The Meltzone

It's finally a normal episode with Stefan & Tom again! We talk about our experiences with travelling to shows and what we enjoy doing when our calendars are not stuffed with events. Tom uses an E3D Supervolcano for the first time and gets different findings to what Stefan has seen in other high-speed printing setups. Also, there's been a lot of stuff going wrong lately: Lulzbot seems to be going out of business, the UK is creating even more uncertainty by delaying Brexit and impacting UK manufacturers like E3D, NordVPN is screwing up and an Original Prusa MK3 has caught on fire. Good times!

In this week's special episode from the East Coast RepRap Festival 2019, Tom talks to Keith (as a non-representative of Proto-Pasta) about their ERRF highlight, how the terrorist attack in Halle seems to have used 3D printing to fabricate firearm parts and what we should (or can) do about it. Also, Proto-Pasta's experiences in shipping a filament extruder all the way across the US and whether 3D printer manufacturers should be providing a functional machine to buyers!

On this special Podcast Episode Stefan visits a YouTube Creators Event in the UK and talk with his two fellow YouTube creator Tom Stanton and Ivan Miranda about cool gadgets they own and how they use their CNCs where 3D printing is not sufficient anymore.

Stefan talks about his recent trip to the UK where he visited E3D and the XYZSummit, a YouTube creators even. YouTube did it's "thing" again by removing the verified status from most of their creators but shortly changed their mind again after lots of complaints from the community. LEGO has taken down lot's of community designs from MyMiniFactory and Thingiverse. Tom and Stefan discuss how far 3D printers have come from the Sells Mendel and at which point both got into the hobby. They both talk about if a belt printer would be something for them to consider and what the advantages of a combined additive and substractive process might be.

Non-planar hype, the end of rigid.ink and the start of a new Smoothieboard

Stefan will soon be on a 3 week holiday trip to Japan and talks about his preparations in terms of camera equipment and Tom presents his latest 10-25mm f1.7 lens he recently bought. Both discuss if YouTube is a suitable platform for their podcast and if they should release their show as audio-only. Stefan made a discovery how STL files can become inaccurate if they are exported in the wrong coordinate system. Both talk in depth about the meaningfulness of topology optimization and lattice structure. Since Stefan recently received a Cetus3D Mk3 and is annoyed by it's noise he asks Tom to explain if implementing silent stepper drivers is hard and expensive and why they didn't become a standard in current-gen 3D printers.

Why are white goods getting more and more unreliable? What are the dangers of cloud software? How are these two successful YouTubers steering the YouTube algorithm? We'll answer that in this episode of the Meltzone podcast! Also, news on non-planar slicing with a paper on "CurviSlicer", questions on filament-based metal 3D printing, a free Solidworks version for makers and advances slicer tuning options for FDM. Topic of the week: What are we actually using 3D printing for and are there even applications that make sense for "normal" people?

After 5 weeks of no PodCast together, there are a lot of things to chat about. Tom and Stefan talk a bit about recent Prague Maker Fair and the awesome spirit of it. Tom gave topology optimization a try and Stefan talks about how he could use his new 3D scanner to measure the strains in it during testing. Stefan got back to some filament tests and talks about his experience with part cooling and layer adhesion. The guys show their admiration for David Shoreys current work on 3D printing on diffraction grading sheets. They discuss why resin printing seems to be becoming so "popular" at the moment and if 3D printing camera gear is a viable option as shown with the Edelkrone Head.

