The Rise of 3D-Printed Slop

Once out of reach for many people, affordable 3d printers are now everywhere. What started as an innovative tool to rapidly prototype new designs has unfortunately become an easy way to produce endless plastic waste.

The ideal ventilation rate for a residential building:

NIOSH recommendations for use of 3d printers:

[hattree]

The best use for 3D printing I've seen is to replicate old plastic parts that have failed with time.

[Sean_]

For any other engineering students watching this, the biggest use of a 3D printer is to be the MVP of your group projects so you don't have to use your school's crappy services.

[TheArcknight]

I just eat the failed prints so they dont go to waste. i dont know why more people are not doing this.

[GERMANAITOR]

I've never used a 3D printer in my life, but even I knew the dragons being sold at a local fair for FIFTY DOLLARS didn't cost them more than $5 to print.

[DragonArtist]

It’s way more profitable to sell niche items for hobbyists rather than mass printing those flexi dragons

[theblunderbussbrothers]

I can't imagine life without my printer now. Every time I need some weird adapter, gear, knob, enclosure, bracket, jig, whatever it may be, it's just a few minutes of CAD and a button press away. Godsend device.

[maryjohnson]

I tried making my own 3D printing business where I sculpted, printed, then painted figurines. I was so proud of all the work put into each one!
Then, at both makers markets I vended at, people scoffed at my prices and went to the mass-produced thingiverse booths.

[adscomics]

This is why I think that, if you’re going to get into 3D printing, you should consider 3D modeling as well, as half the enjoyment of the hobby is printing your OWN work, not stuff online. Sure printing out the next flexi factory toy will give a hell of a dopamine rush, but it doesn’t last. Printing something that you modeled with your own hands though is extremely satisfying and makes you feel accomplished.

[nerfer]

I love 3d printing. It's one of the greatest tools for hobbyists to exist, and has let me do some amazing things, from designing containers and tools that I use daily, designing and printing a working model rollercoaster, and making detailed models to clear coat and paint. And it breaks my heart to see this amazing technology used in the laziest way possible, as a cheap cash grab to make objects without a purpose or soul.

[ItsAllPainNoGain]

Remember that girl who criticized 3d printed junk? She even specified that custom prints, art and other prints that take time and effort isn't what she was criticizing. Tik tok 3d printers went after her and "united" by printing more junk and celebrated it like a big win for the 3d printing community

[captainchaoscow]

And I thought porcelain figurines of the grandparents generations were goofy, but here we are. People collecting plastic trash.

[BHE_Crafts]

3D printing "slop" is the same as the clothing industry's "fast fashion" issue. There are high quality, useful, amazing things that can be created thanks to 3D printers, just like there are high quality jackets and shirts, but then there's an ocean of low quality printed "slop" just like the literal mountains of discarded fast fashion t-shirts.

These days, printers are getting easier to use and are far more reliable. The Cinderwing files and other ones purchased from reputable Designers will usually be designed to minimize the chance of a print failure (sticking to 45 degree overhangs to minimize or eliminate the need for supports, for example). So the direct waste per person is likely decreasing, though the recent rise in multi-color printing and the required filament purging is likely to reverse that course.

All of the major printer brands are moving towards enclosed CoreXY printers (Bambu P1/X1 lines, Elegoo Centauri, Creality K1, Prusa Core One, etc), which are very reliable and will allow for better air quality control. Most are including (admittedly very small) filters, but are certainly a large step up from the bed slingers of the past that had literally nothing.

I don't necessarily agree with the idea that the trinkets are better off being bought from Temu or similar sites. Sure, it takes hours to print out a fidget toy, but it takes days to get it shipped from Temu. If it can be bought in my town, I will usually buy something instead of printing it, but if it would have to be shipped, it's generally always faster to print it, even with 2-day shipping from Amazon. In some cases, I can get a new roll of filament overnighted and still print the toy before I would have received it from a site like Temu.

It's also of note that most crafting hobbies that are commonly leveraged into side hustles are heavily based on not being original. I'm in groups for my engraving, embroidery, CNC woodworking, leatherworking, and about a dozen other crafting hobbies. The most common question when anyone posts a cool item that they made is whatever that hobby's version of "Where did you get the file?" is. I would argue that the vast majority of people selling items at craft shows did not do the full design work themselves, unless it's something like painting.
I do believe that 3D printing has the lowest barrier of entry for this kind of thing though. 3D printers have become one of the cheapest crafting tools you can buy and are some of the easiest to scale up the volume. I would love to see the community shift towards less "slop", but I don't see that happening unless the people buying things push for it.

[aubreynaulin]

This is the bane of the craft show world right now. I’m so sick of seeing the same freebie toys and fidgets clogging up stalls at markets. It’s soooo much and it’s all the same!

[philippak]

I have one of those dragons from a recent con. There were two booths at the time selling them. One in gorgeous rainbow colours, and one in single colours.
I went with the single colour one for a lot of reasons, but the absolute biggest one was that the seller had SPECIFICALLY gone out of their way to use a filament that could be recycled within our country, and had contact with a specific place that could do so. He also did some adaptions on the design to increase the structural stability and gave it a really good weight.

So good to know I'm not the only one who was concerned about the overpresence of plastic dregs

[Girl_in_the_robot]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has an issue with this stuff, I’m so tired of this stuff taking up vendor space at conventions and markets because it’s always the same files that are printed and they never do any finishing on the pieces like filling in layer lines and painting while charging so much more then what the print is worth

[kolonarulez]

My small time comic con is full of people selling nothing but those dragons and octopuses! I only bought from a table who at least painted on some details

[Xoliul]

I've been 3D-Printing for 7 years, and am a 3D artist by trade. The number one thing I tell somebody asking for advice on buying a 3D printer, is if they are willing to learn how to model, or at least edit models themselves. Without that ability, the usefulness is indeed questionable. I personally make about 80% of my prints myself, for cases that can't be bought (cheaply).

[DragonGirl]

the whole point of sharing your 3D designs online is so that whatever thingamajig you modeled and printed for solving a specific problem you're facing, could be printed by others to solve the face problem they are facing. Free and open-source with the sole purpose of benefiting the community

[Nadia]

My brother fell for this business model. Purchased thousands worth of printers and materials. Storage bins filled with knick knack prints. He has a fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality, telling everyone that he makes $3k+ at fairs in one weekend, meanwhile his Etsy shop has only two reviews.

[GeahkBurchill]

I’m an artist who was initially _very_ against 3D printing. I didn’t like the layer lines and globs and I much prefer human-sculpted objects that show a little asymmetry and irregularities.

However, I found myself designing a robot character which needs parts to fit together precisely and be repeatable. What I landed on was to make my parts and use epoxy putty to hand-sculpt forms over a 3D printed chassis.

This has been the best of both worlds! There are no 3D printed surfaces visible on the final character, but all the parts fit together perfectly and allow pose-ability. Add a good paint job and it’s become my favorite creation ever!