Kevin

Thank you for joining us.
This is episode 54 of Amateur 3D Podcast, a podcast by amateur printers for amateur printers, where we share our thoughts and experience.
Our panelists this week are me, Kevin Buckner, and my friends, Chris Webber and Andy Codham.

Chris

Hi.

Andy

Hello.

Kevin

We need to excuse Frank this week because he thought it was more important to go to a marching band competition than to talk about 3D printing.

Chris

Well, that’s not necessarily his fault.
We all had a general scheduling conflict.

Andy

Yeah, that’s true.
As long as he brought his printer, I won’t about it.

Kevin

I’m sure he did not.
To get things started off, Chris, what have you been working on?

Chris

I did print something this week that despite everything that happened with being rear-ended at the end of the week last week and having surgery this week unrelated.

Andy

Yeah, you’ve been through a lot.

Chris

So last week, I mentioned that… uh… a paint mixer end.

Chris

Yeah.

Andy

Yes.

Chris

I printed that up.
It looks pretty good.

Andy

Oh, did you tried using it yet?

Chris

Nope.
I will be using it this week though, so I’ll let you guys know how that goes.

Chris

Yeah.
I’m really curious.
Does it feel like it would be able to handle the torque of being attached to?
This is when you attach to a drill, right?
Am I thinking of the right way?

Chris

Yeah.
So I’m thinking what I’m going to end up doing is JB welding it to the end of a steel rod.

Andy

Okay.

Chris

And that has worked with plastic to metals very well for stuff in the past.
In fact, I’ve used that for my whisk, my electric mixer whisk.

Andy

Okay.

Chris

Yeah.
So my mixer was stopped working, so I pull it off of my mixer, and I’m like, what the heck?
Why is it not mixing in?
Yeah.
The steel rod in the middle is spinning independent of the whisk, so JB weld, there we go.
Yeah.
Fixed it right up.

Kevin

All right.

Andy

I’ve used a lot of JB weld in the past, but it’s not something that’s like a normal go-to for me.
It’s not something that’s ready to be used all the time, I guess, I don’t know.

Chris

I use it for any time I have to glue something to metal.
It’s awesome.
It’s like the ultimate metal superglue, but if you’re not using metal, don’t worry about using JB weld for just about anything else.

Andy

Oh, really?

Chris

Yeah.
But since I’ve had a lot of downtime this week, I flooded you guys a little bit with stuff I was looking at on Thingiverse.

Andy

Yeah, I saw some of that.
You were finding some pretty neat stuff.

Chris

Yeah.
Oh, so I want to start with a couple of the funnies.
There was the PC shelf.
So basically, you know how you’ve got that drink holder on those old PCs, ya know kids…

Andy

Yeah.
It’s built in, you push the button, and it pulls out a tray that you could set a drink on.

Chris

Yeah, that one.

Andy

Yeah, yeah.
I wonder why they don’t put those on computers anymore.

Chris

I don’t know.

Andy

They’re useful.
Now I got to find a different place for my drink.

Kevin

Mine has two of them.

Andy

Oh, really?

Kevin

Yeah.
They’re not usable at the same time, though.

Andy

Yeah, I’ve seen that.
They like stack them on top of each other, so you put your cup on the lowest one.
If you go to move the second, the top one, it’ll push your cup off.
I’ll never know why they designed it that way.

Chris

Well, I found a five and a quarter printable insert for a shelf, so now you can have snacks along with your drink holder on your PC.

Andy

You know what?
I saw that where it goes into the drive bay for a CD-ROM on your computer, but it’s like a little drawer.

Chris

Yep, five and a quarter.
Kind of cool.

Andy

Yeah, those are cool.
I saw that, and most of the time when I see it do stuff like that, I’m thinking, you know, that’s a neat thing, but not necessarily something I wanted, but that time was like that could be very useful to have.

Chris

It’s actually a very convenient use of the space.
If you’ve got a PC tower, it’s a great place to put your flash drives, you know, stuff of that nature.

Andy

Yeah, yeah, that was a neat one.

Chris

There was the Benchy with a calibration cube in the Benchy.

Andy

I saw that.
It was like in the back of the Benchy.

Chris

Yeah, and then there was an uncalibration cube and the melted calibration cube.

Andy

Oh, I would have loved to swap Frank’s version of Benchy out for that one when he was having his little problems with his computer or with his computer.
Just to give them the WTFs once in a while, keep them on his toes.

Chris

Yeah.
So then there was this cute little Flexi Halloween cat I saw.

Andy

Yeah.

Chris

It’s actually really cute, and I wouldn’t say it’s really flexy in that it’s really just got the upper leg joints on the body or flexy so that its legs can move, but that’s about it.

Andy

Oh, it doesn’t.

Chris

But it is pretty cute.

