoying the “Making” process and she can run her own project on the printers by now. I also interested myself in electronic, micro controllers (Arduino) and other DIY techniques for which I use equipment like power supplies, oscilloscopes, etc.
After some request for some detailed miniature models i felt the urge to get a SLA printer. In june 2021 I bougth an Anycubic Photon Mono X. Although the print quality is great it took a while to get familiar with printing resin. I have to say I had my fair share of failed prints, before getting the hang of it.
The printing itself with al the resin, cleaning, curing and and mess you make demanded a whole new printing station to be build. A new desk was installed with a whole separate area to handle the chemicals in s save and proper way. Also some really good PPE where bought to keep it save.
My wife wanted her share of the “maker” machines so she demanded some space for an investement she want to make in a cutting plotter. So in the same period we got a Cricut Maker 3, a well designed and very useful cutting plotter. The way the drawing and plotting works is somewhat different then what im was used to.
The 2d design softwareworked designwise different then the 3d design software I was used, so it was a good way to learn some new skills.
