Sharing is Caring

I've always hated 3D printers. They're still in their infancy, they're a pain to use, you constantly have to fix them, and worst of all they're slow. If you ask anyone who knows me, they'll tell you I also hate them because I didn't have one.

Recently, a friend from work gave me a 3D printer though, and I started toying around with it. I was right about everything. It was a pain to use. It did break a lot. And it was super slow. I was constantly dicking around with it trying to get it to print right... but when it did print right, I was able to make stuff. Out of almost nothing... and that was neat to me, even if I did have to wait like a full day for it to print the object.

As time went on though, I got better at it and it sort of became addicting. I figured out how to time it right, and I learned to be patient. Though, to be fair ever since Amazon started selling more than just books I've had to learn to be patient anyway, waiting a couple days for Prime packages to show up so I'm sort of accustomed to it.

Maybe 2 months after I got the Anycubic printer from my friend, I stumbled across a new printer released by Anker as part of their AnkerMake line - the AnkerMake M5. This printer claimed to be 5x faster than just about any other normal printer on the market, had a camera built in, AI print monitoring, and it looked beautiful. It was a couple hundred dollars more than most other printers on the market, but if it really was 5x faster - I had to try it. So I bought one.

It took me about 15 minutes total to setup that printer. I didn't have to tinker with any weird settings on it, level the printed using archaic knobs and spacers, print pieces for it that it should've come with in the first place - I just set it up, it did an 'Auto Bed Level' and about 10 minutes later I was printing.

It is fast. It is in fact 5x faster than my other printer - and the quality is just bonkers. I can monitor prints from my phone in case anything goes wonky, and even if I don't check it super regularly, if something goes wonky it'll alert me and tell me to check the print and I can stop it remotely if I want. Ok now I'm happier - this one is not a pain to use, I've never had to fix it, and it's way faster.

Another cool thing about this device is that it has lights on it. I'm a huge sucker for things that light up, and once I realized I could RIP through prints, I tried my hand at making LED desk lights. I'm a huge Formula One fan, so the first one I made was the F1 Desk Light - I posted it to a couple of subreddits (I'm also a huge Reddit fan) and it got way more attention than I thought it would - so I kept making lights.

Now I've posted al the lights I've made so far to this site, free to download for anyone who's interested. The newer the design, the easier to print and build... some of the earlier ones were a little rough as I continue to work to improve them, but why not share?

If you have ideas for new lights let me know! I love a challenge, and each time I build one of these it's just a little better than the one before it.