Andy

Is it, um… Now, when people say flexy, I remember when those first came out, they were really kind of pointed out by having the hinges in the middle of a flat model.

Chris

Yes.

Andy

Is that kind of the way that one was set up?
I just don’t remember seeing that one.
That’s why I ask.

Chris

Oh, no, no.
This one’s a nice 3D cat.
If you were to print it and put it on your shelf, it would look like a very nice decoration.
Let’s see.

Andy

That’s cool.
And it’s just got some joints on it for the arms?

Chris

Yep.
It’s up on our posts on the 27th.
Yeah.

Andy

Okay.
Cool.

Chris

Yeah, there was that.
And then, oh yeah, I’m going to start calling you pot knobs.

Andy

Pot knobs?

Chris

Yeah, you pot knob.

Andy

I do offer a varying amount of resistance when required.
But yeah, you posted a bunch of potentiometer knobs and those were kind of cool.
They’re gnarly.
They’re well gnarled.

Chris

Yes.
I saw that you’d got yourself a whole big bag of pots.
So I was like, hey, this will give you a great variety for various projects you come across and you don’t even have to try to design one yourself.
You just go and pick one that’s going to be kind of close.

Andy

You know what?
I am fairly against printing stuff off a Thingiverse for the most part because I feel like, you know what?
I could use the exercise in designing that myself.
But those knobs you posted, those might be different.
I wound up copying or bookmarking that page to that Thingiverse item because that would be useful in doing one of those because if I think how many steps I need to do for a potentiometer knob, I would have to do like an interference fit print on top of the final print and things like that.
And for just a simple quick knob, that actually would take a little bit of time.
And something like that I don’t need the experience on.

Chris

And yeah, ironically, this guy is called, his username is, I can’t 3D print.

Andy

Well, he designed stuff well.
I mean, you think people wouldn’t be able to come up with that much of a variety of different kind of potentiometer knobs, but yeah, he had a lot, all different kinds of gnarling included and everything.

Chris

Yep.
So I really like the effort the guy put into this.
So you know, if you need some pot knobs, you know, throw, I can’t 3D print a buck or two and then print some off.
If you’re, again, they’re on Thingiverse and they are technically free.

Andy

Yeah, we always want to want to throw a couple of dollars to our people who do that, even if it’s just a buck, which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you spending a buck.
But if you design the models and take the time to put them up on Thingiverse, receiving a dollar is more than just the monetary value.
That’s a real good thank you from somebody, you know, who took the time to actually send you that buck or five bucks or whatever it might be.
So…

Kevin

yeah.

Chris

Yep.
And I think the last thing I posted here was a 3D printed vacuum table.
I saw that earlier this morning and I was like, oh my gosh, I wish I had had something like this set up when I was cutting up all that insulation brick.
You know, it’s funny that you say that.
The wife who’s really big on Comic-Con stuff, or FanX, I guess, down here, has been challenged for another costume.
It’s one of those, I don’t remember what they’re called.
So on anime, they’ve got the little cloud symbol on them.
They’re like a big group of ninjas.
They wear like black cloaks with this cloud symbol on it.

Andy

You mean Naruto?
Naruto?

Chris

No, it’s not that one with the cat kid.

Andy

I’m not into anime, so I don’t know these, but one of the characters that she’s doing has a sword.
And in the community, Jenny is often, I wouldn’t say made fun of, but notably, she likes to make large props.
So whenever she does a character that might have a weapon, that prop is going to be like one and a half times the size, you know, than it was in the actual anime.
She’s one of those ones who’s not afraid to do the exact size of like cloud’s sword that he uses in that game.

Chris

So comically large props?

Andy

Yeah, yeah, and not quite like stupid large.
It’s just a little bit on the excessive side.
And this one character she’s doing, the sword is like five feet long and it’s like two feet wide.
And so in the anime, so in the real world, the sucker’s like seven feet long now and she’s making it like three feet wide.
It’s just this huge thing, sword, and she went down to the Home Depot down here and got some insulation foam to build it out of big eight by four sheet of insulation foam.
And so she cut it all with a saw.
And so there is foam everywhere down here, because it was styrofoam that she got.
So it’s got all these little beads of styrofoam all over.

Chris

Well, at least she didn’t get the fiberglass.
Yeah, but still.

Andy

Yeah, yeah, she knew what she was doing.
It wasn’t ignorant of her.
She knew she was going to make a mess.
But to cut down an eight by four sheet with like a hot wire would have taken kind of a ridiculous amount of time.
And I think it was like two inches thick foam on top of it.
So it would have taken a little while.
So she did the broad cutting with just a normal saw.
And I think she was realizing this should have been an outside activity because it doesn’t vacuum up very well.
It statically attaches to everything.

Chris

So I’m having an apostrophe here, Andy.
What if we make you guys a hot wire on a hacksaw?