After Maker Faire Prague, Prusa let Tom, 3D Printing Nerd and 3D Maker Noob have their studio for an hour to jam about recent 3D printing topics! In this episode, we talk about the demise of Maker Media, the creators of Make Magazine and licencors of Maker Faires - and what that means for the future of faires in general. In other news, a CR-10 caught fire and a Twitter user was caught advertising a 3D printer with photos stolen from several community members. And for the "big" topic, we fantasize about the future of consumer / maker / "low end" 3D printers and what there even is left to improve. Which... gets a bit awkward. ### SHOW NOTES ### 3D Printing Nerd's channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7aK9PpYTqt08ERh1MewlQ 3D Maker Noob's channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Tc0TsvFxC83zF1w5x1PWQ Maker Media ceases operation https://hackaday.com/2019/06/07/maker-media-ceases-operations/ CR-10 is lit https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/bxxjsw/creality_printers_is_having_a_fire_sale/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app and https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/groups/1642675669368828?view=permalink&id=2090505217919202&anchor_composer=false "Felanfeli" stealing photos https://twitter.com/Barnacules/status/1138600958156369921?s=19 (and others)

The big topic this week: Is Kickstarter still what it used to be? What are the risks involved in backing crowdfunding campaigns? Tom and Stefan discuss their experiences with past crowfunding projects and try to make sense of today's landscape on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In other quick topics: Stefan's recap of hitting 100k subscribers on YouTube and his experiences of trying "Premieres", Apple's interesting new Pro lineup and a follow-up on keeping filament dry.

Tom and Stefan talk about PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), 3D printer nozzle wear and vapor smoothing. The news section covers the question if bio plastics are not as biodegradable as advertised and Prusas newest release of their slicer, now called PrusaSlicer. Both talk about the necessity of backlash compensation that Lulzbot just announced for their new printers. In the Topic Of The Week, they discuss Auto Bed Leveling and if it's cleaner to just level the bed properly in the first place manually. Question cover, if you can over-dry your filaments and if and how you can print g-code that was pre-sliced for another nozzle diameter.

In this super-sized episode, Stefan and Tom dissect the potential issues of Prusa's new model and gcode sharing site prusaprinters.org and talk about the ever-newsworthy topics of 3D printed glass, organs and "large" metal drone frames. Projects this week include the modular Mendel9000, advanced heated bed investigations and wearing down nozzles on purpose. And the big topic: Can you trust YouTubers to give their honest opinion? We show how companies try to influence what influencers tell you about products and what our stance is on neutrality.

Tom and Stefan recap the last in-car recorded podcast episode and what they were doing in the 2 weeks after MRRF2019. Tom is improving his live stream gear and Stefan tried to silicone cast his own hotend silicone socks. This episodes news cover their efforts to replace their current video editing software with DaVinci Resolve 16, the World of Tanks DMCA Takedown that happened on Thingiverse, Article 13 status and Makerbots Red Dot Design Award. Both are discussing how much material tuning they usually do for their prints and what a good approach could be.

This week, Stefan and Thomas use their 3-hour drive back from the Midwest RepRap Festival to recap all the awesome community projects and products they saw there!

A new epdisode of the Meltzone Podcast has landed! Stefan and Tom talk about the highlights from Make Munich and what to expect from the upcoming MRRF, as well as their experiences with adding threads to 3D printed parts. Fiat has announced a customizable car (using 3D printed parts), E3D have announced their impossibly long Supervolcano hotend and Gearbest have release a huge dataset of their customer data into the wild - unintentionally. We hope. Lastly, Stefan and Tom talk about way to make money with 3D printing and also about the ways you should probably avoid when trying to generate income in the maker ecosystem.

On this news-packed episode Tom and Stefan talk about E3Ds Nozzle X drama and their new slicer Pathio as well as the ruthless marketing campaigns of some 3D printer manufacturers. The EU is about to vote on a new copyright law where Tom explains why this will be harmful for them as creators and for the general freedom of speech of everyone. Tom installed a new ventilation system in his studio because he had the suspicion that SLA resin fumes caused him having problems working there for longer periods of time. Both have already been working with different types of 3D scanners and outline which techniques there are and what you can use them for.

Should Simplify 3D cost (more money)? Is the newly announce "superfast" resin 3D printer approach actually practical? Are we all being infiltrated by Xiaomi and Huawei? Those very important questions and more are being discussed by Stefan and Tom in this Episode of the Meltzone! Stefan also talks about his plans to open-source his Universal Test Machine, why Tom goes into details of YouTube's broken video processing queue.

