Experiencing Midwest RepRap Festival for the first time (MRRF Review)

Experiencing Midwest RepRap Festival for the first time (MRRF Review)

TL;DR

MRRF was fantastic, the community came out in full force and we met lots of interesting and cool individuals. Merchandise ended up being an overwhelming success and we sold everything, aside from a few 3.00mm nozzles. Due to how busy this MRRF was, we had to delay the results of ToolChanger Competition until sometime next week.

Special thanks to Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s MakerSpace for giving us a very educational and fun day.

Back to normal life once more

Phew, that was a hectic one. As nice as it is to be back in the UK, I find myself severely disappointed with the choice of soft drinks and fast food the UK has to offer. Understand this right… we only have 1 Mtn Dew flavour. How depressing is that? Any who, now seems as good a time as any for MRRF Review.

As an extrovert, I was particularly excited meeting this passionate community that I’ve been hearing so much about. And man, you guys really came out in full force, and E3D have never seen MRRF so busy. On behalf of E3D I’d like to thank our loyal community for selling us out of not only our 1.75mm nozzles, but also all the t shirts and hoodies I’d designed. You all made me feel very welcome to the community and it was personally overwhelming (in a good way) seeing everyone wandering around on the Sunday casually wearing the merch I'd designed.

Meeting the Partners

It was pretty great to have an opportunity to meet up with our partnering firms, both Resellers and Printer Manufacturers alike. It’s not only a fantastic opportunity to talk about future launches and plans together without having to worry about time zones; but more importantly an excuse to all wind down together and celebrate our partnerships and successes. I particularly enjoyed meeting the team from Hydra Research and thought their speedy nozzle switch-out solution was pretty neat.

The Nautilus 3D Printer

“Don’t you wish you could grow a beard as majestic as this Sanjay?”

Influencers Everywhere

As someone who spends at least 20 hours a week on Youtube, I really enjoyed conversing with the large amount of Youtubers and influencers present at the event, both small and large. Special shout outs go to 3DP Iceland for joining me on the Makers on Tap live podcast and the chaps from Makers on Tap in general for being fantastic company for the entire weekend.

MAKERS ON TAP!

Stefan (of CNC Kitchen) skulking around the E3D stand

ToolChanger Stl Design Competition

As stated in a previous twitter post, we unfortunately have to delay the results of the ToolChanger stl competition. Having never attended a MRRF before, I had no idea what to expect and assumed that over the weekend me and the judges would be able to make time to discuss the entries and agree on a winner. However, MRRF was so busy that I barely had any time to myself, let alone the more famous guest judges. We collectively agreed it would be best to take our time, not rush our decision and thus wait until after MRRF when everyone had less on their plates. We expect to announce the results by 19/02/19 and look forward to crowning the winners.

In this kingdom... ToolChangers Rule the Land

The amount of ToolChangers I spotted around MRRF was awesome. Up until now, the only ToolChangers we’ve seen in person have been ones hand built by Greg_The_Maker. However, seeing all these other toolchangers built by others was just so fricking cool. It’s when you see things like this that our dream of a tool changing future in 3d printing starts to feel more and more real.

In my break from working the stand I decided to play a game that’s a little like bird watching, but when the goal is to see how many ToolChangers I could spot around the hall.

Forget Midwest RepRap Fest, these are the guys that made this year ToolChanger Fest:

The Terrific Tony Akens

The Magnificent Mike Hackney

The Delightful Joe Spanier

The Talented Roy Sun

And the Veracious Joshua Vasquez who created a tool changer based on our design... but with cable ties!

And last but in no way shape or form least, thank you to the organisers for once again hosting a spectacular MRRF. Here’s to another bigger and better one next year.

The ‘SeeMeE3D' Posse

E3D visiting Chicago’s Maker Space

As we were in the local area, with time to kill before MRRF we agreed it would be a great opportunity to drop into the Chicago’s Museum of Science and Technology and visit their new exhibit promoting the maker movement. Their goal was to educate individuals who visited the museum on not only the applications and ease of use of 3D printing in the modern age, but also CNC Machining such as Laser Cutting and Vinyl Cutting.

 

The exhibit revolves around the step by step construction of these pretty sweet, LED maker coin type things. Maybe a little too basic and boring for all you crazy makers building replica working BB-8s, but you have to remember this exhibit is intended to be child-friendly and is arguably a great introduction to those who are interested in becoming a maker.

We were also invited to explore the other exhibits the museum had to offer, and were excited to find a multitude of 3D printing applications being used in the ‘Wired to Wear’ exhibit.

The 3D Printed Project Unicorn Glitter Cannon Prosthetic made by Born Just Right as part of a partnership with Colorfabb.

The 3D printed Personal Space ‘Spider Dress’ designed by Fashiontech designer Anouk Wipprecht.

The sheer amount of 3D printing around the museum truly portrays how well 3D printing is solidifying its place in society. Special thanks to Dan, Manny and Mary for escorting us around the museum and treating us to bizarre but ultimately fun lunch in the Museum’s President’s room.

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