Andy

That would that would be really good.
But we play the hot wire game a lot.
So we’re pretty good on the hot wire.
I mean, we can do stuff like that.
But in this particular situation, if we were to hot wire it, the four by eight sheet, it would have taken two of us.
And in this situation, it probably would have been better to not have anything built for the hot wire.
Just just have some nichrome wire with some alligator clips onto a power supply and have me on one side of the board and her on one side of the board.
And we just kind of following it, cutting it up that way.
But oh, yeah, it would have taken a long time to do that.
So that’s why the saw instead.
And the foam is filler.
So she’s wrapping it with other things.
So the edges don’t have to be pretty or anything.
So that’s why she chose to do that.
But yeah, yeah, we’ve hot wired a lot before in the past.
A lot of it is just by hand because it’s easy to do just, you know, a little bit of nichrome wire.
And sometimes we we use a jig for it that you can put it into to heat it up.
And then you can do it with just one hand instead of, you know, two hands.
Holding each side of the wire.
But…

Chris

oh, also, and in case you ever need it, I’ve got a table saw at the ready for ever, if you’re ever cutting up the big sheets and stuff again.

Andy

So I do appreciate that.
I do got a table saw, though.
We’re good there.

Chris

Oh, dir.
Yes.

Andy

No problem.
It folds up because I don’t have a lot of room in my tool shed, as Frank likes to give me a hard time for.
But so it’s one of the ones that collapses down.
But it is a full size one when you open it up.
So it just takes a minute to open up.

Chris

And in my head, I just assume you don’t have one because there’s not room for a table saw in your.

Andy

Yeah, I got it.
I got most of the larger tools.
I don’t have a lathe.
I do do a little bit of lathe stuff with my drill press.
I’ve got a lathe chuck that I chuck into my drill press.
And so I can do small lathe work, simple stuff, just using my drill press.
But oh, that’s brilliant.
Yeah, but yeah, as far as it’d be nice to have a bigger lathe.

Kevin

Yeah.

Andy

But in a reciprocating saw, like one of the standalone ones would be nice.
I mean, I’ve got like the hand one that’s like a jigsaw.
But and of course, like the Sawzaw and all the different versions of a reciprocating, but it would be nice to have one that sits on a table.
I don’t have that.
But yeah, I’m not as woodworking as you and Frank are, but I do have some stuff.

Chris

OK

Andy

but thank you.
I appreciate it.
I would have loved it if Jenny would have used that for this foam instead of instead of what we did.
But then to like every piece that she cut was kind of a different size as well.

Chris

Lessons learned.

Andy

Yeah.
Yeah.
So the hand saw was just easier for her to use.
And it’s not like it’s hard to cut through two inches of of foam with, you know, a hand saw, so it only took her a minute to do.
But oh, my gosh, did it make a mess?

Kevin

Right.

Andy

But yeah

Kevin

with all that, have you been doing anything with the 3D printing there, Andy?

Andy

Yes, I actually used my 3D printer today.

Kevin

Gasp and shock!

Andy

Yeah, yeah, I turned it into an agitator for etching a circuit board.
I’m I’m getting ready to go ahead.

Chris

The many uses of not 3D printing.

Andy

No kidding.
Well, I got a bed slinger 3D printer and I needed an agitator for when I go to etch these.
And it only makes sense to use the bed on the 3D printer.
So I wrote some G code real quick to home the Y and then bring the Y all the way out the front and turn on the heater, the bed heater to heat up as much as the etching acid that I’m using likes to be ran at.
And then it just jiggles the bed back and forth at a good rate to get some sloshing going on or not sloshing, but you’ll move in the acid back and forth along the the board that I’ll be etching.
So that’s ready to go.
So I did use my 3D printer.
I do got to sit down and today and redesign a lock on my fridge.
I’ve got kids that like to just get into everything and we’ve resorted to having a fridge lock because they’ll just get into everything.
And my my four year old has learned that if he just forcefully tries to pull the door open, it will it will break the plastic on the lock and allow him to open it.
It’s like a little three com lock, which you actually don’t use the combination.
Just having the lock closed and having to reach up to push the button to unlock it is kind of enough.
But he’s just learned if he just grabs the doors of the fridge, it just pulls them open.
He can get right in.
And so he broke the last one that the lock is built to use.
And so I’m going to redesign it instead of buy another one like we did this last time and just replace it.
It’s not strong enough to deal with my son.
So I’m going to take and redesign the part that attaches to the fridge.
So it’s a little bit more beefy so he doesn’t break it again or can’t break it again.
But that’s that’s my plan.