Tom and Stefan talk about their travel plans to MRRF 2019. Tom explains how he’s getting back into PCB design and what techniques can be used to manufacture them. They discuss the differences between stepper motors and servo motors and if 3D printers could become better if they used servo motors.They also speak about if 3D printing is making the world a better place or if it’s only creating more waste. Finally they answer viewer questions on 3D printing education, materials for car parts and their video editing software of choice.

It's the first episode of 2019! Along with a 3D printing wishlist for 2019, Tom and Stefan discuss their current capabilities of driving in the snow and moan about doing taxes. But also, about whether printing ABS still makes sense in today's landscape of advanced materials, their plans for MRRF 2019 and what 3D printers and 3D printing projects they've been working on! ### SHOW NOTES ### MRRF 2019 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2019-midwest-reprap-festival-mrrf2019-tickets-51075814135 Solid-state dehumidifer on bigclivedotcom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vabq-s62IVM

Stefan talks about his upcoming project on paste extrusion and his latest Dremel 3D45 printer he’s testing. He discusses with Tom the “Makerbot Method” and what could make it different from other currently available 3D printers. Furthermore they argue weather PLA or PETG is their material of choice and what the advantages and disadvantages of both are. Finally they both talk about their year as a YouTube creator and what they think is going on with platform at the moment.

In this episode, we discuss the proposal to use "virtual fibers" to strengthen FDM 3D printed parts that work by adding tiny holes to your model! We also go through whether you actually need to buy a slicer or if the free and open-source ones are now just as good - and finally, Tom twist's Stefan's brain with continuous belt 3D printers and why they can't use a vertical Z-axis. ### SHOW NOTES ### RepRap Ltd. article on virtual fibres https://reprapltd.com/fibre/ Joel's video on Simplify3D issues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UWMoXw917k Stefan's PC parts AMD Ryzen 7 2700X https://themelt.zone/2700X/ Asus Prime X470-Pro https://themelt.zone//X470Pro/ MSI RTX 2070 https://themelt.zone//MSI2070/ 1TB Samsung 860 SSD https://themelt.zone//Samsung860-1TB/ also, a new Synology 6-bay NAS https://themelt.zone//Synology6/ Tom's PC parts https://toms3d.org/my-gear

Stefan talks with Tom about his visit to TCT Formnext 2018. They discuss two recently released papers on potentially harmful emissions of 3D printers. They further debate if it is worth buying a cheap printer and then investing a lot of time on upgrading it or if it is more efficient to buy a decently working one right away. Finally, they answer viewer questions regarding grinding up plastic scraps for recycling and the usefulness of infinite z-belt printers.

Tom and Stefan talk about their experiences in annealing PLA prints and discuss the recent change in Fusion 360's pricing model. Recently a paper on a so called "3D printer fingerpint" was released that claims to be able to track prints back the printer they were made on, with stunning accuracy, so they talk about how realistic this could be and what the implications of such a method might be. Tom recently came back home from his roadtrip all over Europe where he filmed bits for his RepRap documentary and talks about the new high temperature products he has seen at E3Ds headquarter. Finally Stefan recently built his DIY filament extruder and talks about his first experience in making his own filament at home.

Tom, Richard Horne (RichRap) and Sanjay Mortimer (E3D) discuss who 3D printer kits are for and when you should self-source instead, as well as what FDM materials are being developed, which ones are already available and where they each fit in!

Tom explains the drama that has been going on with MRRF 2019 and discusses with Stefan the advantages and disadvantages of bowden and direct extruders used in 3D printers. Tom also got himself a new FLIR thermal camera and talks about its applications in 3D printing. They finally discuss the question when FDM printing will become obsolete.

In their first Podcast episode Tom and Stefan talk about current projects, Prusa's recently announced SL1 resin printer and discuss whether they would prefer a much faster or a much bigger 3D printer. They also answer community questions about lasers, warped beds and cheap V6 knockoffs from China.