We talk a lot about enshittification of technology, so tell me about technology that is getting better!
I personally love the progress of electric scooters. I’ve been zooming around on a 400$ escooter for a year and it works so well. It has a range of around 20 miles and top speed of 15 mph, so it works just super well for my uses, and 10 years ago scooters with that range/speed/price were no where near a thing.
I’ve been following 3d printing since the early 2000s, when it was all homemade machines printing with weed whacker line, slicers weren’t a thing, and resolution was garbage. Now I have a resin printer that cranks out tiny detailed tabletop miniatures no problem. What a time to be alive.
what model do you have if you don’t mind me asking? curious what’s out there working for people from someone who would like to get into it but just hasn’t (nor looked into it very much)
I’m still using an Creality Ender 3 for FDM because it was cheap and does the job, but a lot of great FDM printers have come out in the past few years at competitive price points. I use this for larger items where fine detail isn’t important (tabletop buildings, terrain, vehicles, large creatures, etc)
For resin I’ve got an Elegoo Mars 3 Pro, but anything 4k is going to give pretty good results. Keep in mind though, resin is more involved than FDM. You’ll need gloves and a VOC respirator to handle fresh prints, and I sprung for the wash/cure station to make my life easier. I use this for small prints with thin parts or fine details (character minis mostly).
FDM is where most people start to get their bearings, but if your use case is exclusively small detailed prints, it may be worth it to jump straight into resin. Just prepare for a slightly steeper learning curve.