Kevin

OK

Andy

my project I’ve been working on for the last little while is going well.
I completely finished coding my little fans for my fish tank that I did with the micro controller.
And today I’m setting up to finally etch my circuit board.
I’ve got that all designed this last week and ready to go.
I believe it’s done right.
The traces that I followed like I’m using key cad to do it.
And it has you design a wiring diagram for your device.
And then when you go in to design the circuit board, it kind of helps you along following your wiring diagram, which makes designing the circuit board so much easier.
You know, is when I’m going in to design the board, I’m not having to think about how things are electrically connected.
I just point to a pad and say, OK, I’m running a line for this pad.
And it will say, you know, hey, here’s all the pads that needs to connect to.
And then you can just draw your lines out without really thinking about how it’s supposed to be connected all together.
So…

Kevin

nice.

Andy

I got all that done.
The board looks good.
The traces that I followed seem to be connected to the right spot.
I think I just need to try and trust Key that Key CAD did it right and that my wiring diagram was correct.
But this is the first time in like four or five years that I’ve etched a circuit board.
And four or five years ago when I etched them, I only did like six or seven of them.
And the first couple like absolutely failed and then I learned my lessons.
And then after that, they all turned out really well.
So I’m hoping even though I’m having to regather everything that I used before because I don’t have a lot of things.
I like I had some I when I did it the first time around, I printed using the laser printer.
It just right out on paper.
Ironed it onto the board and then used water to get rid of the paper.
And this time around, I heard like that’s that’s that works.
But you can do a lot better if you just get release paper, like the backing of sticker paper and print it on that.
And you save yourself so much time because it just lets go of the ink once you’ve done the transfer.

Chris

Which… let me let me interject.
I it’s also a great idea for for woodworking.
If you’re if you want to print an image and put it onto woodworking, same concept.

Andy

Is it really?

Chris

Yeah, yeah, I’ve done it myself a few times.
Yeah

Andy

I didn’t know that for woodworking.
And does it have to be toner that you’re using or can you do it with like inkjet ink as well?

Chris

I did inkjet.

Andy

Did you?

Chris

Yeah.
So anyway, by the way, yes.

Andy

So I bought a roll of the stuff and as I’m getting everything together, getting ready to.
I was trying to do it before the podcast, but I kept on running into problems.
I discovered that the laser or the paper that I got is like sticker paper.
I got the completely wrong stuff.
I think I got transfer paper, which I don’t know what it is.
It’s a big oversized roll of tape is what I ended up with, and that doesn’t mean no good.
So while I’m waiting, I went ahead and ordered some proper sticker sticker backing paper, release paper.
But in the meantime, I still want to do this project today instead of waiting for that delivery.
So I know you can use parchment paper.
And so I tried to do that, except the first time I tried to print it, I ran it through my laser printer with just the parchment paper by itself with no carrier sheet.
And it printed on it, but it got stuck in the fuser, made a mess of my printer.
Now I got toner all over in the tracking where the paper goes through.
I’ve got unheated toner, black toner everywhere.
So now while we were doing the podcast, I’ve got these two pieces of paper.
I keep on running through printing blank blank sheets, trying to get it all out of there.
I’ve got little little dots here and there on the paper.
But after the podcast is over, I’m going to do it again right with a carrier sheet this time.
And I should be able to etch my board and solder some components on it and then see if I did it right.

Chris

So if you’re still having trouble, if you’re still having trouble with the parchment paper, let me know.
I’ve got some of the right kind of stuff you probably need, I think.

Andy

Well, well, thanks.
I appreciate that.
I did the second time I printed it out.
I did print it with a carrier sheet.
You guys can kind of see that.
And aside from all the globs of black everywhere, I cannot see a right word.
It did.
It did work.
It did print it.
OK.

Chris

Yeah, except for the big, big, big line of globy gloop.

Andy

Yeah, yeah.

Chris

Looks kind of like if you were you were you were halfway between printing an ancient curse to sommon a demon.

Andy

Yeah, no kidding.
No kidding.
But so that’s that’s kind of where I’ve been.
It’s it was been a heavier, heavier week at work.
So I haven’t done anything at all during the week.
And it was just been the last hour or two before the podcast here that I’ve actually done anything with my printer.
So that’s been me.
What about you, Kevin?
You do anything?

Kevin

I’m not with any of my 3D printers no.
I did determine on Monday that I need to print more of those two brax that I had printed two of earlier.
But because I needed I needed another one and the two that I had printed were already in use.
But I didn’t do really anything with my 3D printers because I was busy getting ready for and going on a hunting trip with my brothers and my two kids and two of my one brother’s kids and one of my other brother’s kids.
So.

Andy

OK.
Well, I got some questions about the the tube rack you made.
Now, for our listeners who haven’t heard, Kevin’s a little bit of a scientist here at work.
And so he’s got a bunch of the test tubes and the rack that he designed and printed quite a few podcasts back that we were all really impressed with.
So I’m curious, I know you got those racks in use at work, but how are they comparing to the racks that are designed already to do what you do that just weren’t exactly what you need?
How do they are they comparing to those?
Like are they standing up with the same kind of kind of usage and whatnot?

