Song: Don't Wait by Mapei
Place: Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Time: 9:24 PM

It's been about nine months since I graduated from GSAPP, and since then, I transitioned into the professional world as an architectural designer for a development/architecture practice in Manhattan. 

Fast forward a few months. It was in December when I was visiting my family back in Texas that I got really antsy to do something.  I mean, work is great. I like my coworkers and the projects were fine.  I just needed a bit more ownership in what I was doing.  I think that is a problem that school endears us to.  We have so much freedom to do useless things and string all those things together into a concept and cohesive application.  I did some research onto 3D printing, namely fused filament fabrication. The school bought some Makerbots in my last semester (a collection of all the things being printed at Columbia) that I believe students have direct use, could be wrong.  Otherwise we had to submit it to OPS to print.  

Anyway, I joined up with my friend and classmate, Michelle to buy a 3D printer and do some fun stuff with it. After reading annoying reviews about personal 3D printers, I figured that the most important qualities for one would be a big printer bed volume, good resolution, and fast speed. Furthermore,   I didn't really need multiple-nozzle or Wi-Fi connectivity.  I also stayed away from proprietary filament which significantly increases the price or an unassembled kit (far too lazy for that nonsense). I came up with the Air Wolf 3D HD which was just released that December.  It has a huge 12"x12"x8" printer volume,  one of the fastest speeds, and very good resolution.  You can see a comparison of available 3D printers here.

Yesterday, I received the 3D printer.  It came in a month and a half after I ordered it (it was quoted to only be a month).  They said the printer was very popular and it was difficult to keep up with orders.  It took a couple hours to set up it, and yes it has blue LED lights. I calibrated the plate and there was a file already pre-loaded for printing in the micro-SD slot. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes to print.  

I am very excited for this new toy.  This blog will catalog our adventures in printing: 3D. We will document all of our experiments, failures, and what nots.

Anthony