Kevin

Yep, they are on par with what we could buy that is professionally made.

Andy

That’s so cool.
I love seeing stuff like that in actual use.

Kevin

Yeah.
What about your your colleagues?
So they do they use them just like as if they were something that was produced professionally?

Kevin

No, because they are made specifically for the toxicology department.
So I’m the only one who uses them because…

Andy

OK.
So that’s just you.

Kevin

Yeah, because I am the toxicology department.

Andy

OK.

Kevin

When when people have to work for me, though, like if I’ve taken some time off and a batch needs to be set up and run, they they do sometimes use them.
There’s there’s one sub person who for whatever reason chose not to use one when it was available.
She instead used the the two racks like we had before I made these.
And I don’t fully understand why she did that.
But I’m also not really interested in pressing the matter with her because she’s hardly ever there to do anything.
So it’s like, whatever.

Andy

Yeah.
It might have been just she was used to what she was used to anyway.
So she just did that.

Chris

So probably it’s one of those things where it’s like, you know, if you if they’re getting their job done, just let them do it.
However, they’re going to do it, even if they want to do it the dumb way.

Kevin

Right.

Chris

That’s OK.

Andy

Yeah.
That’s still really neat to have that kind of stuff in use.

Kevin

Oh, yeah.

Andy

I’ve got a couple of things I’ve printed for work that.
That some other people that I made just for myself, like one, it’s just like a handle for my equipment that is made to carry everything that I need and it attaches to one of my devices.
And some other people saw that and wanted one.
And so I printed out a couple of them and gave them to people who use the same equipment I do.
And and it’s neat seeing them out in the field, seeing them use it because it does work better with what they wanted and with what they do.
So I love seeing that kind of stuff and work.
It’s awesome.

Kevin

Yeah, it’s great.

Chris

Yeah.

Andy

But God, other than that, I don’t really don’t have a whole lot.
I’ve just been working so much at work here that I haven’t really done anything really new.
Where’s Frank when you need him?

Kevin

Uh…

Chris

right.

Kevin

He’s he’s on a train to go to the marching band competition.

Andy

Yeah, I miss marching band competitions.

Chris

Ditto

Andy

yeah

Kevin

I never participated in one.
I was in marching band for a little bit, but I didn’t ever do a competition.

Andy

That’s OK.
We forgave you a long time ago and accepted you despite this.

Chris

Hey, I’m just I’m just saying he’s still pretty pretty dang good with it with his horn.
So

Kevin

thanks.

Chris

So yeah

Kevin

it was kind of funny when when I was learning are and I needed to introduce myself to the group.
They asked me if I play any musical instruments and I said I sure do.
And they said, OK, tell us about that.
And I so I started into it and then I was like, and you know, my my brass instrument of choice is a baritone horn.
And they’re like, and they said, can you imagine being able to play so many instruments that you can say this is the one I prefer to play over these others that I also know how to play?

Andy

Yeah

Kevin

Oh.
And I also figured out this week that I am just I’m terrible at marketing.
OK, because I I went to an event for someone in my ward and she’s still good friends.
So I had this person is someone that I met in joy school, which is before kindergarten.

Andy

OK

Kevin

and so I went to joy school with her and elementary school, junior high, high school, and now we live in the same ward.
Well, she’s still good friends with somebody I knew in high school and had invited her to this event and her son was getting baptized.
And and this friend of hers is someone who my senior year took up an entire page in my yearbook telling me how much she wanted to go on a date with me.
And so we were having…

Chris

Uh, yeah, that’s not a red flag.

Andy

Well, you’re also young, too, back then, so you don’t really know how to do that game well.
So it’s not always bad.

Kevin

Right.
So I mean, I did take her out on a date back then, but we haven’t seen each other for over 20 years now.
And so I we were just kind of reconnecting and she’s like, so what do you do?
And I told her that I’m a medical laboratory scientist working for the the company I work for.
And I later on and that was it.
That was all we and we conversation went on from there.
I came home and I said to my wife, you know, I need to get in the habit when people ask me what I do.
I need to get in the habit of saying that I my full time I’m the medical laboratory scientist, but that I’m also a published author because I’m terrible at bringing that up and bringing attention to the fact that I have a book published on Amazon and I’m almost done with the rough draft for the second book.
And yeah, I’m just I’m terrible at marketing.

Andy

Well, talking about being terrible at marketing, why don’t you tell our listeners about what you’ve done?
Because I think it’s the first time your books ever even come up on the podcast.

Kevin

I’ve mentioned it one or two other times in passing because once again, I am terrible at marketing.

Andy

Yeah.

Kevin

So yeah, it’s a it’s a dark fantasy novel about there’s a group of necromancers that are that have found out that the relics of their legends are real.
And like the whole thing about these is whoever can gather them all together will become the master of death.
And so there’s debate about what exactly that means.
Some say it means that you’re going to be immortal.
Others say that you’re going to be like the best, most supreme necromancer ever.
And so they’re just like, we need to get them.
And then they’ve got their enemies called the gatekeepers, whose job is entirely destroy the undead because they are unnatural abominations and they cause anguish to the souls of the dead who live in the underworld and all that.
And neither of these groups are aware of the demon prince that has been summoned to the terrestrial sphere to cause havoc and mayhem whenever he can.

Chris

Nice.

Kevin

Yeah.

Chris

So this is obviously an adult adult book, maybe late teen.
But definitely not early, early, early teens and younger, right?

Kevin

Yeah, probably.
Although my 14 year old son has read it and he really enjoyed it.
I mean, there were a bunch of words that I used in there that he didn’t know the definition of.
And I kind of did that on purpose because I’m like, this is not just because of the themes involved.
It’s not something that is really recommended for a younger audience.
So it, you know, it it is geared more toward adults.
But it doesn’t, you know, so that I feel like I hesitate to say it’s an adult novel because when I hear that something is an adult, whatever, I…

Chris

you’re thinking XXX kind of stuff when really it’s not.

Kevin

Right.
And there’s there’s not any of that in there.
There is there are scenes of graphic violence.
There is a point where it is understood that one character sexually assaulted another character.
But the scene cuts off before that happens.

Andy

Yeah

Kevin

because like I don’t feel like I need to go into graphic detail with such things.
But yeah, but yeah, it is because of the themes involved and the vocabulary.
It’s more young adult and older.
But my… like I said, my 14 year old son has read it.
His 14 year old cousin read it and enjoyed it.
And my my sister after he had read it because they were on a road trip to California and he had forgotten to bring a book.
My sister had it in her car.
And so she’s like, just read that.
So he did.
And when it was when they were all done, he had read it.
And she said, so how did you like that?
And he said, it was all right.
And she said, really, just all right.
And he’s like, yeah, but so when does the second one come out?
Because I want to read it.

Andy

Nice.

Kevin

So it’s more than all right.
And he’s like, yeah.
And you know what I liked.
And she said what?
And he said, organ sacks

Andy

organ sack?

Kevin

Yeah, because in my book, organ sack is a really bad insult to call somebody.
OK, right.
People have asked me about it and they’ve said so.
Do the characters in your book curse?
And I was like, well, I mean, there is magic involved.
So do you mean like cat like putting a curse on somebody?
And they’re like, no, no, swearing.
And I said, oh, yeah, they swear all the time.

Andy

It’s like calling it.
It’s like calling an electronics engineer a pot knob.

Kevin

Right.
So they’re like, I’m like, yeah, they swear all the time.
And they said, oh, well, I don’t really like books with swearing.
And I said, oh, then you still probably like mine because they don’t use any swear words that you would recognize as swear words.
There you go.
And they’re like, no, what?
And I said, well, you know, I was thinking about it.
And to me, it doesn’t make sense that something that takes place in another culture, another world.
Even they’d have the exact same swear words we do.
So I came up with my own words for people to use.

Chris

Like even even in our yet even in our own world, you know, different cultures have different swear words that mean different things.
Like there’s some people that refer to you as a bait as a as a half breed goat or something like that.
And there’s others that call you a, you know, obviously, you know, the female dog one and, you know, things of that nature.
And really, if you were looking at it from the outside, you’d be like, why is that insulting?

Kevin

Right.
Well, and like I came up with this theory way back when I was 16 years old that the thing that makes a swear word, a swear word is that people are offended by it.

Chris

Yeah.

Kevin

So really, anything could be a swear word as long as somebody is offended by it.
And if they’re not offended by it, it’s not really a swear word anymore.

Chris

Yes.

Kevin

So I ran with that and said, OK, the swear words that are going to be used in the world in which my book takes place are going to be things like goat blood and the puss and organ sack.

Andy

Of course.

Chris

Like I’m going to insinuate that you’re a fast breeding rodent.
And not even not only that, that your rodent parents weren’t married when you were conceived.

Andy

Oh, beautiful.

Kevin

Yeah.

Andy

So what’s the what?
What should we Google for to find the novel?

Kevin

It’s called The Advent of Zon.

Chris

Z-O double double pokey.
Advent of Z-O-N.

Andy

All right.

Chris

With the little two pokey things above the O, right?
No, actually, there’s a little accent over the O.
But if you search for it with the little accent tick mark, you probably won’t find it.
You won’t find it because Amazon wouldn’t let me use that kind of special character when I was making the title for listing it on Amazon.
So you just have to search for it without any accent over the O and you’ll find it.

Andy

Nice.
So you said you were getting ready to publish the second book of that.
How’s that been coming along?

Kevin

Kind of slowly, I got quite a bit of it written back in 2020 during lockdown and especially during NaNoWriMo of 2020.
And the remaining half of it has been here and there ever since.
But I figure I will probably have the rough draft finished before the end of the year this year.
And then I get to start editing and revising and and rephrasing and adding and all that stuff, polishing it into something that is actually worth reading.
And I hope to have that done before the end of next year.

Andy

Nice.
We’ll look forward to that.

Kevin

My first book is in a brick and mortar store in Layton.

Andy

Is it really?
that’s cool.

Kevin

Yeah

Chris

Layton, Utah.

Kevin

Yes. Layton, Utah

Andy

That’s cool.
And…

Chris

they just barely they just barely opened this week, didn’t they?

Kevin

They opened on September 18th.

Chris

OK, so last week.
Yeah.

Kevin

Yeah.
And it’s called “For the Love Of” in Layton Hills Mall.

Chris

Here’s our shameless plug.

Kevin

Indeed.

Andy

That’s cool.
That’s really cool.
I have yet to read your novel.
I should change that.
I have a copy.
No, I’m going to do it.
I’d have a get one of my own.
That way, Kev could have another sell on his record, too.

Kevin

Yeah.

Chris

Oh, OK.

Kevin

And, you know, a lot of the time I’ve I’ve seen that you get the ebook version of books that they for some reason charge the same amount as the print copy or sometimes even more than the print copy.
To me, that just seems.

Chris

That’s a little backwards to me.

Kevin

Yeah, because the the reason, in my opinion, the reason you have the higher cost on the print copy is because you have to pay for the materials used in printing the book.

Andy

Yeah, no kidding.

Kevin

So I don’t do that.
My…

Andy

that’s good.

Kevin

I’ve got it structured.
So I get about the same amount of royalties for the ebook as I do for the print copies because it is it’s available in hard cover, soft cover and Kindle ebook.

Andy

OK.

Kevin

So and the the least expense the least expensive option of all of those is the ebook.
It’s like less than a third of the cost of the paperback because that’s how it costs quite a bit for them to print the book.

Andy

Does it?

Kevin

Yeah.

Andy

All right.
Well, that’s really cool.
I’m glad we officially got that out there.
We’ll have to refer back to it every once in a while again, keep people’s minds on it that way they can reach out and grab it for themselves and enjoy it.

Kevin

Right.

Andy

Yeah, that’s nice.
You got any plans for the upcoming week on anything that you might be doing with your printer?
Um, I… so yeah, I will be printing up at least one more of those tube racks, probably actually two.
And what I’m I still need to modify the support holes because I got kind of the the tab A slot B thing going with the the support plates going on.
Um, so my plan is I need to print up the the rack pieces and then get my calipers and measure exactly how big the little tabs are because I ran into that issue where I made them all the same size, but then the tabs wouldn’t fit into the slots.
So I had to trim down the tabs to get them to fit into the slots.
And I think that might have been because of the elephant foot issue I was having that I had taken care of because I haven’t seen an elephant foot on anything I’ve printed for the last long while.
But I also want to just be sure that I’m not going to have to do any tab trimming afterward.
I want it to just fit right in the perfectly the first time.

Andy

Yeah, yeah, that would be good.
That would be good.

Kevin

And other than that, I need to I’ve got I’ve got so many projects that I’ve got going on right now.
I need to start working on additional pieces for the Nightmare Chess set.

Andy

Yeah.

Kevin

And I need to make the pickups like I made a I did assemble one of the bobbins for my eight string guitar that I’m wanting to build.
But I need to actually make the pickups for that and also get wood and stuff to make the guitar itself, the body, the neck, the head, all that fun stuff.

Andy

I’m definitely interested in watching that project come along.
That’s that’s going to be a neat one.

Kevin

Yeah

Andy

to do.
How many pieces you got done for your chess set?
I know you were working on that quite hard.

Kevin

So I’ve got I think I’ve got most of the black army printed.
I need to trim the supports off of most of the pieces and cure them.
And then I still need to find pieces and print them for the white army.

Andy

OK

Kevin

so I figure what I’m going to do because I started doing the black army with Loote Studios, mostly I’m going to finish out this one set with Loote Studios and then then the next thing I’m going to do is make a second set with Titan craft so that I can actually make that available to the world.
Because I can’t do that with what I’m doing with Loot Studios because I don’t actually own the copyright for those.
So I have I can use these things for my personal use from Loot Studios, but I can’t make it available to everybody else in the world.
But I can.
But if I do, if I design something on Titan craft, I own it.
So I can then make it available for other people to use.
And, you know, this is also like I don’t know how much how popular Nightmare Chess is.
I do know that it went out of print for a while and then they brought it back into print.
So I’m assuming that there are a fair number of people who play it and might be interested in having a dedicated set because right now the only option people have if they want to play it is to get the cards and then get at least one chess set with markers, probably two a minimum of two chess sets so that they can have all the necessary pieces and have other markers and stuff to say this piece is now this this, for example, this knight is now a paladin, this king is now a war lord.
But…

Chris

yeah, again, again, marketing and, you know, getting it getting it into a lot of those hobby shops and things, I would imagine.

Kevin

Yeah

Chris

hobby game shops.
Yeah.

Kevin

Well, I mean, I guess I could try going that way.
I was just planning on putting it up on Thingiverse, but that would.

Chris

Well, you know what?
Our our our friend, Andrew, he still owns that game shop game hobby shop down here.
We might could see if we can put it for a test run through his store, you know, depending on, you know, if if he can make a little bit of profit off of profit off of having it in his in his physical store.
See, seeing if he’s willing to entertain the idea.

Kevin

Well let’s see.
I don’t even know if Nightmare Chess is still in print because I say it went out of print and then came back, but it came back into print like 10 or 15 years ago.
So…

Chris

it might be that one of those kinds of things where we’ll have to look into what is involved with the copyrights and stuff and possibly make our own…

Kevin

Yeah.

Chris

Game kind of like how Matt Inman did with with his stuff.

Kevin

Yeah.
But looking at Amazon, it appears that it is still in print.

Chris

Oh, OK.
So we could do see if he’d be willing to sell the Nightmare Chess with supplements in his physical store.

Kevin

Yeah.
You know, so we’d have to talk to him, talk to him about that.
We just straight up idea right now.

Andy

Yeah.

Kevin

Yeah.

Andy

Well, nice.
Well, we were talking about what plans we might have.
You got any plans for this upcoming week, Chris?

Chris

Um, nope, just remodeling using that paint mixer I just put together.
Or I just printed it’s not put together.
Still got to glue it.

Andy

Yeah.
Well, good deal.
I don’t think I have anything else, you guys.

Kevin

No, I don’t think so.

Chris

Oh, no.
We had been discussing episode length and we determined that about an hour was probably about the sweet spot.
And we were coming up on that.

Andy

Yeah.

Chris

So for any of our listeners, yeah, if you want to give us feedback on episode length, if you want them longer, shorter, or you think we’re doing good right around the hourish mark, let us know.
Yeah, typically we’ve been shooting for that about hour to an hour and a half and thinking that was good.
But…

Kevin

yeah

Andy

you know, people have different opinions.

Kevin

Yeah

Andy

good deal.

Kevin

All right.
Well, I think then let’s land this plane.

Chris

Pop in the end screen.

Kevin

We’d like to thank everyone for listening to the very end.

Chris

The very, very end.

Kevin

If you like what you hear, please give us all the stars and subscribe.
We are available through a wide variety of podcast vendors, and so are easy to share.
If you have feedback or if you have content requests, please let us know.
You can find us in our Facebook group, Amateur3DPod, that’s all one word, and the three is the number three.
You can also email us at panelists@amateur3dpod.com or you can email us individually at Franklin, Kevin, Andy or Chris @amateur3dpod.com.
I wrote the music for this episode and every episode that has music with it.
Open AI’s Whisper completed the heavy lifting for the transcripts, which you can find linked in the description.
Our panelists are me, Kevin Buckner and my friends, Chris Weber, Andy Cottam and Franklin Christensen.
Until next time, keep your FEP tight.

Andy

Always use hairspray.

Chris

I thought 3D printing was just a neat hobby.
Turns out I just really like making little plastic messes.

Andy

That’s good.
Well, meat…
Thanks, Oregon Bag.
Appreciate it.

Kevin

Organ Sacks.

Andy

Organ Sacks, I can’t even get it right.

Chris

Yeah, look at my pussbag, you jerk.

Kevin

Oh, you know, the worst thing you can call someone in my book is a purulent organ sack.

Andy

A per what was that word?

Kevin

Purulent.

Andy

Oh, boy!
Oh, that’s a big one.
What does that mean?
Teach me.

Kevin

Full of or covered in pus.

Andy

Poilant?

Kevin

Purulent.

Chris

Perylient.

Andy

I can’t even say that word.

Chris

Pur-u-lent.

Kevin

Yes

Andy

purulent.

Kevin

Yes, because pussy isn’t actually a word.
The word is purulent, meaning that it’s got pus all over it or is producing pus.

Andy

Yeah, I like that.
I think I’m going to start using that at work for people.

Kevin

Excellent.

Andy

Because I doubt the people I work with will know what that means.
Oh, that’s so purulent of you.
Good job.